Home Is Where the Heart Is

Shortly after I got the HDLC blessing, I had to obtain a building permit for the house. This was a (DREW)breeze, save for the fact that the receptionist forgot I was there, even though I was sitting five feet from her. What took two hours should have taken 20 minutes.

Now, I'll step down from my soapbox.

One of the most important aspects of the project is the neighborhood where the house is located. The house is nestled on a side street off of Esplanade Avenue in the Fairgrounds area (next to Jazzfest), just around the corner from a few restaurants, a coffee shop, a wine shop, 2 grocery stores, a small park, City Park, Bayou St. John, and centrally located, with access to the whole city. I think my brother-in-law said it best (at his wedding in NOLA), "What luck."

In fact, going back to before my parents purchased the place, it was my new brother-in-law, my sister, and I, who discovered this diamond in the rough when they were passing through town in the late summer of 2010. I would love to entertain the idea that it was just the thought of visiting me that brought them down, but these two love birds had their own (recent) history with NOLA. In April of 2010, they exchanged their nuptials, and decided that the backdrop (and guest of honor) would be New Orleans. Although neither had lived here before, it was the place where their romance blossomed, the site of numerous Jazzfest family gatherings together, the place where they got engaged, and as such, was the logical and perfect location for their wedding. I'll be brief: Best. Wedding. Ever. I'll write a more detailed post once their anniversary comes around, which should coincide with some of the finishing of the house!

For those late summer days, my sister and brother-in-law decided to browse around for houses, as it was always a musing and hopeful activity to do: Take a walk in a nice neighborhood, admire the beautiful, old trees complemented by beautiful old houses, differing in some details, but maintaining that distinctly New Orleans charm. It's sort of like imagining what you'd do if you won the lottery, just playfully thinking about the future. Yet, this task also had a degree of practicality to it.

Since the storm, my father had put increasing seriousness behind a statement that I hadn't given much weight to beforehand: "Find me a house in New Orleans." Every year, when the parents came around, we would do this hopeful walk, talk to realtors, and play with the idea of having a house in New Orleans. Now that my sister was married, things seemed to become more acute and into focus, and it appeared that the time might be right for actually plunging into such an endeavor.

So, my sister, Carolyn, and brother-in-law, Jamie, decided to go out and sample some of the real-estate. However, they were not alone. To help get further information on these candidates, I put Irish expatriate, local pub-tender, and real-estate agent/guru, Jo-ann Fitzpatrick Broussard of Latter and Blum on the case. Jo-ann is part of a small group of expatriates who have done incredible work rebuilding the city, and she is also the sister of the owners of the best pub/bar/community space in New Orleans, Finn McCool's. New Orleans owes this bar, and the community that inhabits and imbibes in this space a great debt of gratitude. These are the people who rebuilt this city. The stories, the people, and the lives that interact here are recounted in a couple recent, wonderful books by local authors (and Finn's patrons):

A Season of Night by Ian McNulty

Finn McCool's FC: The Birth, Death, Resurrection of a Pub Soccer Team in the City of the Dead by Stephen Rea

Jo-ann, along with her fellow Irish realtor, Eileen Nolan, were able to find out everything we needed to know about each place at which Carolyn and Jamie wanted to look. They interacted with other real estate agents who were in charge of their respective properties, scheduling visiting times and appointments. We began looking at houses all over the the city, trying to find something that would be the right fit. We saw houses that had just been renovated, ones that needed work, and houses that needed a LOT of work.

Finally, we were between two places in the Fairgrounds area, each with their own advantages. However, we were secretly pushing for the smaller house that needed a LOT of work: "It's perfect. Call Mom and Papa."

Remember that increasing seriousness about buying a house? Now, our job was to convince our parents over the phone and through emailed pictures to immediately get down to New Orleans, look at these houses, and hopefully make an offer; putting equal seriousness on the opportunity in front of us. The house we secretly wanted had only been on the market for a few days, and had a couple offers on it.

It was difficult at first, but we were able to convince my mom to come down, with my dad saying that as long as she loved it, he would buy it. We had gone through the larger house, taking the much higher price tag into account, and realized that the place would be a much riskier investment. It is a beautiful (and could be even more beautiful) house, but it might have been just too much. We then pulled up to the smaller house, took a quick tour through the devastation, and outside I tried to explain to my mom that I could rebuild the house for my father and her. All the while, she seemed not to be paying attention to me, not because she didn't believe me, but that she was caught by the potential beauty of the house. She kept looking up at the place, and said, "I think your father is going to love this." I learned a lot about my parents in that instant: They both know each other and love each other enough to know what each desire, and each trusts the other enough to make an incredible decision on behalf of the other.

We made the offer through Jo-ann, Eileen, and Gary (the agent in charge of the house). After a couple counter offers and back and forth, our offer was accepted. My dad came down with my mom again, and when he saw the neighborhood, the location, the potential, and the house, he said: "Oh, I love this." He couldn't wait to sign the papers, and afterward, we had a nice dinner to celebrate the new place in our family's heart. What luck!