Homes and Gardens

DH and I have lived in seven different houses since we married and began having children.  There were several times that we considered renting in apartment complexes, but gratefully we were always able to find rental homes.  I love having a home with a yard for the kids to play in and plenty of  room to garden too.  

HOME NUMBER ONE

Our first 2 bedroom apartment was the entire upstairs of this lovely older home in our college town.   It was only a few blocks away from the university, so I was able to walk to class, and DH drove to his job on the other side of town.  A single young student lived in the basement apartment.  We lived in this home for about one month after DS1 was born at which time we moved across the country.    

HOME NUMBER TWO

DS2 and DD1 were both born while we were living in the 2 bedroom basement apartment of this house.   We felt very blessed to find this apartment, as the house was situated on several acres of land, and the landlord and his wife treated us like family.  They had a sandbox  and other fun things to play with.  We had a garden plot in the backyard and even had a bunny rabbit for a year or so while we lived here.

On one side of the property was a brand new hospital, behind were woods and trees, and the other neighbors also had large properties with woods and trees.   I don't remember exactly what this trailer was for, but believe it was located down the road a ways.  We took lots of walks and played out in the yard most days when the weather was good.

HOME NUMBER THREE

As mentioned previously, DH soon received a new job opportunity several hours away, and soon we moved to another new house.   This time we rented this whole 3 bedroom house in a little lake community.   The yard was a bit smaller than where we had lived previously, but we had good neighbors and a park and and a very nice beach just across the street.  

The previous renters had kept dogs in the fenced in back yard, so there wasn't much grass back there

when we moved in.  We tried planting our garden back there the first summer, but it was too shady and didn't do very well, so the next year we moved the garden to the side yard next to the garage and

planted grass in the back yard.

In this photo you can also see the little red video and convenience store next door.  It was always handy to be able to run next door to buy a gallon of milk or some eggs or for the kids to spend their allowance on candy or baseball cards.  The kids loved playing in this back yard area too, even though we had to watch out for the poison oak growing nearby. 

HOME NUMBER FOUR

Our next move a few years later was to another rental just a few miles away in a different lake community neighborhood.  This was away from the busy highway that had run by our front door, and was in a neighborhood filled with young families and children.   This house had 4 bedrooms and a family room and DH was able to use the basement bedroom as an office.  As an added bonus, we could attend the same schools and the same church. 

There was  a nice big deck and patio and a fun tree to climb.  The back yard was much bigger than at the previous house.  We again had a little bit of woods between us and the neighbors behind, and we had a wonderful garden spot right next to the side neighbor's woodpile.  There was always plenty to do here, both inside, in the yard, with neighbors, and over at the beach.

HOME NUMBER FIVE

The next move was several states away due to another job change and opportunity for DH.  This was probably one of the hardest moves for our family, as the four oldest kids had many friends in the old neighborhood and had been going to some excellent schools.  We did find another nice four bedroom home to rent in a very nice neighborhood.  We met more wonderful neighbors, and found some new friends and teachers in good schools, and new friends at church.  There were trees in the front, a sunny back yard, and a community pool nearby.  Unfortunately this job wasn't the best fit for DH, so we only lived in this house for one year, but we did make some wonderful friends and created some fun memories here.

HOUSE NUMBER SIX

This move was back across the country close to our extended families.  It took us a few weeks to find a new home to rent, so we spent about two months with Grandma and Grandpa, which was a fun adventure for us, but maybe not quite so fun for Grandma adjusting to five grandkids in the house full time.  House number six was smaller than what we were used to, with just three bedrooms and an unfinished basement, but with lots of help from Grandpa we got things painted and fixed up and were moved in before Christmas.  

The house was smaller, but the yard was huge and a wonderful place for the kids to play and Mom to garden.  Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the back yard that I can find right now.  It came with a tree to climb, beautiful rose garden, an abundance of irises, a plum tree and wonderful black berry bushes.  

(DD3 wasn't quite sure she wanted to be climbing trees yet . . .)

HOUSE NUMBER SEVEN

Current Home

After a few years, and the birth of DD4, we finally found the home we wanted to buy, and this has been our home for the past twenty years.  With five bedrooms, two and a half baths, eat in kitchen, dining room, living room and family room with plenty of storage, this has been a good place to call home.  Still close to grandparents, schools and church, on a quiet cul de sac street with quite a few families with children nearby, it has been a good place to call home.  We have roses and trees in front.

And more trees, roses, cherries, garden area, basketball court and plenty of lawn in the back.  It takes a fair amount of work to keep up but there's plenty of room for fun too, and the house and the yard have seen many hours of work and play in the past two decades.   Now that winter is over and April is here, it's time to start the garden again, and hopefully this summer will see the both kids and grandkids enjoying our home and yard.  And it was from this very back yard that my 2014 A to Z blog posts about my garden emerged.

What are your home and garden memories?