I'm very conflicted writing this review. LONG story short, unique house, kind host, but I don't recommend staying here.
Gwen is a treasure. The house has so much love and history living in it, and is definitely beautiful in its own way. She has raised several children and grandchildren there, and she seems like she devoted a lot of love and energy to the community. I love staying in unique Bnb's, which is why I chose it. But after staying there 2 nights we cancelled the other 2 nights and moved to the Marriott. I've stayed at coutless Airbnb's and have never cancelled a reservation in the middle until now. I will explain why.
The location does feel pretty sketchy. The houses surrounding this one have busted windows, and in order to get to the French Quarter you have to walk under an overpass which feels creepy. The house itself is covered in art, and twinkle lights <3, and dust, and cobwebs, and peeling wallpaper. There is a dining room with a stove and a sink in the corner, which is the extent of the "kitchen", and essentially a dirty broom closet which contains the hot water heater and the refrigerator. Do not expect to have the supplies you need to cook here. We did find cute coffee cups and saucers for the coffee, which was provided. The bird noises are charming during the daytime, but when we would turn them down before bed we would wake up and find that they were turned back on first thing in the morning, so it was a silent battle for control of the bird noises each night. One of our party needed the internet to do some work, which worked great one day but not-at-all another day, so he ended up going to a mall to get his work done. The best parts of the house were the strong air conditioning and the cute high-ceiling jack-and-jill bedrooms on the 2nd floor, despite the handheld shower head.
The entire first floor is surrounded by tall windows and glass doors. On the second night we were there, at 3:20am all of us woke from a deep sleep to the sounds of violent banging on the door downstairs. Five LOUD, angry-sounding bangs. We honestly thought someone was trying to break in, I grabbed my pepper spray, made sure the bedroom doors were locked, and almost called 911. We sat silently terrified for 20 minutes and heard nothing more. While sitting there I immediately cancelled the rest of our reservation and booked a room at the Marriott, sending Gwen an FYI message. I didn't have Gwen's phone number, and never got a response to that message even a few days later. I couldn't fall back asleep until about 5:30am.
I wish it didn't end up this way! But while settling into the Marriott room we were physically more relaxed and comfortable, despite it being a one bedroom with two double beds for 4 people.