The Place I Live

[rockkid]

For sure don’t get rid of that brick & stone. Sets the house off perfectly IMO.

[strat-0]

Thanks, Rock!

Well, here the Thanksgiving Holiday is about to begin. I've got a fire all set in the fireplace on my new extra large grate - and it's damn near 60 F outside!

I've already had several fires on cold nights, but I really wanted to kick back and try out the new 36-inch wide grate. I'm sure Rockkid will have little sympathy for me!

[rockkid]

Surely do my man. Just lean in and rub hands briskly over fire.
Have a toasted mallow for me will ya.

[strat-0]

It finally got cool enough outside to light.

[strat-0]

Now that winter is here and the woods aren't all haired up, I can see a lot better what I've got. I knew the line was 140 feet back from the deck but it's hard for me to gauge distances like that so I measured it out with string and found the markers. It goes way past the creek and up the other side of the hill, almost to the neighbors' lawns. The adjacent lot is mine too, for a total of about 2 acres. Took some pics today.

Here's the house from about two-thirds the way back. You can barely see the tree-stairs, and the creek runs behind the house and to the right:



Here's a shot of the creek:



A nice rock formation and pond in the creek:



Another nice rock place with a waterfall and pond. It makes such a pleasant sound.



A closer look at the little waterfall. When the water's just a bit higher it runs over that big round flat rock on the left too.

[Philemon]

Nice !!

All that's missing
is 3' of snow
and I'd feel right at home !!

[strat-0]

The current wood supply. You couldn't even see that tree before winter - I didn't even know it was there. The trunk is about 4 ft. or more at the base and about 40 ft. before the first branch. Don't know when this bad boy went down, but it must have made a helluva noise. There's a lot more huge tree top boughs that you can't see - I've been working on them, and some are crackling away in the fireplace as I write! Should last til sometime in '08 I figure.





My handy-dandy hydraulic wood spliter has been getting a workout!



Voila!

[strat-0]

Philemon said:

Nice !!

All that's missing
is 3' of snow
and I'd feel right at home !!

We may get some yet, but closer to 3 inches rather than 3 feet! (We did get a few feet in '93)

[Philemon]

Mine had a farm tractor connected to it ...

[strat-0]

Still beats a moll and a sledgehammer!

[maarts]

Awesome digs, Strat!

You don't see thiese kind of places too often here anymore. The constant threat of bushfires in this country certainly has made clearings and open access more important than shades, brooks and relative quiet comfort of the trees surrounding you.

[strat-0]

Well, that makes sense, Maarts. We're subtropical here - as witness this pic from page 5 in September after Ivan came through:



I also noticed in paging back that I was remiss in not commenting on Riley's georgeous home with the plush lawn and stuff.

[maarts]

I'm just envious at all your beautiful homes so I decline to comment most of the times.

Seeing the damage of tropoical storms or, like here, bushfires can be devastating. Perth looks like Tokyo right now with many people wearing facemasks to cover up for the smoke that drifts in the streets courtesy of the bushfires raging about 50 Ks land inwards.
Most recently the fires laid flat parts of Eyre Peninsula, near Addelaide (Scottsy's home). Scary stuff. Especially the stories about people dying trapped in their cars trying to escape the flames and smoke.

I still can see the damage done by the massive fires that destroyed the Blue Mountains almost 11 years ago. The bush is rebuilding nicely (nature's strong that way).

[bowiglou]

Hi all....never investigated the 'general threads' part of post rs.com, so thought I would briefly describe where I live (though I have no pics)............I live in a area called Point Loma which is coastal part of San Diego (southern part)........I moved into my wifes and her two kids home a year ago.....kinda small home but from the street you have a view of downtown, and a couple blocks away can oversee Sunset Cliffs, which is cliff-laden oceanic environs.....somewhat like Big Sur (without the trees!!).........house was probably built in the 60s or so, and is relatively modest..............but with median prices of homes in SD approaching the half-million mark, even a modest home can be $700,000!!!!!...............(in fact, I just found out that the home we had in Solana Beach from my prior marriage, that we ended up selling when it foreclosed, and though it was worth $610,000, we sold it for about $509,000 given the foreclosure, is now worth 1.25 million!!!!!!

[strat-0]

Sounds lovely, Bow. The real estate market in CA is mind bogling to me. I don't know how you do it, but I guess it's something you learn to live with, and it must be offset by wages and salaries, etc. to some extent. Location, location, location!

There are areas around here like that, but if you don't mind a 25-30 minute commute or care about a trendy zip code then you have some other options. Your housing dollar can provide you some good value. In Birmingham, the most "desirable" areas begin in the south east side of the city and continue in that direction on through the next municipalities into the next county, where everything is getting (over) developed. The most "undesireable" areas are the north and west sides of the city and the western municipalities. When I looked into buying a house, I looked everywhere for a house with what I wanted at a price and commute I liked. I made the unorthodox move of buying in the next town north of the city, which is quite nice, and I feel like I've cheated the system! When I ask other people how long their commute is (to that over-developed area where we work), they usually say 25-30 minutes - same as mine!