For Wilshire Baptist Church
The house across the street from us is getting a new paint job this week. It’s a wonderful old wood-frame house with a good front porch, big windows, some intricate woodwork and nice roof lines and angles all around. From the street you couldn’t really tell it needed fresh paint, but the owners know best.
According to the tax rolls, the house was built in 1948, so it’s 11 years older than me. It reminds me of the houses on the small-town streets where my grandparents lived. I grew up in suburbia where concrete slab foundations and brick veneer walls were the latest and greatest thing. Admittedly, there’s a lot to be said for the strength of bricks and concrete, but wood-frame houses on pier-and-beam foundations have always had a certain appeal to me. Somehow, they’ve always felt more “alive”; something about the slight bounce of the floorboards and the almost-perceptible movement of the wood behind the walls gives the house a living, breathing feel.
Continue reading “Neighboring”