our [not-so-new] new house

date header separator

Monday, May 18th, 2009

our [not-so-new] new house

for quite some time, i’ve been meaning to briefly blog about our new house. of course, at this point, our new house is not-so-new. we’ve been here now a few months, so i’m a little behind (what a shocker…). of course, while we’ve been here a few months, we’re still getting settled in and there are still plenty of things in boxes that have yet to see the light of day. so, we’re gonna stick with this being new.

we really love both our house and our neighborhood. interestingly, we took a major hit in square footage with this house. our last house was a triplex-ish kind of thing (you just had to see it to get it…), but it was actually very large. the huge benefit here, though, is that this is a single family home, so we were cool with taking a space hit (even though we are, indeed, a little cramped). the house was built in the late 1800’s, which we love because of the inherent character. actually, as it sits directly next door to the empress bed & breakfast, it used to be the servant quarters to the empress back in the day.
another piece of absolutely random historical information is connected to the vietnam war. during the war, many vietnamese-americans were harassed and run out of their neighbors. here in little rock, there was one such family that had to leave their home but didn’t want to leave little rock. so, the owners—at that time—of our house let the vietnamese family live (read: hide out, more or less) in the shed in our back yard. crazy story, but yet another piece of interesting history.
in terms of our neighborhood, it’s in the quapaw quarter and, more specifically, the governor’s mansion district (pdf map link). it’s a really unique and cultured area with a lot of interesting people and beautiful homes. there’s a strange phenomenon we’ve encountered, though, in which many people have this idea that our neighbor is the battlegrounds for the crips and the bloods or some kind of homocide-hungry drug cartel. you can read more of my thoughts about that here, but needless to say, our neighborhood is actually very peaceful and a great place to raise a family.
so, we’re excited to be here and hope to stay here for quite awhile. while we would certainly like to buy a home, we’re not necessarily in a rush and will continue to enjoy our home and our neighborhood.
yesterday while i was out playing with lucy, i snapped a couple quick pics of the house. here’s what i came up with (click to see it larger):