Dispatch From New Orleans

Global Green helps rebuild the Lower 9th Ward

Welcome Home Thanksgiving Celebration @ Make It Right

Join Make It Right for a Welcome Home Celebration for families returning home to the Lower 9th Ward and an open house to  inform the community at-large about the features and  benefits of owning a Make It Right home and the process  for becoming a MIR homeowner.

• Date: Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009
• Time: 2:30 - 5 p.m.
• Location: LANDSCAPE RESOURCE DEPOT: 1742 Deslonde (Corner of Deslonde & N. Roman)

via www.helpholycross.org

Contractors discuss insulation and moisture issues in New Orleans

Contractors Bill Robinson and Julie Groth discuss insulation with Lower 9th Ward homeowner Ariane Wiltse.

Shotgun house in the Lower 9th Ward's historic Holy Cross Neighborhood

This century-old shotgun home is under renovation in the historic Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower 9th Ward. It's being saved by the Preservation Resource Center, a highly respected nonprofit that buys up old, neglected homes and fixes them up and then sells them to entry-level buyers. In this home, the old paint patina will be mostly saved and become part of the design. This will be an historically sensitive remodel. And thus the history and culture of New Orleans, the soul of America, will be saved.

See more shotgun houses

New Orleans House Colors: Lower 9th Ward

This beautiful little cottage is right on the levee in the Holy Cross area of the Lower 9th Ward. The exterior colors include:

• House siding: Bright yellow

• Doors, window mullions and foundation: Pumpkin orange

• Door jambs, door trim, window frames, fascia, and corner quoins: Periwinkle blue

• Steps, cornice above windows: Mint green

See more New Orleans house colors

New Orleans House Colors: Lower 9th Ward

Here's another gorgeous renovated specimen in the Holy Cross area of the Lower 9th Ward. This house was originally a double shotgun, and has been converted into a single. It is absolutely gorgeous inside, with high ceilings, beautiful hardwood floors, and a large granite-counter kitchen. The colors used on the exterior include:

• Siding and deck: Taupe

• Shutters (closable during hurricanes): Olive

• Doors and cornice over attic windows: Red

• Trim, windows and corner quoins: Cream

• Porch ceiling: Sky blue

See more New Orleans house colors

New Orleans House Colors: Lower 9th Ward: Holy Cross

This is supposedly the first Katrina Cottage built in New Orleans after the storm. The plans and materials came from Lowe's and a local contractor working for the Preservation Resource Center put it together. There were great hopes for these little homes as an alternative to formaldehyde-poisoned trailers for quick homes for hurricane victims. But this house only just sold — for under $90,000 — and it's four years after the levees failed. The standing-seam metal roof is awfully cute, though.

The exterior colors on this modest home include:

Siding, porch deck and steps: Tan

Trim and railing: White

Doors and porch ceiling: Bright blue