This Old House is Ours

Ours is an old house built in the 1920s by an Italian family; an ancestral home that housed several generations of family members until the last remaining grandson grew tired of it and put the house up for sale in 1997.

The grandson was a lousy home maintenance person. We have found this out during our years living here. His repairs are slowly falling apart and failing all throughout the house. His name was Frick and whenever something goes wrong we mutter, "This Fricking house".

The past year it was the plumbing that went haywire. Leaks, a plugged main sewer line (again), broken pipes. The floors are wood with no finish other than paint and we risk slivers if we dare walk without shoes or slippers. During heavy rains we have to dig a trench outside our gate to divert the street runoff into the vacant field in front of our property or it all rushes down our driveway and floods the yard because the City has no storm drain on our street. I'm talking so squishy it can suck your shoes off and ponds of water throughout the yard.

But with all the flaws and a few things in the house I wish were different, like a larger bathroom and new counters in the kitchen, finished floors, I love living here.

This is our yard facing South during Spring. The neighborhood was a fruit orchard until the 1950s with only four houses, all built and lived in by the original Italian family members. Our yard is just shy of one acre, fenced all around and contains 22 very old fruit trees plus two large pines. We enjoy cherries, pears and several varieties of plums and apples. Blackberry bushes outside our fence invade the yard during the summer and are probably what holds our fence up, but we get to enjoy fresh blackberries each summer. Hmmm, maybe I should bake and do home canning again. Hey, don't laugh; I do get the urge once in awhile to be a June Cleaver or Betty Crocker. I've acted on that urge in the past and still have the canning supplies to prove it.

This is the West side of our yard, the area that divides our house and the neighbor's. This spot was overgrown with a huge bamboo patch, ivy and Morning Glory. We tried to tame it and keep it maintained, but the invasive nature of the plants kept it looking unkempt and jungle-like no matter how much work we put in. Solution: we dug everything up and made a Japanese garden. This is its beginning stage. We are still pulling up the stray ivy or bamboo, but are staying on top of it. We did plant bamboo in a large concrete planter to keep it manageable because what would a Japanese garden be without bamboo? A work in progress; we plan to add larger gravel in a pattern to simulate a flowing river which will be the walkway and the red maple in front is being sculptured bonsai style.

See that large front window above the porch steps? It's larger than it looks. That's my office. My table (no desk for me, I use a large wooden drafting table for my workspace) looks out into the yard where I can see apple trees and the stray cats that come to the porch for their daily meal. My view into the yard is not always a good thing. Here I am gabbing on my blog instead of studying like I should be.

So why am I talking of the yard, trees, blackberries? The past two days here have been sunny, no rain, somewhat chilly, but the birds are singing and it feels like Spring. Ah well, it was a glorious day. I'm thinking "Winter be gone, Spring hurry on in". I want to have a vegetable garden again this year. Time to get cracking on that so I can have Snow Peas.