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| Casa Tipton-Kelly this morning |
This is a picture of the front of our home that I took this morning when I returned from my short walk.
Casa Tipton-Kelly, our home here in southern coastal Delaware (east of One!) since we moved here in 2006 is the best and last home I plan to have. It is my intention to end my days in this house.
Pat wants to eventually move to Palm Springs. While I love Palm Springs I cannot see giving up this almost perfect (no place is absolutely perfect) home and start all over again. I could never get a home like this in Palm Springs.
First of all homes in Palm Springs don't have basements. I need a basement wherever I live.
We also have four full bathrooms in this home. We lived in a large house in Pennsylvania but only had the standard two and a half baths. I found out quickly that didn't work for us because both Bill and I have our own bedrooms with our own bathroom. When we had company at our house in Pennsylvania our guest had to use one of our bathrooms. That's why we didn't have guests too often. In fact I can only remember one time we had a guest at our home in Pennsylvania in the whole twenty-five years we lived there. That's probably why we didn't have guests.
Here in Delaware, I have a bathroom for every bedroom, a FULL bath. Of course most of the time we don't use two of the bathrooms. I have to remember to occasionally flush those toilets just to keep the toilet water fresh.
Here at our home in Delaware we finally have a place where we have nice neighbors who are respectful of us even though they are straight and Bill and I are gay. No "looks" or other actions to make one feel uncomfortable in one's own neighborhood like we experienced in all previous places we lived.
Another big plus is this neighborhood is so quiet. I LOVE quiet. No screaming kids even though we have children next to us and across the street. No screaming unlike our home in Pennsylvania where "Stephanie" (our neighbor's little girl) always started the day screaming as she ran out to her pool. And her playdates were a nightmare, all those screaming kids. The acoustics were like a megaphone straight down to our house. And to top everything else off they had FOUR ATV'S which they likes to race around the perimeters of their two acre property for hours on end. We moved to "the woods" for peace and quiet and what did we get? Noise. And of course we got the homophobia. I've already went into that in previous blog posts about their anti gay actions towards us and I'm not going to go there again.
Check out my front lawn in this picture. Nice huh? I've always wanted to live in a place with a nice lawn. Be careful what you wish for Ron. Well, I have the nice lawn but man oh man is it ever expensive to lawn treatments. I'm not sure if I can afford that expense if I'm living here by myself. Oh I'll manage somehow, my lawn (and my pond) are two things which give me a great deal of pleasure. And yes, I do the mowing.
A friend of mine is visiting in a couple of weeks. I'll ask him to take a video of me mowing the lawn. I like mowing our lawn. I find it relaxing riding around on my John Deere Zero Degree riding lawn mower. Both my neighbors on either side have Jose (our local lawn mowing guy) mow their lawns. I'm holding out for now but I see Jose eyeing my lawn. I have the biggest lot here, .97 acres whereas my neighbors have .75 acres. I have a corner pie shaped lot, which is what I was looking for. Our lot backs up to a corn field. I didn't want a lot that backed up to another neighbor's lot.
As I have mentioned many times before in previous blog posts I grew up living in second floor apartments. For a brief period (less than a year) I actually lived in a small ranch house (1958-59) and then I was off to the Army for a three year stint. After I got out back to apartments. One room efficiencies, garden type apartments until finally a small town house in center city Philadelphia. I've lived in houses ever since.
I will live in this house pictured at the top of this blog until my last day on earth. The only way I will leave it will be on a gurney through the garage. That's the plan.
Have a great day!
5 comments:
Indeed no basements in this neck of the woods, but then again no lawns to water/mow etc. For me it's worth the trade.
Spo,
I love my lawn but it is a bear. Mowing almost an acre every four days and the expense of lawn treatment. I had none of that when we lived in Pennsylvania. I worry if I can afford this lawn should I be on my own. This lawn is so touchy. In Pennsylvania we had a nice 'lawn", wild grass that we kept cut. Never any diseases. Here if you don't get it treated, the lawn looks like a Mars landscape. I know because some of my neighbors don't get heir lawn treated. Usually the neighbors will children. They have other expenses which take priority. What did I get myself into here I sometimes think.I am a slave to my lawn. The great American obsession for some.
Ron
WOW! That is a view of your home we have seldom seen. It is the money shot. You indeed do have a beautiful home. Lawn up keep is a bitch. I miss my home but sure don't miss the lawncare expenses. I also for sure do not miss those curb and sidewalk repair or replacement assessments. I had a corner lot and it had frontage on two roads and my assessment was way more than any others in the neighborhood. I did enjoy cutting the grass on my riding mower when I had time many moons ago. Did you know that fresh mown grass is an aphrodisiac? It is and that is why so many men enjoy mowing the lawn. A home is for many their single largest asset and it must be maintained in order to get a good return upon its sale one day. Insurance policies must be reveiwed and adjusted to cover full replacement costs. Several years ago a close friends home burnt literally to the ground. He had not updated his homeowners policy and only received about 60% of the cost to replace it. Live and learn he moaned for months. Bil's coughing is somewhat like what is slowly happening to me. Parkinson's is the reason I am having swallowing problems. I also am sleeping with my mouth open and breathing dries my mouth. I am waking up at night to drink water. I am shying away from food I have to chew well in order to swallow. Instead of solids I am eating soft foods. I used to like to eat leaf lettuce, or any type of greens, torn up in salads but now I practically choke to death on them. Soups are nutrional and I don't really mind making them. My, my, my how we have to adjust in so many ways as we grow old. The swelling of my legs had been under control until the really warm weather turned unbearably hot. The right leg has the blood clots that refuse to disolve and I take the Eliquis twice a day to thin the blood. The edema causes little tiny blisters to form and they burst causing litle crusty minute things to form. Two years ago this summer the heat caused my legs to ooze and cellulitis to form. The situation caused me to have a week long say in hospital and 30 days in a nursing facility. It was in the hospital that I learned that our body knows when it is cold or hot outdoors and reacts to it even though we are shut up indoors. Survival mode or something like it is what it is called. Once the weather cooled down the swelling did also. The human body is an interesting and complicated machine. Ron, try not to worry to much about your life and situation. I think we make things worse by spending too much time on thinking about our eventual demise. My shrink says I need to be more social and develope interests that cause me to interact with people on a daily basis. She says my isolation is killing me. Oh well whatever will be will be sort of like Doris Day would sing. Beautiful house you have there Ron! Be safe, be careful, be happy. Bye for now! Woody in SW Ohio and the home of Miami of Ohio and the Redhawks.
Also, I enjoy those photos of you and Pat over in the sidebar. Wonderful smiles on both of you!
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