Same House, New Address

I have mentioned in different posts that our front yard is actually our back yard and the back is the front.

This photo shows our house in 1936.

They had an ocean view!

We're the house in the red circle 

Our house was built in 1928 when there were sidewalks called courts running in front of the houses out to the sea.

The blue line shows the sidewalk/court

The wider strips on either side of the blue line are the lanes.

In the 60's the city closed off all of the courts and deeded half of the land to one side of the court and half to the other side.

If you saw an enlargement of the photo, you could actually see where the sidewalk ended in our yard.

Until we added on Steve's studio, the old sidewalk was still in our back (front) yard.

The street names changed from the courts to the lanes that run behind the houses.

Our street address changed from Southampton Court to Brunswick Lane.

In the photo, there are 4 houses that share our lane.

Only 3 of the original houses remain standing.

The house closest to us in the photo is still there.

Now, you enter that house right into the kitchen.

In the back, there is a beautiful bay window and an entryway that no one sees.

This is the only other house that is standing.

This house was built by the same builder as our house and just like ours, this is the original back, but now the front.

This is a photo of the original front of our house when we purchased.

It is now white with blue and we have added a studio where the deck is.

I know the big shadow in the center of the picture looks bad, but if I cropped it our, the torch looked really odd.

With the addition of the studio, I would have to go up on our neighbor's deck to get a photo of the full yard today.

This is the true back, but now the front of the house.

The red door opens into what is now an entryway, but originally it was the laundry room.

Don't judge me on the appearance of the room in this photo.

I snapped the photo because Dorje had trapped the cat in the dryer.

 If I bothered to arrange the room for a photo shoot, the moment would have been lost.

Believe me, had I known that one day I would post it on the internet (we didn't have internet when this photo was taken ) then I would have taken better pictures.

It was extremely unattractive to enter our house and immediately see the washer/dryer unit and the water heater so we moved them to the garage and knocked out the wall so that the entryway leads right into the dining room.

This is taken from the same angle as the photo above - a big difference without the water heater or washer/dryer.

I loved the blue and white checked floor, but it was much more difficult to maintain than I had expected.

The white pie safe is now painted yellow and is on the porch holding gardening tools.

This is the entry today with an easier floor to maintain.

I am thinking of moving some furniture around this summer and placing a different piece there.

Our contractor could not find the same molding (no surprise after 75 years! ) so he built the molding himself and you honestly cannot tell that it is different in the new archway.

It made a huge difference in the floor plan and opened up the entire house.

The dining room is still tiny, but with the entryway open, it feels much bigger.

It used to feel like we had a secret garden, but now you can see all the way through to the back.

Breaking down the wall has made a huge difference in making our little cottage distinctly ours.

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I am linked up at

Creatively Living Tell It To Me Tuesday


Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursday.