dear friends,

thank you for your kind thoughts and encouragements, both on the record and off. you're super!

everything is working out fine, just as you said it would. after days of obsessively driving up and down my favorite streets, untold hours searching the on-line lease listings, various tours of properties of dramatically varying quality, and a spreadsheet, we found a great house.


sabine street house
Originally uploaded by clairevoyant paranoia.


our new house is on sabine street in the historic sixth ward. it is part of the "raia complex."

"Members of the Raia family owned this cluster of tenant houses for many years. The first house, 818 Sabine, was built around 1910 and features boxcar siding, most widely seen on railroad boxcars of the early 20th century. There was a large railroad car manufacturing plant off Washington Avenue around the turn of the 20th century and several houses in the area were built with boxcar siding discarded by the plant.  The house at 900 Sabine was .... built in the mid 1890’s as Folk Victorian gable-front cottage with an inset porch, identical to the house at 902 Sabine Street. The house was relocated to the rear of the property .... in 1910. The 902 Sabine house dates from the late 1880’s and is identified as a Folk-Victorian cottage with an inset porch. The garage apartment, at 904 Sabine (hidden behind 902 Sabine) was built around 1940.  It once served as a two-car garage with an one-bedroom apartment above; the garage bays were recently converted into a single studio apartment. The small building in front of 902 Sabine was built for Mr. Raia as a print shop in 1939."

we're in the house from the 1880s. it has 10 ft ceilings with ceiling fans, hardwood floors, a living room, dining room, big kitchen with tile counter tops, two bedrooms and two bathrooms- one with a claw foot tub. the picture above is from the rear of the house. you can see one of the other houses on the lot, and the lovely common brick patio area. we have a swath of private yard along the north side of the house, but it is only 6 ft wide. i was worried we'd have to give up the trampoline, but our landlord laughingly gave us permission to put it in the back corner of the lot, between the two back houses.

the more i think about, the more excited i am to move. from our new location, we can easily walk downtown to the angelika, the theater district, and countless other downtown goodies. also, we're just off the white oak and buffalo bayou hike-bike trails.

now comes the hardest part - boxing up all this stuff. we'll probably rent a truck and try to move most of our things on the weekend of the 25th. let us know if you want to help; we'll reward you well.