Got a half million lying around? Check out this cool artists' house in NOLA!

[KamaAina]

http://homes.yahoo.com/blogs/spaces/for-sale--rundown-new-orleans-mansion-with-crazy-tree-house-and-an-artists--warren-010915874.html

For years now, it's been known to the local bohemian set as the NOLA Art House. The owner began renting out bedrooms -- there are 17 of them -- as affordable housing/studios for artists. The mansion's 4.5 bathrooms, kitchen facilities and other common areas are shared among the colony.

The home's crowning feature: a 50-foot-tall tree house hugging a giant golden rain tree, built by artist Scott Pterodactyl and friends from Hurricane Katrina wreckage. Here's how the New Orleans Times-Picayune described it back in 2010:...

The tree house "can be easily seen from the raised highway," according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Interstate 10 is so close that the mansion is "washed by noise" from passing traffic and reportedly sat vacant for decades as its Treme neighborhood sagged around it, the Times-Picayune said.

The 6,000-square-foot Creole mansion at 1614 Esplanade Avenue is now on the market for $475,000. The listing touts the "magical tree house installation" and big 14,000-square-foot lot, calling the home a "great opportunity for buyers with a similar vision & interest in promoting artists." According to Curbed New Orleans, the bank-owned property sold for $195,000 in 2005 and three years later was transferred to a limited liability corporation under current owner John Orgon for $72,500.

Yes, that is the Treme neighborhood featured in the HBO series. Plus it's right on a bus line, as well as the Esplanade Ridge, a strip of high ground (that is, slightly above sea level).

[mimi85]

1. It reminds me

of one of those hidden object scenes in a Big Fish computer game. I miss Treme, they sure left too many loose ends on the last show.

New Orleans was probably the best vacation we ever took. Too much fun. Music, food, drink (I don't, but my husband def enjoyed himself). Damn, where's a beignet when you need one?

[KamaAina]

2. Proper beignets can be obtained in the Bay Area

along with the correct accompaniments such as cafe au lait, at Powderface (!), right at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland.

[joeybee12]

3. All I can think of is the fortune in upkeep with all that rain

and all that wood sagging from the rain and humidity!