Speaking of brickwork, I managed to erect a 26' scaffold and repair the 70 year old mortar joints at the top of my chimney.

The process of getting new mortar into old joints is fraught with frustration and more mortar ends up on the roof than in the joints. But, perserverance got it done using rubber gloves and forcing the very wet mortar into the joints manually.

The issue is now the color of the red bricks. The mortar has stained them to a whitish color. I've attempted to put some acid etch on them to no avail. No color improvement.

My next thought is to get up there with a wire wheel on a high speed grinder...........but..........I'm open to any suggestions.