“Let’s find a New Orleans home”
We loaded up and drove to New Orleans on Tuesday. It’s about an eight hour drive, that we broke up with lunch at Athena in Shreveport. We arrived at Denny and Anne’s home on Webster a bit after 7pm. They’re in Boulder, CO, but the boys were there to entertain us.
Our first task on Wednesday was to secure a safety deposit box for our valuables. The Regions bank on St. Charles had a vault and boxes available. It was a bit of a process to select one and determine if it was available, but thirty minutes later we had everything secure.
We met Tracy, one of our realtors, at the fist of six houses at noon. I wasn’t expecting Diana to be very impressed, but a few minutes in she turned to me and mouthed “I like it!” Go figure. I liked it a lot more than the first time I saw it also. The Garden District location is fantastic, although not exactly where we were planning to be.
The next five houses were a bit of a blur for us. I liked the two we made offers on last week less the second time around. We eliminated one and decided to pause on the other.
Back on Webster, we sat down to review our thoughts. Fifteen minutes later and I had a table summarizing our thoughts over to Tracy. Let’s make an offer on the first one we saw in the Garden District.
We submitted an offer on Thursday afternoon, had an attractive counter back quickly, and signed a contract in the evening. Now it’s on to inspections. The home was built in 1860 and renovated ten years ago, so I’m sure there will be some issues to be negotiated.
The counter was actually received while Diana and I were enjoying a delicious lunch at Shaya. We thought we deserved it after all the activity of the last few weeks. The whipped cream cheese, with shallots, dill and trout roe was ridiculously good, as was the old standby lamb ragu humus.
Kenny volunteered to close his friend’s taco restaurant in the Warehouse district while he was on vacation. We went with him and met Kara, Ian and Nina. They had just come from the Barbie movie, and all enjoyed it. The tacos, margaritas and service were excellent. It’s so much fun to hang out with the Kirsches.
I dropped Diana at the New Orleans airport on Friday – she headed to San Francisco via Dallas to check up on her mom for a few days. I dropped a deposit check off at the realtor office on my way back – things are moving ahead. I saw an email shortly after that showing that the Washington house was “under contract.”
I decided to treat myself to a nice breakfast on Saturday morning. Ruby Slipper is a five minute walk from the Washington house – so I thought I’d give that a try. Good choice. I got the “peacemaker” benedicts – a choice of two. The St. Charles chicken and Cochon were both excellent. I hope to be coming back to this place often.
After that yummy breakfast, I delivered Morrison to Kenny and Kara for safekeeping. He seemed ok, if not a little stressed out by the move.
Kara suggested a music movie at a gallery for afternoon entertainment. It was sold out but we thought some folks would cancel. I came up with guitar wizard Marc Stone at the Bourbon Orleans hotel at 4pm as an alternative.
The movie did seem to have some cancellations, but we decided to park at the fire station, “Got any room for an old, retired Chief to park?”, and go to the Marc Stone show.
With a bit of time to kill, we played some pool in the local Irish bar.
Marc Stone was as excellent as I remembered. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed his set.
His finger picking and slide guitar are excellent.
A wedding second line parade came through while we were listening to the show. Classic New Orleans:
After the entertainment, we stopped by “Butcher” for sandwiches. Always a great choice. I got something similar to a Philly cheesesteak.
Another great afternoon in New Orleans. Looking forward to being there soon.
Sunday was another driving day. I started at 6:30am from New Orleans to Austin. About 30 mins in I realized that I’d left my laptop in Denny’s office. That added an hour to an already long drive. I arrived in Austin 9 hours later. I did have one fun stop in La Grange. I’ve been listening to the ZZ Top song about that town since I was in University.
Another great book again this week. “Such Kindness” by Andre Dubus III really held my attention. Just as good as “Townie”, which I enjoyed a lot many years ago.
The main character, Tom, broke his hips and had screws installed. I could certainly relate to some of these descriptions:
“I drink more water. I try to sit straight in my chair, but the hip screws are burrowing hotly into my bones and I need to stretch out and lie down.”
Here’s the online plot summary:
Kenny shared this gem with me. I love the Hiatt and Douglas combo:
Another really interesting combination:
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!
Monday was a sad day. I took Penelope for an inspection requested by Rick, a prospective buyer. They found a couple of issues, but nothing too bad. Rick and Lisa came over and closed the deal on Monday night. So sad to say goodbye to my companion of over 10 years. Logically, it was the right time to sell, with almost 80,000 miles and about to lose a lot of resale value. Emotionally is a whole different story. The whole sales process was very quick and smooth. Hoping the same for our house.
The painters started on Friday morning. All the colour is gone, to be replaced by “Worldly Gray.” That’s the colour of the family room and kitchen, and now the majority of the rest of the house. Rodrigo, Maria, and Jesus did a great job and were very kind. They will finish up on Monday.
While the guys were battling the pool table, a work buddy, Sean, was building a garage. Some folks just have a load of hidden talents. I can’t imagine taking on securing those roof trusses.