House of the week: Victorian on Dumaine Street

As I am currently existing in some kind of first-time home-buyer's limbo (a.k.a. financial consultations, credit checks, home-buying courses, etc.), I've been reluctant to play out my usual "house of the week" game. Why? Because I keep finding homes in my price range that are almost exactly what I want, only to watch them slip right through my fingertips. Just like what will happen with this one...

About a block off Broad Street on Dumaine is a double-shotgun Victorian house built around the 1920's. The owner's side features three bedrooms and one bathroom and the rental side is two bedrooms and one bathroom for a total of almost 2000 square feet. It's got all the goodies I love, on both sides. We're talking fireplace mantles, floor-to-ceiling windows, transoms, sliding pocket doors and hardwood floors ... plus a cute porch and a rather large backyard. The house is almost smack-dab between the Fair Grounds Race Course (read Jazzfest) and the French Quarter (read, well...it's the freaking French Quarter already), the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Degas House, Pagoda Cafe, the Caribbean Club and Broadview Seafood (read "boiled crawfish").  Also, a Whole Foods recently opened up on Broad Street not seven blocks away, in attempts to kick-start the neighborhood and offer a place for affordable, healthy food. 

There are lots and lots of reasons I can come up with about why this house is so cool, but the most glaring would have to be the price. This little beauty is listed for only $199,000 and it makes me want to cry. Wave buh-bye now...say buh-bye to the pretty little house because soon it will be gone.