Because it is Mother’s Day and I am therefore entitled, I took off for a solo walk through my neighborhood. Not once during the walk did I have to stop to cajole anyone into motion. Nor did I have to holler to anyone to slow down. It was really nice. As I walked I looked at houses and yards. I like to look at other people’s yards. It gives me ideas about what to do with my own. I also entertain myself playing the “If that house were mine” game. That is where in the space of time it takes me to walk past the house I look at it and make a few mental plans for how I would change it. Many of the houses in my neighborhood are architecturally uninteresting. Lots of them are just brick boxes. A very few houses actually have the deep porches and dormier windows that I just love. Not a single house in our neighborhood has a turret or bay window which I also love.
After my legs got tired, I turned my feet back home. My house doesn’t have a deep porch or dormier windows. It is one step above brick box because it has aluminum siding as well. But it is at the end of a cul de sac and today the yard looks pretty good. I finally got weeds pulled and the lawn mowed. Hopefully this next week I’ll get to do some more. I love arriving back home to a place that I have made beautiful.
My wife and I like to do the same thing — in 11 years of marriage, in the same house, we’ve often walked the neighborhood to see what others have done with their houses (all the same early ’50s ranches) and yards. Last year we finally put all that collected knowledge together and renovated our house to what we wanted. The yard is next!
By the way, the roof windows you like so much are called ‘dormers,’ not ‘dormiers.’ You might find the book “Field Guide to American Houses” (http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-American-Houses/dp/0394739698) fun and instructive. Lots of wonderful pictures, and informative text, of those lovely dormered and turreted houses!
My wife and I like to do the same thing — in 11 years of marriage, in the same house, we’ve often walked the neighborhood to see what others have done with their houses (all the same early ’50s ranches) and yards. Last year we finally put all that collected knowledge together and renovated our house to what we wanted. The yard is next!
By the way, the roof windows you like so much are called ‘dormers,’ not ‘dormiers.’ You might find the book “Field Guide to American Houses” (http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-American-Houses/dp/0394739698) fun and instructive. Lots of wonderful pictures, and informative text, of those lovely dormered and turreted houses!