Repurposed bricks lay foundation of friendship

With all the recent renovations nearing completion at my house, I couldn’t help but reflect upon the first few weeks at this property. After I had moved in, there were just so many upgrades on my to-do list — it was overwhelming. In the spirit of repurposing, my initial reno tasks were also aesthetic and functional and led to something unexpected.

The kitchen area in my house had never been completed. Although the cupboards were in place, the slide-in stove sat right in the middle of the space — no cupboards around it, no countertop... nothing. It was odd, to say the least. There was also a very awkward front walk to the house, which consisted of bricks stacked next to each other, laying on their sides in uneven rows. Essentially, an ankle-roll waiting to happen.

It dawned on me that the brick could be repurposed, as the backside wall of what could be a peninsula which jets away from the kitchen wall of existing cupboards and could encase the slide-in stove. Aesthetically, this process would also tie-in the existing brick chimney, which is located on an opposing wall.

One afternoon while spray-painting six frames of metal stools I had been given by the bar manager of the downtown Wiseguys Bar & Grill location after closing their doors, a club where my band, LaBossiere, had often performed, a gentleman I didn’t know approached me inside my big shed.

Emile Morin, a local farmer, introduced himself and asked if I’d be willing to allow him to store his combine in my shed during the weeks it wasn’t in use. I explained that due to having already gone forward with my plans to offer my shed as a seasonal cold-storage facility for cars and boats over the winter, it was best we not encourage any little rodents into the shed with seeds or grain that accompany farming equipment. Emile, of course, understood and offered his snow-clearing services should they be required come winter. A longtime friendship has since ensued.

During a conversation with Morin early on, I mentioned in passing my intentions to lift the bricks of my awkward front walk and recycle them by constructing a back wall for my kitchen peninsula. Always willing to lend a hand (whether directly or, in this case, indirectly), Morin suggested that his two youngest kids would be "more than willing to help." So, on a sunny weekend afternoon, 12-year-old Darrel (Barney) Morin and his twin sister, Christine (Cric), (reluctantly) agreed to help me out. Cric recalls recently "ummm, that was just another job our dad made us do by bribing us with food... lol". And this was true — Morin had suggested to "just take ’em out for a bite once you’re done." I think I also flipped the kids a few bucks. But it was over a decade ago — who can remember?

With the box of my pickup truck empty, we carefully lifted every brick, one by one, and laid them sideways on the box bed, a single row high so that the brick load could easily be cleaned at the local spray wash in St.Pierre-Jolys. Once the first load of bricks was washed, we returned to the house and stacked the cleaned bricks at the back of the first stall of my garage. This continued for most of the afternoon, until the last brick was lifted and cleaned, a total of four trips altogether. And, as promised before returning to the house on the last trip, we had lunch at the local eatery, Le Routier. The kids had done a pretty good job, and only mildly complained about the tasks at hand, here and again.

Now that the bricks were ready for repurposing, a local brick-layer from Kleefeld came by one afternoon the following week to lay bricks, and the project began to take shape. The brick layout needed to allow for easy passage between the impending peninsula and the far wall, provide adequate space for the slide-in stove, as well as ample space for an apartment-sized dishwasher (a full-size would push the end of the peninsula too far towards the back wall).

Once the layout was confirmed, the bricklaying began. One by one, each brick was set into place. The mortar was generously slapped on to the top of every row of bricks and the next layer was positioned, in a staggered fashion, so that the vertical seams alternated. Once the proper height was reached, the bricks were allowed to set. Within roughly a day, the brick wall was rigid and ready for the next step(s), which included the installation of the countertop, electrical outlets, and higher tiered countertop along the back of the peninsula which would cater to the freshly spray-painted bar stools whose seat tops had also been reupholstered by Ron Schewe at Ron’s Upholstery on Regent Avenue East.

Once the countertops were installed and the tiling was completed along the backsplash and all visible edges of all countertops, the kitchen was fully functional, possibly for the first time ever! And, although the appliances have all been replaced, the kitchen itself has remained the same for 15 years since it was first renovated shortly after I moved into the house in August 2003. And, now that the area adjacent to the brick wall has been opened up completely because of the recent step-down dining room addition on that side of the house, the brick wall that had been the ‘brick walkway,’ has never looked better.

Part of me thought that the re-painted bar stools would be a constant reminder of the old Wiseguys days, and the numerous memories those club performances tend to invoke. I’ve since realized those stools (and the brick behind them) do indeed contain memories, but they are instead memories of how I first met some great friends. Emile Morin and his family have been one of the many reasons why I have enjoyed country living.

Cric — I have more brick to clean — interested? I didn’t think so...

bossenterprise@outlook.com

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