>> I firmly believe that historic preservation starts and ends in the
>> hands. Bite that!
>
>Agree, sortof. The Alna oldhouse Mafia is comprised of three factions:
>experts, hands-on guys, and those of us in the middle.

<more snipping>

>Those of us in the middle, who combine both
>approaches, I think do best by the buildings we attempt to understand and
>preserve. And I say that having, at one time or another in my evolution,
>been a member of all three camps.
>
>So hands is good, but some abstraction helps too.

I like Bruce's take on this one.  I'm mostly one of the eggheads, but I do
the bulk of the work on my own "rehabilitation/restoration opportunity"
properties, and have in my schooling days spent summers working with my
hands for money.  To me it all comes down to respect for all people of the
process [well, for all people in life, actually, this is more than a
preservation philosophy].  I'm no better or worse, just different, with a
different role to fill.  I'm a team builder; I learned a long time ago that
I can't do everything, I'm not good at everything.  What I am good at is
bringing together those diverse skills and interests and getting folks all
pulling in the same direction.

Now, where I find that abstraction is good is borne out in my current rehab
project of the tile floor in my master bathroom.  1926-style 1" hex tiles
with itty bitty close together deep grout joints.  All full of 72 years of
nasty stuff.  I'm scratching it all out.  With phosphoric acid tile and
grout cleaner as the lubricant.  Using itty bitty tiny 4" slotted pocket
screwdrivers.  The cheapest I can find.  I use a lot of them.  They get
worn down fast.  They're the only thing that will fit...official tile tools
are stricken with elephantosis in relation to these joints.  I'm good for
about 3 hours of trying to tightly grip these pitiful
pituitarily-challenged screwdrivers in my neoprene glove-clad hands and
scrape really hard in these micro-fine joints without chipping off the
edges of the tile.  This has caused me to really question my obeisance to
the dogma of preserve original fabric at all costs.  Maybe I should have
just tiled over it with new 1" hex tiles.

This is a job that I really wish was in the abstract.


______________________________________________
Dan Becker,  Executive Director            "What's this? Fan mail
Raleigh Historic                                     from some flounder?"
Districts Commission                             - Bullwinkle J. Moose

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