Homesteaders resources

The worst part about administering the 1825 duels homesteaders collective is how often we have to turn people away. We have been fortunate enough to attract a strong base of talented dedicated members and though we're the size of a barn we aren't finished renovating and we only have so much space. Interest in our project has been tremendous though and we've been talking with various parties about starting a new homesteading project. Obtaining an abandoned property, legalizing your possession, and renovating a condemned building back up to code are serious undertakings. Our collective has plans to open a new house in the future but right now our resources are fully consumed by working on our own house. We will however support anyone who seriously intends to start their own homesteaders co-op.

Researching Property and Filing Claim

Louisiana and the city of New Orleans actually have many programs to help people get legal ownership of abandoned and neglected properties. Termite and Vine owe a huge debt to NORA the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (blightbusters.com), the Commonground Legal Collective (commongroundrelief.org), and several national homesteaders advocacy organizations. There are half a dozen programs and numerous state laws that are in place to put abandoned property in to the hands of people who want to rehabilitate it and make homes. To any individual who demonstrates a serious interest in homesteading we can provide advice and assistance in navigating the research and document filing required to get you started.

Renovation Skill Share

Currently our renovation skill share is limited to working on our own house. In the future though we hope to host regular workshops on home repair that will include construction, plumbing, and electrical work. The focus will be on teaching in an anything goes technique that encourages creative problem solving and accepts people of all skill levels. We are also committed to recycling and reusing building materials and doing creative hacks to circumvent the the cost and skill caps stuck on top of most renovation.

Termite Press

Termite press is working on its first bound volume of useful books for the homesteader. Going to press right now are a reprint copy of the discontinued 90 page New Orleans Redevelopment Authority Guide to Acquiring Blighted and Adjudicated Property, a 20 page collection of Louisiana State laws that apply to Homesteaders and Non-Profit organizations acquiring abandoned properties, and a reprint of the Louisiana Minimal Residential Building Code which is the set of standards used to declare your property habitable or condemned. All thees document will be shortly made available for research at the Iron Rail alternative bookstore and library on Marigny street. We are working right now on a mini hand book to finding, selecting, homesteading, and legalizing an abandoned property in New Orleans that will be available around new years. Thees publications will enable our future homesteaders workshops and will also be available for sale to cover print cost from our homestead and possibly the iron rail. If anyone else is interested in taking over publishing or distro duties please contact Lily B at lillianbutter@yahoo.com

Termite & Vine Property Maintenance Company

Termite & Vine Started getting repaired with leftovers from commissioning construction and demolition work. Many of Termites first members were people who'd come to New Orleans to do disaster relief and after dropping out of the volunteer circuit their fist employment was working gutting flooded homes. Hopefully this winter we will be building our workshop sufficiently and also obtaining a truck so that termite can again start commissioning work to benefit both the renovation of our own home, and also provide new skill learning and income for our members. We are in the process of applying for Incorporated status, and Lily B. is preparing to get her license in Property Management and Housing Inspection.

Registered Non-Profit

We have been discussing the possibility of becoming a non profit, or joining up with an existing non-profit arts group. This would give us several beneficial abilities including the ability to solicit donations of money, materials, and tools, as well as that it would make us eligible to get huge breaks in settling the unpaid taxes on Termite as well as other future property acquisitions. As a homesteaders resource it would help us to umbrella other homesteads and try to help them get donations and tax breaks too. Since we are a group comprised of artists and musician and performers, and because our precious home is herself a work of art in both process and end result, we may be eligible to receive help from the New Orleans Arts Council in becoming a non profit entity. Stay tuned.

Rethinking the House

Rethinking the house is a free form jam, Think tank, skill share experiment, and deconstructed construction project with the goal of remodeling and rebuilding and colonizing and homesteading the very idea of what house and home actually are. Its a long term project with no specific membership roles that en devours to be grow exponentially and permeate everything it touches. Termite and vine homestead, and termite and vine property maintenance are umbrellaed under the grand RTH manifesto. That manifest further includes experiments in materials and techniques for building, experiments in design for living space with particular fascination with how the living space and the being that lives in it shape one another considering the variables of time and morph ability. RTH also is interested in experiments with recycled material micro construction projects and successfully completed a the construction of a tiny 9x12 mini house made with a budget of $20 in spring of 2007. Regrettably it was torn down by the land owner, but more micro construction projects and think tanks are planned for the near future including the threat of constructing an experimental shanty town and cucumber farm {project Cucumbervania} in remote Tennessee by summer 2012.

The Ceramics Store and the New Homesteads

The family of the previous owners of Termite have given us there blessing to acquire 3 other properties left in the wake of their financial misfortune. Thees include a large ceramics studio that used to be a grocery store in the 40s, and 2 small double shotguns. Our research shows that these properties have not yet been snatched up by developers yet our application to claim them at city hall has been temporarily stalled by some missing documents. Its our hope to eventually turn the store in to our new expanded workshop, building material bartering co-op, and property management company, one of the houses will be made in to a low cost rental hopefully for a local family, and the other might be acquired by our potential non profit arts group partner. This project is on the back burner until after Termite repairs her utilities and assesses the schedule for her Minimal Residential Inspection for Certificate of Occupancy / Appropriateness. The goal is to begin rehabilitating these properties by spring 2008. If there is sufficient interest after Termite completes her CofO there is another house identical to termite, also available for us, as there are at least twice as many people interested in out homestead more than we could possibly accommodate.

Termite Online

Our WEB presence is still under development and Termite does not have a working computer let alone stable electricity right now. But we do have a web site: http://www.sicknessandfilth.com/squat/termite/

Includes Blog Diary, Photo album Scrapbook, and soon to include lots of resources for information on homesteading and Tips for researching Properties Taxes and missing owners. More Info on everything Real Soon.

If you like reading memo's then theres lots of new hot wet fun coming right at your head like a shit snowball:

OTHER NICE

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

FOR

READING ENJOYMENT

OF THE HAPPY

LOLLYFUCK

THE Termite and Vine Handbook

Every stupid question you've ever asked me now written in a little zine with diagrams. What to do with aluminum cans ? Where to find saw blades ? How to share your room and earn magic gold star points. Things not to leave on the proch !! a tour of different holes in the floor and what the names of all the rats and roaches are !! all five house rules !! dont touch my fucking stuff !!! pick up after your self or i'll steal your things !!! did you know we have a free box ?? featuring the Complete Historical Atlas of Termite and Vine Ever !!!

The Morteville Happy Swamp Living Lollyfucks Guidbook

This city has free laundry free food and 9 dozen cool abandioned thigns to climb. There needs to be a little resource handbook. I'll be taking submissions and compiling them shortly.

T