Lacey Wotring and Jason Thibodeaux had just begun renovating their Irish Channel home when they visited Algiers Point for the first time to purchase a crib.
“We just fell in love with the neighborhood,” Wotring said. “Of course, Jason got on realtor.com and started looking at properties as soon as we got home — as he does.
“As much as we loved the Irish Channel, we knew this was the perfect place for a family,” she said.
Built between July 1867 and February 1868, the three-bay, two-story Victorian house they found at the corner of Valette and Pelican had been robbed of many of its original architectural details in recent decades. These included its elaborate upper and lower cast iron galleries running across the front and side of the house, lower cast iron pillars and railings, and interior plaster medallions, doors, banisters, and mantles.
It has been alleged that the outrage over the dismemberment of the house was the catalyst for the Algiers Point Neighborhood Association’s seeking to have the neighborhood declared a historic district.
When Wotring and Thibodeaux, a real estate developer and contractor, bought the 2,600-square-foot main home and 1,100-square- foot guest house in 2022, it was livable but dated.
“We knew when we bought it that we would have to make some changes,” Wotring said.
Blessedly, the home’s original cypress pocket doors between its two parlors and the stained glass windows overlooking the steep, gracefully curved staircase were spared from the architectural purge, as were the heart pine floors.
With two simultaneous contruction projects ongoing, they spent the next two years sometimes living in their native Lafayette, but mostly living in an active construction zone while also renovating the Algiers Point home, doing much of the work themselves. Wotring is an independent architect. Through her company, Archetype, she designed the home’s architectural and interior design.
On the second floor, a bedroom was sacrificed to make a hallway and a generous primary bathroom with a water closet, a free-floating soaking tub oriented at an angle adjacent to a window, and a walk-in closet. A new 300-square-foot bedroom suite was added at the rear for their couple’s now four-year-old daughter.
Wotring and Thibodeaux also sacrificed an awkward bathroom at the top of the staircase that featured a toilet with a view directly overseeing the upstairs galleried porch overlooking Valette Street. In its place is a generous laundry room with balcony access via a French door that turns a mundane household chore into a pleasurable one. Wotring created a clever clothing rack in the laundry room that suspends from the ceiling over the dryer and can be raised and lowered via a pulley and secured with a cleat. It is a stylish, space-saving touch. The primary bedroom opens onto the upstairs gallery on the wall opposite the enviable laundry area.
On the first floor, the layout remains unchanged, except for the removal of a wall between the family room and the kitchen at the rear of the house and the reconfigurement of a bathroom that once opened into the kitchen. The couple combed DOP Antiques, Renaissance Interiors, and estate sales as well as online resources Etsy, 1st Dibbs, and Chairish to furnish and adorn their home in a vibrant combination of vintage and contemporary styles. Pale, reflective paint colors from Benjamin Moore maximize the light throughout the east-facing house with 12-foot ceilings.
“It is a dark house, so I wanted light colors,” Wotring said.
When Wotring and Thibodeaux, a man with a weekend surplus of “Honey Do” tasks, bought the house, the original hardwood pine floors throughout were covered with sold oak flooring and in the kitchen this was further covered with vinyl tiles.
“Why? Just, why?” Wotring mused.
“We did not want a squeaky clean feeling in the kitchen,” she said. “We wanted it to look period-appropriate to the house.”
To accomplish this, they had Grand Coteau woodworker (and the force behind Lâche Pas Boucherie et Cuisine) Toby Rodriguez custom build a seated walnut island that, while graceful, appears weathered with age. Custom cabinetry by Ben Davis of Lafayette is topped with honed black soapstone counters with heavy white veining. A 36-inch Fisher Paykel six-burner range is recessed into an arched, plaster alcove. Unlacquered brass fixtures and fittings lend to the period-appropriate feel, while a butler’s pantry and panels over the refrigerator and dishwasher doors keep things sleek and fresh.
The kitchen overlooks an outdoor courtyard and dining area. The family room opens onto the side of the soft lavender-hued home’s enviable wraparound porch that overlooks Pelican Avenue.
“This whole thing has taken over our lives,” Wotring said. “It could have been financial suicide. Every second and every dime we can spare goes into this house, but we would do it again in a heartbeat. We love it here.”
Take a tour of this home and six other private residences (and one bonus) at PRC’s Spring Home Tour, presented by Entablature Design + Build, April 5 and 6 in Algiers Point!
