New Orleans Project 01 - Recap

Kevin and Norm open in Louisiana, a return visit: This Old House did a project here in 1991. Much has happened since then, the most significant thing being Hurricane Katrina and the consequent floods. Standing atop the flood wall, they show the Lower Ninth Ward, hardest hit by the floods. The once thriving community of families has largely reverted to nature – grassy fields interrupted here and there by slabs that are what remains of the houses. Once home to 450,000, today about half that number live there. Thousands of people await the opportunity to return – once there are sufficient resources and manpower to restore their homes. The next ten episodes of This Old House will showcase one homeowner's effort to restore her shotgun single home. For this they'll partner with volunteers and meet some famous citizens also working to restore the city. One homeowner in particular has waited two years to return home, and with the help of local craftsmen and tradesmen, she'll finally realize that goal.

Musicians are artist are key members of New Orleans life. A number of them have banded together to provide housing for others in their community. Kevin speaks to Harry Connick, Jr. in the new musician's community he helped make possible. He and Branford Marsellis decided while en route to visit refugees that they could play a role in turning musicians into homeowners. They teams with Habitat for Humanity and their idea became Musicians' Village. Seventy houses and ten elder-friendly apartments allow musicians to purchase affordable homes.

Harry takes Kevin to meet one musician who has benefited from this community: Bob French, a drummer who has played with Harry on occasion and has performed professionally since Harry was a lad of seven or so. Bob has found a home here, and declares that when they take him out, it will be in a box. The home and the community are a dream come true for him. Kevin also meets Shamarr Allen, whom Bob describes as a future star of New Orleans. Shamarr and his son will move into another of the homes here in a few months. He likes the concentration of artists in one location, and notes that this project made a home possible for him at this time. While Shamarr plays, another musician brings his trombone to the party, and soon enough there's an impromptu concert going on Bob French's front porch!

Kevin meets back up with Norm at a construction site. They discuss existing houses that need renovation, in particular, the shotgun single they'll spend the next ten episodes showcasing. Kevin heads over to meet the homeowner. Across the Mississippi, and not far from the industrial canal is the Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward, where Kevin finds the home they'll renovate, which belongs to Rashida Ferdinand. She grew up here – in fact, four generations of her family are from this neighborhood! She purchased her home in 2004, not long before Hurricane Katrina struck. She recounts the run-up to the hurricane, a period she describes as “surprising and hectic.” She evacuated, and remained away for six months. Now she has returned, ready to renovate her house. She takes Kevin to it.

It is a typical New Orleans style, a shotgun single, long and narrow. The porch features nicely detailed braces the create a cantilevered effect. She believes, based on an 1892 deed, that the home dates from sometime in the late 1800s. It sits on a nice corner lot and captures nice breezes and cross-circulation.

Kevin asks her what compelled her to return to a neighborhood that once hosted 5,600 people and now is home to just a thousand. To her, it's home, a place of roots. Simply put, she wants to rebuild her community. In back of the house is an old cypress shed that was part of the appeal! It has seen better days, and Kevin seems somewhat surprised that it holds much appeal. She admits it looks “rustic” but claims it is practical and functional for what she needs. And amazingly, it stood strong through the hurricane! Once, she used it to create art. Now, it houses debris from the storm – some of which Rashida will transform into art pieces.

They enter the home from the front door, which opens into a parlor. It connects directly to a dining room because Rashida earlier removed the wall that separated them. She also took the plaster off the fireplace to expose the natural brick. There are original ceilings, the result of more hard work removing tile and a layer of green paint. That took some backbreaking sanding work – she's definitely “one of the tradesmen.”

Her house is raised about three feet above the ground, but six feet of water flooded the neighborhood, so she had water to a height of three feet. That's why the lower three feet of drywall are now missing.

The original doors remain; Rashida wants to add a porch so she can walk outside and enjoy her yard.

The final room is the kitchen. It is in disrepair now, but Kevin thinks it has potential, with high ceilings and a lot of light. Rashida plans to add cabinets and fixtures. Off of the kitchen is her bedroom, and it's practically on top of her neighbor. It sticks out of one side of the house, making it “L” shaped. Fortunately, she gets along well with her neighbor. Her dream is to build out and up, and end up with a three bedroom house.

With about 75% of the former inhabitants yet to return, the neighborhood is slow to return to normal. Piles of debris dot the landscape, and a lot of homes are still boarded up, the boards concealing unknown damage. But there are encouraging signs: nicely renovated homes appear here and there, including another shotgun single renovated by the “Preservation Resource Center' that sold the day they listed it. Next to it is another nicely renovated home, and Kevin stops in to talk to that homeowner.

It has some very nice features, including a ten foot tall window with a nicely curved top. It is a “guillotine window.” The lower section is nearly as tall as Kevin; even an adult could pass easily through it when it is open, which is the point. Nice shutters, original to the home, set it off. Like the project homes, it has nice brackets on the porch – unlike a lot of the neighbors whose homes have been the victims of various kinds of “architectural theft” with key features such as porch brackets removed by looters. A wrought iron gate remained only because the homeowner took the precaution of chaining it to the fence – many of her neighbors were less fortunate.

Kevin compliments the garden, and the homeowner tells him it is mostly weeds that they like! In New Orleans, one may generally leave plants alone and they will quickly develop into monsters; some of the “weeds” she points out currently feature nice purple flowers. Not far away is a varigated ginger, a yellow/green plant whose colors inspired the home's color scheme.

The side of the home is in remarkably good shape. They lost a few shutters, but kept most of them. Following it, Kevin arrives at a “bump out” similar to the one on the project home. It is called a “lagniappe.” The Creole term literally means “a little something extra, a bonus.” In this case, it's extra square footage for the shotgun.

Like Rashida, these folks purchased their home just before Katrina hit, and the storm did them a lot of harm. Water rose eight to ten feet, ruining most of the renovations. Kevin enters to see the restored interior. The parlor features very tall ceilings, nearly twelve feet. From there he finds his way into the next room, which might have been a second parlor (this being a common feature back then). It's presently a kind of entertainment room.

Water rose to about the homeowner's shoulders, or roughly five feet inside. Everything from that point down had to be gutted and replaced, but they tried to preserve everything about that, including original transoms and door casings. They also preserved a nice fireplace that serves both rooms, and managed to save the floors despite the fact that Katrina smothered them in mud. The homeowner's core philosophy: “if you love and old house you have to preserve it” drove all of this effort.

Norm talks about the difficulty of finding good contractors for remote projects, and then introduces the contractor they've chosen for this effort, a man named Carl Hithe. He's a third generation contractor who grew up in New Orleans and he's done a lot of work for Rashida's family at other locations. This historic home will benefit from the experience Carl's grandfather passed down ultimately to him.

This home, Norm notes, is made from barge boards. Carl tells their story: barges floated down the Mississippi loaded with coal to heat New Orleans. It was took expense to send them back up river, so folks dismantled them and constructed homes from the boards. They're solid boards from floor to ceiling. Later, 2x4s were added over these to permit the installation of electrical wiring and insulation – it gets very hot and very humid down south.

Carl plans to remove all the drywall and the insulation – he knows there was a lot of moisture, and wants to make sure there is no mold lurking within the walls. He also plans to install central air – when temperatures routinely reach 90° F with 90% humidity, central air is essential for comfortable living.

In the existing home the work will be largely renovation, but the project includes a two story addition that will occupy part of what is now the back yard. That will include a nice den with closet space and a second floor master bedroom, more closet space, a bathroom and a small balcony for a nice view of the river.

Once concern is getting material. It's available, but the prices are often high. Worse than that is labor. Carl explains that there is so much demand that one must typically contact three different subcontractors and hope one of them decides to show up! They can demand whatever price they want and can even choose not to show up at all without fear of earning a reputation that might make future work hard to come by! But Carl believes he has the right contacts to pull things together for Rashida.

It's a small house but a lot of work. Norm is confident they've found the right builder, a man with roots who knows how to get the work done. Kevin's uplifted by the restored shotgun he saw, and both men are buoyed by the clear enthusiasm Rashida brings. Kevin and Norm close by inviting viewers back to watch the Musicians' Village take shape, and Rashida's home transform from flood ravaged to a nice new “shotgun plus.”

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