Much Can Be Salvaged From Homes
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Jeannie Paddison Tidy
Native American tribes were the first to live in the Lake
Pontchartrain Basin area. Others who followed their smart lead
include Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elvis, Fats
Domino, Sam Cook and Little Richard, who all have set foot on our
lakefront.
What makes the lakefront a charming place to live? It's made up
of many different architectural styles and landmarks. There is the
leaning lighthouse, built in 1838 and moved to its current site in
1910. Early arts-and-crafts bungalows are seen throughout the area,
along with Lakefront cottages, and there are lots of wonderful
Spanish style homes of stucco and wood with artistic terra cotta
roof work.
Residents repairing old Lakeview houses have been told they need
to replace their wood windows, doors and baseboards because of mold.
This is untrue!
Most of the lumber that went into building our homes was
cypress or old pine. These woods can be washed off and
saved to reuse in the rebuilding and they are better
materials than you can find today.
The old pine floors at my house have only one little
area that popped up because of the flood. It is labor
intensive but my husband and I have slowly made the
floor lie flat again.
How did we do this? We used a variety of techniques
like steaming (using hot towels and a rug steam cleaner)
the floors so they are pliable enough to put lots of
weights on top. We used a combination of bricks and an
old piece of granite.
When people walk into our house they cannot believe
how flat the floors are after having been under water
for weeks.
We are enjoying the savings of only having to
refinish the floors, not replace them.
Another fallacy is that you must replace the wood
windows. Our wood windows only had three cracked panes
of glass. With a little elbow grease, we have gotten all
of them in working order again.
Some contractors will tell you to replace your
windows with more energy-efficient ones. Have you ever
tried to replace a broken pane of glass in two-ply
windows? It is not for the amateur and is very
expensive. |
One solution is to get magnetic windows that create the
same dead space found with two-ply windows, and the
magnetic addition is inconspicuous and removable.
The windows reduce energy consumption and noise by
about 25 percent to 30 percent.
Some great building resources for the avid restorer
are Habitat for Humanity warehouse, The Bank, Ricca's,
and the Green Project at the tracks off St. Claude.
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As lakefront neighborhoods come back. let's try to keep our little
slice of history alive by restoring our homes.
E-mail Jeannie
Paddison Tidy at viewsfromlakefrontnola@gmail.com or write to her at
141 Robert E. Lee Blvd. No. 209, New Orleans LA 70124.
