Came home from Idaho yesterday and realized when we arrived that Google Street View of our house had been updated. Yeah!

It was always sad to see its previous state on Google Maps when I’d get home. The picture at bottom was right before I bought it, when it was going into foreclosure 3 years ago. I was almost hesitant to put our return address on Christmas cards sometimes lest someone looked us up and thought we lived in a meth house.

I bought the house because I could afford it on one income and knew I could make it work seeing as it was structurally fine and is within walking distance to the train.

We’ve since put a little love into it. Most notably, I painted the outside last year (what a job). We’ve got quite a bit more to go, but it has come a long way.

One of the upcoming house projects is a combination of new gutters and an 1100-gallon rain cistern for the garden and hopefully new landscaping. I applied for a grant a few months back and the agency providing the fund is coming over to do a site visit next week. I’m really excited to see what we can do in our yard once we have a sustainable and cost-effective source of water in the summer months.