Well, after talking about our tiny bathrooms last week, I thought I would go more expansive this week - outside our house.
As you may be able to figure since our house is small, the property it is on is also small. Technically since the minimum land size to build on has increased since this house was built in the late 1940s/early 1950s we could not build on the land now as it is too small. It is the sort of property that makes us very close (in distance at least) to our neighbors as their property is the same sixe. It is maybe 25 feet from our driveway to the door of the house on one side. The house on the other side is the same distance from us, but it feels like there is more room as neither of us has a driveway on that side. Their family room starts about 5 feet from our property line.
The house came with a detached one and a half car garage and we added a shed behind it while we have been in the half. We live on a main road - 2 lanes plus a parking lane in each direction. The first year we were in the house we found out not to park my compact car (or anything else) in the street - we had to replace the driver’s side mirror twice. As a result we had a semi-circular driveway put in - that takes up almost all of our front lawn space. In the early years we made the mistake of planting grapes - we have not really had grapes from it (enough to make a cup of very strange, brown, grape jam), but it has taken over that side of the backyard and between that and the bushes and trees that were planted by the former owner we have a jungle on that side. We also have for a few years now, poison ivy on that side that husband has to kill every summer - several times.
When we first moved in husband would cut the grass, but his allergies made it very hard for him. We were both working full time so we decided to hire someone to cut grass and trim the bushes, get rid of leaves, etc. I contacted 4 companies who work at various other houses in the area - one responded. He had a problem with our property. The side of the house (left) with no driveway had no access to the back yard. The side with the garage did not have a wide enough entry to the back yard for his mowers. So, we went out and cut a gate into the fence on the left side of the house. This company took care of our property for some years - doing (and charging us for) much more than we wanted done. When husband quit his job, we switched to the brother in law of his secretary and were much happier with him, but he “sold” us to someone else. The new fellow was okay at first. Since a time when we were almost “snowed out” of our house (we were away on a trip - back then staying in hotels - when an unexpected huge storm hit at home and we were not sure we would be able to up our driveway) we had the each of the three of them clear our snow in winter for us. (Well worth the money.) While the last fellow was cutting our grass, we had major storm one winter. I mean MAJOR - we had not seen that much snow in one storm since we were children - if then. No one came to clear it. We tried to reach him. His phone was discontinued. We called the fellow who sold us to this one - he managed to find out that the fellow had gone home to South America for the winter - leaving us hanging. I won’t go into the saga of trying to get someone to deal with the snow that winter - but the next winter the same happened after he said it would not and the following year he did not even come to mow, so we are back to doing the work ourselves. I posted last winter of our adventures with snow about as big as just mentioned - maybe even deeper.
So, allergies or no allergies, husband went back to cutting our grass. Over the years it has gotten harder and harder for him as he does not have enough energy and I have been helping. Now remember, we basically have no front lawn due to our driveway. We have the grass at the curb and the semi circle of the driveway (now our van is parked there) and the grass on the side of the house without a driveway - at the street end the grass is maybe a foot across, so basically it is our backyard.
Last year he took stuff to kill weeds and killed the grass (and weeds) along the curb and in the semi circle so we don’t have to mow it. One year we will get the semi circle paved and that will help in more ways than one.
This year to make it easier we bought an electric mower. It is lighter and we don’t have to deal with gas for it. We have used it twice. It has a piece hanging that one is suppose to feed the electric cord through to hold it in place - to help not run over it when mowing. But, it is too small for the size cord one is suppose to use, so husband has made an adjustment to it, even so it is a problem with the cord hanging. So I walk a distance away from where he is working and hold the cord, so it is not on the ground.
Our garage is actually husband’s wood workshop. It being a small space for same, we have all of the larger power tools on wheels. They sit along the perimeter of the garage walls and pull out to be used. It is a mess in there right now - has been for a few years. We really need to take time to get it cleaned up and back to where it was when we set it up - nice and organized. When we first set it up we bought a through the wall air conditioner for it - or husband would not be able to work in there when it is hot. When the fellow came to install it he was surprised and said that he had never installed an air conditioner in a garage before. We also had a door put in. A door put in - huh? Well it had the large door for cars, but no other door. We used to store all of the Christmas stuff on boards attached to the rafters. We would bring the boxes into the house and set up the decorations and put the boxes back in the garage. One winter it was very wet and very cold - the large rolling garage door froze to the ground and we were not able to store the Christmas decorations until spring - and did not take them down as they would have taken up more room lying about. So we had a door put in where the window used to be and had a better window put in. We also had to put in electricity and walls. (Perhaps that misadventure in construction another time.) We bought hanging space heaters to heat it winter.
The shed holds stuff for our craft business for when we used to do shows - tables, tents, etc. It has the middle seat of our van (we don’t need it in the van). It has our outdoor Christmas decorations, although lately we have used new ones which are in basement - along with the other Christmas stuff these days. (It became harder and harder for him to climb up and take it all down. Just our lights are in the garage these days.) Garden tools - mostly that we no longer use - are in it. It also has husband’s toys that he took when his mother died and her house was sold - mostly he planned to sell them, but his electric trains are in there too.
We have a small shed next to our garage. It was intended to hold our bicycles. It does - although we really should sell them. It also holds our old and new mowers and trimmer.
Our latest addition is a small shed next to the house in front of the side door. It holds our snowblower - or else we would have to shovel our way to the garage to get it out when needed. It also has two gas cans (currently empty as it is warm out) and for now, the snow shovels.
That leaves a small enclosed area at our side door of the house that we call “the porch”. It is used for storage of various items for gardening, items for our RV, items for taking care of the vehicles, snow shovels (although new place for them these days) and large garden shovels. It has a small square garbage pail (the sort one would find inside the house) for our soda bottles for recycling next to the door to the house. It also has husband’s boyhood work bench. This has a box in it to collect cans and bottles for recycling and the newspapers are stacked on the top. I keep cardboard boxes in it to throw out and use same to put out the cans and bottles - and then they take the box also. It has a large plastic storage piece with doors on the bottom 2 shelves and 2 open shelves above. This is where the all the small items are kept for the chores mentioned above. We have a couple of bags of salt for snow. There is also a large garbage bag. This sounds organized, but is actually a giant mess. I keep planning to clear it out and organize it - but it is either too hot or too cold to work in it.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Where items outside the house are stored is as important as where items are stored inside the house. One needs to figure out what one needs - or wants - to have and make arrangements for them to be stored and as easily accessible as possible.
It is easier to set up a plastic shed in warm weather than cold as the plastic is more pliable. (We had to wait a year for the shed for the snow blower as we waited too long and, per the manufacturer, it was too cold to set it up.) Think ahead if you will plan to store winter items in a shed and get it set up before it is too cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment