-
On occassion I post random thoughts here on what I love about life in our little corner of Solana Beach.
10/24/2011 We live west of 5 on a flat street with sidewalks and lots of families with kids. We also have our fair share of neighbors who’ve been in their homes 20-40 years, finished raising their kids, then decided to stay for all sorts of good reasons. Because their home is not so big that they can’t manage the upkeep; you don’t have to have a car to live here and it is Solana Beach, west of 5 for goodness sake. It just keeps getting better. I’m glad we still have a variety of ages of families on our street. Although it’s not quite as interesting or colorful as where I used to live “pre kids” in Eden Gardens, I definitely like the sidewalks for safety.
You don’t have to drive your kids everywhere here. They can walk or ride a bike to school, the park, the beach and the library. The fact that our street is flat and has sidewalks also means we see and interact a lot more with our neighbors. People are out and about walking their dogs, going for a run, working in their garden and just hanging out. I LOVE the energy. I think it really enhances our sense of community. I especially love that the houses are close enough together that my kids can run over to several friends houses to play. I’m super jazzed they will walk to school up through middle school once they are old enough to make the trek on their own. What a luxury. And if my mom comes to live with us she doesn’t have to drive a car to go to the store or to church. She won’t feel so dependant and trapped…Of course, she has no plans to ever leave her own home but i like knowing that she would be happy here if i could just talk her into it.
We have a california ranch home that has been remodeled into a modern home with a mid century vibe. It’s just the right size for us. I love the smooth stucco best of all i think. A ranch style home is the perfect canvas for almost any style of remodel. You can turn a ranch home into a spanish style home, a cape cod cottage style, a modern home or just about anything you want.
We have a small vegetable garden in our front yard with lots of modern succulents and grasses covering the rest of the front area where we used to have a lawn. Those succulents make me so happy. Who knew? They have this interesting shape and texture and form. We often find a basketball in the middle of the garden bed as the basketball hoop is right next to the garden boxes. I”ve gotten over the ball in the garden bed saga long ago. As long as they don’t go out in the street and play nice…i’m good! If they put one paw in the street, they lose the privilege of playing in the front yard .
I think the world would be a better place if everybody played more often in their front yard.
Our home has worked out smashingly for us. I’m on a quest to utilize every square inch and not waste space
. Our nanny and her 13 year old daughter also live with us. The kids are over the moon about the additions to our little family unit. I think they want more kids to move in. We turned what used to be four separate distinct spaces you find in a 1960′s ranch home, the family room, living room, kitchen and dining room into one big great room all open to the back yard with a huge covered patio that runs the length of the back of the house. There are two outdoor “rooms” on the back patio that we can use most months of the year. We’ve had to be very selective about furniture size and placement as the spaces are quite small and all visible to each other…After about 20 different furniture arrangements, I think we might finally just stay put as we are for a while. My neighbors think we change the furniture every time they come over. I admit, i do have a weird obsession with space planning, and floating couches with sofa tables behind. I’m pretty sure it’s biologically based and completely outside my control. I still don’t have art on the walls. There is much I still want to do within our little space but it just doesn’t seem like the time is right now.I think about spaces a lot… The spaces in our homes as well as the spaces in our communities. It’s rare that I don’t walk into a space and not have a visceral reaction. I either really like it or I start tearing down the walls and remodeling inside my head. It’s not that I think i’m an architect.. It is merely the case that I passionately feel our living spaces radically affect the quality of our communities and our personal lives; how we interact with each other, how often we interact, how nice we are to each other when we do interact, etc. I suspect our community and living spaces largely correlate with how well we get along and share in society…As you might have noticed lately, we’re not getting along so well. I also have this completely unscientific hunch that people living in closer quarters are happier human beings. But i could be making that up merely because i’m happy where we are. Yes, it is a pain sometimes when one kid once to rock out with their music, but on balance, I think we’re living the life we were meant to live. Life is busy. So much of human interaction is coincidental…I think we kind of need to “bump into each other” more often.
My hope is that my children have more opportunities to learn how to “play nice” in this closer family and community setting.
11/7/11 A horrible thing happened in our little ”hood” this week. It breaks my heart to share this. Precious India Phillips passed away, faster than you could ever imagine possible. The Doctors said it was the fastest moving bacterial infection they’ve seen in 40 years. She had a temperature on Halloween, was in ICU by the evening and gone 36 hours later. She was only four years old. She was tiny but lived life bigger than most folks twice her size. There was no fear in her game. Boy did that girl love life….She swam like a fish, loved butterflies, playing dress up, anything that sparkled, and of course Lady Gaga, and Ariel. She came over before Halloween for pumpkin carving with the kids. She spent most of the time in P’s bedroom trying on every outfit in her closet. Life will never be the same. I will never understand why this happened. Our lives are changed forever.
