"Doot, Doot, Doot, Lookin' Out My Back Door..."

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The view from my backdoor is boring, so let’s look out my front door instead…

The first thing that crosses my mind when I look out the door is, I wish I lived on the other side of the street, so the view would contain MY house, one of the few normal ones.

Directly across the street, is the " not quite blue anymore, house". Remember back in the 80’s, when everything was painted “country” blue? THAT was the last time the house was painted. But that’s not too bad considering what’s on top of the house. Hmmm, what could those things on the roof be? They look like retangular packages wrapped in white plastic, and draped over the peek of the roof. Maybe, they’re generic Christmas gifts that fell out of Santa’s bag. That’s a much nicer thought, than what they really are. They’re actually packages of roofing tiles from when the neighbor started to fix his roof…

3 YEARS AGO!!!
He managed to get the back part done. It started rainning, he draped the packages over the roof to hold down the new tiles and never went back.
Next, we have the house belonging to “the people on the corner”. In 10 years, the house has never been painted a complete color. It takes them so long to paint it, that by the time they’re finished, they’re tired of the color, and start on a new one. Since it’s a corner house, it faces 2 streets. Both sides are different. He started painting the dark green trim, white last summer. His ladder wasn’t quite tall enough to reach the eave, so that part is still green.

Next we have an enchanting little structure, that is actually on the first guy’s property. Newcomers to the neighborhood are baffled by it’s existence. Those of us, who’ve been here awhile, nolonger allow our brains to register it. This became more difficult when I found out that at one time it was a house. It was the original house on the property, before the owners built the blue house. Let me try to describe it… It’s made of concrete, so it will be around a looooooooong time (yay!). It’s already been here atleast 50 years. It has a lovely brownish gray patina with a few swatches of rust from what’s left of the hardware. One tiny window on the front, sans glass. Wood door, barely hanging on. No roof, but it has a carport!

Next is a nice older house that was recently renovated. But that’s boring, so let’s move on…

Next is “the thorn in the side of the whole neighborhood”. Not just our street, but the whole neighborhood. Did I mention that my street borders the Historical District? Actually my house is older, and nicer than some of the ones in the “district”. But my street is not “considered” historical because of the home I’m about to describe. In it’s own way it is historical. It’s a little lump of American Pop culture. It’s a 1970’s era singlewide trailer. And the owner (who nobody has ever seen), rents it out cheap. It’s well maintained, no junk in the yard ( I don’t think they can afford junk). It’s mostly been rented by young couples, and there’s never been any problem, until recently. The girl that lives there now, has poor taste in men. They stay awhile, take her money, then leave. So she knocks on doors looking for handouts. Everybody on this street refuses to help anymore, so she’s started venturing into the “district”. That’s when they started inviting us to their neighborhood meetings. They even promised we could have some of those tacky “antique” house number placques to put in our yards. :rolleyes:

So, what’s the view from your door?

2

I live in the middle of 5 acres. About 50 feet from my front door is a dense hardwood forest. One side yard is about 40 feet wide, the other is about 50 yards wide, and the rear yard is about 100 feet deep.

Woods, all the way around. I wouldn’t even know I had neighbors except I can see faint lights through the woods during the fall and winter of the year.

3

Niagara Realtors office. I heard it used to be a prison. They used to hang people there. I live on a corner, so that’s just one direction. The other corner is a house with 3 cheap apartments in it, that I think does some shady business. There’s always people in and out all night on weekends. But, if I Doot, Doot, Doot, look out my back door, I see the parking lot of a shady bar called the ReLax. Clothes have gone missing from my clothesline out back. I keep looking for ReLax patrons wearing my cowboy shirts…

4

Looking out my back door…

Ravine to the right, with houses on the other side. Directly out the door is the driveway, and extension of the ravine, a big vacant field, then the road. On the left, we have the carport, a hedge, and my neighbors.

Whee. :smiley:

5

Well, luckily…we are semi-rural, so no one is too close to anyone else. Our house was/is crappier looking than anyone else in the neighborhood (with the exception of one…but the guy rents and the real owner is an old widow). My roof was tiled with three different colors at one time. Finally, the leaking got really bad and we now have a lovely new dark gray roof.

My faded garage door was also painted a couple weeks ago. It was the worst part of the ugly garage. Now the rest of the ugly garage looks even uglier than the ugly doors. Come spring, we’re painting it again.

We have creepy trees, too. They need to go.

6

From our fron door, I look up at the face of Mount Mansfield, from the “Forehead” in the south to the “Nose” in the middle and the “Chin” (the highest point in the State of Vermont to the north. With a pair of binoculars, I can make out hikers walking the ridgeline when the weather is clear.

When the weather is not clear, the entire top of the mountain is often shrouded in cloud.

In the spring the new leaves cast the entire view in the brightest green you ever saw.

In the summer evenings as the sun falls to the west the shadows pick out every valley and ridge, and the trees give it all a nubbly texture.

In the fall the entire view is a blaze of red and yellows.

In the winter, I can see skiers on the Front Four of the Stowe ski area. When it is cold, the snowmaking operations throw off great plumes of cloud. At night, the lights on the Gondolier form a giant question mark, and we can see the lights of the trail groomers (sno-cats) on the unlighted trails.

What a treat to live in such a place!

7

I have no back door.

When I look out the windows of my “studio” apartment, I see lawn, bushes, the road, and the apartment building across the street.

When I look out my front door, I see the opposite wall of the corridor.

Yawn

Wanna move to BC.

8

Up until a couple of months ago, when I looked out my front door, I saw my carport and some nice trees. When I stepped out onto my front porch, I could see my MIL’s home, but her door was pretty much blocked from view because of the two big red oak trees (one with a swing in it) and the apple and plum trees that lay between our homes. Now, I have no carport, some of the trees in the front yard are gone and all the trees between me and MIL are gone.

Thanks bunches, Ivan!*
*considering that we could’ve lost our entire home, I’m not REALLY complaining!

9

The front and back doors on my house are on the same side of the house, just different ends. the front door looks across the driveway into the neighbors back yard and down the hill to the street. The view from the back door is the same except that the red twig dogwoods hide the neighbors yard. If I choose to walk to the edge of the hill I can see the 20ft diameter garbage pile hidden behind the old cars, campers and trailers he’s collected over the last 4-5 years. :rolleyes:

10

The view from our back door kinda sucks. We’ve got a pretty nice little backyard, all fenced in and green, but the back side of the fence is the parking lot of a Burger King.

The drive thru sign is literally sitting against the fenceline. We’ve gotten pretty used to it, but the dogs go apeshit every morning when the menus switch over from breakfast to lunch.

It doesn’t help the the BK is right on the busiest road on the East Side, so there’s tons of traffic out there. The worst is when the ghetto boyz pull up bumping their stereos at 2 am in the drive thru line. Cause you know, they gotta eat great, even late. I guess all that bass makes them hungry.

11

The view from the front side of my house is Lake Michigan. Oh, a bit of a wooden deck, sand grass, dunes, beach, a few trees are in the way, but it’s mostly Lake Michigan.

On the back side, it’s the back yard, the back field, the lake bluff, the woods, a bit of the road, and sometimes you can get a glimpse of the old farm house and the bluff house on top of the lake bluff.

I have to look around a bit to see the neighbor’s places. But damn, they are visible!

12

Out our back door, we have obese squirrels. No, those aren’t groundhogs.

Time to put these guys on a diet.

13

Looking out my front door: A hallway, utility closet, water fountain, stairs, etc. Dorm hallway.

My ‘back’ door: my roommate’s room. Most of the dorms at my school are doubles, but fully divided, so there’s a wall with a door between my (front, larger) room and her (more private, smaller) room.

For real, though. Look out the door of my dorm building, and there’s a courtyard, with other dorm buildlings around it. Benches and an apple tree in the center. Behind that? What this Easterner considers mountains but are really just hills. Turn around and look the other way, and the big things poking up into the sky way far away are mountains. :slight_smile:

14

I live on the tenth floor of an apartment building…the view out my door is the door across from me, but the view out my front windows is a bunch of other much lower buildings, and then Lake Michigan. It’s lovely on clear days.

15

Here I thought this was about that great song from my childhood.

Okay, back door.
I used to see leaves, but now they are gone and I see a neighbors backyard, behind a fence.

16

Out the front door I get a lovely view of my neighbors’ enormous RV that has been parked on the street in front of their house since April. That, and most likely, several of their friends’ cars parked in front of my house since the behemouth takes up most of the street parking on the other side of the street. :rolleyes:

Out the back is my large back yard. The main reason we bought this house was because of that yard. It’s huge for being in town. There are mature fruit (apple and pear) trees and a large garden area. Right now there are leaves are all over the ground (yes, we need to rake) and the hawthorne has gorgeous red berries on it. I love looking out the back door and watching our dogs chase squirrels and frolic. The house we lived in before this one had a yard about 1/4 the size of this one, and the dogs just love having the extra space to play. On one side, the fence is chain link and I can see the neighbors yard. It’s sooooo bad. The woman who owns the house moved out in July to be with her husband who is stationed on the east coast somewhere. She spend all spring making that yard lovely, then let her 25 year old son move in. The son is a decent neighbor so far, but he’s let her beautiful yard go all to hell. The grass in the front died in August, and it’s pretty much back to dirt. The back is now just millions of dying weeds. She is going to kill him when she sees it next spring!

17

Let’s see.

Hotel
A few degrees of ocean where in a few weeks I’ll be getting ocean sunsets all winter. That’s very nice.
Hotel
The world’s first rotating restaurant all decked out in lights. Every friday fireworks go off just to the right of it. But they’re partially obscured.
Hotel
Hotel
Hotel
Hotel
Hotel which is close enough where I can see occasional naked people walking around. And more rarely the vacation hook-up. Not close enough to be too arousing but definately close enough to study the dynamics of the situtation.
Ala Wai canal. I like watching the paddlers.
Ala Wai golf course.
My old high school
Tantalus hights
Manoa valley
St. Louis hights

I like it a lot.

18

GOD DAMN YOU I HATE THAT SONG AND NOW IT IS STUCK IN MY HEAD

I don’t have a back door, but if I look out the windows opposite the entryway of my apartment, I see a Camaro that is for sale, two boats, and another building of the apartment complex. If I lived in THAT building, my back windows would show an empty field with the lights of town and a grain elevator (which is about three or four miles away) on the horizon. Living on the southern tip of the great plains makes for views that are simultaneously incredibly dull and kinda nifty.

19

Out my back door, I see nothing but the trees on our side of the fence, and the forest in the back yard of the neighbor who lives opposite us, and some of their building. I say it that way because I’m not sure if this is a mega-sized house with a ballroom in the back, or a church, or what. We’ve been here for 4 years and I still have no idea how to even get to whatever street that house is on, or what it’s called. There is no outlet from this neighborhood to get there.

Out the front door are just some nondescript houses. The one directly across from us has a massive tree in the front that makes for so much shade, they haven’t had a lawn in all the time I’ve been here. He’s got a couple of trailers for transporting motorcycles, which are apparently his hobby. I’ve waved to him several times while out doing yard work. I wouldn’t know him if I tripped over him.

The house on the right is obscured by shrubbery. The one on the left has a huge front lawn, with a hill so steep, I don’t know how they manage to cut the grass without the person pushing the mower having a heart attack. Our back yard is like that. If we buy this house, the first thing that’s gonna go is the grade in the back. I’ll build an L-shaped brick retaining wall and fill in the yard with dirt and plant new grass on top, so it’s almost level. Further to the left is all downhill, so steep that kids never ride their bikes down the street. You’d be going so fast by the time you hit the bottom that you couldn’t steer into the turn or stop without serious injuries.

Pretty boring, huh?

20

From my front door: The door right across the hall!
Fuckin boring dorm.