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shnnn_gw

My house is a parallelogram...on purpose!

shnnn
11 years ago

I have just starting rehabbing a shotgun single in the Holy Cross neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans. Like many houses in this area, mine was heavily damaged by the levee failure and years of subsequent neglect, so it is tilted and leaning. However, it is clear that the house as designed was a paralleogram instead of a rectangle: the corners are not and never were 90 degree angles. My protractor is a little rusty, but it seems that the opposite angles add up to 90, so it seems certain that this was done on purpose. My neighbor's house is the same way.
Has anyone ever heard of this house form? What would be the benefit that would cause a builder to add this complexity to their job?

P.S. Also like other houses here, the walls are not stud-framed but consist of exterior horizontal weatherboard and interior horizontal T&G panels that encase vertical barge boards about 2" x 12", which rest on 6x6 cypress sills. It is a testament to the power of the old wood that the house still stands even though in several places the sill is completely eaten away by rot and termites.

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