BIG TINGS!

Oh, the progress that has been made since the last post! I don't want this entry to be TOO long, so I'll just get right down to real nitty-gritty. BIG TINGS!, as my West Indian brethren might say.

Guess who has plumbing now?!

The sink (aka the lavatory, as the plumbers call it. This, I've learned.) hook-up in the bathroom.


Finally, I purchased the tankless hot water heater. Cost more than a regular hot water heater upfront, but in the long run, it will save money.

Guess whose house is wired?!

Again, wish I had more pics. This is where the light in the back foyer will hang.

I know it doesn't look like much, but believe me, these are HUGE strides. I actually have access to running water now (the plumbers hooked up a spigot at the back of the house). "Look, the light! There it is! Way at the end of the tunnel." says me. For a while, I couldn't see it. Seemed like this process was never-ending (albeit thoroughly challenging and enjoyable). But now it seems that I truly AM nearing the relative end of the rebuilding project. I say "relative" because there will be lots of little projects to complete after we're in the house - the biggest being the installation of real flooring. Can't afford hardwood floors right now, so I've decided that a couple coats of nice deck paint over the plywood underlayment and several strategically placed sisal remnants should do the trick in the interim. My father will win the PowerBall any day now, so when he does...

But seriously, guess who's just about ready to close in the bathroom and back foyer walls?! Yeah, me again! My friend Vicki came down from New York a few weekends ago to help out. She'd never built a window frame before, but because she's such a handy person (and a sculptor by trade), I asked her to build and install my bathroom window. I knew she'd do a great job and she did! Thank you, Vicki!


Vicki securing a stud in place. Me cutting a larger hole in the wall.


Vicki and I proudly posing in front of the newly installed bathroom window. Later, I added the outside trim.

When I found out that Vicki was coming down, I sent out a call for other friends to come. We achieved a lot that weekend!! Shawn and Nate hung the kitchen wall cabinets. Andrea cut a hole and built a frame for the bathroom medicine cabinet. And I started building the bathroom storage closet.


Andrea measuring for the medicine cabinet frame. Shawn and Nate re-attaching the hinges to the cabinet doors.

Also, my house is purple now!!! At my daughter's request (and with the kindness of an organization called Catholic Charities), the exterior was painted a lovely light purple with dark purple and white accents. I love it! And it really pops out on the block now. One of my main goals for rebuilding this house was to help revitalize the neighborhood by showing others that people ARE coming back; people DO care about New Orleans and DO want to live here. Even though the house isn't finished yet or occupied, just having the house painted achieves that. I'm thrilled. And it looks great.


The house is purple now!! (It used to be a pale drab green)


Oh, bless you, good volunteers of Catholic Charities.


The INSIDE is painted too!!! Feel free to comment on my choice of colors. I didn't want a drab monochromatic interior, as you can see. That's all I will say about that.


More Catholic Charities volunteers. Since it was raining outside, they decided to tackle the interior.


My orange living room.


The green room.


This will be our bedroom.


My daughter and the neighbor's kids painted the office (aka The Blue Room). It's bright, huh?

LowerNine.org

LowerNine.org gets their own paragraph on my blog because, well, I love them. This is the one volunteer-based group that has come in and really "owned" the project. Since I have started working, I haven't had a whole lot of time to dedicate to the house. (BTW, I don't work at Whole Foods anymore. "You just started!" you say. Well, yes, but I just resigned as well. Long story. But now I am working for my community and Replant New Orleans, planting 525 trees and creating a new greenspace in Holy Cross. Much more fulfilling than fronting shelves.)Volunteers from LowerNine.org, especially Sarah and Matt (my new best friends), have really taken charge and are making sure the house gets finished. I appreciate their integrity and follow-through; I appreciate their patience and understanding (sometimes I'm so nervous and unsure about certain aspects of the building that I can be difficult to deal with); I appreciate their time and energy (they even come on the weekends!). Through LowerNine.org, I've gotten the wiring done by a LICENSED electrician for FREE; the attic is now clear of debris and most of the dust/dirt; the baseboards are installed with holes cut for the outlets; I HAVE A FRONT DOOR NOW; and the list goes on. They even cleaned up a mess another volunteer group made AND managed a volunteer group when I was unable to be at the house. I'm trying my best not to fall madly in love with these people because they are only volunteers who will be gone as soon as they're done with the house, but it's HARD. Not only do they do all this work, but they're also friendly and genuinely caring! What a blessing.


Super Sarah and good ole Cory, scraping baseboards in the garage.


Jesse the electrician. We had some communication issues, didn't we, Jesse. I hope "free" doesn't turn into "regret." So far, so good... I think.



Some more volunteers, scraping the baseboards. Thanks, y'all. I REALLY appreciate it.


IF YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR A KATRINA-RELIEF ORGANIZATION TO WHICH TO DONATE, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LOWERNINE.ORG! THEY KEEP THEIR ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS LOW AND TRULY DO HELP INDIVIDUALS REBUILD THEIR HOMES. AND THEY ARE A NON-PROFIT SO YOUR DONATION WILL BE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE.


COMMUNITY GARDEN UPDATE

I mentioned in a previous post that the American Community Garden Association (ACGA) had planned to have their annual board meeting here in New Orleans in February (we're hosting their annual conference this October). They wanted to help out during their visit, so Patsy and I submitted a Wish List and started planning for their arrival. During the planning, we found out that the 89th birthday of our garden's namesake, Mrs. Laurentine Ernst coincided with the board's visit! So, we decided to roll a birthday celebration in with the work day. Then we met an ambitious, go-getting young gardener named Cory, a short-term Lowernine.org volunteer. He wanted to fulfill some of our Wish List items as well. The big day, February 23rd, turned into a huge success. We honored Mrs. Ernst (who was present!); the ACGA board assembled a compost bin; and the Lowernine.org volunteers cleared an adjacent lot, built a cold frame, removed a tree stump, AND created a new bed (busting through concrete to do it!). Good stuff.


(l to r) David showing some kids how to plant in a newly created garden bed. Nat, Patsy and good ole Cory discussing composting issues. ACGA board president James Kuhns thanks Mrs. Ernst for her commitment to green spaces in Holy Cross. The cold frame that Cory and the L9.org volunteers built. All of us posing for a photo.


It just wouldn't be the same without Chauncey the goat.



SHAMELESS PLUG

Finally, I must shamelessly plug Horton Hears A Who, a new movie (released yesterday, in fact!) made by Blue Sky, my old company (miss you guys!). I modeled the main antagonist, the Kangaroo and her little joey. So go check it out!! My daughter, mother and I saw it yesterday and LOVED it. And that's not just because I helped make it. I was not a huge fan of the ROBOTS movie, even though I worked on it. P.S. I also modeled Ms. Yelp (the mayor's secretary) and one of the councilmembers. Yes, this plug is quite shameless. Hey, I'm proud. What can I say?



My beloved Kangaroo. Worked long and hard to make her model just right. Seeing her alive on screen was nothing short of awesome.

Gotta Update The Blog

I've been shamefully remiss in updating the blog. I keep saying, "I gotta update the blog. I gotta update the blog." but every time I sit down to do it, I'm either too exhausted or I'm overwhelmed with the challenge of writing about all the new developments in an interesting and concise way. One of the volunteers who helped me months ago recently emailed asking for photos. This essentially FORCED me to at least select and re-size them. Then, of course, I had to add captions. Then I figured I might as well email the photos to friends and family, so that required more writing. So tonight, I convinced myself that I'd basically already written the blog and all there was to do was post it. But, of course, I am me. I couldn't JUST upload the photos and copy the email blurb. Here I am, still typing two hours later.

Up until the end of last year, I'd committed myself to working full-time on the rebuilding of my house. But, for various reasons (mostly my ever-depleting savings account), I recently decided that earning income was priority. HOWEVER, before I dove head-first into working for The Man (in this instance, Whole Foods Market), I dedicated myself 1000% to finishing as much as I could. This is what I accomplished.






















I'm not a believer in the supernatural, y'all. I don't think there's a man (or woman) in the sky who spends his (or her) time engrossed in my personal life, doling out favors and punishment as he (or she) sees fit. I do, however, believe in the innate goodness of humankind. And I believe that there are a great many occurrences in this world that are beyond my comprehension. Like, for instance, how almost immediately after I'd decided to "leave the Matrix", I randomly met a man who does construction work for a living AND (genuinely) wanted to help me with my house. Lonzel and I put down plywood and cement board on the bathroom floor, removed the bathroom window, cut a hole for the new one, and framed in the bathroom walls for insulation. Now, truthfully, he only helped out a few mornings (before he went to his own job! THAT'S a good man!) but just his presence those few days gave me the energy and confidence to finish up this work. He also lent me his miter saw (HUGE help!) and his nail gun for a few days. And, finally, he introduced me to his friend Morgan, a master electrician. Morgan patched the wiring that had been clipped (by some heartless saboteur) and installed temporary lighting in the house. Not free, but MUCH lower than the cost I bemoaned last blog entry.

I received another blessing in the form of two generous checks from past volunteers. These are people who had already come down and given their time and labor to work on a house belonging to a complete stranger. Still they felt they had more to give. I'm grateful for the money, of course. One check is slated for the purchase and installation of a front door; the other to put a dent in the cost of wiring the house. But I am also appreciative of the moral support. There are times when I feel like an idiot for moving back down here with pie-in-the-sky dreams of rebuilding this house with my own hands and no concrete Plan B. So, thanks Peris and Jaye; and Judy, for not only the practical help, but also the encouragement.


NEXT STEP

Now that I'm employed, I can't spend as much time as I'd like to working on my house. Most probably, the proceeding entries will be about what others have done. I may be getting some significant assistance from Lower9.org, a local non-profit rebuilding homes in the Lower 9th Ward. Thanks, Mack McClendon of The Village for helping out with that! Also, Catholic Charities may be sending some volunteers over to patch and paint the exterior of the house. And I've received many offers from friends, friends of friends, and people with whom I've volunteered in the past. So I'll be organizing work days with them. I truly hope that the house will be habitable (and safe for a young child) by the end of April. I'll keep y'all posted!!

The Beginning of The End

I know that I promised to update the blog weekly; this is why I usually don’t make promises. Unpredictability is the nature of life. I have been in a holding pattern for about three weeks. Here are my VALID excuses – 1) My daughter’s daycare was closed for a week, so I was unable to do any work on my house save that Tuesday when Aiji came to help. The rest of the week was filled with Mommy days. 2) As fate would have it, on the Tuesday the daycare reopened, I was stricken with the flu! Even as I struggled to push forward and accomplish SOMETHING, ANYTHING, my body simply would not allow it. I couldn’t see beyond the pain pressing on my eyeballs. My every movement was strained; every turn of my head followed by pain. I went home to bed… and ended up staying there until Friday. 3) Lastly, I decided to go out of town at the last minute (minor emergency). So there went another week. My readers surely understand the frustration. Life happens, yes. But I NEED to be in my house working. And it’s not just the emotional need anymore.

Last post, I wrote about The Impracticality of Passion, where I shared the realization that my dream is coming to an end and I have to face reality – it is no longer a good idea to rebuild my house on my own terms, without earning any income.

A few things have happened to support this thinking:

1. As you know, I recently discovered that my brand new electrical wiring had been clipped. As long as my house remains unoccupied on this abandoned block, it will be subject to the whims of selfish thieves.
2. Tired as I am of dealing with trifling little liars disguised as professionals, I am hiring a new electrician, who appears to have integrity, to rewire the house. Of course, in post-Katrina New Orleans, morality comes at a premium. His estimate is just short of double the previous electrician’s.
3. Even though the previous electrician took six months to NOT finish a two-week job, my contractor/uncle is still charging me almost the full amount for his services.
4. My insurance company is closing my theft claim without payment because my insurance does not cover theft while the property is under construction. My house is completely vulnerable and there will be no retribution for any loss incurred.
5. To add insult to injury, I just got a letter in the mail today stating that my insurance company would be canceling my homeowner’s insurance as of January 18th.

All these factors, coupled with the fact that I am WAY over my projected timeline and need to begin making some money, have contributed to my reality check. No one (with whom I have a financial relationship, at least) cares about my commitment to this house and the neighborhood. They are not moved by the strides I've made; my learning experience means nothing to them. This is Reality; and at this point, I am basically “shit out of luck”. The good ole days are over and it’s time to leave the Matrix.


PLAN OF ACTION

I am not one to mope around and be sad about unfortunate circumstances. I am just not the “woe is me” type. Self-pity is a useless emotion, and it’s counter-productive. When I feel a twinge of depression coming on, I am compelled to MOVE. I have to shake it; I refuse to let it conquer me. Thus, I have come up with a plan of action – a bare minimum list of what needs to happen so that my daughter and I can live in the house.

- Win the lottery and/or marry a wonderful (and coincidentally wealthy) man
- Frame in the bathroom with studs
- Install baseboards throughout the house (the electric sockets will be in the baseboards)
- Re-wire the house (hire an electrician)
- Install plumbing in the house (hire a plumber)
- Patch the rest of the kitchen ceiling
- Close up the walls in the bathroom with greenboard and cement board
- Install hardwood flooring in the first three rooms
- Install tile in the kitchen and the bathroom
- Hang kitchen cabinets and sink
- Install temporary plywood countertops
- Install toilet, bathtub and lavatory

The first one COULD happen… I also COULD be struck by lightning this afternoon, but it’s not likely. I just put that there for amusement. Everything else could be done within two to three months, if I receive cooperation from all parties involved. That, in and of itself, is a gamble. Working with electricians and plumbers in New Orleans has proven to be a challenge for quite a few. But I hope that this time, since I’m working with men of integrity (or so I’ve heard), I will be able to forego the common problems. I am still debating whether or not to attempt the flooring installation myself. I know for sure that I can/will install the tiling. I’ve done that before and I feel confident about it. Hardwood flooring is a different beast altogether. I’ve installed laminate flooring, but it’s not the same. So we shall see.


MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

We shall also see if I am able to even get through the Bare Minimum List. I have not updated my budget in a while and, honestly, I’m afraid to do it. But such things need to be done. I know already that I’ll be spending more than the amount of the initial insurance claim compensation. The question is “How much?” and whether or not I can afford that. Time to crunch some numbers.

At this time, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have sent a few dollars my way. And, of course, to all those who have volunteered their time working on my house. I couldn't have gotten this far without you; I truly appreciate your help.

Moving Forward

Today, my old buddy Aiji came over. Bless his heart, he traveled TWO HOURS on the bus just to lend a hand. This is a testament to the glory of the RTA, New Orleans’ own public transportation system. Aiji lives about 15 minutes away.

A little back story - when my fabulous UU volunteers from New Mexico were here, we unfortunately discovered that my sills (the very foundation upon which my little house sits) had some wood rot. Bad news. We were all set to remove the bathroom window and put in some studs so I could have insulation, which would have been Miracle #4, when we found the damage. Anyway, all work had to stop and I’d kinda been in a holding pattern since then. Getting emotional, overwhelmed, and feeling like this work would “never” be done. My biggest problem was that I couldn’t find the right sized wood to replace the rotted pieces. Lumber stores don’t sell true 6-by-6’s anymore; the wood is really 5 ½-by-5 ½. I’d been dumpster-diving for old sills with no luck.

Lucky for me, pretty much everyone I know is rebuilding in some way, shape or form. My cousin Rashida told me her workers replaced sills on her house, so I went over today to see how they did it. I discovered that they used ½” plywood to shim underneath the 6-by-6. A rush of relief and clarity washed over me. And somehow that allowed me to make a decision about NOT replacing one of the sills. Finally, I could move forward! The bathroom would not have to wait.


Rashida's sill

So, today, Aiji and I worked de-constructing the bathroom interior. Since I’m going to be building out the walls with studs, we had to move the tub away from the wall. And, of course, the toilet had to come out because I’m going to be laying tile (and the toilet has to sit on TOP of the tiled floor). Aiji pulled out the wood framing around the tub. I crawled under the house and cut the drain pipe with a hacksaw. We worked well as a team and I couldn’t have done any of this without him. Without his super-human strength, that bathtub wouldn’t have moved an inch.


Aiji said he loves tearing stuff down.


I'm just glad he could lift this cast-iron tub!

Equally noteworthy, I’ve patched another ceiling. For all the work it’s taking to replace damaged ceiling boards, that ceiling better look nice when it’s finished! I have none other than my new friend Whitney to thank for that. Last week (and the week before), she came and helped out. Did I ever mention that working alone is really inefficient? So much time is spent climbing up and down ladders to get tools, measure, cut wood, get things I forgot the last time I climbed up or down, etc. Having Whitney there to help really sped things along. We were able to get that ceiling done in a morning. She stripped wood, cut boards, hammered nails, and provided extra hands when I needed them. [I wish I had photos of Whitney working, but I guess I wasn’t thinking of that at the time.]


The ceiling, before and after

As a footnote, I want to share a comment expressed by the man I met whilst visiting The Green Project today. “Women have gone too far,” he told me when I said I was doing my own construction work. He also added, “Construction is not feminine,” in response to my inquiry regarding his bizarre thought-pattern. So, thanks, sexist man. Thanks for giving me a good laugh.


The Impracticality of Passion

In 2001, my now-former employer laid me off along with 75% of the staff. Puzzled by my co-workers’ long faces and tears, I hurriedly escaped the building and went skipping merrily into the sunlight. I was FREE!! I then proceeded to enjoy the BEST six months of my life. The bulk of my time and energy was spent putting together my brainchild, a multimedia exhibition (well, I called it an “experience”) entitled “Cat Calls”. I worked harder than I probably ever had in my life… for zero dollars. The money (or lack thereof) was irrelevant; hell, everything was irrelevant – sleep and food included. I was on a mission; I had a goal, a destiny to fulfill. Then one day, my unemployment checks stopped coming and I was jerked back into the world of reality. A rude awakening, it was. But in our society, one cannot live on passion alone. I decided to leave my free-wheeling (and financially precarious) existence and accept the company’s re-hire offer.

Oh, how history repeats itself. Here I am once again, living passionately and purposefully, working harder than I ever have before, doing exactly what I want to do with my life… for zero dollars. And on the horizon, I see the Rude Awakening slowly creeping forward like the Grim Reaper with his bloody scythe. In a way, I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. The practical thing to do would be to find lucrative employment and pay someone else to finish the work on my house, but that defeats the entire purpose of my being here. I’m here to learn, to build, to dig my fingers into the dirt and create something new. But that job does not pay very well (or at all). So, I am not sure what I’m going to do next, but I’ll have to decide soon. Though living with my mom and penny-pinching have kept us afloat so far, there’s only so far a chunk of money can stretch. I am very proud of the progress we’ve made on the house, the knowledge I’ve attained through this work, and the impact I’m able to make in my community through rebuilding my house and organizing the revitalization of the community garden. But I am way past my original six-month deadline, and I have to face the impracticality of passion.

Make It Right
Finally, I want to share a photo I took in the Lower 9 the other day.



If you haven't heard about this yet, it's part of a fundraising campaign led by Brad Pitt to build 150 green homes in the Lower 9th Ward (the area that the city had originally slated to be "greenspace"). For more info, check out Make It Right's website.

No Way!

No way!

Way.

Word?

Word.

Get outta here!

Gone.

As you can see, a LOT has transpired since the last post. And these photos don’t even represent the half of it. However, for both of our sakes, I will try to keep the commentary short. Mostly, I want to spotlight the folks who have helped me during this time.

New York Weekend

In Mid-October, New Yorkers Matt, Jeff and Bret came down to help install an underlayment over my subfloor. Since one worn layer of hardwood flooring was all that separated the interior from the exterior… and because the house has no insulation, I’d decided it might be a good idea to put another floor on top. My NY crew enthusiastically took on the task. Brave souls, they were. Slept in my mom’s construction-site house. No shower, no stove. They said “No problem.” They were awesome.

I bought all the flooring supplies (and some fencing supplies, since I knew I’d have more volunteers the following week) on Friday. Lo and behold, it is not Home Depot’s policy to forklift merchandise into a vehicle… which includes the 10ft UHaul truck I’d rented. They didn’t want to be responsible for any damages. Understandable, but still sucky for me. I’d wanted to have everything ready by the time the guys arrived. As fate would have it, my supplies were still at Home Depot when their plane hit the tarmac. But Bret, Jeff and Matt were here for a reason – to help rebuild a home. They insisted on going back to Home Depot that night and loading the truck by hand. In the darkness, we loaded up the truck, twenty 80lb bags of cement and all. And unloaded by the light of their rental car’s high beams.

[Not coincidentally, with all the hubbub around getting the supplies to my house, I lost my debit card at Home Depot… and didn’t find out until Monday. By then, someone had run up about $2000 worth of charges! Fortunately, I was able to dispute those charges and Chase credited the money back to my account. But it was still a fierce blow to my otherwise positive outlook.]

Matt is a contractor by trade and I was so grateful to have him at my house. The first thing he did was organize all the tools and equipment into one central location. How much easier and faster work becomes when one is organized. That done, the four of us cleaned/prepared the floors, laid down roofing paper, and then secured the 5/8” plywood with drywall screws. In the kitchen, we put in cementboard, since I’ll be installing tile there. We knocked it out in a weekend and the guys still had time to enjoy the tastes and sounds of New Orleans.


Matt in front of the organized tool shelf; Me and Bret cutting a 2x4


Jeff laying the roofing paper; Bret and Matt putting down the plywood


We even had time for a photo shoot!

I was also grateful to finally have electricity. I will not get into bad-mouthing the electrician right now because that is a whole other story. I will not talk about how unreliable and trifling he is. I will say - thank goodness he finally kept his word on something (albeit a week late) and installed the GFI (ground-fault circuit interrupter…. In my case, a useable outlet attached to the outside of my house) so I could have power. It enabled us to work into the night AND use power tools.


The UUs Return

The following week, another Unitarian Universalist group (this time from Alberquerque) came. My mother, community liaison at NENA, had been planning a mapping project for that weekend. By Monday, however, they hadn’t finished. So the volunteers and I went out in the monsoon-like rainstorm and mapped the rest of the Lower 9. We went from door to door, assessing the building status (red=abandoned, yellow=under construction, blue=lived-in or live-in ready) and recording the number of residents.

The next day, we dove into work at my house. The first miracle was erecting the fence. I’d decided that putting up the fence with manual tools was crossing the line into Crazy-Land. So, Jim and I were inside discussing renting a jackhammer and an auger. A few minutes into our talk, I look up and four guys are outside with a sledgehammer and other hand tools busting holes in the concrete. Where it took me about two hours to dig one 2 foot hole, they dug all thirteen holes in about an hour and a half. At that moment, I realized the limitations of my gender – hey, men are physically stronger; can’t argue with reality. Thank the good Lord for men. I love ‘em, yes I do. The metal posts were in the ground by the day’s end. Originally, I got wood posts, but the volunteers convinced me that I should go with metal. We returned the wood and they generously bought the metal posts! By the end of the week, I had the 80 foot fence I’d desperately needed since the beginning of this project. [A side note, I discovered the previous week that looters had clipped some of my new electrical wiring from underneath the house! There was an urgency.]


Two hours, y'all. I'm impressed.


Then we set the posts in concrete.


A real FENCE!!

Meanwhile, on the inside of the house, Ed was installing ceiling boards, Kathy and Connie were replacing window panes, Phyllis was sanding. The house was a-buzz with activity. Each day, there was a group of about 10, but the members switched in and out. And they WORKED. [Embarrassingly, I have to attribute all the work to them because I didn’t get a chance to really focus on any one project!] This group was committed to making a dent in the rebuilding project. The second miracle was their generous donation of supplies to my house. Countless Home Depot runs and countless “Don’t worry about it”s when I’d pull out my debit card to pay. I wish I could provide photos of this work, but alas I had no camera.

The final miracle occurred on Friday, their last day. Earlier in the week, I’d mentioned the sad story of my digital camera’s demise, victim of the crushing power of automobile wheels on the St. Claude Bridge (my purse fell during a bumpy bike ride).

Keep in mind this group had already donated not only a full week of their time, but also supplies without any hesitation. I was beyond appreciative just based on that. On Friday, as we stood in my backyard enjoying red beans and rice (courtesy of my mother, thanks Ma!), the group presented me with a brand new digital camera along with a 1GB memory card!!!! They wanted me to be able to continue documenting my work… and my daughter’s life. I was speechless and I’m pretty sure a few tears fell. That was just too much. What did I do to deserve such generosity? All I can do is pay it forward.


Since The Volunteers Left

The week after the volunteers left, I took a break from the house. It was such a hectic time, I felt that I needed a little separation. I devoted much of my time to helping my neighbor Kelvin with his house. Then, I volunteered a week with The St. Bernard Project. Since I hadn’t been doing my usual Thursday volunteering, I figured I’d make it up by putting in a full week. I had the privilege of doing finish work (installing interior doors, window casing, trim and molding) at the home of an 80-year old man and his son. They were living in a trailer in the front yard, and were so eager to get into the house that they started moving their clothes in as soon as Dave Holt installed the closet racks. It felt good to be able to help them.

And finally, I got back to work at my house. I caulked more of the exterior siding (so many cracks, so many holes):


I fashioned a downspout for the front side of the house:



And I put in some more ceiling boards in the kitchen (Thanks, Ed, for preparing the ceiling. It made my job a LOT easier.):


AND Home Depot finally came by to install the garage door:


I also experienced the most serendipitous blessing this month...


Serendipity

First of all, let me share that cabinetry is the most expensive item in a kitchen remodeling budget. My original plan had been to buy some simple base cabinets from Home Depot. I’d just make do and wait until I could afford more cabinetry. So I was sitting pretty when I came across a set of base cabinets at Habitat Restore for $40. I was lucky to get that! Well, on Wednesday when I went to pick them up, Habitat Restore just happened to get a donation of a full set of quality wall AND base cabinets. Solid wood, not particle board. Oh, Happy Day! I bought them ON THE SPOT for $160, a pittance in comparison to their cost brand-new. All I have to do is sand, repaint them and change the hardware. Well, and I also have to kinda reconstruct them to fit my space, but that’s not a problem… I hope.


Some of the base cabinets. Couldn't take decent photos of the wall cabinets, but they are filling my kitchen right now. They are HUGE!

On Being A Handy-Woman

If this experience has done nothing else for me, it’s made me CONFIDENT that I can fix pretty much anything around the house. When it comes down to it, having the confidence to do something is half the battle. Confidence clears the mind of worry about failure and allows it to focus on problem-solving. I felt completely comfortable telling my neighbor Kelvin that I knew how to re-glaze windows last week, even though I’d never done it myself. Part of my confidence comes from watching others (skilled and unskilled) work. I’ve seen skilled folks who “know what they’re doing” cut corners and do things “the easy way.” I’ve seen the unskilled do work without a full understanding of what they’re doing. To me, the understanding and the willingness to do it “right” count for more (sometimes) than experience. I’ve read about re-glazing windows; I’ve seen other people do it; I understand the process. So when Kelvin asked me if I knew how to do it, I said yes without hesitation. And I did it. Confidently. And correctly. Men do it all the time! I’m noticing that women are more likely to say “I don’t know” if they’re not 100% sure they can do something. Men rarely admit to not knowing something. I’m turning into a man! LOL.

Community Garden Update

I mentioned to y’all before that I’d begun organizing the revitalization of the Laurentine Ernst Community Garden in the Holy Cross neighborhood. Well, the garden is thriving. And I must also mention that some of the fabulous UU volunteers also took the time out to visit our garden and do some weeding. We have more plants than I can list growing now – broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, beets, parsley, mint, and chives to name a few. We’ve also planted flowers to add some color and attract the pest-eating bugs.






Patsy Story has still, unfortunately, been doing the brunt of the work. I recruited some garden keepers to do regular maintenance, but they haven’t gotten into a groove yet. Anyone have experience in organizing people? Not sure how to motivate folks to keep up the garden.

A few weeks ago, Patsy and I were contacted by the American Community Gardens Association to participate in planning their New Orleans conference in October 2008. We were recruited because the ACGA wants to DO WORK during the conference, creating and improving our city’s gardens. How wonderful! Patsy and I created a brief Wish List and they are currently fundraising to meet our goals. By next year, we just might have a magical little oasis in Holy Cross!

Well, that’s all for now, y’all. It’s hard to keep it short when a month’s time has passed, but I tried to be concise. My new commitment is to update this blog weekly, even if it’s just to post some new photos.