There’s no particular order that I’m following with the Photo Ops. It’s based purely on what pictures I have taken or was able to take since the original post.
First up is the suggestion from Serenity: Views From The House.
The first set of pictures I took all on the same day and literally, from the inside of the house looking out. Because of that, you may see dirty screens or tiny, greasy handprints on the glass. Keeping it real, yo!
These are the two large windows in our bedroom. It’s hard to get a sense of scale, but I think each set of windows is about 60″ across. We eventually will turn this area of the bedroom into a seating area, but currently it is empty save some toys and where I fold laundry.
The next two pictures are taken standing facing out from each set of the windows above:
There’s a short hallway from the master bedroom to the main part of the house and we almost went with a solid wall, but I pushed for another big window. I’m glad I did:
Also, not sure if you can see it here (above) but there are tracks in the snow that go from the exposed grass past the stairs. Those are deer tracks. Fuckers. More on that another time.
The following pictures if from the one of three panels in the dining room. It’s one of my favorite views. There’s actually a four-lane highway hidden by the thick horizontal line of trees, which is about 1 1/2 miles down the hill. There’s a bench under this window where Aitch can climb up and look out. Hence the faint handprint.
On the perpendicular wall next to these windows are the deck doors. We have a three-sided porch which ends (or starts) here. The porch is covered on all three sides as well. We’ve had some impossibly beautiful (and sometimes dangerous) views of spring thunderstorms here.
Now we move into the living room where the three-panel windows are repeated two more times. It is here that I have the most beautiful views of the sunset. We can see the fireworks that the village to the west of us shoot off during special occasions. It’s about six miles away. If you were standing next to me, I could point out the cemetery a mile away; the mostly hidden farmhouse down in the valley; the edge of our property; where the deer settle for the evening (fuckers) and where every moment the view is heaven on earth.
Doodicus has two views, one being much like this one. And then another to the south. Not a great picture (did I imply these were going to be “great” pictures? my bad), but it’s realistic. The original house plan called for a door where this following window shot was and I stupidly thought that would be really cool! And then I remembered that someday he’s going to be a teenager sneaking out of the house…
This is also the second side of the porch, the part that transitions from the front porch to the back deck. More deer tracks…that line of trees grows along the street that takes one past our lane.
By the way, here’s how my son’s room would look if you were standing in his doorway and how the windows fill that one wall (I didn’t do a wider shot because his bed wasn’t made. I’m a terrible mother):
Here’s the view towards that same road that goes by our house but as viewed from Aitch’s room. That truck was photographed right at the lane, which you can barely make out from this vantage point. Also, I’m hoping by summer the swing set will get moved right about where that patch of grass is:
And here’s the inside of Aitch’s room looking at the window (the one to the right of the crib) that looks at the view above. See now if I had waited to do this until I had cleaned and picked up, these photos never would have met the light of day:
Now here’s the least attractive view which seems odd since it’s out the front door, but the only time I ever see it is when I’m going to the front door, which is very rare. Family (read: in-laws) have a habit of going through our garage which I LOATHE but am forced to tolerate since they can’t use the steps. That building is the maintenance building for what use to be a microwave tower but was inactivated years ago.
We have a circle drive which you can see (above) and inside that circle we’ve planted several crab trees. Eventually those trees will fill in enough and I won’t have to see the tower or its building from the house. On the plus side, it’s an unavoidable landmark which makes it easy for visitors to see when driving to our home.
This is just a miscellaneous shot that I took standing in the kitchen looking out over the dining room. The view to the horizon is truly endless:
Serenity specifically asked about the view out our kitchen window. Another mistake I made is not going with my original vision and positioning the window directly above our sink. Instead, it sits up almost a foot above and I have to crane my neck to see out. The view for now is not much different from above but every once in a while I’ll look up from the sink and see a herd of deer walk down the lane towards the house before turning north to the field next to us. Herd = 20 head.
So moving (L) to (R) top: the set of two windows in the master BDRM, the single in the hallway, 3 panel in dining room, patio doors, the long wall with the three sets is broke up into the living room and Doodicus’s room. The basement’s windows facing west are basically mirror of above but it’s not finished. Nothing down there except the storm cellar, my husband’s workroom, and thousands of japanese beetle bodies.
I’ll have more landscape photos that aren’t shot through a window screen in a subsequent post under Photo Ops. Thanks again, Serenity!
