Ms. Rosa's home is now at a safe and beautiful elevation.

Ms. Rosa Robinson decided to wait out the storm in 2005, but she said that’s the last time she’ll do that.  She was sitting in her house when the waters began to rise, and that was a scary time for her.

Before the storm, rainwater would collect around her home, but never had it threatened the inside of the home she loves so much.

“My home was nice before the storm,” she said, “but now it’s even better. I can honestly say Coastal Shoring was good to me.”

Before she even knew Coastal existed, she noticed a home elevation project in the works and thought the company was doing a good job.

“When I was blessed with that money, I knew I wanted Coastal,” she said. “Everything was good from the salesmen to the man who did the digging.  I have no complaints.”

Ms. Rosa was in her house when the waters started to rise after Katrina.  She feels that the home elevation project has made her feel safer and more secure.  We got around seven feet of water, but God has been good. The elevation was a blessing for us.”

Joe has participated in over 100 home lifting projects at Coastal Shoring. Ms. Rosa trusted Joe and Coastal Shoring's professional team for her New Orleans home elevation.

Her home was elevated four feet, and she feels safer even when it simply rains. “I love it.  It’s beautiful.  I know it’s the best house on the block.”

Coastal Shoring’s workers were professional and experienced.  “The guy who was over the lifting, Joe, was very nice,” Ms. Rosa said.  “Everybody was so nice.  It is hard to single everyone out. There are just nice people who are working there.  Every one has good things to say about the company too.  The workers even enjoy working for their company, and that’s something.”

To find out how you can take advantage of remaining state home elevation funding, call Coastal Shoring at (504) 512-LIFT.

Before the home was lifted, it sat neatly on the ground level in Houma, Louisiana.

When Ms. Ellender contacted Coastal Shoring, she didn’t know what to expect. Of course, she was concerned about the home she had shared with her husband for over 40 years, and of course, she had tons of questions.

Ms. Ellender appreciated the attention. “I really feel like Coastal did a good job,” she said. “Pappy (Jerl Kershenstine) and I talked when I had concerns, and he told me it would be all right.”

All right it is. At thirteen feet higher than its original foundation, the Ellender home is a showcase for Coastal Shoring. With stunning wood decks and stairs, the home elevation project improved the look and safety of the home.

“This house is beautiful,” she said. “I love this house. My husband and I lived here together for a long time, and we shared a lot of memories here. But we had to clean up from flooding several times, and I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore.”

Now elevated 13 feet, the Ellender home has picturesque views of beautiful Houma.

Mr. Ellender lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in January, just a few short months after the home was lifted. Ms. Ellender now has all the more reason to love her home and the memories it holds. She enjoyed their life together, and she is now enjoying time with her children and grandchildren.

Not only was Ms. Ellender happy with Coastal Shoring, Coastal’s staff enjoyed working with her as well. “She is a kind lady,” Grant Specialist Georgie Tassin said. “We were all sad when Mr. Ellender died. They are good people.”

Every Christmas, Ms. Yvonne goes all out. Her home is decorated both inside and out with snowmen, Santa ornaments and garland that drapes the front of her wrap-around deck.

“The deck is my grandsons’ favorite part,” Ms. Yvonne said. Because of the height of the home elevation project, the deck is built twelve feet off the ground.

Coastal Shoring was so impressed with the outcome of Ms. Yvonne’s home that owners decided to use her home on the front of their annual Christmas card. Ms. Yvonne was happy to allow it.

This SRL home elevation project was complete in 2010.

“Everything Nathan promised, he did,” said Ms. Wright about Nathan, her salesperson. “He is the sweetest man.”

Ms. Wright turned down the original $30,000 Road Home money and had faith that future programs would soon offer her enough money to get the job done. Her faith paid off.

“I worked too hard for this house,” says Ms. Wright. “We lost everything in Katrina, but I didn’t want to sell it or leave it. I enjoy my home, and I’m so grateful.”

Ms. Wright said she had help from some of those who came in busloads to aid in the recovery. She said there was a particular pastor, Steven Meriweather from Nashville, who helped her family rebuild as well. “When that pastor went back to Nashville, he took my poor little heart with him,” she said. There were so many good people who helped her rebuild.

She said the storm taught her lessons. While Ms. Wright has done everything she can to protect her investment, that’s not the only thing she wants to protect.
“The storm was hard,” she said. “We lost everything. It’s all replaceable, but that’s not the point. It was hard on us physically and emotionally. All this is just stuff. God blessed me with this. He’ll bless me with it again.”

Ms. Wright said that her son and daughter were by her side while she painted and put her home back together, and she’s not looking back. She wants to move forward and believes that raising her home was one of the steps in putting Hurricane Katrina behind her.

“It was amazing,” Ms. Wright said about the process. “We watched the corners while they were raising it, and it really was exciting. We were taking pictures and saw our neighbors watching the lift. It was something to see.”

Nathan told Ms. Wright that they wouldn’t have to move any of her furniture or even the pictures on the wall. “Everything was fine,” she said.

Ms. Wright’s granddaughter Lamaari also helped with the home elevation process. “We were going to pick strawberry,” Mrs. Wright said. “But the more I thought about it, I said ‘Strawberry is red.’ We got tired of trying to pick it out and said Lamaari, pick a color, and this is what she picked.”

The beautiful finished product stands tall in her neighborhood, prepared to take on any possibility of future flooding. Ms. Wright has neighbors who have opted not to participate in the home elevation program. She said they feel that’s why they have insurance. She says. “I just know that was hard work, and I want to do what I can to protect my house.”

Coastal Shoring provided excellent customer service to Ms. Wright. She was out of her home for only two days, which surprised her. Ms. Wright said Coastal Shoring’s staff made the process look easy because it was done so quickly and was well-organized.

“I’ll tell anybody to go with Coastal,” she said. “That Nathan, I’m telling you, he does what he says he is going to do. Some people — you have to stand over them to make sure they work. Others, you don’t.” She said that she trusted Coastal Shoring’s team to get the job done right.

Home elevations aren't just for single-story homes.

They couldn’t have gotten a better project manager, and the workers were better than they expected. Ed and Jackie Raymond said the reason they went with Coastal Shoring was simply because Coastal asked for their business, and they are happy to have obliged.

“We heard an advertisement on the radio for storm shutters and started looking into that, and we found out we qualified to lift our home,” Ed said.

Coastal Shoring met with the Raymonds and worked to help get their funding, and the project began quickly thereafter.

“I wrote a letter to the Hazard Mitigation people, saying that we had turned down the original $30,000,” Ed said. “With the new grant, we were able to get our home lifted and have the cost covered.”

The Raymonds’ Harvey home is very close to Boomtown Casino. Jackie said she loves watching the fireworks shows as an added benefit for their property. The one drawback to living in that neighborhood was that storms and bad weather threatened to flood their home on more occasions than they could count. Water had come up to the door of the garage and almost into their house. But that worry is now gone.

“Our flood insurance went way down after we had the house lifted,” Ed said. “We have water all around us. If the right wind would have come in, we would have been under water.

Jackie and Ed were the first in their neighborhood to elevate their house, and neighbors wondered what they were doing. Several of them have come by, admiring the work on the home and commenting that the home elevation doubled as a beautification project.There were value-added benefits as well, such as raised deck. Because they already had a deck in their yard before the lift, Coastal was able to include a deck in the elevation project and provide railing for safety reasons.

“We don’t have to worry about water coming in, and our deck is nice,” Jackie said. “Our yard was in top shape when they came in, and they put it back perfect.”

Jackie said the house lifting process was quick. “We have neighbors who started getting their house lifted a week after we did, and they’re just getting done. Ours has been finished since before Easter. They had the nicest workers.”

Ed agreed and added that Coastal’s employees were prompt and hard-working. “I can’t remember a day during the project that they weren’t here,” he said.

The Raymonds have a Sunday brunch for Easter every year, and Coastal Shoring promised they would have the job complete in time for their annual celebration. That promise was honored.

“We started March 13, and we were finished the week before Easter,” Jackie said. “It was really nice. We didn’t have the Sunday brunch because we were really nervous they wouldn’t be finished, so we had a barbecue instead. I was nervous, but I could’ve had the brunch because they were all done!”

These former West-Coasters moved to Louisiana for work at Avondale shipyard. They’ve been here for 22 years and say this is home. Barring a sudden move by one of their children, they are here to stay. “Our house is the way we want it,” Jackie said.

Ed and Jackie Raymond said they are glad they chose Coastal because representatives answered all their questions from beginning to end. During the project, the Raymonds took pictures every day, some of which include their dog, Zeke. They forwarded their pictures to Coastal Shoring. Visit coastalshoring.com to watch their home elevation from start to finish.

In 1995, the Albrechts bought their home, located at 2000 Frankel Ave., in order to expand their living area from 1,100 to 1,800-square feet. They bought a fixer-upper and have been making renovations along the way to make their home even more comfortable than the extra space allowed.

After Hurricane Katrina, there wasn’t a question of whether they would stay or go. They loved their home, and they were looking for a way to stay. The Albrechts applied for the Road Home Program, and they were granted $30,000 to help pay for their home elevation.

“We didn’t spend our money right away,” Frank said. “We knew $30,000 wasn’t enough to elevate the house, so we waited a little while, and the state came through with a program that would pay for the entire thing. That’s when my wife started doing research on companies that could perform the work.”

Frank said he and Joan met with several salesmen, but Coastal Shoring was the obvious choice in the end. Coastal Shoring provided the Albrechts with addresses of other homes for which the company had performed home elevation, and Frank and Joan were impressed with the work. They checked references and spoke with their neighbors, who also were satisfied with Coastal.

“To me, in retail, it’s all about what happens after the sale,” says Frank, who has worked in retail for 33 years. “We watched several houses being elevated on David Drive. We were just watching. When others came in, they gave me their quotes and were after the sale. Coastal made me feel like that’s where I wanted to be. They even came out after five o’clock one evening when I got off work to meet with me.”

At Coastal Shoring, representatives meet with customers and explain the process. Coastal has grant specialists who walk homeowners through the paperwork in order to get funding as quickly as possible.

“That’s what sold me,” Frank said. “It was their professionalism and their attitude about doing it. They stayed in touch with me the whole time. They helped us with our paperwork and let us know where we were in the process.”

Frank said that the home elevation crew also was professional and worked hard. “I wanted to see it happening. In about six hours, the entire lift was done. The care they took, and the time they took to do it – they paid attention to detail. The sinkage in this area is tremendous, and we knew there would be some stress in the middle of the house. They made sure the house was level inside and out. Every time they went up, they came inside to make sure everything was right.”

Frank said the company impresses the importance of professionalism upon everyone from management to the lift crew. He said each individual really wanted to make sure the elevation was successful.

“The project manager was here the day of the lift,” he said, “and he was really cool. He walked me through everything. It was like getting the textbook before the class started.”

Since the lift, Frank said his neighbors are shocked with the change. He said the house looks so much different and that people are actually stopping to take pictures of his house. He guessed it’s to do their own research on home elevation.

“They just bettered everything,” he said. “I see a lot of jobs that have big porches and decks, and you can do that extra stuff, but you have to pay for it. We just wanted to have what was included, and that’s what Coastal helped us with. They put sod in the yard and fixed the sidewalks that were damaged from the equipment. They wanted to return it to the way it was, but they actually bettered the house in the process.”

The Albrechts’ house has a history of flooding. It flooded in May 1995, and it was only inches from flooding during Hurricane Katrina. This home elevation has alleviated the fear that their home may flood again.

“I feel so much safer,” Frank said. “Three and a half feet can make a whole lot of difference. This lowered our flood insurance, and we have safety and security. Most of our flooding happens with spring and summer rainstorms. My wife says now we live in a treehouse, and we don’t worry about flooding anymore.”

Frank said the choice was easy. He wanted a company that had been around a while and that had experience. “These grant chasers are trying to get these jobs,” he said. “I had always seen Coastal, and we knew from the beginning we were going to go with Coastal.”

A fine work-in-progress this house is. The Albrechts have a master plan that over time will include new siding, flooring and decorations. They are turning their residence on Frankel Avenue into their dream-come-true, and now they don’t have to worry that a flood may come and wash away their hard work.

Mr. Ruben Cruz admires his home, elevated by Coastal Shoring, LLC.

Mr. Ruben Cruz couldn’t be happier with his two-story home elevation. After seeing advertising for Coastal Shoring, this Navy retiree contacted the company last year to see what services Coastal could provide, and he has been satisfied at every step.

“Nathan came by and did the estimate, and I chose to go with Coastal then,” said Mr. Cruz. “I am very, very happy I did.”

The Cruz family evacuated during Hurricane Katrina, and the water from the canal behind their home crept to their door. They were not willing to take the chance that the next flood would come inside.

Mr. Cruz said that Coastal Shoring kept him informed during the process and worked with him to ensure all the finishing touches were just right. He’s proud that he is the first in his neighborhood to elevate his home and that his neighbors are jealous.

“My neighbors are asking me lots of questions,” he said. “I keep telling them to go with Coastal. My daughter is waiting for her final approvals, and Coastal is going to lift her home too. I give people their number so they can call and have their house lifted. Coastal does quality work.”

Those finishing touches include a beautiful wooden deck overlooking the canal where his children and grandchildren feed ducks and watch wildlife. In addition, he chose a stucco color that matched the brick on his three-foot elevation project, and he is proud of the brick steps on the front porch that decorate the entrance to his family’s home.

Mr. Cruz still displays the Coastal sign on his front lawn. He said that along with feeling safe from flood waters, he also has the bonus of having a new look for his home. “People keep asking who did the job because it looks so good,” he said. “I leave the sign so they will know.”