design, build, learn. repeat.

Hung’s Dedication

On October 9, Project Rehab finally dedicated the house they have been building for Hung and his family on Crawford Street. Hung, his wife, and their three young children are very excited to be moving in. The best thing about it is seeing the work Hung has been doing in the few short weeks since he has moved in. He’s added gates at the stairs, created a brick patio and storage area below the house, built shelving for plants on the porch, and added a shed roof over part of the back roof. Sadly for me, I’ve never been happy …

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Bracing for the storm

The approach of Hurricane Gustav made the mood yesterday — the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — especially tense. No one’s sure how severely the hurricane will affect Biloxi; although it’s tracking towards west Louisiana, it could be a Category 4 or 5 when it arrives, bringing high winds and rain, although a Katrina-like storm surge is less likely. Many residents and businesses are boarding up windows and preparing to evacuate if necessary. I helped Patty board up her windows (no small undertaking from a single 25′ ladder). Yesterday and today, at the suggestion of David Perkes, he and I …

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Looking back: A Blitz Build for Ruth

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, …

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A House for Carmen

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 …

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It’s Flippin’ Pouring

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 …

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Update on Division

This isn’t my house, this is one of Jason’s, but as it’s one of the coolest projects we have going on I thought I’d let the wide world know about it. It is a house for Mr. Tran and his family and is being primarily built by Hopeforce. Today they had a contractor come in and spray bio-based (soy) foam insulation, which we also used on Patty’s house. In Mr. Tran’s they’re using a full coat of spray foam in the rafters only; this is instead of insulating the ceiling and then having to ventilate the tight attic space. The …

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Update on Crawford

It’s been two months since I posted an update on Hung’s house, and a lot has changed since then. The house is a few days away from a finished exterior, thanks to Habitat Project Rehab and all the AmeriCorps NCCCs and volunteers who have been working with them. Check it out: The group of volunteers working on the house last week: The house being sheetrocked: Everything’s going according to plan! A couple of missing closets have been added back in and the shearwalls have been more or less built. A contractor is currently finishing the drywall and the volunteers should …

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More houses!

Construction is happening fast! I really want to be outdoors helping build, and when I finish up my current set of plans I’ll probably see about working construction for a couple of days. Anyway, here’re a few more updates. Below, I found Mr. Lai working on his house along with Habitat (Peter and Deubs have been out there this whole week and their crew is doing some great work). Another house that is going up is this one on Division street for Mr. Tran and his family. This is a really interesting house and is right across from our office. …

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Framing on Hung’s House

It took a while to get going, but now that it is started Hung’s house is going up at a great speed! Habitat for Humanity and their NCCC volunteers are doing some good work over there. This will be an exciting house to see go up. This week, they’ve put down the floor decking and begun framing and sheathing the walls:

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Category Archives

Residential Design

Everything to do with residential design, including single- and multi-family housing.