How sad about Home Sweet Home. I have a special place that harbors hatred for arsonists--they destroy so much, for so many, with no remorse or reason. Glad no one was hurt, and that it does not sound as though the fire spread beyond the one house. I remember how warmly you wrote about this house and grounds not long ago. Sorry about the loss, wcgypsy.

I have that same special place for any and all who do harm.....to anyone or anything..if I could manage it, they would be gone.....

Why why why! I love to draw and paint houses like that. my friends saved a house like that and said it was the happiest home they ever had. one of their kids has it now. these old homes with their good wood and fruit trees. good trees and shrubs with drought tolerant deep roots. I am so sad that another one is gone. usually around here, it would be knocked down and the land divided up for mini mansions. Someone burned it down just because. May something precious rise in its place.

Thanks for the pictures of the old sweet house. It reminds me of my grandma's house that her brothers and husband built for her. Sweet small home and garden of my childhood. I love the WWII generation. Why do they have to leave? The whole thing is sad.

I grew up in a house that was falling down. It was very old and not built on a real foundation. As the house settled the brick chimneys did not, causing floors to be high near the chimneys sloping down in all directions. We lived with it, and all the other faults of a house surviving into old age, but I still have fond memories of the things we put up with. I am sure such a home would be condemned today and declared unlivable, but we loved it.

Well, I'm sure that this old house had more than its share of 'falling apart' and I'm sure it would have had most likely no foundation, etc.....but....I'd hoped it could sit there like that just as it was untill it finally died a 'natural' death.

One of the things we love here is the large number of old houses and we would dearly love to get our hands on all of them, to bring them back...bring the whole world back to a time when it wasn't thought necessary to have huge houses with grand facades.....I resist it all.....deny it all...LOL...friends think I'm nuts because I've never had, nor want, a dishwasher or garbage disposer.

It makes me happy to know that you guys like that little house, also....at the bottom of the picture, behind that picket fence, to the right of the 'gate', you can see the small fig tree that I stole cuttings from....

I remember playing in the laundry on the lines. Especially the sheets. There was no dishwasher, on nice days we rinsed the clothes outside in a big tub with the hose. Everyone had one car in the family and went to the store together and church together. We rode our bicycles everywhere. If you wanted to talk to someone, you went over and knocked on the door. There would be coffee and a cookie jar and sweet rolls or coffee cake. Neighbors shared extra fruit from the tree and helped each other with plumbing or electrical or helped however they could.

You know, the thing is...it's still pretty much like that in many small towns. It can still be found and you can live that life. I find it interesting that we can get affected by the idea, or mental image, of what things LOOK like, how it should or should NOT be...you know, certain houses where a clothesline would just seem out of place and not appropriate. There are still houses, whole neighborhoods, whole TOWNS, where that clothesline is still appropriate for the feel of the house...LOL...where you have just the right spot for it, you know? Put it "out there by the apple tree...."

Line dried clothes smell so good. There was a friend of mine in Irvine who wanted a small clothesline and it isn't allowed. You can't park in your own driveway or in front of the house. Everything has to look just so. Irvine is nice. It's safe. Some people want that clean conformity. I'd rather be on a few acres in the sweet old house planting roses on the fence.

LOL...."Isn't allowed".....HOA's...the death of individualism...well, that's safety for some...let's band together and outlaw everything we don't like...and I DO 'get it', but I don't want anyone telling ME how to do it

A "right to dry" law in California took effect 1-1-2016.

My mother lived in two HOA condo communities when she was older. She liked the way they took care of the outside maintenence but would then complain when they told here she couldn't change the number of slats in her balcony fence or that her semi-dwarf apple tree grew taller than the 8 foot maximum allowed.

LOL, I told her well, Mom you chose to live there. Her second one was seniors only also, which she liked but I found it unnatural. Seemed creepy to me to have a community with only one age group. I want to see all types of people in my neighborhood, kids, adults, pets and seniors.

Plus I'll be darned if my neighbors are gonna tell me how tall my trees can be.