New Flooring

The work on the new flooring began today. I was surprised to see what all the installers had gotten done. All the old flooring had been removed and about half the new floor was installed. They think they will be done tomorrow! We are having our furniture delivered on Friday. I'm so glad. It's been about 2 and 1/2 months since since we've felt at home. Once we got our house in Red Stick ready to show, it didn't feel like our home anymore. In our new house, I've felt like I've been back in college - when the only substantial furniture I had was a bed and a desk that came in the dorm room - we have a bed, 4 fold up chairs, and a card table that I had in my dorm room. I'll be so happy to be moving in.

This is a picture of the entryway taken from upstairs.

The study

The dinning room

The hallway from the dinning room to the kitchen.

Before and After

The painters are done, so here are some before and after pictures of our house.

Kitchen before:

Kitchen After


Dining room before:

Dining room after:

Study before:

Study after:

Living room before:

Living room after:

Bedroom 1 before:

Bedroom 1 after:

Bedroom 2 before:

Bedroom 2 after:

Master bath before:

Mather bath after:

Master bedroom before:

Master bedroom after:

Guest bath before:

Guest bath after:

We are pleased. The house feels a lot more open and peaceful with a simplified color scheme. In case you want to know, the colors we used were Porter Paint in Lotus Flower (light yellow), honeydew melon (green) and Aqua Frost (blue). There was one more bedroom that we had painted yellow. It was just white to begin with. The light green is a little unusual for a dining room, but I wanted something besides beige that would go with our blue and yellow fiesta and our china that has a lot of pink in it. We also had the popcorn ceiling scraped off the whole house. Work on the new flooring starts next week!

In St. Louis

We've in St Louis for a few weeks now. We closed on our new house 4/30 and we're living with only what we really need for now. We've had the interior of the house repainted. No, we didn't do it ourselves. We hired a painter. James doesn't enjoy painting much, and I only like to paint when I don't have to use a ladder. We're really happy with the results. We're waiting to have our furniture delivered until we get the flooring downstairs replaced. It's half pergo and the rest in really worn our carpet and vinyl flooring. We're having it replaced with hardwood. It'll be at least 2 weeks before that's done.

We have one 2 qt sauce pan, one kitchen knife, and one large spoon. Here's what I've cooked with just those items. (We do have a stove, range and microwave.)

1) taco salad
2) spaghetti with meat sauce
3) hot roast beef sandwiches with au jus.

We have been out to eat twice this week - mostly because I ran out of ideas!

One more thing about Louisiana

I already miss the Clean Air Act that prohibited smoking in all public places with the exception of bars.

A few thoughts on moving . . .

These past few months have been full of big decisions. It was only the first part of March when we started thinking about moving to St. Louis. It is hard to believe what all has happened in that amount of time. We've found a new house, our house in Red Stick is under contract, James has started a new job, and today was my last day at work. I start my new job on Monday, we close on our new house in just a few days, and the movers are coming to pack our things in next week.

God has opened so many doors for us, and our families have been so supportive. We're both excited and thankful, but there will be some things that I will miss about South Louisiana - like crawfish boils and fresh gulf shrimp and the hundred year old oak trees and Spanish moss. I think I will miss living in an SEC town. But baseball season just might make up for it.

Mike the tiger

A couple of Saturdays ago we went to LSU to see the new tiger. James had seen him a number of times, but I hadn't gotten the chance to visit him. He's about 3 years old I think, and he's pretty active. He was pacing back and forth the whole time we were there.
We had some difficulty getting the dogs to pose by the tiger statue. Daisy, who is usually rather brave, was scared of it. She barked at it, and she didn't want to walk up to it or sit next to it.

Houmas House

These are some pictures from our second stop last Friday. It was about 4 pm when we got there. I had gotten so hot at Oak Alley that I was quickly reminded why I do not like the summer here. It's early April, and it feels like late June. It was 85 degrees and HUMID. You don't know humid until you have experienced it in South Louisiana or Miami. It was sunny and raining at the same time. I'm glad we're moving before summertime and hurricane season. It can be hard to sell house during hurricane season because you cannot buy home owner's insurance if there is a named storm in the Gulf.

This house was built in 1857, and had been left to ruin after the Great Depression. It had been restored with period reproduction materials.


The house also had a grand alley of oaks in front of it at one point, but the Corp of Engineers claimed them so they could improve the levee. The Mississippi river is visible from the upstairs gallery.


There was a pair of swans in the garden. They seemed pretty tame - I was able to get really close to them.


This mural decorated the entryway. The plants you see are sugarcane, and there is a a dog pictured who still lives on the premises. The ceiling was painted too. The piece that is framed is a map of Louisiana from the 1830's.
The next two pictures are period items from the nursery. Both surprised me. I thought walker were a rather modern invention. The chair converts into a stroller.