Its funny I was thinking if any of you know some aging hippie packrats they probably have a bottle cutter. When I was young making glasses out of bottles was popular and there was a cheap cutter that scored the bottle and then you dangled this thing in and hit it on the inside I think. I have a crafty friend a bit older than I who keeps everything and I was going to ask her if she has one! Its nice to know that they still can be gotten - tho the one in the picture is more elaborate than what I remember. It looks like a beautiful project. Good luck and post pics.

Update on my dilemma, I filled the gap with clear silicon and covered with a strip. I didn't notice until I opened the strip that it was almond color, not white. For the corners I cut the strip in the middle fold and it adhered pretty good in the corners. It will do for now. We plan on converting to a shower with no tub sometime before the end of the year so that's okay.

Hi We have a similar issue on our 1910 brick home where the old mudroom was attached to the back of the house. We've rebuilt the mudroom and the new flashing mostly hides the old tar, but where you can see it on the old roofline we've had to try and chip it off with a chisel. You have to be careful because it actually takes pieces of the brick with it, but it does get it off. We've decided to leave most of it as we have paint on our bricks and sandstone on other parts of the house which we're planning on having CO2'd off sometime in the next few years. Sandblasting is too harsh on old brick. If your brick is now inside (ours is outside) you can still go with a blasting-type removal (can't remember the name of it but it is for interior use), but it's probably better to chip as much as you can and then try to hide it in some way as suggested above - a shelf or wreath, maybe some decorative wood trim. Other than that, paint is your next solution. Oh, and just so you know, you can't get it out of the mortar without digging into it and ruining it (which is why we're now waiting to blast it off with the rest of brick paint and repoint). You might want to try asking the Old House forum as well.

If you are repainting, then removing the paint from the caulk would require too much effort really. It's best to caulk before painting so that then you can decide where to make your paint line. Removing old caulk is a chore usually, but the best way is to just use a utility knife and score it then grab a loose end and pull it out. I like to use a window scraping tool with a new razor blade to get the remnants of the caulk off but do this very carefully if you are scraping it off a porcelain sink so you don't scratch it.