This is the back of the house where Leon grew up.  Three  bedrooms.  Grandpa Pick dug out and put in the basement.  The cement floor was quite rough and they said that they used a broom to smooth it out.  Beer was served when friends came over to help and  I heard someone say they blamed that  for the outcome.  Grandma's laundry area was down there.  The basement  steps are in that back entry room and the kitchen and a small bedroom are the next section.  That bedroom (off the kitchen - driveway side) had originally been a back porch.

It had a huge side yard (left)  that Grandparents Pick used entirely for a garden.  That's the garden that Leon remembers having to help weed.  It's not one of his favorite memories.  Ha!   The garage (by the truck) was built, I think, when we were going together.  They called it " the barn" and even continued to call the garage that, later, out of habit.

This is the back of the house I lived in as a teen... until Leon and I were married.  (It had four bedrooms and a walkup attic.)     Originally this place was quite nice. 

 

The back porch - and balcony above it - (upstairs back left window was a door)  was taken off and replaced with this deck not long ago.  The dining room window (to the right of the kitchen door to the present deck)  was once a set of french doors that led to a small balcony for the invalid mother of  the original  owner.  She was able to look out over a nice backyard with a picket fence, flower garden and cement gold fish pond with a small bridge.   There was a beautiful crab apple tree which has been replaced  by a metal shed.  The garage is to the right.  The screened in front porch windows were taken out and fewer windows put in...ugh!  

The red truck  is parked where there used to be a flagstone patio with a big canvas awning.  The awning wasn't there when we were - just the frame.  Too bad. 

The side window (far left) was my bedroom.   It had two more windows in the front. There were Venetian  blinds that I used to open after I turned off the lights at night so that the sun would  wake me up in the morning.  Getting up was always a chore when I was a teen.

This was an nice  house in it's day but very ho hum now.     Nothing stays the same.

(Merrill has alleys and that's where we were when we took these pictures.  This alley ran along the side of the house and the other alley ran directly behind the Pick house.  Alleys were neat.  Sometimes I miss them...esp.  when it would be nice to take a short cut without  going through a neighbor's yard... which I was trained was NOT the thing to do!  :-[