October 17th 2021

So, we did a thing, y’all...

We bought a lake house!

Sal wants to start buying properties to either flip or rent and we’re starting out with a 3-bedroom, 1-bath house on Lake Bruin in near St. Joseph, Louisiana. It’s a little under 2 hours from our Mississippi home.

Lake Bruin is an oxbow lake (the term for a lake that was once part of a river, in this case the Mississippi River). It’s a popular recreation spot (especially for boating and fishing) and the area is also a hunting destination.

Our plan is to add a master bathroom and update the property, then rent it as a fishing / hunting camp and family getaway. We’ve named it Camp Lagniappe. Google that word if you don’t know what it means 😉.

We’ve got beaucoup ideas and would love to share the progress with you.

The photos below are from a visit this weekend. The power was off, but should be turned on soon. At least the weather is mild and there’s nothing in the refrigerator to spoil. The pictures are a little dark, but should give you an idea of what we’re getting into.

We’ll share some pics of the bedrooms (in all their carpeted glory) and other areas in an upcoming issue.

Let the Destination Renovation begin!

Street view

Camp view from the pier

Another deck view

Entry view

Entry from back

Kitchen (a bit dark with the power off)

This photo is from before we bought it and rearranged things a little. We weren’t fond of the way we had to walk around the dining table to get to the living room from the kitchen.

The previous owners left us some starter furniture. We’ll likely replace most of it, but we rearranged it for now to see what moving the dining table out of the walk path would look like. It’s better already. We’d like to get a long farm table to replace the tile top table.

Living room view from the kitchen

Living room

We like how much closer the sofas are to the view with this layout.

The living room is nice, but...

... the sunroom is our favorite space.

Another view of the sunroom

And another

Last one. Promise.

What do you think?

We’ve got a ton of ideas and an inspiration board, but we’re just getting started and would love your thoughts. Reply to this email if you’d like to reach out and tell us what you’d do.

Next Steps

• Have the power turned on
• Find out if we need to replace the roof (we factored this into our buying price) and contract a roofer to do it if needed
• Replace the outdoor HVAC unit (the sellers replaced the indoor one, but we are fairly certain the outdoor one needs replacing, too)

Until next time,