weekly photo challenge : home

How appropriate that the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge this week is “home” as I’m visiting my childhood home in Lethbridge. I lived in 2 houses while I was growing up, and I have a couple of photos to show what those homes look like today. The first photo requires a little imagination as I’ll try to describe what it used to look like. This odd blue looking structure is now part of an auto parts storage facility. The windows and doors at the front of the house have been boarded over and painted to match the rest of the warehouse. I’m hoping that in my old non-digital photos I can eventually find a picture of the “before” version. It wasn’t pretty, but it did look like a house! The fence has been added for security, but with a missing board, I was able to get couple of other photos.

Try to imagine the center part of the building as a glassed-in porch, with windows on the front and one side. The door and steps were on the other side of the porch. We never used the front door. Instead, we walked along the narrow walkway down the side of the house to reach the back door. You can see building at the end of the walkway, but that’s because our back yard was surrounded by the warehouse. It was an unusual arrangement, as we didn’t get much sun in the yard, and we just had dirt – no grass. There was a big house on the other side of the house with real grass. I thought they must be rich. I remember using their yard for the occasional birthday party. Living large. I’ve included a photo of the fake brick siding that was on the house. It has tar paper on the back and you can literally tear it if you try. The house was very long and narrow, and I have fond memories of watching t.v. late at night, long after bedtime. I could sneak out of my room into the living room and hide behind the small wall section that indicated where a dining room could be located. (We didn’t have one of those either.) But having an extra long living room had its advantages.

Sorry this next photo is missing part of the house. I meant to take a new picture today but forgot until it was dark. I might add one later so check back if you don’t believe me on it being wider than this. It actually is a normal width house, with grass. It was semi custom-built – a huge step up on the housing scale. When we moved into this house, everything was new – EVERYTHING. Aside from the new house smell, we chose all the lovely new carpets, picked all the new paint colors, and bought all new furniture. I started at a new school and life was exciting. I was in grade 4. That was about 1964. My parents, who are 89 (sorry Dad, I know that’s not for another 5 days) and 90 (my dad likes older women) still live here. It was a great house to grow up in, one that always says home to me.

Of course I must include the home I have lived in for the last 32 years or so. I think “not liking to move” runs in the family. This house has undergone a few changes over the years. When we moved in the house was covered with white siding. I couldn’t abide how incredibly boring it was, so we had it painted a brilliant violet-blue. With white trim and a weathered grey shake roof, it was stunning. Little known fact – when you flew in or out of the city in the winter, you could see the house because the color glowed on the snow and made it look like a jewel. When we renovated the house in 1987, we doubled the size of the house and changed the siding to stucco and grey stained cedar. I was devastated that I couldn’t get stucco in the brilliant blue color I had wanted to maintain. I lived with the subtle grey exterior (and by subtle, yes, I mean boring) for as long as I could, and then I started doing my mosaic tile make over. I’m happy with the result. I think I’m done. I hope so.

I’d like to point out that the spruce tree in the photo did not reach the roof of the house when we moved in. For several years we put lights on the tree at Christmas time, until the fellow who helped  informed me that he couldn’t do it any longer. He said the tree was getting too big. Oops – didn’t notice. We have had it pruned once to try and improve the scale. Worked out much better than I’d expected.

No matter where I go, I’m always relieved to pull into the driveway, where I instantly feel at home. Be sure to check out the Daily Post for loads of links to other participants.