A SORTED PICTORIAL: A PLACE I CALLED HOME FOR A YEAR ~ I SO WANT IT BACK!

Today I was over my sister and brother-in-law's house, sitting in the yard. I was thinking that I wish I were back at their place. See, when I sold my townhouse, and after a month stint at my mom's, I moved to southern California into my sister's house. At the time it had been recently purchased. They were both generous in letting me stay nearly rent-free in one of the 6 bedrooms they have in the house. I whopping $500 a month toward food and house essentials. I was suppose to have been there for only 6 months and then move in with my brother-in-law's step-brother, renting a room in his soon-to-be-purchased condo. He got into a bind and, oddly enough, ended up moving into my sister's house for 6 months as well. The condo purchase never materialized but we did move out and rent an apartment, a year later. That would be the one I am in currently and of which many of you have already seen a glimpse of my room, located in my post called, PART I: AN 'OSCAR' OR A 'FELIX' MOMENT, as well as its PART II follow-up.

As I sat in the backyard, I thought of how much I really have been hating my 10'x10' apartment room. When I was at my sisters house, I literally had a room that was almost double the size of my apartment bedroom. Plus I used her laundry room as my drafting studio. That was a space that was about 10'x16' with a 2' deep granite countertop running the entire side of 18'. SWEET SPACE! Now I am lucky if I can find a 6'x6' patch of space on my apartment living room floor to put boards and presentations together. Guess I was spoiled in that respect. But have to love my sister and brother-in-law for letting two people invade their privacy for the period of time we did.

Given what they live in, you may think my sister and brother-in-law are that kind of folk that are up'idy. But they aren't! They are two of the most generous people I know. I give kudos to my brother-in-law. He had a difficult childhood, came from a dysfunctional family, ended up in the Marines at eighteen, but from there, pulled his life together. He has been successful in business and at only 36, has worked his way up to a current VP-Chief Information Officer/West Coast for a major wireless service company. He gives freely of his earnings to friends, family, and charities, when he knows it's needed. In fact, if had it not been for his encouragement over my family's, I would never had taken the chance to do what I am doing now. He's a motivator, a believer!!

Anyway, thought I'd share my 'CRIB' for a year and boy was it some 'CRIB!'

These first pictures are of the front of the house, moving from left to right. The left side garden area, as well as the entire front yard, I designed with my sister's input and some guidance on a few plant choices from her landscaper/gardener. He obviously pulled it together for us.

The next grouping is of the backyard. Half of it was done at the time the front yard was. About six months ago, the remaining section was redone...the lawn area and the planters around its perimeter along with the arched arbor entrance. By the way, those are solar panels on the roof. As ugly as they look, they cut my sister's electrical down by two-thirds and it was HUGE before the installation.

A view taken from the house toward the visible back of the yard, left to right. There's another 1/8 of an acre behind it.

A view of the yard toward the direction of the house, left to right.

A view of the path that runs up side of the backyard which happens to be a hill retreat. This is on the left side of the picture views taken toward the house.

The play area in the backyard, right side of the picture views taken toward the house.

This last group of pictures are of the immediate neighbors houses on the top of the cul-de-sac where my sister's house is located.

A Sweet Pad!