Good Luck!

Hey KSWL, I've been meaning to reply since you posted but have not been able to. After your description, I don't think "old Chicago" is what your looking for either. I used to say the same thing as everyone uses that particular term but as it turns out it was actually "old St. Louis" as what I had in mind as well. I used to have brick floors in my kitchen in my former house. They were not full brick but were pavers though they did have the look of reclaimed brick (I don't think they were shaved reclaims). I loved the look and had always wanted brick flooring in my house as that is flooring staple in Louisiana. However, I don't think mine were sealed properly. They never felt clean as it always felt like the individual sands of the grout were coming out. It broke my habit of walking barefoot on the floor. But again, I think this is because mine were not sealed properly (neither was the tile countertop). I currently have brick in my den similar in looks to Lynne's. It is from the fifties and it amazingly tough. I too though like Lynn would love to find a steamer that can really handle them. Like I said above, brick flooring is ubiquitous here. It is one of the go to flooring choices. Most use reclaimed brick which is my favorite. I am not sure what the prices are for "new" old brick now but if you look on Ebay there are usually pallets of reclaimed for sale at decent prices. The main point of my ramble was that if you find the right type of brick and it is installed and sealed properly they should be no problem. Hayes Town, the famous Louisiana architect used them almost exclusively along with heart pine and bluestone. The floors in his homes still look amazing today. He had a special beeswax finish that he used on them and swore by it. I don't have a good picture of my old floors but will try to get a couple my current floors and a couple of Hayes Town brick photos uploaded so you can see them.

We have ca. 1977 glazed brick pavers in our kitchen. They're dark brown, with a cement-gray-colored grout. Stylistically, they work well with our house, as the pavers form a "track" from the front entries, down short "halls" through the kitchen. (trust me. It works). I can't think of anything I'd want to replace all that area with, other than possibly natural flagstone. And that ain't happening anytime soon. Since they're glazed, the finish has held up well, with a slight bit of wear in front of the range and sink. The grout is another story. It's pretty scungy at this point. We've considered getting pros in to strip it all down and clean it as well as possible then resell. But other things always take priority. I don't think there is a comfort difference when compared with tile. But there is an amount of unevenness that one has to accept with the pavers.

Basic galvanized wire grid fencing can be used also. It is stiffer than chicken wire, so IME easier to remove the dead vines at season’s end if it’s s a hard prune/ type 3 clematis. I prefer a hard prune plant in this situation so you don’t have to look at dead vines all winter, and I cut back the vines in late fall or early winter when it’s cold enough that new growth won’t be triggered. I would make sure that you aren’t using the downspout as the item that provides the support for the trellis since a well grown clematis can achieve some size and weight, and you don’t want to have the downspout dislodged in a storm. Use brackets to fasten to the building or posts (such as electrical conduit) planted a couple of feet in the ground. I prune to 2-3 buds pairs per stem over winter as this encourages more flowering for type 3 plants and that is all I do. My garden is too big and I am too low key to pinch anything. Trimming would be taking a pair of manual hedge trimmers and whacking off all the old spent flowers (basically cutting back the whole outside of the plant) so that it doesn’t have a chance to set seed. Do this religiously for your sweet autumn clematis every year or you and your neighbors and the surrounding woodlands will be overwhelmed with this nuisance plant. In some states in the southeast this is a listed invasive that overtakes native plants in wild areas as it spreads by seed. It is very pretty, and this far north doesn’t ypically have a chance for seed to ripen before frost, but in zone 7, it can be a real problem.