Hello Again...

It's been over a decade since I blogged beyond picture collecting on Instagram. I'm not young. In fact I turn 70 in a few weeks. I was once told how you start a decade out is how that decade will go, so be in a good place in mind, body, and spirit.

So as I prepare for the next decade with my new life partner Dave, we have decided to make a huge change. He has been in New Orleans for 40 years, and I have been here for 20. And though it's daunting we have decided to sell our homes and move to the beach. It sounds glamorous, but the beach is in Mississippi a place we never dreamed of living. My girlhood fantasy was to grow old in Paris, sporting a Colette look and sipping champagne with young people in cafes.

So this is the beginning of a new saga, starting with the the house we found after looking at houses in Bay St. Louis for nearly three years. BSL is just 59 miles from New Orleans. It was pretty much wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, but has come back cuter than ever as an arty little town that New Orlenians have made their darling. Consequently real estate prices are high.

We found a wreck of a house built in 1890. We both love old houses. Dave is a contractor that only works on restoring old houses. The BSL house survived Katrina. The tin roof blew off but was restored. The property did not flood. It was one of three houses built around the same time on a very short street right across from an active railway track. In fact there are only three houses on this street. Let's just say it's not for everyone.

But we love it. It's just under 1500 square feet, a very simple Queen Anne cottage with a modest center hall. I always said I would only move again if it was to a center hall house. There's a mother-in-law shack at the back of the property.

It will mean a lot of downsizing and ridding of two households with lifetimes of possessions. Stay tuned for some really good tag sales.

Our first hurdle is financing in time to to make an offer. We are both debt free except for the mortgages we hold on our homes. But on paper no bank wants to loan us money because of our advanced age and modest incomes. So now we are pursuing a private investor to give me a bridge loan using my house as collateral until my house sells. The good news is my humble little piece of swamp has appreciated very nicely over the years.

So this is truly the beginning, starting with getting the money. Stay tuned for hopefully many more blog posts about Dave and Valorie's big adventure.

Just across from the front yard

Hello again - The real estate agent snapped this of me - Do I look happy hugging this old house?