Curious Pattern

Hhhmmm Take a look.
This is the wallpaper pattern I uncovered in the front two rooms of the house. This first picture is of the entire pattern.

The next two pictures are of the pattern split up so you can see it better. Anyone know what time period this might be from???
Any wallpaper experts out there? Tell me what you might know about this.
Click on the comments button and let me know, because I am curious.


By the way, the wallpaper is too damaged to save (plus not really my taste in home decor). I am saving small sections that I will eventually frame to show the history of the house (great suggestion given to me!)

GO SAINTS GEAUX!

GO SAINTS beat the Falcons!
Sure wish I was there tonight in the rebuilt Superdome.
The weather is amazing here today and there has been excitement in the air. The city is buzzing!
Another step in our comeback!

PostScript===>We whooped those Atlanta dirty birds 23-3! Looks like the new coach is awesome with some hard-working players!

we all scream...for ice cream!

My blog is still not caught up with where I am currently on my house, but I am taking a little sidebar here with current news.

We all scream for ice cream!
That was certainly the case today here in MidCity New Orleans! Another step in the right direction for my neighborhood after the devasting flood.
My favorite ice cream shop re-opened today (Saturday, Sept 23rd, 2006).
(My second favorite is Creole Creamery in Uptown).

Angelo Brocato's is an old Italian style ice cream shop and they have been in New Orleans 100 years. They serve more than just ice cream...confections like Bisquit Tortoni, Cannoli, Cassata, Gelato, Italian Ice, Sciallotti, Spumoni, Torroncino, and Tira Mi Su.

It was quite the celebration today and fun to see some neighbors I had not seen in awhile. Check it out....there was a line down the block and around the corner. I was helping to hand out flyers for my neighborhood organization and people came from as far away as Baton Rouge for this re-opening....amazing.

Hopefully with their opening, that section of Carrollton Avenue in MidCity will come back! (By the way, I had my favorite...chocolate chip ice cream!)
Here is their website for a little cool history www.angelobrocatoicecream.com

One last bizarre item
I was standing on the corner with two of my co-horts from the MCNO (MidCity Neighborhood Organization) after handing out the flyers at Brocato's and we were talking about a large two story house about 2 blocks away.
It has continued to deteriorate and lean since the storm. We were looking at it thinking any day it would fall...well low and behold a strong wind came through and the thing collapsed. We could not believe it. How weird is that?
So as you can see, despite progress, things still are not normal here....

Two More Discoveries

I have more transoms! Unfortunately the original transoms are MIA. Only the frames are left.
This is first picture is the transom over my side door.

This second picture shows a transom frame between the kitchen and my back room (it used to be a porch).

Now I get to be creative in coming up with something for both of these!

Wallpaper Dilemma

How do you remove old wallpaper without damaging the plaster walls with harsh chemicals?

WHITE VINEGAR WITH A TOUCH OF WATER!
SHAKE, SPRAY & SCRAPE!

What's up with the reddish-orange color? Pretty wild for the early 1900's wouldn't you say?

More Hidden Treasure

The back room of my house used to be a porch when the house was originally built.
But at some point in time it was enclosed to create another room.
According to the folks at the Preservation Resource Center in conjunction with the National Historic Preservation Trust who took a survey of my house, they think it was enclosed shortly after the house was built.
Why? Because of these hidden treasures I found behind the paneling and a built-in shelving system.



A window and sidelights I never knew I had!

Kickin' It to the Curb

Well, there's the last of my kitchen out on the curb with my new favorite ray of sunshine in the foreground.
(FEMA picked up all this debris about a month after it had been put out).

Small Ray of Sunshine from the Debris

Where did all the sunflowers come from?????
All over the previously flooded parts of the city, sunflowers appeared...rising from debris piles, in the middle of yards, potholes, you name it. Seems the flood waters spread the seeds from bird feeders around town giving us all little rays of hope in the midst of the madness.

Out Goes the Kitchen

The kitchen is going, going......
Some good out of the flood....my 1970's mustard colored appliances, (except for the dishwasher which was ivory) and dark wood pressboard cabinets won't be missed! :-)
Thanks Marie & Mary for helping me get these cabinets pulled out.

Unfortunately, the plaster underneath the two to three layers of wall (two sets of paneling and then sheetrock on top of the plaster) was too damaged to save.
[I am not kidding...they kept layering stuff on top of the walls in that previous "renovation"]

Hidden Gems

Look everyone...I have transoms!!!

These were uncovered in the process of taking down the old paneling, picture molding and bit of sheetrock between the paneling and ceiling.

There are three transoms at the front of the house.
One over the front door and the other two over the sidelights.
Very cool.

First picture is from the outside and the other is from the interior.
I have not yet removed the plywood from the outside to keep it protected until I can fix a couple of the broken panes.

Why would you cover these up???
To this day I will never undertand the thought process of the 70's renovation!

click on the picture to see each transom better

The beginning of the restoring after the flood...part 1

To get everyone caught up with what I have to do....

Not only am I repairing my house from the flood damage, but it has also forced me to get rid of a terrible 70's renovation.
My house was built in approximately 1920 and from what I am finding out, it was basically untouched until the 1970's.
(I plan to eventually hit the downtown library and archives to learn more about this house's history).

The 70's renovation involved, the very popular at the time, paneling.
When I bought the house, I just painted over it and it looked great.
Flood waters enter and you don't keep moldy paneling around.
With sheetrock you typically cut out a couple of feet above your flood line.
Paneling does not allow you to do that, so the entire wall has to be taken out and trashed.

In most of the rooms, I have discovered that the original plaster walls are still there along with some old, possibly original wallpaper.
The paneling in a couple of rooms was nailed directly into the plaster.
In other rooms they nailed "furring boards" directly into the plaster then the paneling was nailed into the "furring boards".
All of this moldy wood had to go.

Taking down some paneling to reveal pink, flower wallpaper on top of plaster. The stains you see to the right are due to the house "sweating" from the flood and heat while we were banned from the city. Thanks to Mary S. for the picture and for helping & to Marie for helping out as well. Luckily, plaster stands up extremely well to flooding and does not mold.
If there is mold on it, well the mold is eating the paint.
In my case, I had mold, but it was eating the old wallpaper
The old paint behind the wallpaper is fine.

To be continued...