I think we need a lot more info as to what you want to do and of course your budget

You need to locate a local contractor/designer/architect who's worked with such New Orleans styled homes, especially if you want to salvage any character still left in the house. Surely with their experience, they can offer ideas for most price points. Maybe some Houzzer from New Orleans can offer suggestions on where to start but yes, for the most part, we will need waaaay more info....& photos too.

You get an architect and you plan to use the preservation board in New Orleans. Get a big budget too.

Walk your own city.....

I'm sure the rules and covenants are strict in New Orleans. Would be best to consult with your local building official and any neighborhood group to see what is allowable. I would suggest hiring a local architect familiar with work in the New Orleans area. He should be knowledgeable about what is allowed as far as renovations. He can also guide you thru the process to restore the house more to it's original state. Good luck!

You need a local professional. This is what i do in Savannah Ga. it takes years of experience + research on your specific property + selective demolition before we even come up with a plan. Looks like a fun project!

I don't know how much you have opened up the walls and looked at the structure of the house, but if you are renovating a historic home in New Orleans be prepared to find a LOT of termite and carpenter ant damage and have the budget to repair it.

Maybe you'll be fantastically lucky and there won't be any, but.......the odds are against you.

Quadruple what you spent on the house originally, and hope it’s that cheap. Things rot in the swamp. Getting dunked by water accelerated that.

The tear down will be less . Sad but true.

Spend time with your camera in the Quarter and take pix of traditional houses that remind you of yours. That should give you a context for adding curb appeal that suits the locale. If you see any that look recently done, or where a crew is actually working, stop and chat about your options, sharing pix of your place. You never know where help will come from.

It would be really expensive to hire an architect to restore the house to its original condition
, whatever that was. Might be better to get some Pictor houses like yours that have character and are in better condition, and see what can be done in your budget.

Write down your budget. Review your inspection list from when you bought it. Sketch the plan of the house, each floor separately. Walk around and write down your list of what absolutely has to be fixed. Then write your list of what you want. Does the house have lead paint?

Supposed to be “pictures of” houses you like. It was getting late. And this daylight savings time change is really messing with me.

deco, this house is not in the Quarter. OP said it is in the central city area. There is a difference.

OP, it looks so typically NO. I think that at this point you can do whatever you want with it as that is probably what the previous owners have all done to it. If it were my choice, I would choose to take it even more modern and not worry too much about restoring any really original outside to it, just my opinion.

I lived there for a few years and have both sides of the family still there, but have never been involved in getting permits and such. With the experience with my families after the storm, I don't think that there are as many restrictions for what you can do there as one might imagine there to be, aside from the usual safety ones around electrical and plumbing, unless you have some historical designation. It is a pretty free wheeling place.

The storm destroyed a lot of the old, but a lot of the new looks pretty darned good! It gave NO a refreshed look. At a price, yes.

I would prune the tree so that it doesn't completely hide the house. One of the first thing on my list would be to replace the picture window with two or more windows. Look at this one: https://www.houzz.com/photos/1562-n-prieur-traditional-exterior-new-orleans-phvw-vp~151932867

Our house on Cherokee · More Info

It needs some color. I see some detail that could be brought out with some contrasting paint color. Also, get your neighbor to get a classier "Beware of Dog" sign--LOL! Good luck with your project!

Here's what I think the house might have looked like before it was raised sometime before 1900 - with two large windows & real columns, It also had a side hall that was later enclosed.

2218 Baronne- Restoration · More Info

I'm thinking of aiming for something like the look of the house in the photo I've added, but I'd like to find out more about the original design if I can. This crazy virus may give me time to do some research in the city archives.

I would remove that tree and replant a dwarf flowering and keep all landscaping at railing height and below for the courtyard then put in those two tall windows in front like your photo.

I took a look at that house on the market when it was for sale. That one bedroom certainly looks to be quite unique. The previous owner had a very odd sense of things.

That part of the city was an area that was originally built for the working class and there are a lot of shotgun houses I understand that gentrification is on the way and it is up and coming.

It looks quite odd that the driveway runs under that part of the house. I think you said that the house has been raised.

Good luck on doing whatever you end up doing.

New Orleans is real unique bag of sensibilities. There is no where like it anywhere else in the country. If all you ever see is the tourist part of the Quarter, you will never know what it really is. You probably know it very well to know to invest in this part of the city.