This house is in a great location minutes from the St. Charles Ave. streetcar and several grand old Garden District mansions. It’s roomy and contains most of the basic necessities. The neighborhood felt safe and though not always quiet, is certainly much more so than staying in the French Quarter.
The house is over 170 years old and we really enjoyed the charm of it on most days. It has high ceilings, beautiful floors and huge windows that let in tons of light. We stayed a full month, so not surprisingly some of the charm wore off. There are tricky cabinet latches, drippy faucets, drafts on cold mornings etc. The place honestly looks a bit run down, with peeling paint and cosmetic repairs needed both inside and out. It was, however, very clean and the beds were quite comfortable.
We spent hours soaking up the winter sun on the front porch. The back yard patio is a lush miniature jungle oasis. The hot tub is nice, though we had some issues with needing to refill it due to a leak.
We fell in love with the Bayou Bar in the nearby Pontchartrain Hotel. It was small and friendly with excellent food, experienced bartenders and occasional live music. There’s also a rooftop bar in the same hotel with great views of the city.
We did have one ongoing problem that we were unhappy about. The clothes dryer did not work. The owner fixed it himself but it took 12 days to be resolved which included several visits to the property by the owner. His communication on the manner was sometimes lacking and we felt like we were in a fishbowl when he came by at night during dinner preparations. He did eventually offer to have our laundry picked up by a service but we’d recently finished air drying two loads.