Our New Neighborhood

These are the houses around us that have been rebuilt since the Glass Fire in 2020 burned down the original houses. If you picture our house in the middle, these are in the positions relative to us. Clockwise from top left are The Bunker House, The Pea Green House, The Fortress House and Janet and Paul's House. They were all take from our house, so they show the elevation of the house that we see.

We went to Bruce and Cindy's for dinner last night. We took Spike and Hazel, their basset hound puppy, through persistence and refusing to take no for an answer, taught Spike how to play. They had a wonderful time marred only by the fact that Spike destroyed three stuffed toys and ate a chunk of a rubber ball.

Cindy is the resident realtor on the street and told us that the people living in the Bunker House have bought it. This is the house that has been under construction since we moved here in 2012 when a septic system. was being installed.  The building site was moved to it's current location after PG&E put up four ugly power poles in front of the original location, further down the road from us.*(one more thing to hold against PG&E). We spent a considerable amount of time discussing how that camper van got into its current location on a fairly steep rocky hill.

The Pea Green House's predecessor was a deep teal color, with a swimming pool. I quite like the design of this  house, although it is hard to tell if we are looking at the front or the back of the house. I like the folded metal roof and don't even mind the color, although it remains controversial.  The railings  on the Fortress house stairs were finished last week. I get a different number of stairs every time I try to count them, but I think there are about 28. And it is quite a hike up the driveway from the street to the bottom of the stairs. 

We  sometimes refer to Janet and Paul's house as The Normal House as it is sensibly placed right on the street and is almost exactly the same as the original with just a few architectural details to make the front of the house more interesting, and some small improvements in the upstairs floor plan. It was the first of these houses to be completed  (with the exception of the Bunker House, which incomprehensibly took 11 years to complete) because of its flat lot and accessibility to building equipment. 

So that is the brief tour of our immediate neighborhood. The houses look closer than they are because the abundant greenery which shielded them from view and provided privacy was all lost. The beeping has stopped and will probably not resume. Bart and Renee in the Fortress House are having an engagement party for their son this evening. The guests will all be toiling up the stairs as the elevator is still not installed.

Sorry for lack of comments. I do appreciate your support for Spike and our difficult decision regarding his eyes. I'm beginning to think that they are bothering him more than he lets on....