Yep...that's right....purple with gray trim!
Halfway through working on this house I actually injured my back :( I was trying to move a 32' extension ladder (fully extended, so it was actually 64') all by myself! Real smart I know....I did get to see the end product of the house though and it looks really purply!
Because I got hurt I was not put on the paint crew:( I was sad for a little bit cause I absolutely LOVE painting, but I got over it and it ended up not being too bad. I got to be assigned to many different houses doing lots of different work.
One of the many things that New Orleans is famous for is having "Shot Gun" houses. I heard that these were named this because if you stand at the front door of the house you can shoot a bullet straight through without hitting anything else. I got to work in one of these houses. It was kind of tight quarters, but really interesting to see. When you walk into the house you go down this long narrow hallway that leads right into the bathroom. If you keep going through the bathroom you end up in the laundry room. From the laundry room you can either go straight to go outside to the backyard, or go left into the kitchen or go behind the kitchen to the upstairs. It was a really funky layout, but pretty cool to see. At this house I patched up some drywall (I am a proffessional now..haha) made an attic door and frame, made a frame for the outside vent and installed some insulation in the attic. Insulation took all day long and it was very dirty work, but we got two seperate attic's finished in a day! All of this was done in four days!
The next house I worked on was right accross the street from the Musicians Village. This area was built by Habitat and was made specifically for musicians who are from New Orleans. Kiddy corner to the house I was working on was where a school had been before the flood. Now they are making the entire area into a New Orleans Music Museum! This house I was working on was almost complete by the time I got there. The homeowners story was that she is elderly and almost blind. When Katrina hit she was stuck in her house. Her older son came by in a row boat and got her out by cutting a hole in the roof. He took her to safety and then said he was going to go back to help some more people. He never returned and she hasn't been able to burry him because they never found his body. The house that she is living in now was completely rebuilt from the ground up by some hired proffessionals. After they finished the house they were told that it had to be raised 5 feet off the ground. So what they did was raise the house and put cindar blocks underneath it to hold it up. When they did this the entire houses foundation shifted. So, what I was doing, besides patching up drywall, was redoing the tile flooring to make it level. Also, I got to build a front porch and steps!
After that house was done we were all put back together to be the paint crew, so even though I wasn't in charge I still got to paint! We ended up scraping, scrubing, caulking, priming, and painting the exteriors of 3 more homes before we left New Orleans.
All-in-all I have to say that New Orleans was an amazing time and really fun project. I coulnd't have asked for more from Catholic Charities.
