hi gang. new place has outdoor fireplace with adjacent grill station and sink area. although the workmanship is not terrific, the "kitchen" is there and so I want to make the best of it. couple photos attached. anyway, the countertop area (which is also the hearth of the fireplace) is a bluestone. at least that is what I have been told. #1... I want to clean it really good, and use a good masonry caulk/sealer at edges, corners since the mortar is kind of cracking out in spots. what should I clean it with? just like a miracle green or do I need a masonry cleaner (I have some SureKlean 600, but is that too strong?) #2 the surface has some gouges and swirls and just some oddities in the texture. while that can often be what is so unique and cool about natural stone, here it just kind of looks odd. plus there are some almost rust like stains on the hearth. do you think I should buff, sand, or grind all the surfaces slightly? would that help? if so, just sandpaper and elbow grease? steel wool? or what? is there some tool or attachment I could use? (Dremel?) 3# lastly, I want to seal the counters. if the stone itself were nicer or a better color, I maybe wouldn't bother because I would want it to feel real natural. as is, it just has a real faded color and feels dirty. I have used natural stone color enhancer/sealers with good effect inside. (photo of the product attached). it kind of makes the color richer, adds a very slight sheen and some protection. but not sure if that would just be totally undone in a month or so by rain and sun? any thoughts? thanks all.

We just had an earthquake yesterday. We hired a contractor in 2009 to put up a cinder block wall (using 16 in. x 8 in. x 6 in. block). We have stucco the wall. Two different sources gave me two different advice back in 2009 for a 6 feet wall. [LIST] [*]The first row can sits on a 1.5 feet mortar bed foundation. [*]1/3 of the wall needs to be buried. [/LIST] The contractor buried about 1.5 blocks of footing (foundation) for the 6 feet in height area. When we found out he did not bury at least 3 blocks, we took over the project and buried 3 blocks (as the foundation) for the 4 feet and 2 feet in height area. Rebar #3 or #4 were also used throughout the horizontal footing and vertical wall. I don't recall if we "L-Hook" the intersection where the vertical rebars meet the horizonatal rebars. We may have just twistie tie them. My question is the rebar enough to make up for the strength in the 6 feet in height area where the contractor did not put enough footing depth? If not, how do we reinforce this? It has been 7 years and there has been no visible signs of cracks. [url]https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mevt46rkzf4jrae/AAA_RC3m8XTjkbps7k92vRc4a?dl=0[/url]