Talkin' 'Bout My Renovation: An Uptown Camelback Brought Back to Life

This week is Renovation Week in the Curbed universe, so we're talking to New Orleanians who recently completed renovations for themselves or as flips. First up, Margot Rainold of Maison de Luca Design, who has renovated/built almost 100 houses over the last six years, talks about her renovation of a double Uptown camelback that was completed in October 2014.

My husband and I love to renovate houses, move into them, and then go on to the next one—even though that's never the original plan! I have worked in almost all of the neighborhoods in New Orleans, including Old Metairie, Lakeview, all areas of Uptown, Gentilly, Lakewood South, West Lakeview ... I love what I do more than anything and am the most proud of our house we completed a little over a year ago.

My husband and I looked at it when it hit the market a couple of times, but due to the overwhelming interest in it—nothing lasts long in our neighborhood—we figured we didn't have a shot, nor were we interested in getting in a bidding war. It went under contract a couple of times and fell through both times. We looked at it again and decided to go for it—it was going to be a huge undertaking, but for us, the worse condition the house is in, the better.

The house was a camelback double. We completely gutted it and added onto the second floor. We kept as much of the original charming "Uptown" features as we could, such as all of the old windows, a pair of huge pocket doors, all of the original trim, first floor wood floors, the front exterior and one of the brick fireplaces. We converted it into a single and brought it back to life.

Want to talk about your renovation? Drop us a line this week.

• All Renovation Week coverage [Curbed]