Blog by Mary Kay Hopkins

The preparatory work is complete. Time to bring the house down! Ed Smith, yet another of the great people with DeVillier House Moving and Leveling, discusses the Unified Hydraulic System used to first raise the house so that the top "cribs" can be removed. Then, the house will be lowered.   The h...

The anticipated day has arrived! The concrete within the columns has "cured" so the DeVillier crew will lower the house to the columns today. Once again, Kevin Cormier provides an explanation of the process. In these two videos, Kevin explains the method to keep everything level. The links that f...

Yesterday, I THOUGHT I had featured the bulk of the menu at the new Booda's Bistro.  And, I THOUGHT that breakfast would be my first meal at the newest restaurant in Downtown Lake Charles.  Turns out I was wrong on both counts. Plans changed and I ended up joining friends for lunch at Booda's Bis...

Most Farmer's Markets are open on Saturdays. In Lake Charles, the Charleston Farmers Market meets the requirements for Saturday shoppers. It offers a great place to start your Saturday in Downtown Lake Charles. May I suggest that you plan lunch at one of the many restaurants downtown after shopp...

Chez le Chien Chaud is considered the first "legal" umbrella restaurant in Southwest Louisiana. I'm not sure of the various Downtown Lake Charles locations, but have heard that Chez le Chien Chaud can be found at times at the Old Calcasieu Marine Bank. Given that I've already committed to breakf...

This week, I will be joining friends for breakfast at one of the newest restaurants in Downtown Lake Charles, Booda's Bistro. After checking out the Booda's Bistro menu on their Facebook page, I sense a breakfast decision-dilemma in the works! The menu includes several styles of 3-egg omelets alo...

The French pirate, Jean Lafitte, is responsible for many "namings." A few: Here in Lake Charles, The Contraband Bayou was named due to the legend that he buried his treasure along the banks of the Contraband Bayou.  In fact, one of his alleged escape routes took him through the 53.5 acres known a...

The brick columns have been braced, the hurricane straps made ready, and the concrete truck has arrived. Time to pour the concrete into the brick columns! This is a 5 man process. Two operators deal with dispensing the concrete FROM the truck. Two of the DeVillier crew members manage the hose th...

  Diane Osowiecki of Benchmark Realty provided this excellent post today dealing with credit reports.  Valuable "stuff" here. Thanks, Diane (and to Captain Bill Travis for re-blogging as that is where I "caught" the post.)  Like Bill, I suggest you make comments on Diane's post.   HOW LONG WILL I...

Listen to this message posted by Lisa Heindel of New Orleans. Then, "Be the One".  If ever something should be reblogged....If you don’t live along the Gulf Coast, you probably haven’t been inundated every single day, multiple times a day, for the last 3 months with the images of oil spewing unco...