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It's been a long time coming . . .

Background:

“It ain’t much, but it’s ours,” aptly applies to our family home of the past 13 years.  The story of how we came to rest on Bayou Dularge from Bayou Grand Caillou  by way of Bayou Black, is a long one that won’t be told here.  Home is where the heart is, and for our youngest child, who is 13, this is the only home he remembers.

Hurricane Rita put about ten inches of water in our home in 2005, which started a long, and sometimes unbelievable government grant program called The Road Home.  For us, it was The LONG Road Home or better yet, The Road to Nowhere!  How about The Dead End Road?

You veteran readers know what we went through to get temporarily back in our home after these storms, so I’ll spare you the repetition.

Before the promised grant money for elevating our home above the flood plain arrived, Hurricane Ike put another foot of water in our home in 2008.  Please realize that our house is four feet off the ground . . . not flat on the ground.  And also remember that this community did not settle in a flood zone.  This has become a flood zone over years of wetland loss and the resulting damage from saltwater intrusion.

But now, finally, more than four years after the infamous back-to-back hurricanes that wreaked havoc in coastal Louisiana, including New Orleans, something on the positive side is happening.

Termite is happy, too!

So, what do you think these are for?  Go ahead.  Take a wild guess!

I did a happy dance in the backyard!

BW

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18 Comments

  1. You’re (finally) going to add an above-ground basement, aka elevate the house a full story?

    (I live in St. Tammany parish. My house is about five feet above the highest part of the lot. There was enough water from the Bayou Liberty at the end of the road to float the wheels stored under the house out.)

  2. Glad you are finally getting your head above water! Or should I say feet and floor? How long do you think it will take to finish?

  3. Finally!

    Photos are awsome!

    So is your story!

    Blufloyd asked me a question about God but I don’t know how to respond to his comment.

    so if your readers want to offer Lillian some tech advice…let’ hear it

  4. Nice. Round ones out of style? Look short to me.

    No sweating my religious questions. I did the wheel and the circles just being happy here now till I enter the void laughing.

    1. Dear Blu,
      This is my official request of you regarding new house project: NO NEGATIVE COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ALLOWED. PERIOD.

      Never ask Lillian a religious question unless you want a sermonette. Please don’t mess with her. Coming from Quaker roots, she takes her faith very seriously!!!

  5. This is so WONDERFUL! YAY! YAY! YAY! Doing a happy dance for you myself which is serving a dual purpose of warming me up. Dude–it’s minus 3!!! Your photos and the pics I took of the crossbeams under Miss W’s place the other day have certainly made my holiday season! Who said there’s no Santa Claus?

  6. You answer my questions just like my boss. She has same weird slant on negative vs positive too. I have no negative/positive meter I just ask questions as they occur…..You get to work out details of answer. I always get one sometimes it is from other sources or just the time line of things.

    Happy Hannukah…

  7. Hope those are for elevating your house and not for putting in a railroad behind it! They sorta look like railroad ties.

  8. What a great early Christmas present!! I know your family is very excited. I hope the transition is extremely smooth. And for some odd reason I’m humming the theme song to “The Jefferson’s” in my head as I type … movin’ on up, movin’ on up … 🙂

  9. I KNEW this was the surprise you alluded to! I may just have to wait a while before using my Camp Dularge reservation so I can see the progress.