Round the Houses

I have long held a bit of an obsession with houses, and both the inside and outside aesthetics of domestic living arrangements fascinate me. The idea of creating a happy nest inside a pile of bricks and mortar intrigues me very much and I love to see how different people choose to decorate and furnish their homes.

My creative interest in houses/homes is mainly to do with the interiors, but at the same time I do love a good nosey around the outer periphery too - in short, I am a nosey so-and-so and I find home life in all it's shapes and forms fascinating. I like looking at different styles of front doors and windows and I love seeing what folk do with their little patches of front garden. I like to see flower pots and window boxes and little gates and washing lines...

...oh yes, I love washing lines so much! There is something so comforting and humble about a string of clean clothes drying in the open air. Usually laundry-drying is strictly a back garden activity, but here in my town many of the houses don't actually have back gardens. So it's not uncommon to see washing lines strung across back yards and back cobbled streets, making use of any available space.

The town where I live is old (like really old) and is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. It has heaps of old buildings (including a 900 year old castle) but what I'm sharing today is the simple terraced housing. These house were built for the families who worked in the many textile mills that sprang up during the Industrial Revolution.

There are lots of these houses across town, row upon row upon row of them. They have front doors opening out onto the pavements......

...but there is also a network of old cobbled back streets running behind every terrace. These back streets are wide enough for cars to drive down, but mostly they are used by pedestrians and give access into the little back yards behind each house.

These back yards are small but precious and many folk go to some effort to create little gardens in their tiny outdoor spaces. Often the back yard also contains an old "outhouse" which would have contained a simple toilet in Victorian times.

I really love these old cobbled back streets, they are more than one hundred years old, isn't that a teesny bit wonderful?

The thing about these rows of terraced houses is that they aren't just houses. They represent communities of families living in pretty close proximity to their neighbours - it's a friendly way to live for sure.

You don't always have a great deal of privacy, but the feeling of security and homely comfort that surrounds daily life is priceless. Sometimes I miss not having a bigger outdoor space and sometimes I miss not having a green, open outlook. Our view is the mellow colour of Yorkshire stone walls, we are surrounded by them on all sides.

I admit it took me a while to get used to living this way. We moved from a detached house on a small, quiet cul-de-sac where privacy was everything and where neighbours kept themselves to themselves. You generally said a polite "hello" in passing, but that was pretty much it.

Living in a terraced house (especially a Yorkshire terraced house), you really get to know your neighbours. These folk love nothing more than to stop and chat, socialise, make friends, and you become a part of the community very quickly. You get absorbed into the street you live on and become a true part of it.

After seven years of terraced street living, I can tell you that it's pretty great.

I would love to hear about where you live, any other terrace-dwellers out there?

Do you have a garden, land, a view? Do you know your neighbours?

Do you love where you live or aspire to something different?

Let's talk homey stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Comments

[Cat Smolka]

Hi Lucy, I live in Riverside, California about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. We live in a quiet bedroom town inside Riverside called La Sierra. We have a small university nearby and quiet streets with lots of orange groves in our community. On a warm night we walk our dogs to the park and pick oranges, grapefuit and guava off the trees to snack on along the way.

[Deb]

Hi Lucy,
Like you, I'm fascinated by how people live domestically. I live in an Edwardian semi in Kew, West London. I can walk to the "village" for basic supplies, and coffee, and to the Tube. My garden has quite a few mature trees which is why I like it--I'm a bit of a tree fanatic. I also have two very old apple trees that were on the property when the street was a market garden. I live with my husband and two young adult children (your kids never leave home when you live in London--too expensive!)

[Beverly Kinsley]

I live in Pendleton, Oregon USA with my husband, one dog, and one cat. We live a few miles out of town, but have close neighbors. Our yard is large and I have a garden area and a raspberry patch. I love to grow sunflowers too!
I thought I was the only person who could love having a washing line! (Clothes line as they are called here) It brings back childhood memories for me of sheets being dried on the line and the wonderful smell when they were put back on the beds.
Thanks for your wonderful blog. I've learned so much form you and enjoy so much getting to take a peek into your world.

[Elise]

Hi, I live in Holland. 30 km near Amsterdam, it's a sleeping town, everybody works in the big city. The houses are great and i live nearby a big wood. It's oké !

You make great things !

[Gen]

Hi dear Lucy ! great to read all these testimonies ! My place is 30 km West from Paris in the very continuation of Versailles' grand canal ; easy to get there from home by bicycle through the fields. Around it's quite noisy because of many roads and traffic. Our garden is a little wild, very green, with many birds happy to find branches and bushy bushes. I love it for its tranquillity ! We've got 2 adorable hens and also turtledoves.
See my house at night : http://lesframboisiers.canalblog.com/archives/2014/03/22/29489988.html

In my town all houses are different and this makes something non harmonious at all. Also neighbours don't know each other... and are often so personnal that they turn agressive for any detail. Sad, yes ! Happily I've got many friends around and we love to seat together 1 sunday/month close to my wood stove to knit, crochet and... talk.
Please walk a little bit in my street you'll see how it looks like : https://www.google.fr/maps/@48.82667,1.997903,3a,75y,255.34h,101.36t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1srJgVkJX5oR2UbII89B_3WQ!2e0!6m1!1e1

[Lizy Tish]

Love these pictures and I'm so intrigued by it! I would love to look at all the various back gardens and how they are decorated (or not). Love the pictures you have posted of yours in the past. We live on a hill, on 3 acres with a tiny view of some distant hills. We definitely enjoy the privacy of it all (my husband would enjoy even more acres and more privacy) and when we want company we head two miles down the hill, into town where there is a quaint village with restaurants and my local yarn shop!!!

[Sara]

Hey Lucy,

My hubby and I recently bought a townhouse in southern ontario thats about equal-distance from both of our jobs... I say "about" because my drive is probably 20min longer than his, but his winter-season drive is worse. I like to think it evens out.

Our subdivision is brand new (we've been here just shy of 2 years now). We LOVE our neighbours (though 2 sets are moving soon) and we're in the middle of building a lovely fence. We spend so much time in the backyard now that its nice outside, it will be hard to be fenced off from our neighbours and their kiddos...But we have plans to gather round the firepit once its built and roast some marshmallows.. maybe even some kielbasa.

Last year my hubby and I built a 5x5' raised garden bed. Its got sproutlings currently (we're hoping they survive being so close to the fence building) and we have plans to build another bigger raised garden at the top of our little hill. Veggies take up much more space than we anticipated. Can't wait to put down some flagstone to have a nice place to set chairs round the fire... love this season!

(And epic thanks for the amazing patterns..i adore the ripple and i'm onto my 3rd one now!)

[jane oliver]

Hi Lucy, really enjoyed this post. when we're driving at night, it's fun to look in windows to see what people decorate. common american pastime. we live in a three bedroom raised brick ranch going on 45 years. raised two daughters here. i moved a lot as a child and changing schools was crummy. i wanted to give my children a sense of belonging. we live in a somewhat rural part of nj but in a corridor of traffic from pa to new york. our street is wooded and quiet, no streetlights until newer people put up bright driveway lamps. i feel safe here.

[Izzy S]

Hi Lucy,
I am pleased to hear I am not the only person who likes lines of flapping clothes drying in the breeze! When my children were small I photographed some washing lines to remind me of all their little clothes - and them! Like you, I take photos to capture moments I want to treasure. I just recently took a pic of my little granddaughters cute clothes out on a line!
Izzy

[Tracy Tootle]

Love this post! Thank you!

[Majupodi]

Hello Lucy,
J'habite en France...Dans une ville qui se nomme Limoges dans le centre.
Capital de la porcelaine, Limoges est une ville au milieu de la campagne.
I was born near Fontaniére who "Fonty" Wool is fabric.
Nous habitons un appartement avec mes enfants (18 et 17 ans) et mon mari au quatrième et dernier étage un petit immeuble d'où nous voyons toute notre jolie ville ...nous ne fermons jamais les volets ;)
It's very funny to read all coms and your post ...
kiss from FRANCE <3

[Murphy R]

I live in San Jose, California, one of a million "tech" families in Silicon Valley. Our neighborhood is about 45 years old, just 6 miles from (and almost identical to) my childhood home. Flat land, hills in the distance, single-family, single-story homes. Ours is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath. We all have open yards with lawns and flowers out front, and pools and veggie gardens in the back, fenced in to keep dogs in and neighbor kids out (for swimming pool safety). I can walk the kids to school every morning (less than a mile), and then I take a long (2-3 mile) walk home to look at how everyone's flowers are doing. (I love gardens!) Thank you for your wonderful blog. You've been a tremendous inspiration to me!

[All8]

We live in the middle of the USA. Well, not technically the middle but it's close-ish. It's a sub-division built in the 60's in a smallish town. Most of the houses are brick. The neighbors are nice and it's pretty quiet. Our house has 3 bedrooms and a full basement. DH is working hard at organizing everything downstairs so that I can have a place of my own to sew and create. (He's a keeper.) Right now our bridal veil bushes are in full bloom and a pair of cardinals are nesting in one of them. So excited to watch them swoop in and out, feeding each other and whatnot. They made the nest with bits from last years vegie garden, see it's a good thing that I left it till spring clean up?! (lol) We get all 4 seasons here, summers are Hot and Humid and winter means blowing cold, some snow but usually ice.

The posts of our clothesline are red and I painted the clothes pins to match. Right now our house is in a shambles as one DD is off to college, DS is moving out and the rest of us are sorting through everything and giving away tons. You should see the overflowing give away box(es). But spring is here, which means everything's abloom, the sun is shining most of the time and the wild rain that blows through with the black clouds and lightening that dances is here.

Love your home pictures and everything that you share with all of us. You're a keeper too. Thank you.

[Ali Whale]

My house is a modern detached house with two double bedrooms and a box room on a small housing estate. We have a front lawn that is just grass, need to do something with that sometime, and a back garden that is grass, a patio and flower beds. What I like about it is that it needs nothing. I've lived in a few old houses and all needed more ongoing attention than this house. Actually our street is pretty good and well cared for as we've all lived here for a long time. We had a short period when one house turned into a junk house but that wasn't for long. I know my neighbours and we gossip over the fence on a weekend. In fact if I want to know what's going on in this town we just ask next door - he knows it all. Really you can't beat it!

[Janet]

Hi, Lucy!
What a fun topic for discussion! I love your little town! I'm not quite sure I could get used to the rows upon rows of identical houses. I think I'd get lost. I did just notice how folks have added their own touches like painting the window sills different colors.
If it isn't obvious by now, I'm in the US. I live little north of Seattle,WA in a small apartment building (8 units) that was built in 1939. I live in one of the original 4 apartments (the attic and basement units were added later). My apartment/flat is about 900 sq feet (84 sq meters) and has one bedroom and one bathroom. I do not have any kind of outdoor space of my own (though there is a communal yard), which I miss, but I have lots of windows with great light and a fantastic view of the mountains.
To answer your question about neighbors, the only one I really know is my upstairs neighbor. We attend the same church. Mostly, my neighbors and I tend to keep to ourselves.
As far as something different, there is an adorable house for sale just down the street! It's not much bigger than my apartment, but has two bedrooms and was built in 1910. I'd lose my mountain view, but I'd gain a very small yard, a garage, and a view of the park across the street. Alas, I can't afford it, but I can dream about it!

[Michele H.]

I live in the country outside of Guthrie, OK, a gorgeous little Victorian town of about 10,000 people. We're on ten acres...you can see the neighbors through the trees, but we're still pretty private. It's mostly woods and dirt roads out our way. We do live close enough to neighbors, though, to get the odd phone call now and then about someone's dog that's missing. Thankfully, the neighbor's dog was found last night, just before bedtime, and we could all sleep more peacefully. It can get a little nerve wracking during dry seasons, because of range fires, but we love it! You can do anything you want, garden anywhere the sun suits the earth, and sleep with the windows open whenever you want to...heaven!

[Marilyn]

Hi Lucy! I live in extreme rural Alabama, USA. We have a small farm that has been passed down in my family for the past 100 years. I have a large vegetable garden, apple, peach,and pecan trees as well as a long row of blueberry bushes. We have wonderful springs and fall seasons, summers are usually very hot, and winters are mild. We are surrounded by family on all sides, aunts, uncles,cousins, grandparents, our children and grandchildren. There is always activity happening and I love living here and cannot imagine life any other way. I adore reading your blog and imagine your life. You are so talented and bring lots of joy and color into my life. Have a beautiful day.

[lorenza]

Hello Lucy,
I born in Paris and llive in the city for so many years. Ten years ago, with two children, we moved 30 km north from Paris, in a small town called Auvers sur Oise (where Vincent Van Gogh lived his last two monthes and where hi died). We live in an old small house where we still have so much to renovate... We have a very big garden, it's so greeny, it's nice. We know our neighbours, mostly old and very nice ladies, very fond of our kids! My dream would be to live one day, for a whole year in Venezia and maybe, when I'm very old, to spend my last years in Le Crotoy, near the Baie de Somme.
By the way, I'm crocheting a coast ripple, I do love it, and when I'm done, I'll post a picture of the blanket in front of l'église d'Auvers sur oise on your FB profile! Take care,
Lorenza

[Sarah]

Hello! We live just over the border, in Lancashire. So like you we have lots of terraced streets but also hill farms and cottages and newer estates.
I grew up in a Victorian terraced house and we knew everyone in our row and across the road too. People worked locally and took care of one another's children.
We're just in the process of buying a little cottage. It's an end-of-terrace house, straight onto the pavement and is situated on the main street through the village. At the back we have fields and hills and sheep. And a small garden with a silver birch tree.
Inside it's distinctly pub-like, with red carpets and horse brasses and dark beams. Much work and decorating to do - can't wait to get hold of those keys!
S x

[emelire]

your place is pretty, but i prefer when you post photos of the sea ;o) I live in a flat in Paris, I was born nearby, room is excessively dear in Paris (intra muros), we slept on a convertible for many years because of lack of room, but the 2 children had their own room. The city Paris is divided in 20 'arrondissements', where we are is is 'popular', (not 'posh') pleasant, not far from the 'bois de Vincennes' (bois = wood) and the 'promenade plantée' (a green way you can walk or ride, from Bastille to the wood of Vincennes, one way for pedestrian / joggers, the other for bikes) It is planted, green, a great asset for Paris. On the other side of Paris there is another wood (Boulogne) but it is much and much more expensive than my place ^^

[Sharon]

Hi Lucy, lovely pictures and don't the people in that area really take care of their spaces! I think they could teach some of our terrace dwellers a lesson. My MIL lives in a terrace and they have gated their backstreet cobbles, but people have started to use it as a dumping ground it is so sad. We live by the seaside in Morecambe, we are 10 minutes walk from the Promenade. It was our Carnival this weekend and they had an amazing turnout! My brother recently moved closer to your neck of the woods to Giggleswick so our family is now on both sides of the pennines :) Love reading your blog and seeing what you are up to.

[Michele]

Hello Lucy, love reading all of your posts today with so many interesting descriptions of home life. I am always intrigued by the photos you share from your home and the surrounding areas. I grew up in Northern California, about 45 min drive from San Francisco in a town called Sunnyvale. Now, I live about 3-hrs away in Roseville - a town of about 85,000. We live in a single-family home with a modest sized backyard in a large suburban neighborhood. We love to walk our dog daily, and have a great greenbelt area that we walk through with large ponds that are the domain for 4-5 beavers, many geese and ducks, and 2 white cranes.

[Elizabeth]

I love your blog and jealously admire all the pictures of your town. (I grew up reading British children's fiction and for a long while convinced myself that people didn't really live like that, it was just in books. You have kind of put a hole in my little theory.) We live in the Chicago area... actually just five minutes north of the city border. It is an area that is a combination of both city and suburb, such as the elevated train is a block from our house, but we live in an area with mostly single family homes. Lake Michigan and the beach are just four blocks away. Our home is an old Victorian and is embarrassingly large and more than a little run-down in spots. It's nickname is the 'big ugly house'. But it fits our large family and works for us as long as no one looks at things too closely. (If you are like me and like to peek into other people's houses, you can see some pictures here: http://ordinary-time.blogspot.com/2010/12/big-ugly-house-tour-part-2-hallways-and.html

Keep writing and sharing. I even (finally) learned to crochet because of your beautiful blankets.

[Jill S]

I live in a small town (population c 4,000) in New Zealand, 85km from Wellington, the capital. Almost all the houses in our town are single storey and many are wooden villa style, with several Deco styled houses too (which ours is, even though it was built in the 50s). Houses here are generally much bigger than UK houses, and in our region, much cheaper than UK houses. We moved from a 3-bed semi in Lymm, Cheshire to a 4-bed detached in NZ for around the same purchase price.

I have to confess that, after reading your post, I googled houses for sale in Skipton, and found several that I'd love to buy, if I'd still been a single girl.

Thank you for sharing so much of your home and your life with us.

[Olivia]

We live two streets from the sea in a small town on the west coast of Scotland, looking out to Arran, in a semi-detached house that's about 100 years old. I've nearly always lived in big cities before we came here, and I've also had to adapt to small-town living, but I've ended up much happier here than I was in the cities. I love your blog and the snippets of your home life that we get to see!