Here's the other side of the renovated house on our street. There's a gate so this is close as I can get. There's another set of French doors you can't see. Such a cute side gallery!

Eyesore update

The POS house on our street has been renovated! And there was much rejoicing. I first commented about the house last December. I forget when it sold but I noted back in June that renovation work had been started, so they worked on it for 4-5 months.

Before

Before

After

I'm always amazed at what can be done to house that looks like it's about to fall over. The paint color are a little on the bright side, but they should weather nicely. They are cleaning up the job site today so maybe someone will move in soon.

New Roof

I finally have photos of our new roof.


G has also been busy building shutters for the windows. Note the new shutters on the front of the house. G doesn't have to keep as much plywood on hand and should save some time when a storm threatens.


The new part in the back with new window and shutters.

I'm signed up for the "NOLAReady" alert system. They've been sending out this alert about the high river:

The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Warning for New Orleans.

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT NEW ORLEANS. * FROM TUESDAY APRIL 22 UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE...OR UNTIL THE WARNING IS CANCELLED. * AT 7:00 PM TUESDAY THE STAGE WAS 16.7 FEET. * MINOR FLOODING IS FORECAST. * THE FLOOD STAGE IS 17.0 FEET. * FORECAST...THE RIVER IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE RISING TO NEAR FLOOD STAGE BY TUESDAY MORNING APRIL 22ND. * IMPACT...AT 17.0 FEET...THE RIVER WILL RISE ON THE LEVEE MAKING NAVIGATION AND DOCKING DIFFICULT. THE CITY IS PROTECTED TO A PROJECT HEIGHT OF 20 FEET.

What is a "Project Height"???

Chicory has some great photos of the river. I wandered over to Tim's Nameless blog and he says "Cause for panic--no." and I guess he should know (but that was last week). But I'm still keeping an eye out for water in the streets and glad we have our 2 new "escape hatches" in the attic.

We are on week 3 of roofers banging around on top of our house. The kitties seem to be less freaked out. I just want the dumpster in front to be gone so I can park in front of my house again.

Week 2 of roof replacement has begun.

The back is framed in for the new window

Here's the back almost ready for the window to be installed.

We also have a new sky light (aka escape hatch)

Nails and stuff are everywhere. No walking around barefoot in the yard anytime soon.

We have a dumpster out front for the construction debris, which is almost overflowing. G said he put the trash out last night and some one took the trash out of our can and put it in the dumpster. They didn't steal our can. How weird is that? They even had to throw in the bags of stinky cat poo! WTF??

Uptown, you have us to thank for the recent rain... it's been almost bone dry for weeks - the storm that held up the Zurich Classic was barely a sprinkle over by us. Monday, roofers started replacing our roof. The old shingles are gone, new tar paper is up and there's a big gaping hole covered by a blue tarp in the back. The yard is a mess and so far, only one window has been broken. Getting a new roof is not for the faint of heart. The cats are totally freaked out; they go into hiding as soon as the roofers walk into our yard.


Other house renovation news... drum roll please... we have doorknobs! Those of you who have been over will be glad to know you can now close and lock the water closet door.


In car news, the phantom noise has not returned... yet. I've been shopping for a scooter, but our accountant informs us we owe taxes so no scooter for me. My friend bought a Vespa for $600 and I didn't realize what an amazing bargain that was until I started looking. Dang!

Here is my belated entry for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week's work was "JUXTAPOSE." I decided to show some before and after photos of the bedroom.

Before #1

After #1

Before #2

After #2

Hard to believe huh? Dave has links to the other entries.

We survived Mardi Gras only to be laid low by the flu that seems to be going around. G came down with it Wednesday as did my business partner, and I manged to hold out until Sunday. Neither one of us have been this sick in a long time. Not since our wedding, but that's another story. We are much better but still not 100%. Last weekend we were going to buy a new mattress but both felt too crappy. Yesterday it finally happened. Last time we were in Baton Rouge, we stayed at G's brother and he had a new mattress he bought at Sam's club that was very comfy and only $300. We've felt overwhelmed by the choices of mattresses out there, but after the test drive, we decided we're going to Sam's. We have G's father's pick-up truck so that makes the task easier. We were almost to Sam's when G comment that he was having trouble braking. *gulp* We parked safely in Sam's parking lot and G poked around under the hood. It appeared it was out of brake fluid. Luckily for us there was an Auto Zone across the street. Disaster averted and into the fray that is Sam's Club on a Saturday morning.

I was hoping that a queen-sized bed would be much larger than a full, but it's only 4-5 inches wider. I slept great last night and didn't want to get out of bed this morning. And now I finally have a room that's 99% done (still need a ceiling fan) and can decorate. woohoo! Those of you who came to G's 40th birthday party last year, may remember this room as the "food room" - big difference now huh?

Last weekend I took a box of beads to the Freret Market for recycling. And wouldn't you know it, while I was up in the attic yesterday I discovered ANOTHER box of beads I didn't know we had. *sigh* If we wanted to take down the economy of China, all we need is for everyone in New Orleans to take all the beads out of their attics and have the krewes reuse them. That would show them.

I knew "This Old House" was renovating a house in the Lower 9th Ward, I just didn't know they started showing the episodes yet. So all of you fans of New Orleans architecture and house renovation, make sure you catch "This Old House" as they renovate and put an addition to the house, plus all the slices of life and historical stuff they like to show as well. They are showing several episodes back to back tonight and I have to snicker as the host act surprised to find under the dry wall, 2-by-4s and insulation, under that wall paper (only one layer?), under that burlap and finally the barge board. Ask anyone who has renovated an old house... we found wood floor under layers of plywood, linoleum and carpet... Cheap paneling over 4 layers of wall paper over paint on the original plaster... it just goes on. It's cute how they gawk at the 12 foot ceilings and all the original details on the house. Those brackets and shutters, yah, they're original.They've seen old houses before, I guess they just ham it up for the viewers? The TV reporter for the T-P gave his review along the lines of his review of K-ville.

A college football free Saturday, I almost forgotten what they were like. And how much more you can get done. Like updating the old blog.

Here's some photos of the on-going renovation. This is the sitting room/dressing area. It's the link between the bedroom, bathroom and closet. It used to be a hideous Brady Bunch kitchen.

Here's G painting a wall a mottled blue.

The wall all painted and drying.

I'm amazed Gonzo didn't get any blue paint on her.

Here it is, with carpet, lighting and trim installed.

The doorway in the middle of the blue wall lead to our future closet.

After I posted yesterday's pictures G cleaned up. Here you can see new floor without all the stuff on it. The dark wood is bamboo and G's sneaky... the bamboo flooring isn't under the carpet but it has the illusion of an area rug. The rug is from Flor, modular carpet tile. He laid both the bamboo floor and rug on top of the old wood floor.

Hana checks the new rug out.

And this is what G did today - installed the wood panels. This is taken from the same angle as the photo above. The bed will go directly in front of this. Which means soon we can go shopping for a new bed - woohoo!

G also made an area rug for the dining room with Flor tiles.

This line is called "House pet" and Hana LOVES it. She likes to pick a square, like she is here, and hangs out in to. Gonzo does it too - if we get a few more cats, we could play cat chess!

It's a peaceful Saturday. It looks like the feared former tropical depression #10 won't slam New Orleans. Baton Rouge - where the Tigers are handily beating SC (Boo Spurrior! Go LSU!) - is getting some rain. It's just overcast here. We could use some rain. It's been beautiful this week - cool, clear and dry.

G has been busy installing flooring in what will one day be our bedroom. Every couple of hours I pop my head in and take some photos of the progress. It's looking great.

before, around 11:00 am

after, around 5:30 pm

I wanted to get started on my fall garden this weekend. I cleared out all the weeds last weekend and figured out what I will plant. With heavy rains forecasted for the weekend, I had decided to postpone planting seeds for fear they'd get washed away. But now I may go ahead. On the topic of gardening, about a year ago I heard "Don't buy cypress mulch because they are cutting down Louisiana's cypress forests." I thought that cypress wood would be too valuable to cut trees just for mulch. But then the Sierra Club came out with:

Cypress mulch was always a by-product of lumber mills that were producing flooring and such. But now entire forests are being cut down, and a study by the Governor's Science Working Group and Advisory Committee concludes that up to 80 percent of the areas being logged will be unable to regenerate. The Louisiana Forestry Association says no unsustainable harvests are taking place.

From Save our Cypress:

The Save Our Cypress Coalition, a group of Louisiana conservation and environmental organizations, is calling upon Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's to stop purchasing and selling all cypress garden mulch until a verifiable, third-party certification program is operating to ensure no cypress is being sourced from non-renewable coastal wetland forests.

I've always used pine straw for my garden - you need live trees to have pine straw. Once it starts to break down, you can just turn it under and mix it in the soil. I encourage everyone do not buy cypress mulch.

I got a link to the below YouTube video from a friend today that does a good job explaining the situation in common terms.