I’ve been really busy with some exciting projects, both related and unrelated to Slow Southern Style. That said the heat has been ridiculous and all I want to do is drink lemonade, play with my food dehydrator and read. I’ve been working on potty training with
Nadia, the newest addition to the family.
I realized I’ve never shared pictures of my house, mainly because interior design is not my forte. However my sister keeps telling me to share the story of how we bought our house with a home improvement show. While money for a makeover would be nice I have yet to heed her advice. The story is a good one so it’s about time I shared it here.
However first item on the agenda is pictures.
My fabulous Mardi Gras hat collection is too good not to leave out year ’round. This is the mantle in the office aka my closet. Two of the hats are my husband’s and the rest are mine.
I managed to nab a mannequin from a shop that was getting rid of theirs. Basically this is an adult Barbie doll and I fully plan on giving her a new outfit every week. She’s currently sporting this year’s Halloween costume. Now y’all see why I have to hit the gym every week?
Archway in the upstairs hallway, there is another just like this in the living room downstairs.
Wish I could get a better picture of the stairwell and the stained glass window. The stairs are probably my favorite feature, aside from the stained glass and exposed brick.
Hannah Stouffer blik wall decal above the sofa. This wasn’t exactly easy to put up. I hate the wall color but this is such a large room painting it is overwhelming. The snakes give the beige an edge, at least that’s what I tell myself.
Reading nook with our rocking chair that is over 100 years old. I just bought the antlers at an antique shop. We keep threatening to turn Nadia into a reindeer with them.
Mantle in the living room. The waterfall is
Havasupai, where we got married. The rest is an homage to the Grand Canyon and more snake paraphernalia.
Am I the only girl who gets excited about vintage prints of anacondas killing other animals? Probably so.
The Anthony Turducken paint can art was purchased at DuMois gallery. Yes, that is a termite. Back in late April we discovered we have a termite problem. Awesome. We’re actually evicting our little house guests within the next two weeks and plan on writing RIP and the date on the back of this piece.
Still with me? Good.
In 2001 when Thomas decided to move to New Orleans he rented the house we are in now. Eventually we met, got engaged, shacked up for a year, then got married. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary with this house, then a week later Katrina hit. We evacuated and reluctantly left the house he lived in for 5 years and some feral cats. More on them in a minute.
We lived in Scottsdale, AZ for 3.5 years. It was rough being away for so long but our careers really took off and moving is annoying and expensive. Finally we had it with the cultural wasteland that is the Phoenix metro area (sorry) and decided to make the move back home.
Long story short we were back in New Orleans a little over a year. One day we were driving past the house, saw the for sale sign, and the rest is history. Now when we first lived here the house was in some disrepair and needed serious updating. The previous owner (who purchased it from our old landlord) did some major renovations so all we had to do was move in and enjoy.
What makes this story even more special? Two words:
Runty
and
Tigre
A momma cat had 6 kittens on the front porch of the house 9 years ago. One of Thomas’ roommates and I had all the cats spayed/neutered and fed them. All of them slowly disappeared except Runty and Tigre remained for years. We tried evacuating with them but they were too feral and we feared they’d hurt themselves from the stress. Even after Katrina brought water right up to the porch these cats still stuck around. Now they are inseparable from us and hang out on the back porch, waiting for us to feed and pet them. Oh yea and they remember their names after us being gone for over 4 years.
So if any TV execs want a New Orleans home improvement story, it doesn’t get much better than that.
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