Our House

We bought our house about 8 years ago. It was the least expensive house on our block, a Chicago bungalow with dormers on all four sides. Part of the reason the prices was so low was that the backyard was a mess. There was a fountain; well, it would have been a fountain or waterfall if it worked, and if it had been maintained for the last ten to fifteen years. As it was, we had a concrete monstrosity in our backyard; it took two passes of 8 hours each and 6 people to remove the concrete (using sledge hammers and an electric jackhammer). In addition, we had nasty pine trees that dropped sharp needles similar in concept to caltrops (caltrops are multipointed small sharp objects that always have a needle facing up to penetrate the shoes of horses or people during war); the trees had dropped enough of them for long enough that the dirt was getting too acedic for the grass.

When we moved in, this is how the back of the house looked

Again, when we moved in, here are views of the backyard from our house and a better shot of the concrete monstrosity 1/2 removed

We've worked hard on our yard as you can, hopefully, see. Now, we have two nice maple trees, a fagus tree in the corner by the garage (these trees come from Scotland) and a small dogwood (I grew up in Virginia so the dogwood, that state's tree, was a welcome addition for me). We've planted perenials in the ground, and plant annuals in pots on our patio (a new concrete slab where the old fountain was). Now we just fight morning glory and thistle with some occasional weeding. The grass is much nicer - walking in the yard barefoot is now a pleasure. The dog can even run around his yard and not get stickers in his paws.


A view from our house to the (new) garage	A view from the house to the left

Here's a view from the front - we just had some landscaping done and it looks mostly better except for the two dead bushes, which we'll take care of next year along with some stuff at the corner by the fire hydrant.

This is the front of our house as of September 2005.

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Send email to Bob at electricbob@alephnaught.com
Send email to Aviva at avivakramer@earthlink.net