Our House

We've heard, and continue to hear, lots of comments about our house from "I love it" to "I hate it" and everything in between. "It's too tall" "It's too square" "It's too yellow".

Well we love it, our views are amazing and we finally have enough space to create our art.

There has been a lot of discussion about other new buildings downtown as far as height, and people asking for variances to the rules.

Our house was built totally within the guidelines for building within the historic district.

It's about 5 feet shorter than the Sparrow House across the street that was buit in 1843. (Too tall?)

The design is like the side porch houses that you see in Charleston and not unlike examples of Federal architecture you see here in New Bern. (Too square?)

The yellow brick is similar in color to City Hall, our gallery Carolina Creations, and the Elks Building. (Too Yellow?)

And on top of that on a map of 1906 it shows a 3 story brick structure on the lot, right where we built.

I was pleased to be at a meeting when a member of our planning department was talking about our rules that protect buildings from being torn down, and we heard her say "In 100 years the Francoeur House will be a contributing structure."

We've been in a year now, hard to believe!