Walking through the neighborhood & coming home with a serious case of house envy

The first thing that is important to understand about Philadelphia (for anyone who doesn’t live here) is the tremendous amount of [architecturally] beautiful homes there are here.   The second thing to know is just how many of those homes are falling apart because the neighborhood is crap or because it’s just plain difficult to keep up with old houses.   Anyways, the beautiful homes are one of my favorite things about this city.  Everywhere I turn there’s always a more beautiful house…that I wish I lived in.  (I mean, I didn’t name this blog House Obsession for nothing.)  Everyone that knows me well, knows that I am constantly saying “Oh, I wish I lived there!”  Maybe that’s why I’ve moved so many times in my life.  There are always more houses to decorate, after all!

At any rate, today N and I took a walk to the “nice part of the neighborhood” so that I could torture myself with falling in love with every house.   I’m sure the people who lived around there wondered why we were taking pictures of their houses, but it’s just something I like to do – dream of what the insides of those houses must look like.  Anyways, here are my favorites from today’s walk.

I mean, how cute are those shutters?  I can’t even stand it!  I love them so much!

Is it possible to burn with porch envy?   I imagine sitting out here drinking tea and rocking in a rocking chair.  I think this is a former twin (like mine) where the person actually owns both halves and has turned it into a single home (not like mine).   I also love that they painted the brick.  I’m not usually a fan of that, but this house just looks so good in person.

This house is one of those that is so ridiculously huge that you have to wonder just who originally built the house.  Was he an inventor or a banker?  Nevertheless,  I certainly wouldn’t want to have to clean this huge home…nor would I want to pay the gas bill, but oh what I wouldn’t give to get to live there just for a month.   The owners must get lost in there sometimes!

There are so many things to love about this house, such as the curved porch and the two-color brick accents.   It’s hard to see in this photo, but it also has real leaded glass windows too.   Again, who built this house?!  It’s enormous!  I think you’d need an army to fill it (and clean it), but I’d love a house tour.

Okay, so this is not a photo of a house…but it IS a squirrel lantern in someone’s yard.  It’s a shame that whoever owns this house has let the lantern (and the rest of the house too) get into this condition b/c it’s seriously one of the best pieces of lawn decoration / lighting that I’ve ever seen.  The house itself was in such disrepair that I didn’t both taking any photos of it.  Such a shame…it breaks my heart.

I can’t explain it, but this one is my fantasy house of the day.  I love it’s lines…the porch…the stone wall in front…the overly bulbous top.   I hope the owners love it as much as I do.

Walking through the neighborhood window shopping like this lets me forget about all the renovation projects for a moment in my own house, and just dream about the endless possibilities of someone else’s space.  Now if only I could pick this house up and move it to the beach.  Now THAT would be a real dream house!

Stormy Sunday afternoon

Today has provided us with a huge rainstorm, and hail the size of acorns.  At least the clouds and light were spectacular.

Political signs, still?!

On a [much] lighter note, I wanted to take a second to pose a frivolous question about political yard signs.  (I felt this was necessary since I came across as Debbie Downer in my last post.)  At what point does leaving up your Obama sign [post-election] become the political equivalent of having the Christmas decorations up during the Fourth of July fireworks?

I took this picture on my block several weeks ago meaning to pose this question then.  However, it’s weeks later and this person (along with several others) STILL have their political signs up.  The election is over, and I’m just as thrilled as the majority of people….but why continue to leave up the sign?  Do you know of anyone doing this in your neighborhood?  Are you doing it yourself?  If so, why?  Does anyone but me find this to be odd?  🙂

Walking through the neighborhood on a Fall evening

This is the third night this week that I’ve taken the dogs out for a walk in the neighborhood.  Each time I spent about an hour wandering and enjoying the autumn weather.  It’s quickly becoming a routine, that both I and the dogs enjoy quite a bit.  One of my particular favorite things about it is that it’s startling to realize that I can hear crickets.  In spite of having a few flaws, I truly love this city.