ee-igh ee-igh ohh!

We live tucked in the groin of a handful of tract housing developments of the 50s and 60s. Our house, and the houses on our side of the block, are special because all of them were originally built miles away, but when they built the shopping mall 50 years ago, they moved our block to it's current location.
(Do click that link, it's facinating)

To the east we have fancy two story and sprawling ranch tract homes. I like to walk the dogs in that neighborhood, it's well kempt.

To the north we have a dreadful collection of failures of mid century modernist architecture. I think if I had tongue depressers and some wood glue, I could build more attractive houses. It's fun to walk the dogs in that neighborhood for different reasons, to see how many houses have cars parked on the lawn, and play guess the meth-lab.

And to the south and west we have a collection of optimistic "starter homes" of the early 60's. Most have a distinctive farm theme to them. I read about the history of our little town and learned that this was all farm land that was sold to developers by the farmer's children. There was a photo of all of them with shovels and hornrimmed glasses ready to break ground and build some barn shaped homes.

I took some photos and I submit them for your review.
Here is my critique of how people in the 21st century deal with the barns:


Horrible, absolutely terrible. F. They're not even trying, they've given up. I don't know if you can tell but it's the color of maccaroni and cheese with brown trim. No one should be surprised that there's a Buick in the driveway.


Again, low marks. D-. It would be a flat F if it wasn't obvious that they have kept the house in complete original condition. It's almost a historical home.


I think these folks are in barn-denial. They have a nice paint job and go about their lives as if their garage didn't look like it should contain livestock. I give it a B+.


Is this a barn? No one can know. They have decided to camoflauge their home in flora. The biggest crack-up about this house is that come trash day, this place sports FIVE clean green cans. These people might be part mole or hobbit.


I told mi esposo when I first toured this neighborhood that if we were to live in a barn-house, I would need to paint the barn part red and white, like a children's book of Old McCharlie. Now, unlike this fun house (which has a few other red cousins in the 'hood) I would keep the rest of the house a different color, but hey that's just me. Grade A! Good show!

More neighborhood reviews to come in later posts. Stay tuned.