Odd, Old Home

I've been playing around with Google Maps recently. To be more specific, I've been typing in addresses and looking at the pictures of houses from my memories--my in-laws' house, my parents' new house, apartments I've rented. The Google Maps pictures always show the front of the house. I searched for the house I grew up in; the small split-entry with a large backyard.  When the picture appeared on my screen, it was a shot of the side of my house and my backyard rather than the front of the house. "Strange," I thought, but then remembered there was an explanation: My house was built facing the wrong direction.  The front of the house should have been facing south, but instead was built facing east.  It never really bothered me when I was a kid; I didn't know any better. But looking back, I realize that it's kind of funny.  Who builds a house facing a direction different than the other houses on the street?

 



 

So yes, my childhood home was strange, and, quite possibly, the family who lived there was also odd.  But there was a lot of memories and love in that small house.

UPDATE: This story of my strange, wrongly-built house continues.  During the summer of 2021, I was serving on jury duty in downtown Salt Lake City.  My dad sent me a text message with multiple pictures of a house firs.  Turns out, it was this house that I used to live in.  I've heard just parts of the story of the house fire, but here is what happened:  one of the current residents (or someone he knew) was smoking on the back deck.  The deck built by my father.  When the smoker discarded the cigarette, it was evidently not fully extinguished.  This caused the deck and then the house, and then the carport and the garage to catch fire and burn nearly to the ground.  The house was a complete loss and the puppies from the puppy mill that was stored at the house nearly lost all of their lives, too.  My neighbor's house nearly burnt to the ground.  It sustained some damage and had to be repaired.  

I think the person impacted the most by this fire (with the exception of the current owners) was my father.  I remember my father spending hours of his free time working on our house.  I mentioned before that he built the deck on the back of the house, but I didn't mention that he also build the garage with his hands.  It wasn't the biggest or the nicest house, but it was well-kept, at least when we lived there.  

UPDATE Part II: The old, bunt house was torn down and a new house was built.  The new house was also build facing east, not south like the other houses in the neighborhood.