I was born when my parents lived in a new development in a house built in 1958 when my dad started a residency. He was almost done and they moved when I was a few months old. Those houses were small, postwar houses with 2-3 of small bedrooms and 1 to1.5 baths. As these things go that part of the suburb is now a poor neighborhood, because the houses are too small for the current middle class.

We moved to a small town with almost no available houses. They looked at a number of big, old houses including one with a creek running through the basement. We lived temporarily in a log house built behind the house of friends of my parents. (They had lived in the area before). Then we moved into a house that was really meant to be a house for a couple with a bedroom and bath at one end, a front-to-back LR in the middle and a kitchen on the other. We used that bedroom as a dining room and we all slept upstairs in a series of attic rooms that interconnected with each other Two of the rooms had no heat. There was a toilet up there in a closet. . The basement flooded more than once for various reasons even though the house was toward the top of a hill, and the garage behind the house fell down one day in a rainstorm. There was a Quonset house built slightly behind/beside ours that had a family of seven in it.

When I was seven my parents built a house across the street, and if I could move that house around with me, I would still live in that one.

We were living in a mid-western city while DH attended school. We were renting a duplex and would walk our dog every evening through a beautiful neighborhood to a gorgeous huge city park. The neighborhood was breathtakingly beautiful. One evening we noted a new "For Sale" sign outside one of three smaller cottage type homes nestled in among large brick Tudor homes with immaculately kept yards. The owner happened to be outside and we asked about the house. Admitting he wasn't supposed to take us through, he did anyway and we made an offer the next day. Homes in this area sold very quickly and homes in our price range were unheard of. We were beside ourselves with our good fortune. We put a lot of sweat equity in the house and our first child was born while living there.

We have opportunities to drive past on occasion while visiting family there. The sapling DH planted is now a ginormous tree. One year, while driving past, the owner was outside and offered to take us on a tour. Our son, the child who was born there, happened to be with us. Though he had no memories of the house, it was obvious how special it had been to us (me getting all emotional) and I'm glad he was able to be there for that. The dog we had while living there, was a stray we'd found on a city street. She was with us for 17 years, four states and three countries.

The quonset hut is still there

This was our second home (we were only in our first for a couple of years and it's hard to find a picture that isn't the one hard to see street view.) This house we bought in 1992 for $240K. It is now under contract with a listing price of one million. It is just over 1700 s/f, has almost no yard, no garage, and only three bedrooms. It is also very close to a busy road.That's Fairfield County for you.

My early years were on an Iowa farm. My parents bought it in 1950/51 before my memory is solid. It was a typical story and a half rural home, likely built in the 1870’s, having unheated upstairs bedrooms where you walked thru one to reach others. Downstairs heat was an oil burning stove. Karosene lamps provided illumination until Dad wired for electricity. No indoors running water either so pumped from a well, also used the little house out behind! By the mid-50’s we were modern with city luxuries of bathroom and lights, TV around ’57/‘58. The family sold the land in the early ’60’s and moved into the local town. Actually I consider it a badge of honor to have lived in both the old and modern eras.

Our very first house in a small town near the lower CT river. It was 1200 square feet, built in 1791. The builder was supposedly a shipbuilder, it had the most interesting woodwork and ceilings. It served as the town post office and general store.

We didn't stay there long but it was a very cute first house.

OH MY GOSH, I just looked up the address of my first home bought in 1983 for $60,000. It was a brand new track home. It was very cute, in Friendswood Tx. The price they are giving as an estimate of the value is just under $300,000 and it looks like hillbillies live there. They have FIVE, count them FIVE broken down old cars in the front yard. They widened the driveway I guess so they could park more cars. It's only just under 1500 sq ft but was great for a couple with no children in our early twenties! So sad to see that cute house in such terrible condition. No way in the world would I even slightly consider paying that kind of price for that neighborhood! Looks so blighted! UGH!

Pal, i like the quonset hut better than the Christmas deer…..What a memory!

Whatsayou, what sweet memory of your first house, and what a great thing your son was able to see that part of his history. 🏡

Jojoco that’s a really nice first house! We bought ours for $157k in 1992 and it sold about five years ago for around $400, according to my friend there. We were astonished.

I just googled our first house purchased in 1980 when we got engaged —-a new townhouse in a planned community The few pictures are from a listing in 2011 and it made me sad. We had done some nice upgrades which were long gone I’m sure.

In the LR it looked like they put brown paint on the palms of their hands and spread it all around. They used the same ”technique” in the MBR but in red with a floral border—yikes. The walls in the other bedrooms looked dirty, including what was my oldest’s nursery. No pics of the bathrooms and I shudder to think what they looked like. They did a lousy job painting the original dark cabinets white and the B/S was an ugly mottled beige tile.

We lived there four years and moved when my son was six months old because DH had gotten a new job just before he was born and the commute was too long.

FMRoberts, so much has changed since the 1950s! I was born I ’56 but I can still remember our car when I was in nursery school, a red cadillac convertible with a white top. i thought it was very snazzy and at the time I guess it was 😁 My mom grew up on a farm in the thirties and forties with lots of brothers and sisters and life was very different.

Dee, a shipbuilder’s house near the river with a history, your first home sounds lovely and interesting! I lived on a ship for awhile and the interior woodwork in the main salon was beautiful but very practical also.

Arkansasgirl, i am so with you about people cleaning up their yards—-they dont even have to spend any money, just some time and effort. It’s difficult to understand why they would treat what is probably their most valuable possession in such a way. It must be sad to see your first home treated that way. The owners of our second house cut down every single tree on the lot—-an entire acre! I saw that on google earth a few years ago when i was putting together a photo album for DD. They did not replant ANY new trees….just cut down three live oaks and a small stand of three Washingtonia palms in the back, all the queen palms that lined a walkway from the house to the guest house, and one enormous specimen date palm in the front courtyard. I literally could not believe my eyes. What is wrong with people??

Joanie— another ”what is wrong with people??” moment. That painting technique you described sounds ridiculous (and ugly). Oh my! But it was nice when you lived there and was the place you brought your baby home from the hospital, so in your memory it will still be your sweet first home.

Actually my first house that I bought is the one I live in now.

I was 23, married, and DH was traveling with his job full-time. I looked and looked and found the house, he flew in to sign papers with me. I was so ready to get out of our apartment. :)

It was a red brick, around 1,500 sq ft, half an acre, under 100k. It was a little bit rural, countryside, nice area. It had dusty pink wallpaper with rose cultured marble in the main bath, blue country wallpaper in hall bath. The kitchen had blue formica counters to go with the geese trend at the time.

DH had to travel for several years, so I set about remodeling while finishing my degree. It was cozy and sweet, we had many happy years there … best of all, our DD was born while there. There were only 10 houses on the street (cul-de-sac), we had fun block parties, kids playing. Even though it was small, we hosted all holidays for our families every year.

He built me the most beautiful (very big) cedar arbor, stone pathways, custom iron gate, stone retaining walls … the landscaping was so lovely. The next owners took it all out and put up an ugly bare wood privacy fence with weedy yard. Tore the arbor down, tore out all stone, tore out plantings, etc. I couldn’t drive by it for the longest time.

Our realtor was a lady much older than me who took me under her wing. She and I had so much fun looking at houses. I recently learned she passed away in 2020. She was an amazing woman, and was still selling houses in her 80s.

Thanks, Kswl, it’s nice looking back.

DH moved to Philly for med school while I remained in Pittsburgh to finish my Master's. When I landed my first job I joined him but as an employee of the city I had to live within city limits. We lived in rental apartments for the first 5 years of our marriage while he completed his residency - then we happily left the city and bought our first home in Bucks County, PA. That was in 1976.

It was a small bi-level, around 1500 sq ft on 1/2 acre, and we paid $47,000 - that was all we could afford. But it was brand new and close to I-95 since DH had to drive into the city for his fellowship.

A bi-level was always our last choice for a house. But the price and location were hard to beat. It was also a brand new street so everyone moving in was eager to make friends. We stayed for 4 years and then moved into a 2 story colonial closer to DH's work. For $52,000 we could have bought a 2 story colonial but we just couldn't swing that extra cash at the time.

That house has had several owners and one of them totally re-vamped it. The second floor had 3 small bedrooms, one bath, kitchen, and a DR/LR combination. One of the owners turned the Kitchen, LR/DR into a huge master suite. They put an addition on the lower level, built a detached 2 car garage and turned the old garage into a kitchen and breakfast room.

i drove by our old street a few years ago and was saddened to discover that the front yard was overgrown and the house in need of new gutters and paint.

What a fun topic but I want to see more pictures!

Old listing of my house which I think you've seen before. Of course it's been repainted on the inside and new stuff in the gallery kitchen. The storage in the house!

If you look at the listing, let me say this. See the car on the right side, some bozo made a drive way there and took some evergreens down. That's where we played touch football.

The same bozo must have added the wooden lattice in the back of the house and a hot tub which hides a large rock patio with concrete picnic table. The same boso must have taken out the stacked rock fence on the left side of the house that hid the backyard.

And my room! They showed just a smidgen. It had a coat closet, a two room walk-in closet and a closet with only shelves.

The sun room with two walls of windows was my summer bedroom. That lattice thingy is a huge eye sore. I'm suing!

My town is part of Tulsa CO where I was born and lived when I graduated. Mom sold MY house when I went to college. Boo Mom.

Bought it in 1981 with a friend because we couldn’t afford to buy it ourselves. Scraped together all the cash we could to assume an 8% VA mortgage supplemented by another 18% short term loan. 1000 sq ft built in 1960 on a .25 acre lot in suburbia - 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, fireplace, 2 car attached garage. Wood floors, nice wallpaper and coppertone appliances. Served us well until we could afford to buy our own place four years later.

Upgraded to about 1400 sq ft built in 1963, bigger lot in suburbia, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, two fireplaces and a walkout lower level. Another attached two car garage, more great wallpaper and coppertone appliances. Never did ANY decorating until our third home. Before then we couldn’t afford such luxuries and we were traveling all the time for work so it was good enough. The woman who owned our second house was actually an interior designer so it was pretty nice at the time.

My parents still live in my childhood home - they bought it brand new in 1966, in a newly developed area outside of Wash DC. It's a one story L shaped ranch, about 2200 square feet. They never intended to still be living there this many years later, but now that they are elderly, being all one floor had made it possible for them to age in place.

As for me, 25 years later, we are still living in what was supposed to be our starter home. At the time we bought it, DH was in the military and we assumed we'd be here only three years or so. He decided not to make the military a career but we liked the area so his first job post-military was here. As our family grew, we looked at moving, but we absolutely love our waterfront neighborhood and our neighbors. I can't say I love our house, but it is home. We will stay here at least until the youngest graduates. Dh works from home and can live anywhere. Had I known we would still be in this house 25 years later, and with hindsight, I would have have completely changed the floor plan. It was semi-custom and was fine when we were a young/small family but the floor plan is not the best use of space.

Well, I looked up my first house and it looks better than it did the last time I saw it. The beautiful landscaping has all changed. Much of that was the work of the prior owner. The street side yard was a perennial bed that a college professor brought her classes to come look at and the backyard was small but had inviting beds and fireflies in the summer. The front yard had more perennials and blooms -- now it looks like it is all or nearly all boxwoods. The old crepe myrtles look like they have been replaced by new ones up against the house. There was a garage with a room and bathroom behind it. The last time I saw the house, the garage looked like it was on the verge of falling down. I wanted to cry, so I'm not surprised to see it was taken down -- that's actually a bit of a relief. I'm just surprised they didn't put a new one up.

The kitchen had a Chambers gas range and cobalt blue tile on the lower half of the walls, white cabinets and a quirky pantry with the water heater half in and half out. The breakfast room had corner cabinets with stained glass doors on top. The living room had built-in bookshelves and cabinets. The only bathroom has been gutted -- the black and white tile, the classic charm -- all of those things are gone. Spiffy and modern. And grey and white. They turned the laundry room into the new breakfast room and added a small second bath,. The changes make sense - and it's good to see the house being loved again, but I do wish they'd done it with a little more respect for the age and character of the house. I loved that house (maybe not that water heater though).

We bought a small 3 bedroom brick ranch with hip roof built in 1954. Lived there for 32 years. But now that we've moved back home to where we grew up into our new home, it almost seems like it never happened.

Jinx, your first house sounds almost idyllic, what every young couple is looking for. What a shame all your DH’s loving work on the landscaping was torn out. Inexplicable doesn’t even begin to cover it. Why do people with no interest in maintaining a yard buy a house with one?

Maire Cate, I hear you about the bi-level, and yet I always say that any type of style of house can be wonderful and liveable, depending on the location and the layout. I’ve never been in a new subdivision but can see the appeal. DD and SIL are considering new construction because most houses in the town of their choice never even make it to the MLS and if they do there’s a bidding war. They can get exactly what they want and will have time during construction to declutter and sell their place.

Oakley your childhood home is charming. You may miss those features you remember so fondly but the changes certainly did not adversely affect curb appeal. Your old home place has curb appeal to spare!

2Katz, was your first house also in Minnesota? I noted the two car garage, which does not seem standard in some parts of the country. I wonder how people manage without them in your cold climate. You’re lucky to have bought your second place from a person whose taste you could live with. We’ve never had that kind of luck ☹️

4Kids, if you had moved as your family grew you’d probably be looking to downsize right about now or soon, anyway. Maybe we should call that the circle of housing, lol. At least your kids can’t be upset that you moved them to another school district or city. my DD still holds that grudge. I know it depends on the personality of the child but when we say ”kids are resilient” that’s pretty much code for we know what we’re doing is for us and not the kids.

Lascatx your house is another charmer! I confess to being a huge fan of boxwoods; at least the new owners replaced the previous landscaping with something nice. The interior changes… TBH, I think the only way we would ever really approve of changes done to a former house is if the place was bought by a fellow GWer 😁

AnnieD, a hip roof is my favorite roofline! It’s the best protection and IMO the best looking. Gables can have more curb appeal on the right house, but I still like a hip. I love the fact that you have never looked back since you retired and built your lovely home right where you both grew up. That was obviously the perfect move at the right time.

I was 24, had a tract house built, 1300 sq feet, then we added touches, like the skylights. A pottery sink. A quarter round window. Mirrored closet doors, ceiling fan. A sprinkler system. It used to have aspen trees by the front porch....gone. ♥ The radio towers are still behind it, with red lights flashing @ night. Obnoxious. :0) The kitchen was tiny. 7 years we lived here.

Note: It's built in an active creep zone...the ground is unstable. The foundation had cracks. The basement floor buckled. The front door wouldn't open. The sidewalks in the area ALL buckled, had to be replaced. The builder went bankrupt replacing foundations.

Nicole, that’s a horror story 😧 Did the foundation cracks start while you were living there? You must have been out of your mind with worry! Ironically the inside pictures look perfectly fine. How were you able to sell it? And where did you move to after that experience?

Oh Mtn, that house is Georgian perfection. When you do something you do it thoroughly so its no surprise your first home was a killer showplace. I look at this one and think there would not be enough reasons in the universe to make me leave it unless… I was downsizing, or for a job move, or if i found something better suited to our family lifestyle…..so yes, I guess I do understand. Still, that house is my idea of nirvana, just so you know!

@Kswi.....The area is full of mines, none were logged with the city, we checked before building. :0) Yes, we had water coming up in cracks in the garage floor. I remember filling a 1/4" crack in the entry-way ceiling with caulking. The front yard would sink. I'd roll up the sod and haul in dirt, put extensions on the sprinkler heads so they reached the surface. The house is located behind a HUGE college. The area is considered "high end". lol They built BIG custom homes on top, above us. There was very little student housing. Parents were desperate for housing! It sold quickly! We lost about $20K...but the next house was AMAZING!

The next house was on an acre of land in a nearby town....known for it's witches/palm reading shops...hippie-artist-gay population. The house was 7 years old, a doctors custom cedar home. We sold it for a 477% profit. Looking at Zillow it's gone up .....would maybe sell for a million now.

We built this lower deck...

We’re still in our first house! 1955 ranch that was originally 2 bedroom plus a flex space that could function as a den or 3rd bedroom. (It‘s now our breakfast room.) It’s been modified and added on to over the years and is now a 4/3. We thought we‘d be here 3-5 years, but here we are almost 21 years and two kids later. The location is great and we love the neighbors and neighborhood.

The first house I was born into was a tiny postage stamp my parents rented facing an autobody shop - since torn down.

The first home my husband and I occupied was his nice new build condo - about 1400sf. We sold a little over ten years ago for $320 - would be worth about twice that now. Should have kept it and rented it out!

The first house we bought together we are still in - has been about ten years. A very unprepossessing postwar beige vinyl box but big enough and in a great neighborhood we love.

When we bought

This year (don't ask about the snow shovels and Christmas lights in Spring - the pandemic life was not me at my most motivated this past Spring haha).

The next project is to replace the front windows and enlarge the top ones. Eventually I'd dearly love to re-side but there are many projects on the list before that. The seaside climate here is very harsh on siding so the three most practical options are metal, cedar shake, and vinyl. The vast majority of homes around here are vinyl.

About 6 months after meeting my husband through mutual friends at a Grateful Dead show in Ventura, CA in 1984, I moved from my charming vintage Palo Alto apartment to live with him in Venice, CA. He’d recently purchased a small house there for $127K. The location was described at that time as “the wrong side of Lincoln”. It had two bedrooms and one ugly bathroom; the primary bedroom was a converted garage. It had a HUGE oak in front that dwarfs the house to this day. We felt lucky to own a home, but it was NOT lovely to me; it was a cheaply built tract house, built in 1949 and definitely a fixer upper. We did not do much except paint; couldn’t afford to. It did have a large lot and a freestanding garage…as well as two small dogs next door that barked incessantly every waking moment. It was on a corner lot across the street from a park- sounds nice, right? But every weekend we’d find garbage from park-goers tossed into our yard, dirty diapers, beer bottles.. ugh. A few times graffiti was scrawled across the garage door. I hated it.
Happily we moved to Oakland after only two years, In 1987, and made a nice profit, with which we purchased our current 1914 Craftsman bungalow in Oakland, much more my style.
UNBELIEVABLY I just googled our first home, and the value is currently estimated at 2.1-2.4 million! The exterior looks much the same, but it has been updated, as it is described as a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home, 1790 square feet.

we're still in our first house too! didn't buy until 41 - the condo we rented was amazing, so we really dragged our feet. we only house hunted for one day, and won our first bid. and we didn't have to go over asking! incredibly difficult to achieve 5 years ago (basically impossible today).

you kind of have to make snap decisions and jump on bids here, so it wound up being farther out than we wanted. walking to transit, restaurants, etc, is doable but takes longer than we prefer. bus lines changed after we moved, and my husband had to start driving to work. I had terrible buyers remorse and a lot of anxiety for a couple of years (we aim to drive as little as possible and share one car). but the pandemic happened, he started working from home, and we became home bodies. now the location only bothers me slightly, and we absolutely love the house itself. bonus: we're a 10 minute walk to a lake and huge park. miles and miles of lakeside trails. this neighborhood feels rural while still being well within the city.

it's a 1600 SF split level. at first I thought it was too big for just two people. but now that we're both home all the time, it's appreciated.

view from the foyer:

I forgot to add that our current home in Oakland, purchased in 1987, was the first house we looked at. We fell in love with it the moment we walked up the steps and saw the oak front door with hand made brass hardware, then entered and saw the mahogany inlay and oak hardwood floors. I still remember that exact moment. Our Venice home had dingy wall-to wall carpet.
After looking at three other homes that day, we put in an offer, and every morning since, I feel lucky to wake up in this house. The day of the first viewing was very foggy, and it wasn’t until after after purchasing the house that we discovered we had a two- bridge view of San Francisco Bay!

nicole___ ....known for it's witches/palm reading shops...hippie-artist-gay population.

that sounds like my kind of town!

chinacatpeekin - that sounds like a dream. yay for you!

I was 30 and single when I bought my first home -- a 1929 tudor bungalow that is a distant cousin to @lascatx adorable first home. It was in an historic neighborhood that had gotten a bit left behind because of its distance from the more central historic neighborhoods, but it was just starting to make a comeback.

It was 2/1, maybe 1,200 square feet, with an original bathroom and a 1960s kitchen. It sat on a half acre and had a big detached 2-car garage in the back. I lovedlovedloved that little house, but in my seventh year there I acquired a husband, and he just couldn't ever get comfortable in that "tiny" place. I paid $72,500 in 1996 and sold for $125K in 2003.

About three years ago I learned that a huge oak tree had fallen in a storm and all but destroyed the house. Seriously, half of it was just gone. The then owner was hell bent on getting it rebuilt, and I got her what photos I had to help her out. I think she is just now back in the house.

This photo is from when I owned the house. May it live to see its 100th birthday in a scant seven more years!

OMG, jakabedy! That house looks like it could have been on my block! Seriously, there was a house just down from the one that backed to mine that looked so much like that one. My first house was built the same year. I sold it after I got married and left the state.

This was our first house. We bought it in 1973 for $32,000. We only lived there a few years and then moved. It makes me smile to look at this picture.

Just checking in on this and so happy to read about all your rxperiences. This has been a great distraction that i needed today. Will come back later and read more carefully and enjoy the photos!

Kswl, I meant to also say that I LOVE your first house. It reminds me a bit of the last house I lived in with my parents. It was natural white brick with a full front porch and a single large dormer to the front. They drew up the layout and had it built so it was always special to us. My current house is similar architecture but red brisk and 3 smaller dormers across the front -- and that front porch is what led me to take a flyer (no furniture in the photos) and peek in the windows. The rest is history.

Hope things are resolving favorably with you.

I'm a sucker for an old house, and esp bungalow style. There is such a sweetness to them. I don't think homes should be ...imposing. They should be welcoming.

Jakabedy, I adore that house. Houses like that around here have all been added on to and have 6br.

Seeing the photos of the Tudor style homes reminds me of my grandparents' house. My grandfather emigrated from Italy by himself as a teen and worked for 20 years before marrying my grandmother. He paid cash for their home in the 1930s and raised three kids, including my father, there. I always loved that house. My grandmother still lived there when she died in her mid-80s almost 25 years ago. My uncle bought the house from the estate and has lived there ever since. I have't been there in at least 10 years.

I found this photo on the internet. I have no idea how long ago it was taken but I know my uncle has cleaned up the landscaping/exterior. And funny, I notice there are two chimneys but I only remember one fireplace, in the living room on the right. Looking at the placement of the other chimney, I think there must have been a fireplace upstairs but I don't remember it, even though that is where we always slept. I'll have to ask my father.

I've been following this thread, and it's been so interesting to read the various experiences. I admire those who bought their first homes as single people--that takes a certain something. And I also admire those who moved into the homes of SO who already owned. That takes a whole other something! These are great stories.

My own is as a young, soon-to-be-married who bought with my future husband a track home in Phoenix for which we got to chose ALL of the finishes. It was so reasonable and affordable at the time (around 150K in 1996). A few years later, we moved to the Midwest to be near family, and I couldn't believe I had to live with someone else's flooring and appliances choices. We were spoiled by the Phoenix housing surge. But we learned some solid DIY skills in the MIdwest.

What fun seeing your first homes. So many pretty houses.

@jakabedy how heartbreaking the house was damaged. I'm glad the owner did not walk away.

When we first married, we moved to an apartment near DH's mother that needed us nearby. Four years later when I was pregnant with #2 and #1 needed to start pre-school, we bought our first home in a city known for its excellent school system. We bought it from the original owner, "the cat lady" - the outside cat came with the house. It was a 1959 antique brick ranch. 3BR/2BA. One level with a two car garage/unfinished basement. The kitchen appliances barely worked. She worked in the yard all day and had a drinking problem. She often would drive by to see "her house." She never liked anything we did.

We bought the 2100sf house in 1985, but this photo was taken a few years later after the playhouse was built up the hill in the back yard - its peak to the right of the chimney, and in the photo might be mistaken as a weird part of the house.

Once we had three children, we looked for a larger house but couldn't beat our large rooms, layout and large corner lot. Since there was a set of stairs going up to the attic (never mind you couldn't stand up once up there!), we added a partial second story that housed the new MBR/BA and sitting area which made it 3100sf. I don't know how many azaleas we planted in the front and back yards, but I spent many many many hours gardening. We were there just over 20yrs and during that time we also gutted the kitchen and original two bathrooms, and added a powder room too. I cried when our realtor put the sign in the yard, but we were building our first custom home on a lake, so moving was easier than I thought it would be.

The 3rd owners recently sold the house to the daughter that grew up next door to us. Her parents actually bought their house from the wife's mother's estate when she passed and still live there. Now the home will again have three small children, and grandparents next door - love that. But back to our buyers, they were not yard people. They not only cut down two HUGE Magnolia trees (one in the front, one off the kitchen side behind the fence), they removed all the foundations plants, cut down many trees and shrubs, removed azaleas out front and in the back. Perennials and wildflowers gone. Just breaks my heart. And they painted it GREY, because why not. The yard looks even worse in person. I hope the new owners will clean up the yard.... and repaint the house.

Hey Mtn, I'm still waiting for you to adopt me! So many of the older homes are like the homes on my old street, Main Street. My favorites.

When we moved here after college we rented until we could afford to build a home in the country on a couple of acres.

Here's our original house. The house was facing east towards a creek, pasture and wheat fields. The road is to your right.

See how far away I was when taking the picture? We added-on and it ended where I was standing.

Take a good look at the Weeping Mulberry that was my baby. I'll show you another picture of it at the end.

A shed roof on both front and back was added which matched perfectly. We got a new rock fireplace too.

Below is half of the porch with a sidewalk hidden in the middle.

I took the picture from the room I'm sitting in at the moment. House is now facing the road.

The other side of the porch is longer and deeper.

This was when I had energy. :)

Below. We have two acres and they're surrounding the house except the front. We have a large garage to the right, so the drive is also L shaped. That's my late Gracie Girl, an English Pointer looking at me. My bff forever.

And...the border (grass) next to the driveway on the left side was finally manicured and moved back.

Old picture & the other side of the porch. The rug is much bigger now. lol. Furniture is painted white and still in perfect condition after 12 years.

Large fenced in area for the dogs. The land outside of the fence is ours. Those are my babies below who now live behind us. Thank you Lord.

Entryway and booknook area in the new addition. I wish I'd never bought dark wood floors. The brightness of this room was amazing, until floors and plantation shutters were installed.

Still in progress, the old part of the house was remodeled inside.

DGS when he was about 4 sitting on the edge of the new porch watching combines. See the rock drive? That's DS's driveway to the house they built up the hill behind us.

My favorite place in the world. The Queen's (me!) Walk. It's on the other side of the fenced in backyard, and I love walking with the dogs in this area in blue snow, right before dusk.

The Weeping Mulberry will be below when I find it. Are you still awake?

It died & I refuse to let it be taken out.

That's Lizzie after someone dumped her here while the rest of the house was being done. She still loves a roaring fire.

Raven, the cat who jumped off the UPS truck and my best girlfriend. This is why I won't remove the tree,

Oak,

Cool photos, love the one of the cat! And your gardens. What could be better than a house that sprouts a crop of cute grandkids?

Allison, Loved how your houses was nestled into the landscaping. Goodness knows what the new owners were thinking.