If These Walls Could Talk

This post is written as if my house were talking and selling itself to a potential buyer.It is part of a Monday Mission.

Welcome to our home. The current family has been here almost 5 years and has really fixed me up with the biggest change being to my yard. I used to have a lot of vegetation and you couldn't even see the neighbors to the left. Well, since the hurricane the owners and neighbors have certainly trimmed things back a lot. I get a lot more sun as they took away a lot of shade. I used to have at least 14 more pines shading me than I do now. In addition a big shady White Oak in the backyard fell during Katrina and that was a big loss to me and the owners. At least I got a new roof out of that horrible storm.

Well, if you step through the front door into the foyer you will see the Madisonville Wooden Boat Show 2004 poster framed and center stage. That does not stay with the house. It represents the owners first year in Lousisiana.

To your left is the the office/toy room/craft room/dance room. From this room I hear a lot of loud music and the owners are often dancing like crazy people. They also play the music loud from here so they can hear it in the kitchen while they are cooking and eating dinner. Excuse the mess as they have two small children who love to pull out every toy every single day. The craft table is always hosting a project in progress by the owner's 5 year old. Watch your step over the GeoTrax train set. This room was completely gutted after Katrina. It has all new bamboo wooden floors and new can lights and a ceiling fan. The walls hold a nice green color by Ralph Lauren.

Straight ahead is the living room. Yes, I know it is long and narrow. To the left is the TV viewing area (also the extended dance floor from the play room) and to the right is the sitting area around the fireplace. This room used to be all puke brown when the current owners bought it but they have updated with these nice colors. You will also notice they have painted all the dark wood stained trim - white!

Moving through the living room you will see I offer a very nice sized eat-in kitchen with a big island which is topped with a new granite counter top. (It really needs to be painted if you ask me. Owners keep talking about it but never get around to it.) All appliances have been replaced by the current owners. Let's take a peak in this nice stainless steel refrigerator - Oh! Look at that they have Mott's Pomegrante Apple Sauce - the wife's new fav. Would you like one? No. Ok - moving on.

There is no garage but this double car carport is right off the kitchen making it convenient for hot sunny and rainy days. And attached to the carport is a nice size shed and a covered concrete area for storing outdoor toys, an extra fridge and a gardening table. From here you can see that the whole exterior of the house where there is wood siding or trim has been painted. It used to be a horrible peach!

If you come over to these french doors off the living area you will get a good view of their backyard. It is a 1/2 acre lot. You can still see where trees have been removed or fell down from storms. There used to be a fence around the backyard but the current owners removed it as it was getting to be ugly. It has really opened up the backyard and with all the trees gone there is room to put in a huge pool if you so desire.

You can also see that the driveway wraps all the way around the back of the house and there is extra parking at the end of the drive. All that concrete makes a great area for the current owners kids to ride bikes, play, skate, draw with chalk or whatever their hearts desire. Big bonus to this house!

Follow me down this hallway. There are three bedrooms on the right and a guest bath on the left. The guest bath is rather large with two full size sinks on each side with large vanities. A nice touch.

The room at the end of the hall also was gutted after Katrina and also has new bamboo wood floors and new can lights and ceiling fan.

Down this last hallway is actually an addition that was built onto this house after a fire. It is the master bedroom. Yeah, nice huh? It and the kitchen are the main reasons the current owners bought this house - well, that and all the shade we no longer have . . .

Anyway, this room is VERY large as you can see. It has its own sitting area and obviously can house large furniture. I will have to discuss with the current owners but the bedroom set might be staying. If they don't have this big of a room in their next house they can't take this bedroom set.

And finally, here is the master bath. It has his/her sinks, a jacuzzi tub, steam shower and private toilet area with a bidet and a walk-in closet. As the wife of the house always says, "The people who put in this bathroom were obviously french." Why? Well, there is also a waist height showerhead in the shower that serves the same function as the bidet. . . . Hmmmmmm. As you can see the current owners use the bidet as a magazine rack. It does in fact work. The water is just turned off right now. The daughter of the owners turned it on full tilt when they first moved in and it sprayed to the ceiling and drenched the toilet area. It was quite a mess to clean up.

So that is it. The owners have tried to take good care of me in the past 5 years. Replacing things as needed. Oh! Which reminds me, the air conditioner is brand new. Yes, it is that big box on the patio that looks like a rocket ship! If I were you I would have that moved off the patio to the side of the house. Only costs about $500. If you can afford it . . . I have to say I am glad they replaced that old unit. It used to keep me up at night as it was so damn loud that you couldn't talk to each other when outside. Even the neighbors could hear it when it was running.

So, take another walk through if you want. The neighbors are great, the neighborhood is great and it is one of best public school districts in the state. The neighbhorhood boasts easy access to all major highways and commuting routes. None of that info was known by the current owners when they bought the house but they sure are glad they picked me.