HOME AND GARDEN

The latest home and garden news and updates

Opening the doors of her Meraux house for the annual Christmas Tour of Homes seemed like the natural thing for Carol Lambert to do. Some of her friends previously had participated in the charity event, as had her mother, a member of the Stitch in Time homemakers' club that started the tradition 16 years ago. And in St. Bernard Parish, where Lambert was born and raised, tradition and family and community ties run deep.

Continue reading "St. Bernard holiday tour resumes for the first time since Katrina" »

Stewart is a more thankful person than me.

For months now, he's been saying things like, "I think there's more traffic in Lakeview." And, "Don't you think Canal Boulevard is looking better?" Or, "Is it just me, or do we have a lot more people back around the park out front?"

"It's just you," I'd reply, looking at the Turquoise Street rancher across the way that has yet to be gutted. Its owners, I'm told, have been living in a luxury French Quarter hotel since Katrina.

Then, on Halloween, the neighborhood drugstore reopened.

Continue reading "Tulane grads hope to rebuild Mid-City with Tulane corridor multi-use apartment complexes" »

FOODIES AT HEART: You would think that running a fine New Orleans restaurant would offer more than enough culinary creativity for any foodie family. Not so for Broussard's chef/owner Gunter Preuss and his wife, Evelyn.

You might call them, well, gluttons for punishment. For decades they have cared for patrons of their elegant eatery in the heart of the French Quarter. More recently, they have perfected a more personal home-based hide-away where they can entertain.

Continue reading "French Quarter home has triple the space for holiday dining" »

The weather turned cold unusually early this year: A killing frost occurred on the north shore back in late October. That doesn't necessarily portend an unusually cold winter, but it does mean it's time to prepare to protect tender tropicals in our landscapes, both in the ground and in containers.

Continue reading "Prepare your garden for winter's big chill" »

NOTE: Though work was on a roll last time we checked in on Greta Gladney, life and the flu have intervened in the meantime to slow things, again, to a crawl.

Greta Gladney thought she had avoided what everyone dreads this time of year - the flu. Her husband, Jim Randels, was felled a few weeks ago. Just as he was beginning to recover, her symptoms began.

"I've been down with it for five days now, and it's getting in the way of everything," Gladney said early this week. "Not just the renovation, but our Thanksgiving plans."

Continue reading "Bout with flu stalls 9th Ward rebuild and holiday plans" »

The neighborhood: Jefferson City, a large area of the Uptown Historic District that was added to the national register in 1985. Like the town of Carrollton, Jefferson City as of 1850 was an incorporated municipal entity of Jefferson Parish, before being annexed by New Orleans in 1870. Jefferson City was made up of seven faubourgs -- Rickerville, Avart, Bouligny and others -- which had all been plantations in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Jefferson City was bounded on the north by swampy areas situated about where South Claiborne Avenue is today, and by the Mississippi River on the south. Its eastern boundary was Toledano Street, and it extended past State Street on the west. Today's Street Walk is in the section of Jefferson City bounded by St. Charles, Prytania, Upperline and Jefferson -- the segment that was once Faubourg Avart.

Continue reading "A very beary holiday on Dufossat Street" »

CLEANING 101: Diana Parham of New Orleans wrote for advice on the best way to clean the velvet upholstery on a small antique arm chair, as well as how to remove age spots from a set of hand-embroidered kitchen towels.

Continue reading "Cleaning fragile fabrics takes reams of patience" »

Women getting their pre-holiday haircuts at an Uptown salon last week were offered an unusual gift by local environmental advocates: a free mercury test on their hair.

Sound like a gift that belongs with the tacky ties and nose-hair trimmers of the world?

For some women, the test results could shed light on the risks that toxic mercury levels pose to them or to future children.

Continue reading "Salon-goers get free mercury test with haircut" »

If Gloria Guy is captain of her family ship, then its helm lies in her new kitchen.

That's where you'll find her on Thursday, orchestrating a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings for a group that includes five children, 22 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. It also is her birthday. She isn't sure how many kinfolk will be crowding around her new kitchen counter. But the veteran cook -- she used to bake for the Catholic schools -- is ready.

"They come out of the woodwork, " she said, laughing. "If I cook a case of ribs, they disappear. I've already cooked two turkeys and started the stuffed peppers."

Continue reading "Katrina survivor moves into the first Brad Pitt Make It Right home in the Lower 9th Ward" »

While every New Orleanian has a story from Hurricane Katrina, local rebuilding charities have collected hundreds of them.

They have stories of people who have waited years to move back into their homes. And stories of thousands of volunteers who have helped fuel the rebuilding process and will doubtless keep it going for years to come.

Here's what just five of the many recovery organizations say they are thankful for, three years later. Together they have repaired a thousand homes, built another 350 or so, and seen 50,000 volunteers come and go through their doors.

Continue reading "Hands across America: New Orleans gives thanks to the bounty of volunteers who keep coming back to help rebuild" »

"Forcing" is a gardening term that refers to making plants bloom out of season. Forcing is done by manipulating a plant's environment, primarily light and temperature, and it's not so much a matter of forcing plants as fooling them into blooming at the desired time.

Although you may not realize it, you are already familiar with many examples. For instance, the date of Easter varies widely from year to year, yet Easter lily growers are always able to produce blooming Easter lilies at exactly the right time (the natural time for Easter lilies to bloom is mid- to late April).

Continue reading "Spring blossoms for the holidays, thanks to a little gardening magic" »

"There's no hot water," Christina told me the day after we returned from evacuation for Hurricane Gustav.

She's a first-year student at Tulane Law School, living in a post-Katrina rebuild near campus. (Will our life calendars always be defined by hurricanes?)

"There's a tankless water heater in that house, " I replied. "Go look for it outside the bathroom window."

A find-the-water-tank hunt ensued. It wasn't hanging anywhere on the exterior. It wasn't in the attic. Not in the backyard, or the carport-turned-studio or under the kitchen sink.

I e-mailed Jose Alvarez, architect for the cutting-edge Uptown renovation.

"We can't find the water heater."

Turns out it's located in a bedroom closet, behind a panel, the reset button obligingly located just inside the door. Soon, hot water was flowing again.

Continue reading "Tankless water heaters ride a construction wave" »

NOTE: Work continues at a blistering pace on the Lakeview house of Karina Gentinetta and A.J. McAlear. Will they really be in their home for Christmas?

Last year at this time, Karina Gentinetta and A.J. McAlear knew they wouldn't be celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas at home, as one delay after another had slowed their plan to replace the Louisville Street house that flooded after Hurricane Katrina.

But they were eagerly looking ahead to the delivery of their custom modular home and expected their post-Katrina housing ordeal to be over in a matter of months.

Continue reading "Lakeview family hopes to be home by Christmas" »

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Carrollton, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, bounded roughly by Earhart Boulevard on the north, the Mississippi River on the south, Lowerline Street on the east and the Orleans Parish line on the west. Originally a town in its own right, Carrollton was the seat of government for Jefferson Parish, where development was spurred by the establishment of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in 1836 and the Jefferson and Lake Pontchartrain Railroad in 1851. The town was annexed by New Orleans in 1874. This week's Street Walk is in the area's Carrollton-Riverbend neighborhood, a triangular section bounded by Hickory Street on the north, South Carrollton Avenue on the east, and the river on the third side. The neighborhood maintains a small-town feel, with Oak Street serving as the community's commercial district and Carrollton Avenue as its residential boulevard. Eateries, music clubs and shops on Oak, Carrollton, Dublin, Dante and Hampson draw customers from all over the city.

Continue reading "Dublin Street houses dressed for Po-Boy Fest" »

THE PIECE: American Indian head plaque, probably from the late 18th or early 19th century

THE OWNER: Michele Catanzaro of Metairie said her grandfather acquired the plaque, and it has been in the family since at least 1943. Catanzaro said she doesn't know where he got it or what it's made of, but it has the number 218 on the top, behind the headdress. The Catanzaros are curious about the piece and whether it has significant value.

Continue reading "Cigar store Indian plaque recalls time when tobacco was king" »

THE HOME: A three-bedroom Arts and Crafts cottage in Broadmoor

THE OWNER: Brad Spencer, construction manager

THE SPACE: A sunroom overlooking a tropical patio and pool

WHY HE LOVES IT: 'I love all the trees and how it feels, like the garden's inside, ' Spencer said.

GIVING AND RECEIVING: Brad Spencer works to rebuild homes in Broadmoor in more ways than one.

Continue reading "N.O. resident uses trade to help rebuild his Broadmoor neighborhood" »

If the Department of Public Works' recent increased budget request is any indication, then New Orleans could be heading toward more roadways that cater to both motorists and cyclists.

Public Works director Robert Mendoza is seeking more money for road repairs and maintenance for 2009, and says that he intends to use a portion of the money on a pavement management system that would inventory Orleans Parish streets and run them through software to determine the most efficient and cost-effective prioritization of street repair projects.

Continue reading "New Orleans pedaling toward more bicycling lanes on city streets" »

A local design "contest culminating this week has all the edge-of-your-seat elements of a "Project Runway" or "America's Next Top Model, though its contestants are designing furniture instead of showcasing fashion.

Billes Products' furniture design competition isn't being filmed, but its format is familiar: Nine student finalists, each the creator of an innovative piece of furniture or home accessory, are being grilled by a national panel of experts on concept, form, function, line and purpose.

What was the thought process behind this particular piece? Would the creator be willing to change this part, or that? How about a different color? Is it derivative -- too Eames or Roche-Bobois? Too outre?

Continue reading "Design school students dream up furniture of the future in Billes Products contest" »

If you were to read only general-interest gardening books or articles by Northern garden writers, you would think that summer was the only time of year to work with annual bedding plants. That, of course, is because winters up north are cold and hostile to annuals.

Continue reading "Southern gardens can be a winter wonderland of flowers" »

If she'd known her journals were headed for posterity, Genevieve Munson Trimble says, she'd have watched more carefully for dangling participles and split infinitives.

I know the feeling. There's something both life-enhancing and fear-inducing about the longevity of the printed page, the timelessness of the library shelf. For writers, words are children, often unruly but always beloved.

In Trimble's case, the words were inspired by a passion of a different sort -- twin passions, in fact: gardening in general and Afton Villa Plantation in particular. For four decades, she has carefully documented the restoration of the plantation's lavish landscape. Now, at the suggestion of Ruthie Frierson, library committee co-chairman of the New Orleans Town Gardeners garden club, she is giving her Afton Villa garden journals and supporting materials to Tulane University's Garden Library.

Continue reading "Tulane Garden Library grows with Afton Villa plantation journals" »

At Archbishop Chapelle High School in Metairie, a chain-link, 10-by-10-foot pen resembling a kennel sits outside the cafeteria.

Built by classes of juniors and seniors, under the guidance of their environmental science teacher, Joann Haydel, the pen is the start of the school's first wetlands nursery with Louisiana State University's Coastal Roots program.

Continue reading "Wetlands nurseries get Louisiana students involved" »

NOTE: When we last visited James Perry a couple of months ago, his home repair project was on hold pending resolution of his Road Home appeal. Now, an unpleasant surprise from Entergy has convinced him to move forward.

An oven, or insulation? Such is the choice facing James Perry.

Continue reading "Road Home delay leaves New Orleans homeowner with tough choices" »

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Parkview, a historic district added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The district has an odd shape. A narrow finger stretches from Orleans Avenue on the north to Lafitte Street on the south, and from North Rocheblave Street on the east to Bayou St. John on the west, wedged between the Esplanade Ridge district to the north and the Mid-City district to the south. The larger portion, where our Street Walk block is located, is a roughly triangular area bounded by North Carrollton Avenue and Bayou St. John on one side, City Park Avenue on another and Lafitte Street on the third. In this area, City Park is just a couple of blocks to the north, and the streetcars and restaurants of North Carrollton are a few blocks to the east. Though the National Register listing for Parkview states that some residential development occurred in the late 19th century, most happened in the early 20th century after drainage improved and City Park came into its own as a recreational destination.

Continue reading "Parkview neighborhood holds a wealth of housing styles" »

THE PIECE: A 2-foot-tall bronze and zinc figure of Andrew Jackson, modeled after the 1853 original by Clark Mills. A brass foundry plaque says it's from Cornelius and Baker of Philadelphia; inscribed "Patented, May 15, 1855."

Continue reading "Andrew Jackson statuette brings big price tag" »

At the Old Metairie home of Terence and Henrietta Hall, handsome interiors open onto landscaped exteriors accented by a grand oak and a sparkling pool. But as Terence Hall will tell you, what you don't see may be almost as interesting as what you do.

It's the history of the house and the origins of its design that he thinks make the best story.

The Halls' home will be one of five on Friday's Metairie Park Country Day School fall home tour. Hall, a Country Day alumnus, said that he and his wife bought the property from a neighbor in 1982. But the house grew much more intriguing soon afterward, when he stumbled upon information about its origins.

Continue reading "An Old Metairie manse traces its roots to California architect Paul Williams" »