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