My 1950s Ranch House, 54 years later.

One of these days I will go through my photos and scan them, but today isn't the day I want to do that.  So no before pictures of the house, just what it looks like this morning.

If you ever wanted to know what a little fir tree would look like 54 years from planting, should you want to plant one...look to the right side of this picture.  It's not my tree, but the neighbors. You can see about two thirds of its total height.  According to one of the neighbors across the street, the original owners next to us planted the trees after the house was newly built.  The story is the wife liked to entertain guests and so to decorate her back yard, she planted small trees in the narrow strip of this corner lot.  The 3-4 fruit trees were taken out by a subsequent owner, but the 3 fir trees continue(d) to grow and grow.  Fortunately the power company took one (farthest from our house) down last year.  Wouldn't mind the others being gone, they block the southern exposure and dump debris onto our roof and into our gutters.  But that won't be done by the current owner.

Front yard today.  We keep it plain and simple.  That is enough work.  The Japanese maple was planted in the mid 1970s.  I've replaced all the doors and had vinyl windows installed.  The red brick facade is original to the house.  I love the old cedar lap siding!

A glimpse of the back yard from the patio.  This was once as bare as the front yard when I purchased the house in the mid 1980s.  We see this portion of the house from the kitchen and family room addition.   To the right is a separate "room", a vegetable and fruit garden.  It's a lot of work, but I love it--my little paradise.  I am dreaming of a deck these days.