Home Sweet Home

So we actually moved into our house last week! I was determined to get in before Christmas, so come hell or high water (hey, it is New Orleans after all) we moved our stuff in last Wednesday & Thursday. We didn't get a Christmas tree up, but we did get a wreath on the door!

Keep in mind, we are not actually finished with everything...

• Our master bathroom walk-in shower doesn't have glass or a door yet
  
• The brand new, fancy dishwasher is just sitting there & isn't hooked up yet
  
• Our fridge water line for the ice maker isn't hooked up yet either


• The guest bathroom still needs all of the rods put on the walls (toilet paper dispenser, towel rod, hand towel hook, etc.)


• Paint touch ups, etc.

But of course, the audio/visual stuff and the bar were unpacked and setup first...imagine that!

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Ahhhh…neighborhood bars…there’s nothing like being able to walk home after a night out.

When we first moved to Birmingham, we were in an apartment in Homewood and our only “neighborhood bar” was Oak Hill (lame) and not walking distance.

Then when we moved into our loft downtown, where Metro Bistro, Steel & Wine Loft, really spoiled us. Then Rogue Tavern opened and we were really sold.

Now at our new place in New Orleans (where there is never a shortage of watering holes) we have at least four of your finest dive bars around just a short walk away.

The closest, just a couple blocks away, is The Kingpin:

Then if you take that same street South to Tchoupitoulas, you’ve got old-faithfuls such as Grit's and F&Ms:

And if you’re in the mood for live music, walk on over to Magazine Street to Le Bon Temps:

One thing is for sure; we’ll never go thirsty!

The 3 Month Mark

Today marks exactly three months since we began our renovation and I'm still not sure when we'll be able to move in. Stupid small stuff is holding us up (like no working bathroom sinks or showers) and it is more annoying than having to replace rotten joists under the house.

The house before we started

We began on September 15th, the day after we moved back to New Orleans. And when I think back to all the crazy things we had to do toward the beginning, I almost can't believe it. I guess it’s just like child labor, you just forget how bad it was (or at least that's what I hear).

I mean the house hadn’t been lived in for at least three years. We started with pulling out weeds and bushes ALL around/on the house, then tearing out a rotten, wooden deck, to ripping up floors only to find more rotten wood, to knocking down a chimney to moving a door frame. And did I mention the attic was full of junk we had to dispose of?

There have been so many (at least more than 10) dump runs that I have lost count. And don’t even get me started on the HUGE and insanely heavy hot tub that took six of us to try to roll it out of the backyard on it’s side – like Egyptians moving pyramid slabs… no lie.

The house to-date

Well the upside is I’ve lost a good bit of weight…just kidding. No the wonderful part is that it’s just amazing that I am getting to live a dream of mine at such a young age. I’ve always wanted to update a shotgun double of my own and I have been given that opportunity.

Now hopefully we’ll get to live in it soon!

Rubbadubdub we've got a tub!

While our master bath has the beautiful white marble, walk-in shower that has a very modern look to it, we still wanted to keep integrity of the old shotgun house and reuse the old fashioned claw foot tubs that came with it. So we decided to make our guest bathroom over with a more classic style – we had one of the claw-foot tubs refinished (which took about a month) and it just came back home last night.

Here’s the before:

Here's the during: Here’s the now: And here's a close-up of the tub (he did a great job - it looks brand new):

It’s a Miracle!

Our kitchen floors were pretty terrible with the two layers of linoleum flooring and plywood, but we could cover most of what we didn't rip up (for the sake of trying to keep the floor level) with new tile and new hardwood floors.

Our study and the hallway in front of the guest bath (the area directly before the kitchen/bar) was a totally different story. I wasn’t sure if it would be possible to salvage 100+ year-old floors that had been covered by carpet for the last who-knows-how-many years and had turned gray, had a huge hole in them and looked about a month away from rotten.

But remarkably, it was done! The hole was patched with antique, heart pine tongue-and-groove boards. Then the floors were sanded and refinished and they look amazing. I don’t really have a great before shot of the floors so try to make them out in these shots:

Check out the plywood filling in the huge hole:

And then these are floors newly refinished:
Just phenomenal!