It developed a couple of days ago and now everyone’s talking about Hurricane Gustav! The storm is still in the Caribbean, where it has killed at least 22 people, but if it continues on its current course it could land pretty directly on New Orleans and/or the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a Category 3 or higher storm.

We should know by Saturday or Sunday whether we need to leave. Hands On has a fairly well-developed evacuation plan and if they evacuate I’ll go with them to a shelter near Jackson. Since Tropical Storm Fay barely affected us, this would be the first evacuation since I’ve been here, so we’ll see how it develops.

In other news, our team won Trivia Night last night at the Grocery! It was my first time playing and I don’t mind saying we did very well. Among the questions we got right:

• Who was the first man to appear on the cover of Playboy?
• What are rats unable to do, making them especially vulnerable to poison?
• Which US state has the world’s largest naval base?

Answers: Peter Sellers, vomit, and of course, Virginia!

Ruth has been a resident of East Biloxi all her life. Hurricane Katrina brought 8 feet of water into her home and shifted it off its foundation. Returning after the hurricane, Ruth stayed in the flooded home until she received a trailer from the First Presbyterian Church.

Over two years later, her house was finally ready to build. Through the collaboration of volunteer organizations including Hope Force, Hands On Gulf Coast, and the East Biloxi Coordination Center, the house was blitz-built in approximately one week. The new house is handicap-accessible and features two bedrooms, an open living and dining room, a modest kitchen and a small back porch. I drew the plans based on a design by Jason (Cora’s house), with minor modifications.

The blitz took place during the first week of April, 2008. I didn’t participate, since I was busy doing other work at Patty’s, but I got plenty of photos from Hope Force. Here’s a selection:

Richard, Emily, Doug, and another volunteer complete final preparations for the blitz.

Volunteers, including Mike (center), raise an exterior wall.

Jimmy, from Hope Force, on the chop saw.

Jeff, from Hands On/Hope Force, laying out for plumbing.

Framing in action, including Brandon from the Coordination Center and Fletcher, John, Steve, and Ian from Hands On.

A NCCC team works on raising a beam.

Nick from Hands On and two volunteers begin working on the roof.

A volunteers walks the plate.

Steve from Hands On and Jeremy, center, from Hope Force, work on the roof.

The ridge going up, with Nick (blue) and a group of volunteers.

Three volunteers begin putting up sheathing.

Roof rafters are laid out.

Volunteers carry materials.

A Hope Force volunteer gets down and dirty with the plumbing.

Ian and Sharece from Hands On putting up sheathing.

Richard from the Coordination Center cutting a piece for the roof.

A volunteer looks over the partially completed roof.

Ian nails sheathing.

A volunteer nails sheathing.

Volunteers putting up sheathing on the roof.

Doug from Hands On and a Hope Force volunteer on the roof.

A volunteer sweeps the house.

Coordination Center mastermind Brandon lays out a cut.

The vapor barrier and windows are added.

Jeremy from Hope Force works on trim.

Brian from the Design Studio working on installing windows.

Doug from Hands On helps install the first row of siding.

Nick from Hands On working in the crawl space.

A volunteers works on insulating the floor of the house.

Victor works on plumbing in the crawl space.

Brent and Jeremy from Hope Force consult the drawings (this photo provided for instructional purposes to encourage others to follow suit!)

A view of the completed house and landscaping.

This is great. Steve handles it really well. [BBC]

Carmen’s house is a complex solution to a complex situation, and it’s been my primary house project over the past couple of months; new projects have been slow to come in, so I’ve had the opportunity to develop this one in detail, working in partnership with Jessie.

Carmen’s husband, Clarence, has been living on this property since the 1960s, and he seems to have been tirelessly at work during that time; at its pre-Katrina peak, the property accommodated a house at the front (since torn down), a second, two-story house (torn down to the concrete foundation visible below), a rear two-story guest cottage, and a large garage with a balcony on the roof (right).

These buildings were not only packed together but also interconnected. The photo below, taken from the opposite rear corner of the property, shows an upper-floor walkway linking the house, left, and the guest cottage, at right. The whole complex may have been a nightmare for the Planning Department, but I think it’s also a great example of design ingenuity and do-it-yourself spirit. Unfortunately, Carmen doesn’t have any pre-storm photographs to show what it looked like at its best (and wildest).

It shouldn’t have surprised me, given the complexity of the site, that getting approval to rebuild Carmen’s house wouldn’t be a straightforward process. The site plan went through extensive review by the Planning Department, and at various times it looked like we’d need to request a zoning variance from the Planning Commission or face other obstacles. However, we made a number of compromises that satisfied the city as to our desire to improve the condition of the lot: we demolished an offending shed and removed some surplus plumbing, for instance. Frustrating though this long process was, it was ultimately successful and certainly taught me a lot about the planning review process.

On to the design. Having failed to learn anything about the virtues of simplicity, Jessie and I developed a plan featuring the following:

• Two stories, in keeping with what was there before; the first two-story house we’ve attempted.
• A handicap-accessible first floor, including a decorative, zig-zagging entry ramp and stair.
• A partially cantilevered second floor, maintaining the exterior walkway below.

• A covered second-story porch.
• A low-slope roof with a high ceiling and window above the entry and stair.

• A partial open-riser interior stair (not quite as depicted) allowing a view through a rear window.
• A compact corridor kitchen with a back door near the garage.

• A framed opening between the kitchen and dining room.
• A higher ceiling in the living room.

I’ve worked out most of the details, and it’s certainly much more complex than one of our standard houses. But in a way, nothing else would be fitting for this site and client. I’m hoping to get involved in the coordination and construction of this house, both to make sure it gets built right and to learn more about turning drawings into reality. Look forward to more updates about this one as it moves along.

Now that you are about to have read this, you will have been knowing what has or has not been going on!

The Olympics are great! As a long-time swimmer, in heart if not always in fact (I started swimming at around 6, did varsity in high school, and took a break in the first few years at UVA before getting into club swimming for about a year and a half), that’s the event that I’m mainly following. I don’t follow swimming much outside of the Olympics, except of course for that of my two younger brothers (at RIT and George Mason), but the Olympics always get me pumped up. And Michael Phelps and the rest of the American team are delivering an amazing performance.

Olympic Judo is also cool; it’s not televised, but NBC is doing a great thing by putting full videos of the competitions for most sports up on its website at www.nbcolympics.com. If your local cable company doesn’t have a deal with NBC, you might have to fudge your zip code and cable company.

Speaking of judo, my judo buddy and all-around good friend Will, who has been working with Hands On for the past couple of years, made the surprise announcement that he has accepted a job with the Coordination Center and will be staying in Biloxi for another half-year or so, rather than moving back home this weekend to Boston as planned. Great news! It’ll definitely keep me motivated for judo. Not only that, but Will will be moving into our house to replace my roommate Phil, who’s left for Oregon. The future of bad movie night and Scrabble is therefore assured.

While Will is staying, there are a number of people in the volunteer circle here who have left recently or will be leaving — Phil, Ian, Doug, Andy, Katharine, Chris, and more. I expect that the beginning of fall will bring a new wave of folks moving in, but for now it’s a little quiet around here.

Work is going well, although that’s another post. And the evenings and weekends always seem to produce some interesting events. I’d like to take some road trips, but money’s pretty tight, so that’s on hold until I get my long-lost-uncle-or-aunt-inheritance. I need to start swimming and lifting more — the Olympics are certainly motivating me for that.

Well, that’s more or less it. How’s everyone else’s summer going?

Pictures for Sad Children.

Pretty funny.

http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=162

–World Record 3:08.24

–Nearly 4 seconds faster than the previous record

–Eight one-hundredths of a second faster than the French

–World record of 47.24 in the leadoff leg (by Eamon Sullivan of Australia)

–Amazing comeback by anchor Jason Lezak

–Maintains Michael Phelps’ chances for 8 golds

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I believe I’ve mentioned Le Bakery before, but the world deserves to know more about this place, a sublime union of French and Vietnamese cuisine. It is, by far, my favorite restaurant in Biloxi, due to its delicious $3 vietnamese po-boy sandwiches (meat and veggies on a fresh-baked roll), bubble teas, and desserts. I recommend the following: a coconut curry chicken po-boy with an avocado-almond bubble tea and a bavarian cream turnover for afters.

If you’re ever near Biloxi, head over to Oak Street and check it out. It’s so good that I’m not sure how I’ll go on living after Biloxi without Le Bakery in my life.

Trinh and Leo chat with Vu, behind the counter:

A framed photo of their classic Katrina sign:

Bread crab!

Bread gator!

A selection of amazing-looking desserts:

Bread snowman & fresh-baked rolls.

Summer days are pretty predictable in Biloxi - sunny and humid in the morning, hot and humid during the day, rain showers in the afternoon, warm and humid during the evening. Today, it’s just raining; it rained this morning as a warm-up, then rained more, took a brief break for lunch, and a settled in for a good solid four-hour downpour (so far) this afternoon.

The rain has, however, provided a great proof of concept for the roof across the street at Mr. Tran’s house. Jason designed the inward-sloping roof as the perfect means to collect rainwater, and it works like a charm. I’d guess that it’s channeling several gallons per minute at the moment.

Of course, all that water needs to go somewhere. At this point, it’s cascading through the scaffolding straight to the ground. But when the house is finished, it’ll need a several-hundred-gallon cistern to make the best use of all this rainwater. With hardly any prolonged dry spells here, that reservoir should completely satisfy all the family’s lawn and garden water needs. Pretty sweet!