Categories
Retirement

First and Last House

Playing around on Google Maps, I put in the address of my childhood home and the photo above came up. Yep, that’s it.

As often happens, images prompt me to post.  Pulling up that Google Maps image of the house on Elam Street brought back a flood of memories. I usually live in the present and look to the future, but this got me reminiscing about how things have changed in the way we live, especially regarding our homes.

We moved into that house in 1957 when I was 9 years old and I lived there growing up until I graduated from High School in 1966 and left for college. That’s over 50 years ago now. I only lived in this house about 10 years, but when you are growing up, that’s a long time.

I lived there with my parents Mary and Roel Fowler, and my two brothers Alan and Frank. Oh and our black dog, Snuffy.

Housing really has improved for most Americans in the last 50 years. I thought it may be interesting to compare the features of that house to my retirement home today.

That house on Elam Street did not have central heating and air like all the homes do these days. It had 3 ceramics gas heaters. The heater in the kitchen is where Snuffy our dog would lay in front of, but we all took turns backing up to that heater to warm ourselves when it got really cold. There were only two window air conditioner units, one each in the two bedrooms. The kitchen only had a couple of box fans.  I am not sure what utilities cost back then, but now the cost of utilities seems to keep rising even as we upgrade to more efficient equipment. Water bills seem to be particularly high lately. Regardless of costs, comfort has great improved these days.

That house was probably built in the late 1800s and looks like a farm house originally.  It had wood floors and vinyl floors in the large eat in kitchen where the dinette set was. The kitchen was our meeting place, with a TV, a chin high white refrigerator with ice trays. The first ice trays were metal with a lever to pull to pop out the ice cubes and later we had those blue plastic trays you could twist to pop out the cubes. Many times a pot of Maxwell house coffee was brewing.

Today’s homes have some similarities. Our kitchens remain the center of our homes. K Cup coffee brewers let us get a cup of any kind of coffee we want almost immediately.  Refrigerators have two doors and with ice makers build in the door.  Hardwood floors remain popular.

The house on Elam Street had only one bathroom, with one shower and no tub, a commode and a sink. Maybe a linen closet.  A metal latch on the door to keep out intruders but frequent knocks to see when you were coming out! My retirement home has two and a half baths, a beautiful master bathroom with double vanity which is a must for most people, shower and tub. My full guest bath may go months without anyone using it!

At Elam Street our bedroom did have a small closet but I think we had a piece of furniture called a “chifferobe” to keep some clothes.  My retirement home has a large walk-in closet, but not as large as in our last home. We did have a closet company come install systems in three of our other closets and pantry to be more efficient.

The house of Elam Street had a hodgepodge of rooms. The bedroom I shared with my two brothers was not a bedroom like we think of today, it was a large room. Then my parents had their bedroom. A large living room at the front door was where the preacher and the Avon Lady was invited in to sit. Today’s retirement homes have two or three bedrooms and a great room rather than a formal living room.

Our Elam Street house had a front porch with a glider set and a back porch where my brother Alan used to love to play with the cat, who was delegated to outside. Only Snuffy our dog was allowed in the house.  Today’s retirement homes may have a small front porch, but most have a nice rear patio, deck and/or sun room. That is my sun room at the top of this blog.

There was no garage or carport at our Elam Street home. In the Winter, we had to get out the ice scrapers and go to work to clear the windshield.  When the first cold weather came, you better go get some anti-freeze for your car’s radiator or it would freeze up. Most retirement homes have a nice two or three car garage with automatic door opener.

The yard at the Elam Street house was nice and large with several pecan trees.  We had a lawn mover but I don’t remember cutting the grass as a problem.  The chore was raking all those leaves from the pecan trees! No leaf blowers back then, just good old fashioned raking. We would take the leaves out to the edge of the street in a waist high pile, then burn them. Everybody would be doing the same thing. Then the next weeks we would be gathering the pecans to sell to the man with a scale in back of his truck that could come along and buy our big sacks of them. My brothers and I would use that money to go to the State Fair in Macon and have the best time.

In my retirement community, they say landscaping is included.  Kind of.  Well mowing and edging is for sure.  I don’t own a lawn mower and that is nice. I would be arrested if I tried to rake my leaves to the street and burn them!

We were outside quite a bit usually playing in the yard, eating figs from our large fig tree or capturing a large June Bug from the same tree and tying a thread to the leg and letting him fly circles around us.  Never did that? You missed out. Lightening bugs were abundant at dusk. In the yard, we had fights from time to time, played with the dog, swung from the tire on a rope hung over a tree branch, or sat in another glider set in the back yard and talked. In the neighborhood we played softball, tried to pole vault using limbs, fished at the creek, or build a go cart and rode down the hill in back of our house. These days I am outside more and more since I retired, usually walking or at the bocce or pickleball courts or some other activity. Sometimes it’s nice sitting on the rear patio watching the sky and the North Georgia Mountains.  This part seems to be coming full circle to where I started.

When I announced to my old neighbor that I was moving to a retirement community, she said “Oh, is that where you are going to end up?” Maybe, but I can’t think of any place better.

Robert Fowler

 

 

Categories
Del Webb Communities Home Ideas

Are Houses Too Close?

One of the negatives people considering active adult communities bring up is “houses are too close together”.  At first glance, that’s an understandable concern since the houses are closer together than in many communities, even though smaller lots have been the trend for some time. That’s why many older homes have larger lots.

Having lived in a Del Webb community for almost a year, here is my take on this.

The developer has done a wonderful job positioning the homes for maximum privacy using different lot elevations, varying house set backs, curving streets, berms, green belts  and woods.

Terraced lots
Terraced lots. Taken from the back corner of my lot.

I have only heard this “too close” concern voiced by people who do not live in an active adult community, not by those of us who do live in one. Here is why.

On a personal level, I know my house being close to the neighbors house on the side yards is not a problem.  In fact, I like my yard better than the one-half acre suburban lot I moved from. Getting a good lot for me was just luck because I didn’t even conscientiously consider that.

back yard
right side of my back yard
  • I have a better view that my last house. I can see the sun rise every morning from my back door. From my patio I see a larger view of the sky and at night I can see the stars.

    sunrise from my patio
    sunrise from my patio
  • I have never ever heard the neighbors while inside our house. The hardie plank siding plus extra insulation helps, but hey we don’t sit around playing ZZ Top and ACDC at full volume either. Remember most noise is made by kids, so that is not a problem.
  • Because lots are terraced, at least here at Village at Deaton Creek, I have a very private back yard.
  • Smaller yard is easier to take care of.  Even though the HOA cuts lawns and provides other services, I do water and flower planting. Much easier with a small yard.
  • Our smaller back yard is more usable. We rarely ventured off our deck over looking our larger yard at the last house. Here we are not lacking in yard to use. In fact we can make the surrounding area to our large patio more tailored to our likes. Smaller can be better. We added a railing along the edges of our patio ( with HOA approval of course!), put out some planters, put out Mary Ann mother’s Irises along the sunroom foundation and some calico river stones. I am thinking of my next project right now.

    patio
    patio
  • Because the community has plenty of green space and is located in a forest, there is all kinds of wild life. There are deer, foxes, coyotes, turtles, plenty of birds. There are also 8 miles of walking trails and a pretty large creek. So the allocation is really smaller lots to more undeveloped green space, not a bad trade off.

    Does this look too close!
    Does this look too close! Taken from my patio.

Pay Attention To Your Lot

Lots and homes vary quite a bit. I am sure some have more privacy than others. If this is a concern to you, then pay attention to the lot and position of the home, not just the inside of the home. Consider the back yard, the front yard, front door and window views.

Don’t let your first observations that “houses are too close” throw you off in your home search. Just be observant and mindful that your lot is important too.

View from my front door
View from my front door

Kind of nice not looking directly into a house across the street.  That’s just a little 8 house cul de sac street with not much traffic.  I don’t know that I would like the same set up with a street with heavy traffic.

 

Front looking left
Front looking left

One good thing for privacy is that the driveways are not right next to each other.

 

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