An application for the grant was submitted in March 2013 to the State of Louisiana to repair the chimneys and plaster that was damaged from water intrusion through the chimney caps that had rusted through and water that was entering between the bricks where mortar had eroded due to age and exposure to the elements. The grant was finalized at the end of April in 2014 and the contractor started work on the chimney and plaster repairs.
The sign is a requirement of the State and the size, color and wording are included in the grant manual that recipients must follow once the grant agreement has been finalized. The Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation receives the grant funds from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service for renovation of historic buildings. The State Division of Historic Preservation has no regular, on-going grants program to assist individuals in restoring historic properties. The grant funds awarded must be matched by non-federal monies on at least a 50/50 basis, though grantees may elect to overmatch. Grant funds are distributed on a reimbursable basis (in other words, the grant recipient makes expenditures and is subsequently reimbursed for the grant portion of the expenditure when the required billing documentation is received and approved by the State).
HCHS was pleased to have worked with Ryder & Ryder Construction as the contractor on our grant project. Documentation was submitted to the State and our reimbursement check arrived at the end of September 2014. The total cost of the project was $6,785.00 and HCHS was reimbursed 50%. The HCHS Board as well as our members worked very hard to raise the funds required to complete this important restoration project.
Our top priority for restoration plans has been to secure the exterior of the house to prevent more water intrusion from occurring. Once the entire exterior is restored we will begin major restoration work inside.
The year 2014 was a busy year for restoration work. Immediately following completion of the chimney/plaster grant work the contractor gave us a bid to repair and paint the dormers. This was something high on our list of priorities because it was a concern that the dormers could be our next offender to produce leaks. This work was completed shortly after the chimney/plaster work and the total cost of the project was $1,750.00.
Continuing our strategy on restoration work we asked the contractor to give us a bid to remove all the wood across the back of the house and replace it with HardieBoard and paint it to match the work done on the sunroom in 2013. Included in this portion of work was to clean and paint the brick portion of the mudroom wall on the back of the house. A salvaged back door replaced the old door into the kitchen from the back of the house. The old door had split and the weather stripping was so deteriorated the lizards were able to walk right in, hopefully the new door will keep them outside where they belong! Proceeds from the golf tournament permitted us to keep the restoration work going so the contractor continued around the back corner of the house to repair/paint the porte chere (carport) and this included repairing/painting the columns.
By now you get the gest of how we are working on these restoration projects, one portion of the house at a time to make sure we have sufficient funds to cover any unusual discoveries of damage and we did come across a few as each project progressed. The last project we completed just before the end of the year was to repair/paint the wall/windows across the back that is by the bar. This portion of wall was small but since it had 3 arched windows we knew some of them would have rotten wood. And, not to our surprise this was the case with a few portions so the contractor had to make the pieces to match what he was replacing.
With all this we accomplished it still leave one portion on the outside of the house to be cleaned, repaired, and painted and that is the left side of the house. So this will be our next project and we are planning to tackle that soon.