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It's becoming very clear that in whatever house Carl and I find ourselves, it's probably going to need a lot of work. I don't mind that, because I enjoy the creative process and working with my hands, and I know I will find it deeply satisfying to basically create my own home from scratch.
Two of the houses that interest us most would have to be redone from top to bottom. One is a former corner store in the Bywater, not far from the Poland Street wharf, and the other is a historic New Orleans cottage in the Irish Channel, three blocks from Magazine Street. I would enjoy living in either neighborhood and since high school it's been a dream of mine to live in a former corner store. Unfortunately, the corner store would require more work and the sellers are asking a little too much for it considering all the work we'd have to put in to it. The house in the Irish Channel neighborhood is more reasonably priced and would also be a smaller project, both because of its smaller size and because the sellers began some renovations on it before the storm. Neither house flooded and seem to be in their present state due to years of neglect - not an uncommon phenomenon here in NOLA.
Whenever we buy a house and begin renovating, I will need to become a clever scavenger. We're going to be working on a very limited budget, so I'll have to consider just about anything I can refurbish. At least Katrina will have made scavenging for building materials a little easier, although I certainly won't be ripping anything out of anyone else's flooded-out house! Our copper pipes were stolen, so I'm not about to violate anyone else in that way.
The necessity to scavenge is a good thing, in a way, partly because I don't want a huge amount of new things complicating my life. If I could, I'd build myself kitchen cabinets out of disgusting, old, discarded shipping pallets, but I don't have that expertise. Of course, I don't want to bring just any junk in to my life; I just want to reuse as much as possible.
Obviously, there are limits to what can be recycled and reused when it comes to home renovations and home decorating, but it's done frequently; that's house thrift and antique stores evolved. I always have enjoyed trips to the junkyard, thrift stores, and swap meets, so eighteen months (or more) of that shouldn't kill me, especially not when the end goal is the completion of my own beautiful home.
Two of the houses that interest us most would have to be redone from top to bottom. One is a former corner store in the Bywater, not far from the Poland Street wharf, and the other is a historic New Orleans cottage in the Irish Channel, three blocks from Magazine Street. I would enjoy living in either neighborhood and since high school it's been a dream of mine to live in a former corner store. Unfortunately, the corner store would require more work and the sellers are asking a little too much for it considering all the work we'd have to put in to it. The house in the Irish Channel neighborhood is more reasonably priced and would also be a smaller project, both because of its smaller size and because the sellers began some renovations on it before the storm. Neither house flooded and seem to be in their present state due to years of neglect - not an uncommon phenomenon here in NOLA.
Whenever we buy a house and begin renovating, I will need to become a clever scavenger. We're going to be working on a very limited budget, so I'll have to consider just about anything I can refurbish. At least Katrina will have made scavenging for building materials a little easier, although I certainly won't be ripping anything out of anyone else's flooded-out house! Our copper pipes were stolen, so I'm not about to violate anyone else in that way.
The necessity to scavenge is a good thing, in a way, partly because I don't want a huge amount of new things complicating my life. If I could, I'd build myself kitchen cabinets out of disgusting, old, discarded shipping pallets, but I don't have that expertise. Of course, I don't want to bring just any junk in to my life; I just want to reuse as much as possible.
Obviously, there are limits to what can be recycled and reused when it comes to home renovations and home decorating, but it's done frequently; that's house thrift and antique stores evolved. I always have enjoyed trips to the junkyard, thrift stores, and swap meets, so eighteen months (or more) of that shouldn't kill me, especially not when the end goal is the completion of my own beautiful home.
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