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 By Ariane Wiltse
Every now and then, a story in the local press forces me to reevaluate my decision to move back to New Orleans and buy a house in the Lower 9th Ward. Sometimes the story that jolts me from my idyllic rebuilding spirit focuses on leaks in levees and the recycled newspaper found to be stuffed inside of them. Other times it’s stories about the condition of the swamps to the south and west of the city, stories that describe how the land out there is literally falling into open water, and in doing so is allowing the Gulf of Mexico to creep closer and closer to our fragile city.
But today, I’m not fretting over the potential environmental disaster lurking behind the next hurricane. Today, it’s the city’s rampant violence that makes me question my decision not only to move back here after the storm but to sprout roots.
One recent morning, around 2 a.m., a man in my neighborhood was found dead in his home. He had been shot in the head. The man lived a few blocks away from the house I’m restoring, the trailer I’m living in and me.
Although the police have released the barest of details, it appears that the man was murdered in either a drug deal gone wrong or for some retaliatory reason. Typical tit-for-tat street justice meets the cheapness of human life.
My neighbor is merely the city’s most recent murder victim. By the time the summer finally draws to an end, dozens of other people will be dead. In a city long known for its incessant and often random violence, summertime is the scariest time of year. It’s the time when murders become so common that the city guarantees itself the morbid distinction of becoming the nation’s murder capital for yet another year. I call this time of year the killing season. The killings are a fact of life down here or, better put, a cycle of death.
After two of my friends were murdered last year in separate incidents, and my car was surrounded by drug dealers on a sunny Saturday afternoon –- three blocks from my house -- I decided to get involved in anti-crime efforts. I started asking questions at my weekly neighborhood association meetings, and the next thing I knew, I was co-chair of the crime committee. Ask questions? Get the responsibility. It was that simple and unpopular of a job.
Since then, the other co-chair and I teamed up with local grassroots organizations and launched a petition to keep the Louisiana National Guard in New Orleans. Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco deployed the guard in June 2006 after five teenagers were found gunned down. During the last two years, however, the economic strain of paying, feeding and housing the nearly 300 soldiers stationed here has become extremely unpopular in the rest of the state, placing political pressure on current Gov. Bobby Jindal to pull the guard out of New Orleans.
But for some of New Orleans’ most vulnerable residents, true pioneers rebuilding in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere littered with block after block of abandoned houses, the guard provides their only protection. Dressed in fatigues and riding in military Humvees, the soldiers patrol the areas of the city that took the most water and therefore have been the slowest to recover -- neighborhoods such as eastern New Orleans, Gentilly, Lakeview and the Lower 9th Ward. These patrols allow the undermanned and overworked police force to focus their patrols in the more populated areas of the city. Without the guard patrols in the sparsely populated areas, either the New Orleans Police Department would be forced to pull officers from administrative and intelligence departments, effectively bringing investigations to a halt, or large tracts of the city would be left to fend for themselves.
Sensing the post-Katrina political tide in Baton Rouge was shifting, and not in New Orleans’ favor, Jeffery and I, along with volunteers from Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, collected nearly 5,000 signatures asking the governor to keep the guard in the city. Mayor Ray Nagin, Supt. of Police Warren Riley and City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis endorsed our efforts and made personal requests to the governor.
A few weeks ago, Jindal announced that the guard will stay through the end of 2008. It’s a temporary success that helps me and a lot of other people working hard to rebuild our homes and community rest easier, for now.
But it doesn’t quiet the cacophony of second-guessing in my head. That still comes in loud and clear.
(Photos: Kathy Price-Robinson)
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 Joni's condo kitchen update is nearly done. (See the project up to now.) Joni's friend and fellow nurse Patti is helping out, and she files this report:
I'm home from the mountains and went to see Joni's kitchen today. It's beautiful! I am thrilled and so is she. (Click photos to enlarge.)
Joni opted to have a friend who is a "tile guy" finish the tiling. She helped him and said that our thin set was definitely too thin. He applied it the same as we did; it was just thicker. We'll never make that mistake again. The tile guy also did the grout work for her and had a tile saw to cut the few that required adjustments. I think she had just had it with the mess we had to clean up after using thin set that was too thin.
We are very close to being done. I think one day or so of clean-up just may do it. We need to finish some drywall work and put a finish coat of paint on the kitchen walls. And then we'll replace the switch plates.
Joni is already talking about how to carry the mood and color palette from the kitchen into the living room. I can't believe the balance that the chocolate-colored panels at the top of the cabinets (see that here) provides to the tile. I really don't know if it's just dumb luck or if there was some intuition at play in the color choice. However it came to us, I'll take it. It's beautiful.
We have one more issue to resolve: how to hang pendant lights from a solid beam over the breakfast bar. I'll be asking your advice in a future posting.
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How did Don Maurizio puzzle out the cabinet installation in his Rosarito Beach kitchen? Click here to read the whole story.
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Patti here. Since our weekend tile project, which Joni and I wrote about in a previous post, we have gathered some valuable information.
First and foremost is that thinset should be the consistency of peanut butter! Ours was more the consistency of sour cream, so it was too thin. (Notice the food references; it is a kitchen, after all.)
Second, with this Oceanside tile, we need to make certain we thoroughly cut through the thinset all the way to the wall surface with the quarter-inch notched trowel. That means when we apply the thinset and pull it across the wall with the notched side of the trowel, we should hear the trowel scratching on the wall.
All things considered, I think our problem was that the consistency of the thinset was too thin and we applied it too thickly.
To our credit, we weighed and measured the proportions exactly, to the manufacturer's specifications. But there are variables to consider, I'm sure, and we now know to mix it thicker no matter how precise our measurement. These are the types of things a professional would know.
For Joni and I, a couple of novices, I consider this all well within a reasonable learning curve, and I'm tickled with the tile. It's beautiful and has exactly the right feel to set off the colors and features of this kitchen. We'll keep you posted.
See the project so far.
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Patti here. I'm helping my friend and fellow nurse Joni spruce up her kitchen. (See the project so far).
 Well, we got some tile up over the weekend. Whew, it was a lot of work. With this, as with everything else, there was quite a learning curve. We were extremely careful to plan the placement, have all of our supplies ready and be versed on the instructions before we started (Photo 1).
We cut out a template for placement to make sure we had everything right, then applied the thinset (a thin mortar) with a trowel with one side having quarter-inch notches in it.
We put the thinset on with the flat side of the trowel, then ran back through it with the notched side of the tool, then back over one more time with the flat side of the tool. The reason for the smoothing is that we have some semi-transparent tiles that would show the trowel lines had we not knocked them down.
We placed the first sheet of tile up and had to finesse it into place, which created a lot of thinset oozing through the seams. We didn't quite know this as we had to leave the paper coating on for about 20 minutes (2). We then soaked the paper with water and removed it, much like removing wallpaper.
It was a mess underneath. We moved on to the rest of the wall (3), which is behind and above the stove, in the same fashion. We noticed the tiles slipping down the wall so the margins were no longer matching to the sheet already up!
We tried to hold the sheets of tile in place, which, I can tell you, was not effective. To keep tiles from slipping down the wall, I nailed a trim piece (which Joni had from the cabinet we had removed previously) directly under the tile (4), and I then hammered nails under the tiles themselves through the paper backing, to take some of the weight of the top tiles off the bottom tiles. The problem is that the thinset was moving down all along, even though the tiles stayed in place.
Now I'm not sure if this is a common problem or if the mix was too thin. I do believe we applied it too thick, except that is hard to assess in that the thinset on the top areas was very thin and beautiful and on the bottom very heavy and messy (5 and 6).
Joni worked on the project for about nine hours Saturday and was so wound up and frustrated that she was unable to sleep. I got a very distressed call Sunday that she was just done! She wanted to hire out the rest no matter what the cost, and she thought we wouldn't be able to salvage what was already up, thus wasting $300 in tile.
I assured her the best I could and went over to her house Sunday evening to take a look. By that time, she had discovered that if she applied water to the surface of the tiles, she was able to chip and rub the excess thinset off (7).
I helped her for about an hour and got it almost entirely done. It's vital to get the grout lines clear of all white thinset so that it doesn't show against the darker grout. Joni feels much better about it now.
I think it looks beautiful and that we have the most difficult area by far done. The rest of the job is only five tiles high, just above the counter, which isn't much weight and the tile will have the counter to rest on. Also, we need a few spacers so there is a grout line at the junction where the tile meets the top of the counter. But this is for Joni to decide.
It may be that when I get home from camping this week, the tile job will be done.
I think we've done pretty well for a couple of novices on a tight budget which, by the way, I think we'll still be pretty close to, unless Joni hires out the rest. I think it would be nice to finish ourselves so that we know we can do it, but as I said, that's totally her call.
It looks so good with the chocolate-colored wall above the cabinets (8 and 9). It looks like it was totally meant to be that way. I love it and am still having fun. Go figure.
And here are comments from the star of the show, Joni:
It was blood, sweat and tears over this little area behind my stove. As Patti explained, all the thinset settled to the bottom of the wall and the wood trim kept it there behind the tiles. I was attempting to remove the hardening thinset between the tiles for the grout lines (as recommended) once that was removed.
To make sure the tiles were flat against the wall, and not floating on various thicknesses of thinset, I used a 2-by-4 to gently tap the tiles flat and even. Then, thinset would ooze out between the tiles and I would have to start over again. I'm glad I spent the time to make sure all the tiles were flat against the wall and the nails (about 40 of them) kept the tiles in place. The spaces between the tiles are very close. Fortunately, with the type of tile it is, it looks great.
It turned out beautiful and I love it! I feel good about the job we did. I am getting bids on the remaining backsplash and will let you know what I decide. I love my kitchen and Patti has been great. My kitchen has a great vibe!
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 Patti here. I'm helping my friend and fellow nurse Joni with the update of her condo kitchen.
We were supposed to be laying the backsplash tile this week, but we hit a little snag. Well, it's a time snag more than anything else, probably costing a week and $100.
As it turns out, we need to move the light sockets and switches up the wall for the tile to be set straight across and without a lot of cutting. A handyman came out today, and he thought he could do the job. He'll also run a wire up the inside of the wall so Joni can hang a pendant light over the eating bar, and he'll fix a fan/light in the kitchen that Joni hasn't been able to use for a couple of years.
We'll have to get the tile up next week because I'll be camping for a week after that and our time will run out. At first Joni was not sure we could lay the tile ourselves, but perhaps because we've had so much success with the painting and other projects she feels more confident in our abilities.
Also, Joni decided to get a tall contemporary dining room table with bar-height chairs to replace the big oak table and hutch she's had for years. We discovered that oak sets like this sell for only $250 or so on Craigslist, so Joni might take hers to the local consignment shop (where she found her tall table) so that she doesn't have to deal with the hassle of potential buyers coming over to the house.
Stay tuned. We're almost done!
See the project so far.
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 As Joni waits for her new backsplash tile to be delivered, and we all wait to see how it will look installed, clever POD Person* Mike did some computer magic to show us the end result.
Above, on the right, you can see a representation of what Joni's tile might look like up on the wall.
Also, Mike suggests a mustardy wall color instead of the cream or terra cotta colors being considered.
Thank you, Mike!
See the project so far
* POD Person: a member of the Pardon Our Dust blog community; one who fixes up a home; one who creates dust
(Photos: Kathy Price-Robinson; photo illustration: Mike Johnson)
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 Progress is being made on Joni's condo kitchen remodel.
See Joni and her nurse-friend Patti in their scrubs working on the kitchen.
See the kitchen before any work was done.
So far, the overhead cabinet that blocked the natural light has come down, and a fun s-curve track light has gone up. The boring wood cabinets have been sanded, painted brown, glazed green and coated with polyurethane.
Plus, the backsplash tile (right) has been chosen, ordered and paid for. It comes to a whopping $641 out of the $1,000 budget.
"We were found to have very expensive taste," Patti noted.
The latest indecision revolves around the wall color, which surprised Patti: "I thought the wall color would be pretty easy to chose," she said. "Well, it's not!"
As you see in the photos (click to enlarge), a coating of a terra cotta/mocha color went up on the wall (center left photo) and Joni loves it.
Patti, though, feels it takes away from the excitement of the green cabinets and of the very expensive glass tile for the backsplash.
So Patti found some cream-colored paint that Joni had used in her hallway and brushed some on to see if it worked better (center right photo). She leaned a sample of the tile up there to see how it looks.
Me? I like the lighter wall color. I think it sets off the tile better.
On the other hand, why not get the tile installed and then play around with the wall color?
What do you think?
The spending so far:
Sanding sponge: $5.38
Track lighting: $54.65
Paint: $71.60
Paint containers: $6.02
Polyurethane & brush: $36.61
Foam board for paint testing: $2.80
Sandpaper: $15.19
Drop cloth (plastic): $3.21
Glaze (2nd can): $8.57
Paint application tools: $5.87
Flat polyurethane (satin was too shiny): $18.31
Staining pads: $2.67
Coolest backsplash tile ever (Patti's words): $641
(Photos: Kathy Price-Robinson)
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 Here's an update on the condo kitchen remodel being done, girlfriend style, by fellow nurses Patti and Joni.
The two spent a few hours in surgical bonnets and surgical masks sanding the boxes of Joni's cabinets. Patti took the doors home and sanded and primed them, laying them out on her kitchen counters to dry. Patti said the "sanding/prep work is the most time-consuming with the least immediate reward." It's the painting and glazing that is real fun.
At the beginning of the project, Joni struggled to find time for it. Now, though, she's "on fire," as Patti put it.
One day after work, the two headed out to peruse three tile stores. Joni has settled on the backsplash tile you see here to achieve the funky, arty, coffeehouse look she wants. The tile is called Petrified Forest in the Geologie line of Oceanside Glasstile of Carlsbad. It's a blend of these tiles: Harvest Matte, Olive IridSlate: Copper Quartz and Indian Autumn. Here's another view of it. Joni loves it. They are also considering medallions like you see here, in 2-inch and 4-inch sizes, with the larger ones above the stove area.
The two friends were planning on cutting the 12-inch squares of 1-inch glass tiles in half and installing rows of six tiles each above existing 4-inch laminate backsplash. But these squares have 11 tiles, not 12, so Patti said that's a head-scratcher. As for installing the tile, Patti attended a tile-laying clinic at Home Depot and doesn't think it would be too hard to do the backsplash. Joni's not so sure, and she's getting a price from a pro.
Joni polished a few of her existing pulls and decided they looked great with the glazed green doors and the tile.
Next steps, finishing the cabinet painting and choosing the wall color.
The project so far:
1. Watch a video of Patti explaining the remodel goals
2. Check out Joni's lighting choices
3. See a slide show of the track light going up and the cabinet coming down
4. Choosing cabinet color and considering backsplash tile
5. Getting started on the painting
6. Loving the glazed green top coat
The budget so far:
Expenditures:
Sanding sponge: $5.38
OSH track lighting: $54.65
Paint: $48.44
Paint containers: $6.02
Polyurethane and brush: $36.61
Sandpaper: $11.45
Balance of $1,000 left to spend: $837.45
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 Do you ever feel "terminally unique?" I do. And that's why blending my own glass tile backsplash is so appealing. Oceanside Glasstile of Carlsbad offers an online tool for mixing up the colors you like best. Here's my favorite blend! It feels exciting to my bones. Granted, it's not relaxing. It's not classic. But, it's me.
And oh what a difference grout color makes. Here I show the same blend with (clockwise from top left) gray, green, white and red grout.
And if you're leaning toward green, this would be considered a green choice in terms of proximity to SoCal. These tiles are manufacturered just outside Tijuana. And in most green building philosophies, if stuff is made within 500 miles of your home, that's a good thing.
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By Ariane Wiltse
