Did you know about barge boards?
My husband has always like watching "This Old House" on television. I have sometimes watch it with him. I especially like the history side of it. Today's episode was set in New Orleans a few months (maybe a year) after Katrina. They were helping to rebuild a home located just off the Mississippi River. I learned that many years ago, families would build barges, float down to New Orleans and then disassemble the barge and use the boards to build a house! The particular house featured today had barge boards just off the kitchen area. The current owner wanted a "pass through" installed, meaning they would have to cut a large window out of the barge-board wall. I loved how they reused these boards. They made a dining room table out of the boards that were cut out from the wall! The flooring in this house was also recycled wood. The work done on this house was gorgeous. Another fascinating piece of history this owner had displayed in her home was a 16 page letter her grandmother had written to a sister describing her experience following Hurricane Betsy.
4 comments:
That's an interesting bit of history that I hadn't known before! Ingenuity went way back!
I know! I loved seeing that! it was so cool seeing the history of the house and how they worked to preserve the history with it!
There's a show on HGTV that talks about the history of houses too, but now I can't remember the name of it. I love the barge board idea.
well, I don't have cable so couldn't watch it anyway! I love the barge boards idea. and it was so very neat to see how they kept reusing them, by building the dining table.
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