The Refuge – An Introduction

We moved to our current neighborhood in the winter of 2017. Beside our first house on the street sat a similar three story columned property. The latter was unoccupied—the previous owner having moved in with his family after his wife’s passing. 

For the four years we lived beside it, the house sat dark and vacant. While still able, the owner in his nineties would visit and spend the day. He’d mow his nearby vacant lot and tend to the property. At night, however, the imposing brick stood with no lights on a shadowing ghost on the block. 

We met the owner, Guy, and eventually became friends with his daughter Gay. She would stop by and visit while checking on the house. 

As we talked and learned more about “her mother’s house” we became intrigued. Her father was a noted area builder. He had built the house as a surprise for his wife Joy. As it was being built they lived around the corner of the court. 

The architecture is best described as Colonial Williamsburg meets Tara. Joy loved English antiques, so the home is a 1960s colonial revival. She also adored Gone With the Wind and Guy incorporated some nods to the famous movie plantation as well. The imposing brick columns are very typical New Orleans. 

For four years we never ventured through the door. For all intents and purposes, it was a mystery.

In the winter of this year, months into the COVID-19 lockdown, our minds began to wander. Being essentially stranded on our property, we began thinking of more outdoor space. We spent a weekend driving nearby Slidell and Pearl River looking at listed properties. Window-shopping what was currently on the market.

We loved our neighborhood and neighbors, so just as quickly we talked ourselves out of relocating. A longer commute was not particularly appealing either.

One day Gay stopped by. An antiques dealer she’d been thinking and running down an internet bunny trail the previous evening. “I was researching your chandelier last night. If you ever move, take it with you! It’s a Baccarat.” This struck us as a little funny, as we had told no one that we had been considering moving.

A few nights later while chatting on the phone, we explained that her comment had struck us. We admitted that we had toyed ever-so-briefly with relocating. She blurted out without a pause, “Why don’t you buy my mother’s house!”