On our way home, and a few of us have that same funny feeling we get at the end of the trip each year. The week goes by in a blur—working really hard all day, relaxing and seeing the city in the evening, rinse and repeat. By the end, you realize how comfortable the routine got in such a short time, and you realize that your regular life waits back home (papers to grade!).

We’ll miss this city once again.

Under the house, the floors came together nicely. A total of 10 new floor joists and two brand new 6x6 support posts took the floor of two rooms from a trampoline to a place solid enough to bring in a trampoline and hold a gymnastics meet.

Trust these joists...

Jump-testing our floors...

Unfortunately, as we were installing one of the 14 foot joists, we bumped into a water line in the cramped space under the house. Normally not a bit deal. But this house is anything but normal. The slight bump caused an already badly installed fitting to spring a leak. Uncertain if we’d have time to really fix it with a new fitting, step one was to scrape off the plumbers putty (a bad idea from the past) and try some plumbers epoxy. That slowed the leak, but didn’t stop it.

Luckily, we finished with the floor joists on a long Thursday, and we were able to spare a worker to crawl back under on Friday to do that job right. The new union is tight, no leak, and we’re happy.

Bad...

Better...

Best.

SEAFOOD BREAK!!!

Outside…well, the whole place looks different. The porch roof was originally held up by two matching columns, but one was knocked out in the storm, so an old 4x4 was in its place, holding up half the roof. So Joe took it upon himself to recreate the original post, decorative elements and all, which made a huge difference in the curb appearance of the place.

The existing column.

Joe's replica.

The painting finished up at the end of the day Friday, and the house no longer looks abandoned. Ella and Henry have had problems with vandals and looters over the years, and we suspect part of the problem is that the house looked abandoned. In fact, while our crew was on site working, a young guy came by looking for something he had left on the premises….his ‘work’. He had to get his ‘work’ now that he saw we were fixing the place up. Our crew didn’t know what to make of the situation, until the guy reached under the foundation of the house and removed his 9mm pistol from where he’s hidden it, tucked it in his belt, and walked away.

Our thinking is that things like that will no longer happen now that the house looks lived in. There’s an abandoned house right next door, a much more tempting target for someone looking to stash his ‘work’.

Before...

After.

Ella and Henry were thrilled with the results, too. The rooms we worked on are now the two strongest floors in the house, and the exterior looks simply brilliant.

Our crew worked as hard as I’ve seen people work, and we couldn’t be prouder of them. This was our first year working without the safety net of a supervising organization like Pnola. We planned the projects, funded them (and fell a bit short, but that’s what future fundraising is for), did the work, dealt with the snags along the way, and got a lot done. The added worry of not have anyone else being responsible for the job was balanced out by the added pride of our own accomplishments. We leave New Orleans exhausted and sad to leave, but happy to have come once again.