Red Hot Chili Pepper house

Left: "Chili Pepper House" Right: Andre Charles, owner of right side

We finally started work on our project this afternoon. Sometime after we started, the owner's son, Andre, took us aside to tell us the story behind the red painted house. They chose a paint color called roasted red hot chili pepper to paint the exterior because they love to eat spicy food with red hot sauce. It is a very colorful house to say the least! And it fits in very nicely in the neighborhood. In the left part of the house, Andre chose more subdued earth tones for his mother, a yellow melon color and a couple of different green colors. Andre's side is much more colorful with a couple of different blues and a bright purple.

We learned that Andre's mother, Otha, hired some workers from Mexico to install plumbing and electrical wires to her house after Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately the work was never done properly nor inspected and she lost all her money. Andre started working on the house in April 2007 and at some point, the UCC became involved in her case. They had to lift the house up to treat it for termites and redo all the plumbing and electrical. There is currently a long list of items to be done to get ready to install the cabinetry.

Today, some of us removed tiles that did not set properly, some worked on carpentry, some were cleaning grout off the floors. It seemed to take a lot time to get the equipment in and just to get organized for this project. We hope we will make lots more progress tomorrow.

We have taken lots of pictures but are unable to post them through this computer. I'm sure someone will be able to post pictures back at home.

Katherine