Story Number Nine

Today’s Times-Picayune carries the ninth story about our renovation. Here it is:

PLUMBERS: THE NEW ROCK STARS

Saturday, August 05, 2006

By Stephanie Bruno Contributing writer

NOTE: The last time we visited Bart Everson and Christy Paxson at their home at 215 N. Salcedo St., work was under way to prepare the exterior for a new paint job. Though the prep for that continues, the arrival of the plumber has infused new energy into the project.

Bart Everson was effusive a week after plumber Robert Coleman arrived to re-plumb much of his North Salcedo Street house.

“He’s the best plumber in the world,” Everson said. “He knows his stuff, and he’s honest and good.”

Everson and his wife, Christy Paxson, had been waiting a while for Coleman to arrive, but Everson says it was worth it.

“The ceiling of the basement is open now, and so it allows access to the old plumbing that runs under the floor upstairs. We asked Robert to replace the old pipes with new copper ones, to make sure we avoid problems in the future.”

Coleman also worked on replacement plumbing for the downstairs bath, laundry and craft-making area which was flooded.

“We’re installing an overhead shower head in the shower area, so Robert plumbed that and everything else in the bath, like the toilet and sink.”

Thanks to the fact that the upstairs didn’t flood, losing use of the downstairs bath for 11 months has not been a major inconvenience.

Losing the laundry area was a different story.
“Ever since the storm, we have had to go to the Laundromat,” Everson said. “But when Coleman finishes, there will be a new water line for the washing machine and also a new gas line for the dryer. We’re going to put in some gas heating downstairs, too.”

The plumbing project has afforded the couple something Everson says he never thought he would have: an automatic ice maker that actually makes ice.

“You can hardly even buy a refrigerator these days that doesn’t have an automatic ice maker, so that’s what we have. But we never had a water line to it before,” Everson explained. “Now we do.”

And thanks to Coleman, the house now has something few others have — hot and cold running water outside.

“When Robert was installing the line to the outside spigot, he suggested we run both hot and cold,” Everson said. “Why not?”

Even though the plumbing is now complete for the downstairs shower, Everson and Paxson are not in a hurry to have the tile installed.

“My friend Joe Nickell from Montana is going to come to town to tile it for us. He’s the co-producer of my TV show and writes for the Missoulian (newspaper), but he’s also a tile setter,” Everson said. “We’re thinking he should probably wait to come until the end of September, when the worst of hurricane season is over — just in case.”

Meanwhile, the painting prep crew remains busy sanding, caulking and filling spaces in the siding. Everson admits it has been a challenge trying to decide what to do about painting the house, once he realized it was unlikely that new paint at the basement level would exactly match the existing paint above.

“It was a vexing problem,” he said. “The house is blue with white trim, and it seems like you always see white trim on houses. I’d like something different. I tend to like bright, festive, Caribbean colors, and they wouldn’t look right with white trim. I got overwhelmed trying to figure it out myself, so I think I now have a way to get a free color consultation.”

Everson is a devoted blogger, so his idea inevitably involved his blog site, www.b.rox.com.

“I’m going to take a photo of the exterior and details and put it out there, asking anyone who’s interested to take a shot.”

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Stephanie Bruno can be reached at housewatcher@hotmail.com.