In a message dated 9/30/2003 8:37:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Hi Folks,  Next question.  What is brownstone?  I don't think we have that
here, just slate, marble and granite.  Oh, and hard heads aplenty.  Ruth
Ruth,

Brownstone is a (generally) dark red/brown sandstone.  In the olden days,
there was lots of it pretty near to NY, and it was evidently pretty easy to cut,
both of which made it pretty inexpensive back then.  A lot of it is now
delaminating, or just plain melting away like chocolate ice cream on a hot day.
Patching it (with stucco) isn't worth a damn, and replacing it is virtually
unaffordable, even if you could find a good match for color and texture.  So
basically, you're screwed.

You're better off with the slate, marble, granite and hard heads you have up
there.  But we'd still be happy to have you come down and visit our lousy
stone-- and our lousy people.  Bring plenty of old screwdrivers.

Ralph