Moderators dtel Posted September 16, 2005 Moderators Share Posted September 16, 2005 Every one here is ok and so is our house. We just got electricity. It's going to be very busy for a while. Will check in every chance I get. I don't need to look at the post with pictures,we see it every day as we help clean my 73 year old aunt's house which had 7 feet of water and left 6 inches of mud. We are using my 2 inch gas powered water pump to pump fresh water from the bayou in to the house to wash out the mud after removing all of the furniture, none of which is salvagable to the yard. It's working very well so far. Only found one snake and a coon so far. Thats good, I just don't want to see any alligators. She lives on the north shore of Lake Pontchatrain in Slidell, LA, in Palm Lake subdivision. What can you expect? It's a total of about 2 feet above sea level and the house is only raised about 3 feet. My mother who is seventy years old lost her home of over thirty years. Her home was in St. Bernard Parish, part of the Murphy oil spill during Katrina. Her home will probably be condemned and bulldozed. My youngest sister lived at home with my mom. She is thirty five years old. They will both be living with us for years to come, as will my niece and her fiance'. They had an apartment in St. Bernard Parish and lost everything except the changing of clothes they left with and their dog. They lost both cars also. It's a good thing we added onto to our home. Originally, we had two bedrooms and one bath. Just completed addition about a month ago and increased to five bedrooms and two baths. Thought we would have two spare bedrooms for our daughters and their families to stay in when they come to visit. Worked out great everybody has there own bedroom and our "master suite" is out of the way of everyone. We increased square footage from approx. 1000 square feet to 2500 square feet. It is 32 feet above sea level,never floods even when we had 21 inches of rain in 24 hours about 3years ago. My wife, my oldest daughter and myself did all the work ourselves, on the original house and the addition. Everything from the slab to the roof, including electrical and plumbing. Not one subcontractor. The house was paid for cash as we went along and the only thing we owe on is the six acres it sits on. No credit cards either. Not even one. Good thing, as landscapers, my wife and I are out of work for months. Landscaping is last on the list when someone is building or better yet rebuilding. Had three landscaping projects going just before Katrina, and another three on the waiting list. All six projects are history for a while. Probably for a good long while. We do have trucks and big trailers so we should be busy for a while, if we ever finish with my aunt's house. Although in the past she has been very good to us and has no one else to help her. She never had any children and retired as vice president of one of the largest and oldest banks in Louisiana. She does have a Bose speaker system, which of course survived Katrina. We have considered allowing the Bose system to accidentally "hit the mud". Get this...she only listens to AM anyway! Seeing the destruction Katrina caused first hand has been difficult, but we have every one of our family members alive, we have a large enough house to accomodate all of us, and we have gained an even better sense of humor as a result. We told his aunt, "We brought the chainsaw (to cut our way down the driveway to the house) and five gallons of gas in case the chain saw wouldn't do the job(to finish the house off). But she wouldn't let us use the gas, turns out the Bose system and a few other things on the 2nd floor survived. Turned out we had to use a tractor with a front end loader to move the four foot of marsh grass and trees limbs to get a path to house, just wide enough for one vehicle. BUT EVERYTHING IS GOOD. could be floating Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbflash Posted September 19, 2005 Share Posted September 19, 2005 DTEL, I am glad everyone survived and you didn't loose your sense of humor. Let us know if you need anything. Look forward to you posting again in the future. Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 Keep hanging in there. We missed you in Hope, of course, but you had an excused absense. Thanks for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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