Living in a bungalow on a 40 foot lot

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself living in a bungalow on a 40 foot lot. I'm really starting to love this neighbourhood, though. The kids run back and forth in front of my window which is much more entertaining than any TV show. Despite its small size, the house is actually bigger than I need. You could easily fit a family of four in here with room to spare. Both of my neighbours are doing it quite comfortably.

The bushes that I planted at the bottom of my tree are supposed to grow about three times their current size so the front tree won't look like a lonely stick with a couple of leaves. I'll give the bushes a year to fill in, but next summer I might put some more plants in the front yard to add visual interest.

Here's a shot of the street...

The homes are about five years old and there is a mix of renters who don't care about the homes and families who are doing home improvement projects. Some of the yards are starting to look really well landscaped. The sidewalk is on the other side of the street from my house and the fire hydrant is close by. The neighbour's tree (pictured here) is more stick-like than mine, which brings me great pleasure.

Most people use the garage for storage and park outside all year round. This doesn't make any sense to me. Why scrape ice off your car in the winter when you can park inside???? I park inside.

An earlier post showed some GLAMOUR shots of my back garden. The reality is pictured here. The deck has two tiers. The top part is covered and has direct access to the eat in kitchen. The lower part of the deck (pictured here) has some planters and a little fire pit on fire proof blocks. The Lee Valley hammock is sited just below the deck, in the valley at the bottom of my yard. The steep grade keeps my basement dry and the privacy fence at the back of the yard blocks some of the noise from the train tracks beyond. I love this yard because there aren't any neighbours behind the house to watch what I'm doing. Most of the homes built in Kingston have yards that are overlooked.

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The veggie gardens are out of view to the left of the deck. The garden on the left of this picture was featured in my earlier post and many of those plants were here when I bought the house. The gardens at the top and right hand side of the yard were put in by me this summer. The shrubs will grow in to hide much of the fence and I have some Virginia creeper growing up the lattice. For some reason, my golden elder shrub is failing to thrive. It is the shrimpy bush in the middle of the garden. The elder is supposed to grow to eight feet tall, but all the other bushes are growing quickly while this one lags behind. Don't let it's nice golden colour fool you - this is one sad little shrub.

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I'm planning to put in a second tier at the back but decided to wait until next summer so that I could gather some energy. Each of those concrete blocks looks small in the picture but all together their installation wore me out. I see much recovery time in my future - and in the hammock. Yeah Lee Valley!

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I'll post pics of the inside of the house at a future date. Take care everyone. Hil