ER and I had brunch out on the front patio. I never know what to call that area. It was a small front yard that is enclosed with chainlink. My stepmom, Marlise, tried for years to get a lawn to grow there. The small area was dry and dusty and miserable. So a few years ago we paved the area with sandstone. A homemade job...very uneaven but I love it. There was already a drain put in by my Dad years ago that runs under the carport. Otherwise paving that area would be a disaster waiting to happen. The house is in a low spot. So without that drain the patio would turn into a pond when it rains. I bought two table umbrellas at Home Depot for the Walmart plastic furniture that I had bought. It made a lovely place to sit and watch humming birds. I have a feeder hanging from the small porch overhang at the front door. The only downside is that the umbrellas blow over in strong winds...if I don't get out there quickly and roll them down. After three years the umbrellas needed replacing. Was going to do that this summer but happened to see just what I wanted at Wallmart. Love that store.
There was a tree in the corner of the yard that finally just got too old. Branches were falling so now it is a stump. We planted yucca around the stump so it doesn't hurt me so much to see it.
And of course the fire pit that Elizabeth bought for me at Christmas. The area is perfect.
My Dad got this place back in the late 1960's. He had made a loan to a friend...a second mortgage. The friend defaulted on the first and the loan company was forclosing. That meant my Dad would loose the money he had loaned on the second. So he went to the loan company and took over the first. The house is very old and started out as a two room with a large round rock fireplace. Mostly built with redwood. It was added on to in 1940 and then my Dad made some changes too. They used the back bedroom and changed the front room into one larger room. In the late '70s he built a new master bedroom and bath.
The ceilings are low and since my dad was 6'2" wondered how he liked living here. It was planned to be temporary. He owned a hill off Woodside Ave. and always planned to build a big house up there. After he moved here Marlise didn't want the big house. She liked it here. This place has a special feeling that is hard to describe. He died in 1985.
He liked the look of palm trees and palm lined drives. This property has a long driveway to the road and he planted palms along both sides. The neighbor on one side would like them removed. The neighbor's property is higher than our drive and I think it would make a real mess to remove the trees...and it would ruin the look too. I love those trees. The people that owned his place sold out and moved to AZ. He and his wife bought when property values had hit the high mark. They paid a couple of hundred thousand more than the place is now worth.
The previous owner had gotten permission from my Dad to drive from his back yard down into our driveway. Then after my Dad passed away he built a paved drive way down into ours and built some sort of building there. Marlise, was so mad about that, but she never said anything to him. I made it very plain to him that new owners would not be using my drive. That there was no easement to our drive and that it would be closed off. That didn't make me flavor of the month when the new owner asked me to relent on that and I refused. Though when they wanted to put in an above ground pool in the back corner of their property I let the work men drive up the bank on our side of the fence and even take our fence apart so that they could take all the supplies for the pool in.
After my Dad passed my stepmom lived here until she died in the summer of 2000. I bought the place from the trust. I like living here too. Marlise let the little house in back to ER. We separated in 83. Our son Dave was living with him too. Then two years ago my Daughter came with her two children. Now she is living in the little house. Hailey and I were on our own for so long it seems strange to share a place now. I have my own space and spend a lot of time there. Otherwise I would go nutz. Last year Megan went back to live with her father. So mostly it is just Elizabeth and Cody.
Yesterday I visited Jackie and had lunch there. She has new puppies and so had some puppy time. The big girl puppy is so cute. I could fall in love, but since I lost my dog because ER left the gate open don't want to get another. I will stick with our cats. We have five.
Fluffy was the only one that wasn't fixed. He started catting around, yowling, and pissing on everything. So off to the vet. Over $400! He has been very quiet since and now even lets me pet him. To get him to the vet we had to get him into the carrier. He ran under the furniture and finally Dave and I cornered him and got him secured. I think he knew.
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