Finished unpacking! and NOLA Top Ten

 

Here is the outside of the house from a previous blog posting. :-)

Our new porch swing!!! Daniel and I enjoyed a glass of wine on it last night. :-)

It is too hot right now, but we're going to swing A on it tonight after it cools off a bit.

The kitchen.  We think we'll get a small island for the middle of the room.  There is plenty of space even with the two pantry pieces we had to get because there was no built-in pantry.

The two shots above are from the den.  The pocket doors are closed, but behind them is the dining room.  It is a work in progress because all of my school stuff is still in there.  We'll post more pictures when I can move all of that out. :-)

Our bedroom.  I love the bay windows and the details on them.  This house has so much natural light, which is good because what we save on the power bill from not using lights, we'll make up for in a/c cost.  (More on that later...)

Ansley's room.  We have not hung all the pictures in her room yet.  We have gotten more done when she is napping but that has left her room neglected. :-)

My NOLA Top Ten:

Ten Things I've learned from NOLA (in the past three days) 

1. This city has a small town feel.  Part of that is because the part of the city were we live is very much like one big neighborhood with a few stores and restaurants sprinkled in. 
2. Water is different here.  Hot water is VERY HOT and cold water is lukewarm.  I'm not sure if that will remain the same in the winter....I'll let you know.
3. This is a good city for us for many reasons.  One is that it is a city of foodies and that means the grocery stores are good.  The one that is in our neighborhood (two blocks from us!) is called Robert...but it is pronounced "ROW-bear" :-).  It reminds me of the restaurant "Harry's in Hurry" that was in Atlanta.  It is small and has a lot of gourmet type foods.  You can get the everyday stuff there too but you'd want to buy it at another store if you're interested in spending less $. Tonight we went to Rouses Fine Foods.  It is another grocery store that I think we'll frequent most often.  Rouses is pronounced to rhyme with houses.  It is a large store with a good variety of foods and decent prices.  We can also venture to Walmart if we're feeling particularly adventurous. See my next point....
4. Walmart is the same everywhere.  Cheap but incredibly frustrating...  My love/hate relationship with Walmart continues.
5. Walking to breakfast! On Saturday morning we walked to the breakfast place just around the corner from us.  It was SO nice.  We also noticed that quite a few houses had an empty wine bottle on their porch....which brings me to my next point...
6. This city is a "Front Porch City".  People love to sit on their front porches. They sit on their porches after the sun goes down (because it is oppressively hot otherwise) and have a glass of wine or two with their neighbors.  (Another reason this is a good city for us...)
7. The people who live in this city want to be here.  After Katrina, no one moves here on a whim.  People think long and hard before they move here.  It is not a city for everyone, particularly those who are opposed to hot weather.  Regardless, the people in this city love it and are proud of it.  I'm happy to say that we are too.
8. There is quite a bit of functional design when it comes to the homes here.  Most have very high ceilings (ours are 14 feet) which helps during the hot months.  Most also have a kitchen at the very back of the house, where the heat can be contained.  We are grateful for this functional design. :-)  The design is functional, but the architecture is also aesthetically pleasing, which you don't always find together.  I have to stop myself from staring at homes while driving down the street because they are so neat looking.  Which brings me to my next point...
9. Driving: The traffic rules are different here and we're trying out best to learn them quickly.  Signs on the road help! For example there is very often a sign that says there is no left turn from the neutral ground.  I always thought that was the point of the neutral ground.... Also, there is very often no left turn at a light unless there is a left arrow.  If there is no left arrow, there is usually a "no left turn" sign.  For this reason, it is better to go to a street that has a stop sign and not a light, which seems strange to me.  The city is mostly setup on a grid with blocks so if one street is block, you can usually maneuver around it easily. And the streets don't run North/South East/West.  They follow the river...hence the name "The Crescent City".
10. Pot Holes: Pot Holes are a way of life here. In fact, the words "pot holes" does not accurately describe them.  They are truly like massive sink holes.   They are mostly marked by orange cones or barrels, but occasionally they are not.  The one on our street is large and marked by orange barrels.  It is about five feet in diameter. No I'm not exaggerating.  If it wasn't dark right now, I'd take a picture. :-) I have been reading the book 1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose. In it he talks about a pot hole on a major street here that had grown out of control.  He talked about the irony of the fact that there was a huge weed growing out of the pot hole and the city was fining people who were not keeping their yards (or weeds) cut. He stopped one day to look in the weed growing pot hole and was surprised to find it had a washing machine in it! Someone had dumped a washing machine in the pot hole.  Since then I've taken to looking in the pot holes, but I haven't seen anything in ours. :-)  I think that was a post-Katrina thing.