HOME AND GARDEN

The latest home and garden news and updates

A crusader armed with a microphone and a deep love for his city, Garland Robinette battles bureaucracy every weekday with his "Think Tank" radio talk show on WWL. It can be an emotionally draining endeavor, but Robinette finds shelter from the storm with a little piece of country in the city: his Uptown home and art studio.

Another cornerstone in maintaining sanity, he says, is his wife, Nancy Rhett.

"Behind every great man is a greater woman, " he said with a laugh.

"It's never a dull moment with Garland, " she replied.

Continue reading "Garland Robinette and Nancy Rhett are New Orleanians to the core" »

InsideOut takes you inside the home of WWL 'Think Tank' talk radio host Garland Robinette and his wife, Nancy Rhett. Their Uptown sanctuary offers comfort, privacy and a great place to paint -- both are artists.

Garden columnist Dan Gill reminds us to eat -- and grow -- our leafy greens, and Handiwork writer Molly Reid interviews preservationists looking back to the time of Tom Sawyer for inspiration on limewashing fences.

-- Karen Taylor Gist

"Giving money (to charity) is an abstract concept, " Gerard Soto was saying. "You never quite know where it goes or what it accomplishes. But with this, I can touch it and feel it."

That's about as well-articulated a reason as I've ever heard for volunteerism.

This particular volunteer effort was taking place on a corner lot in Broadmoor, as the first of this year's two-weekend October Build got under way. A team of 30 or so employees of Shell Oil Co. (green T-shirts) had joined half as many again from the Junior League (white T-shirts) to scrape, paint and repair the siding of a shotgun double whose owner still lives in a FEMA trailer parked in the side yard.

Continue reading "New Orleanians lend their hands to Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts" »

HOUSE OF DREAMS: William and Tess Monaghan don't live in the raised cottage on Elysian Fields Avenue. He's a New Yorker, and she has an apartment in the Riverbend area.

But they both spend a lot of time there, and the residence is as meaningful to them as any lifelong habitat could be. In it, they see a small but important slice of the city's future.

They built the 1,030-square foot, two-bedroom house, Tess Monaghan says, "to serve those people left out of the rebuilding process -- people too well off to be helped by public assistance programs, but not well off enough to rebuild on their own. We wanted to show that a modest-size home could be spacious and livable."

To that end, William Monaghan founded, and his daughter Tess runs, Build Now, a nonprofit organization that will build a house costing somewhere between $100,00 and $160,000 for anyone with an empty lot in any area of Orleans Parish that was flooded by the levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina.

Continue reading "Build Now model house targeted at homeowners flooded in Hurricane Katrina" »

Gardeners who have not yet discovered that the fall and winter provide an excellent time to grow delicious and nutritious vegetables are missing out.

Among the many cool-season vegetables we can grow are the leafy greens.

Some are typically eaten cooked, including the staple greens of the South -- collard, mustard and turnip greens. Others, less well known but equally delicious and easy to grow, are Swiss chard, bok choi and rape. The lettuces are the primary leafy vegetable generally eaten raw, but there are others such as arugula and endive. Spinach is eaten both raw and cooked.

Mustard and turnips are fast-growing greens, and harvesting can begin as early as five or six weeks after planting. They are easily direct-seeded into well-prepared beds. Once the seeds sprout, thin turnip plants to 4 inches apart, and mustard to 4 to 6 inches apart.

Continue reading "Going for the greens" »

NOTE: Last week, we met Gentilly resident Tana Barth, whose 1,200-square-foot cottage was flooded almost to the ceiling when floodwalls collapsed in Hurricane Katrina. In the few critical weeks after the storm, she devoted herself to animal rescue efforts, then returned to the city in November 2005. Her story continues.

"It's finally over," Tana Barth said this week. "I am finally finished with Road Home."

While Barth concentrated on animal rescue efforts immediately after the storm, her Burbank Gardens home sat drenched in floodwaters, which had risen as high as 7 feet inside her raised cottage, but stood at 4 feet for several weeks.

Continue reading "Raised Gentilly house poised for progress" »

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Pontchartrain Park, located in Gentilly and bounded by Leon C. Simon Drive on the north, Mithra Street on the South, France Road on the east and Press Drive on the west. "The Park," as it is known to many longtime residents, was laid out in 1954 after the city sold a parcel of land to the New Orleans Lakeshore Land Co. for development. According to the subdivision's Web site (pontilly.com), the land had to be drained before construction could begin on Gentilly Woods -- for white homeowners -- and Pontchartrain Park -- for black homeowners. Advertisements in The Times-Picayune in 1954 showed a residential, suburban community aimed at middle- and upper-income African-Americans, encircling a 185-acre park with a golf course and other recreational amenities. The neighborhood was one of the first mid-20th century subdivisions marketed to African-American families. The Joe W. Bartholomew Golf Course -- formerly the Pontchartrain Park Golf Course -- served residents at a time when other courses were closed to them because of segregation. Because of the historic importance of the area, it was deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places after Hurricane Katrina; it has not yet, however, been formally designated. Southern University in New Orleans, opened in 1959, is next to the golf course along its western edge and helps define the character of the area.

Continue reading "Post-Katrina comeback is something to celebrate in Gentilly" »

Remember that part in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" when young Tom cunningly convinces his friends that whitewashing Aunt Sally's fence is fun, and then they beg to do the chore for him?

Well, the Pitot House is using a similar tactic to revive the lost craft of limewashing, both at the estate and throughout the city.

On Sunday, the Pitot House hosted the first workshop in a three-part series called "Pieux Redux." Funded by the Louisiana Office of Culture, Recreation and Tourism's World Cultural Economic Forum, the workshops examine the processes of historic lime-wash application and pieux fence-making. ("Pieux," which translates from French to "plank," refers to the hand-split cypress pickets that make up the fence.)

Continue reading "Old methods of limewashing make comeback" »

Since Hurricane Katrina, homeowners have become acutely aware of their homes' potential to take on water. That concern has translated to house-raising and mold-resistant building materials and, more recently, eco-savvy homeowners and designers realizing the benefits of water-retentive landscaping.

The phrase rain garden is used frequently to describe a landscaped bed that can take on more water than an average one. But they do not act alone.

They are part of a water management system that homeowners can incorporate into their landscapes to prevent rainwater from running off passively into the street and sewerage system, said Demetria Christo with EcoUrban LLC, a local sustainable landscape design firm.

Continue reading "Waterworks turn landscape greener" »

THE PIECE: A taxidermy specimen of a capuchin monkey, seated in a wooden chair, holding a briar pipe and wearing a fez, from the early to mid-1900s.

MONKEY BUSINESS: An interior decorator from Atlanta outbid five other potential buyers to purchase this whimsical, slightly worn, mounted animal from a local collector who reportedly purchased it in Europe. Ruth Weston of New Orleans Auction Gallery said the estimated value range of $1,800 to $2,500 was thought to be generous, but spirited bidding ended in a purchase price of $3,840.

Continue reading "Stuffed monkey draws pretty penny" »

Driving down Canal Street from City Park Avenue toward the river, designers Toni DiMaggio and Francine Stock scanned the streetscape and sighed.

On block after block, standout pieces of mid-century architecture had fallen to neglect, haphazard renovation or obscurity.

Canal Street landmarks such as the Saenger Theatre or the old Walgreen's, both of which border the French Quarter, have stayed relatively fresh in the public eye. But the entire four-mile boulevard is adorned with some of the city's finest Modern architecture, DiMaggio and Stock said.

Continue reading "International preservation group leads a streetcar tour to drum up appreciation for Canal Street's mid-century marvels" »

The fall home-tour season starts with a tour of French Quarter gardens. InsideOut takes a look at three of these hidden urban oases. Street Walker takes a stroll in Gretna, just in time for the Gretna Heritage Festival, and Varied Treasure gets the scoop on how to shop the second-hand stores. Garden writer Dan Gill talks about how to choose the right plants for your landscape, and Long Road Home writer Stephanie Bruno introduces a new character: a Gentilly homeowner who is finally getting her rebuild started, three years after Hurricane Katrina.

Who hasn't wanted to sneak a peek behind the walls in the French Quarter to see the fabulous courtyards and gardens beyond? This weekend, the Patio Planters offer us all a chance to do just that with its 'Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carre' tour. Here's a look at three of them.

Continue reading "Patio Planters offers rare peek at 'secret gardens' of the French Quarter" »

Around here, it's feast or famine.

Spring and fall bring garden shows, art markets, house tours and floral trails. In April or October, the InsideOut calendar is crowded with events for the home crowd. Like conventioneers and tourists, they don't turn out in August.

Even as Art for Art's Sake ushers in the art season tonight, a tour of Vieux Carre gardens launches the tour season. So get on board. After all, when else is it permissible to peek?

Continue reading "It's the season for fall home tours in the New Orleans area" »

On Tuesday morning, I walked through a wrought-iron gate left invitingly ajar, and found my way down a narrow side alley into a deep backyard filled with flowering shrubs, trickling fountains and cozy benches tucked under emerald arbors.

Who knew that such a sanctuary lay so close to the lights and noise and traffic of Bourbon Street?

Continue reading "Home-tour season starts in New Orleans" »

Gardeners are often advised that the key to success is planting the right plant in the right place.

Although this sounds simple, a lot goes into the decision of what plants should be used and where they should go. Gardeners must focus on a plant's characteristics in order to both satisfy their personal needs and tastes and allow the plants to thrive.

Continue reading "Learn to ask the right questions when selecting plants" »

NOTE: Meet Tana Barth, a newcomer to the "Long Road Home" series. When the Gentilly resident bought her post-war cottage in 1995, she fell in love with its big yard and giant oaks even before setting foot inside. She never dreamed that a decade later, a monster storm and failed levees would flood the home and take away everything she owned, including a few pets. Now, more than three years later, repairs are just beginning. Here's the backstory.

Tana Barth says that the sound of Hurricane Katrina's winds was terrifying.

"Like the loudest siren you ever heard," she said.

She had opted to stay in her Gentilly home during the storm for many reasons.

"I had never evacuated for a hurricane, none of them," she said. "Hurricane Betsy hit when I was about 2, and my family was living in Gentilly on the W Streets. We evacuated as far as St. Anthony Church, and that was it."

But Barth had other reasons for staying -- about 20 of them.

Continue reading "3 years after Katrina, and repairs are just beginning" »

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Historic Gretna in Jefferson Parish, directly across the river from the Lower Garden District of New Orleans. The Gretna Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and is bounded roughly by First Street (at the river) on the north, Ninth Street on the south, Dolhonde Street on the west and Amelia Street on the east. According to the National Register listing, the area encompasses more than 50 square blocks of historic residences, businesses, churches and schools dating from the late 19th century to World War II. The district is especially notable because it comprises the largest and most "architecturally rich" collection of historic buildings in all of Jefferson Parish.

Continue reading "Gretna heritage includes architectural riches" »

Rebuilding a home after a major hurricane while holding down a job and keeping a family together is difficult enough. Rebuilding a home sustainably, using energy-efficient products and materials with a low environmental impact, is even harder.

Energy-conservation advocates and architects agree that investing extra time and money into a stronger, greener home yields significant rewards in energy savings. But green building poses questions -- "What makes a home green?" "Where do I find bamboo floors?" "How long will it take this tankless water heater to pay off?" -- that many homeowners may not feel equipped to answer.

To make fact-finding easier, the nonprofit Global Green will launch its "Build It Back Green" initiative Wednesday.

Continue reading "Rebuilding green will get a little easier this week" »

THE COLLECTOR: Jill Antee is a scavenger, in the nicest possible way. Since childhood, she has frequented yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores -- first with her mother in the Garden District, later with her own daughter in neighborhoods across the city -- looking for bargains and unique items to use in furnishing her home. Antee fondly remembers days spent shopping on Magazine Street in search of treasure. "One day, my mother bought a beautiful 1865 dining room set for $100, and after that, she used to always say that her limit for furnishing each room in the house would be $100," Antee said. She recalls her reply: Imagine what we might do if we spend $125. "It became a joke between us for many years."

Continue reading "Memoirs of an avid bargain hunter" »

For the local Vietnamese population in Village de l'Est, gardening is more than a mere hobby: It's a way of life. InsideOut takes a look at the social and psychological ties to the Earth that have taken root here. In Personal Space, Steven Lane explains why he left a series of Uptown Victorians for a lakefront rancher -- and couldn't be happier. This Mold House takes a historic look at Lakeview, and Dan Gill is wild about wildflowers.

Renee Peck, InsideOut editor

Trung "Ban" Tran, 78, and his wife, Tho, 72, spend every single day in their garden, surrounded by a lush variety of vegetables growing up through the ground and hanging down from overhead vines. For them, harvesting fresh food is not just part of a traditional and healthy way of life; it is an economic necessity.

As did many of their neighbors in the eastern New Orleans community of Village de l'Est, the Trans fled Vietnam in the mid-1970s, taking with them only the clothes on their backs. They, their nine children, additional family members and four other families, 47 people in all, crowded onto the Trans' fishing boat and sailed into the open sea before being picked up by a U.S. Navy ship. After being sent first to Guam and then to Arkansas, the Trans eventually were resettled in New Orleans with the help of Catholic Charities.

Continue reading "In New Orleans' Vietnamese community of Village de l'Est, gardening is a way of life" »

In 1982, when I moved from a stately Uptown Victorian double to a blond-brick ranch house in Lake Vista, my clever colleagues at the newspaper gave me a housewarming gift: a flock of pink plastic flamingos.

Stewart and I promptly planted them in our new front yard and strung them with Christmas lights.

Basically, friends thought we were nuts to trade gingerbread and 12-foot ceilings for a low-pitched roof and free-standing flagstone fireplace.

Continue reading "A ranch house by any other name ... would still be welcome in Lakeview" »

"They really should check my bag whenever I leave the set, " said New Orleanian Bryan Batt, who stars as Salvatore Romano on the hit AMC drama "Mad Men, " set in a Madison Avenue advertising agency during the 1960s. "In the conference room there's a pair of abstract Expressionist paintings I would definitely steal."

So far, Batt has taken home only his TV character's wedding ring, but he's not alone in his appreciation of 1960s furnishings. The allure of the era's clean, low lines and rich colors has drawn a national audience, and '60s retro remains a decor favorite.

Continue reading "'Mad Men's' Bryan Batt is high on '60s design" »

THE HOME: A one-story brick ranch in East Lakeshore

THE OWNER: Steven Lane

THE SPACE: The den

WHY HE LOVES IT: 'The coolness. When people walk in, the first thing they say is, "Man, this is cool." '

Continue reading "New Orleans lakefront homeowner has an appreciation for brick ranchers and the 1960s" »