Gutted Kitchen

Here is my kitchen now.

Gutted and turned into a workshop.

p.s. Take note of the window on the left. It is a small aluminum 70's window in part of the original window frame with plywood in the bottom section. The bottom half of on the interior was covered by paneling along with the kitchen sink & cabinets. This will come out and a new "old" style looking window will be placed in the original frame.

Get that Wall Stabilized!

Well, I may not have done it exactly proper or perfectly. Or it may even be overkill. But I tell you..this wall is NOT moving!

Before, it was not only moving back & forth but a couple of the studs were also moving side-to-side.

Goodness! It certainly helps to have the studs tied in to the proper places.

All that is left is to get a little bit more lathe up in order to keep the sheetrock even in the kitchen. The backside of the wall is to the former porch/backroom that will become my laundry room. More on that later.

Kitchen Work Continued

In previous posts from September, I showed Marie and Mary helping me take out the last of the flood damaged cabinets and dishwasher.

Here are a couple of pic's of more work being done.
Mary is helping take out the last of the junk and nails between the lathe. The plaster was too damaged and much of it missing to salvage the original walls.

The lathe has to stay up. This way, when you put up sheetrock, the wall will be the right fit with the frames of the doors and windows for your trimwork. You take out the lathe and then the wall is too "shallow".

Here's another mystery uncovered. Once we took everything off the walls, there was this whole section with no plaster and no lathe??? Plus they changed the pattern/distance of the studs in the wall.

Unfortunately, why they did this in the 70's I don't know??? Plus, they did not nail this "new" section of studs into the floor joists below and this part of the wall could be moved. It was basically just floating in there. UNBELIEVABLE!

My next step? Getting this load bearing wall stabilized and prepped for new electric, plumbing, sheetrock and future kitchen cabinets!

The Great Tile Search Begins

After much searching I found the bathroom floor tile I wanted.
It is known as basketweave and found it at a small specialty tile store on famous Magazine Street here in New Orleans.
Kudos to Stafford Tile and Stone for carrying a lot of old & classic styles.
I am so excited to find it and it was affordable as well! Take a look...








My next tile adventure--to figure out a border to go along the edges and a marble threshold for the bathroom doorway. Then on to find old style subway tile for the bathroom walls.

A Little Shopping?

I wish I could say it was a little shopping, but it ended up being a lot of looking around. Not just stores, but the internet as well.
Even though my bathroom will be new, I want it to look old.
As close to the period the house was built.
I do love the Art Deco design and also the Arts & Craftsman look of the 20's & 30's and am using a little of both here and there in the house.

I definitely have a vision of what I want, it is just a matter of finding it and then what's affordable in the insurance proceeds budget.
But WHO KNEW? there were sooooooo many choices in toilet styles alone??
Much less sinks/lavatories. It's almost mind boggling and information overload.

Well here is what I picked out. These pictures are more for Mary in Atlanta than anyone else, because I knew she would have a good laugh. (Plus she has been down so many times to help, I have to thank her again!)



[For everyone else, Mary has a great love for Elvis. Is this how I ended up with Presley fixtures....because of her influence???]

Bathroom Continued & A Little Detour

Here are some more pictures of the bathroom in progress.
Remember, you can always click on a picture to make it bigger to see details.

For whatever reason, the lathe was gone when I took the walls down in the bathroom, as you can see here. The lathe that you see still up is for the kitchen wall. At least it gives me the opportunity to do a little insulating.



Now the old 70's tub is out and the wood plywood floor that had linoleum is gone. Here you see the concrete board that has been put down in preparation for a tile floor.


Now a tub has been placed in by the plumber. That was a surprise when I walked in. I did not pick it out. After looking it over, it is not what I really wanted. It has a very rough surface that is like sandpaper. Not conducive to a comfortable bath on the rear! LOL
So I end up having this new tub removed later with something I really wanted. Go figure....

Anybody out there want a new tub? I have one I can give you now.

What Did I Do Next?

How about the bathroom?

I am rummaging through the pictures trying to figure out what I did next on the house in order to start posting on the blog again.

I know people are probably sick of the wall paper stories, but the house was covered with it! How about some boring bathroom and plumbing?

Here is the bathroom gutted, except for the toilet (sometimes you need that).
The floor has to be taken up as it is in poor and somewhat rotted condition.
Will be replaced with old style tile.

Note the window frame in the background on the left.
The original frame is there, but in the '70's they took out the old wood window. In its place a small aluminum window and filled in the rest of the frame with plywood. Found a shop that will mill a wood window for me that will look like the other originals ones in the house. It will certainly look better that this!

On the right all of that plumbing will be replaced with new stuff. As you can see there is new electrical wire in place. So progress is being made!

The Urgent Takes Precedence Over The Priority

Well, here it is April 6th, 2007 and I am just now getting back to this blog to update it. It is hard to believe 5 months have passed since my last post.

As most of you may know, a couple of days after Thanksgiving my Daddy went into the hospital for surgery. We knew he would have a recovery period of a couple of weeks, but we felt all would be fine.

Unfortunately, after surgery he ended up with two infections. One he was able to conquer, the other he almost conquered but it roared back and he had nothing left in order to fight it. He never left the ICU and passed away in January.

His illness and ultimate passing has been so very difficult for all of us, but especially my mom. So during all of this time I was in Mobile, spending most of it at the hospital with Momma and Daddy and then with her trying to help out and take care of many details after the fact.

I started back dealing with my house full time about 4 weeks ago. I am constantly wanting to pick up the phone and call him to ask questions about how to do this or should I do that or is this worker telling me the right thing? As I work, I seem to constantly hear his voice.

I am just now able to write about his passing without totally losing it, although the tears always seem to come. I miss my Daddy, his willingness to listen and give his advice.

I just hate he will not be able to see the house fixed up and finished.
And so, life goes on.....

More Wallpaper

Ugh....more wallpaper. Will it ever end?
It truly is very long & tedious work removing this stuff.
(I have put quite the dent into the white vinegar supply at the local grocery store).
Speaking of vinegar, I am sick of smelling it! lol
But as you can see, this ugly brown wallpaper has to got to go!
(Maybe they were big UPS fans?)

But the soothing green color of the wall behind it is much nicer, don't you think?

Seems this green color was very popular, I am finding it throughout most of the house. (Although the color is not showing quite right here on the blog!)

Tin Roof!.....Rusted (as the B-52's say)

Besides the flood, I had some wind damage.
The metal roof on the back of the house came up as you can see here.

I had a temporary tarp but it blew away recently in a thunderstorm.
So with the help of the Atlanta (highway) girls--Mary & Lisa..we got it fixed!
What you see here is the portion that was damaged, is now repaired.

I still need to put down one more coat of the metal roof coating and should be good to go.
Sure beats that $5,000 estimate some guys wanted to charge me!
Thanks girls.

Curious Pattern

Hhhmmm Take a look.
This is the wallpaper pattern I uncovered in the front two rooms of the house. This first picture is of the entire pattern.

The next two pictures are of the pattern split up so you can see it better. Anyone know what time period this might be from???
Any wallpaper experts out there? Tell me what you might know about this.
Click on the comments button and let me know, because I am curious.


By the way, the wallpaper is too damaged to save (plus not really my taste in home decor). I am saving small sections that I will eventually frame to show the history of the house (great suggestion given to me!)

GO SAINTS GEAUX!

GO SAINTS beat the Falcons!
Sure wish I was there tonight in the rebuilt Superdome.
The weather is amazing here today and there has been excitement in the air. The city is buzzing!
Another step in our comeback!

PostScript===>We whooped those Atlanta dirty birds 23-3! Looks like the new coach is awesome with some hard-working players!