Classic Houses in My Neighborhood

Classic Houses in My Neighborhood

I spent last week up at my condominium in Ohio.  My neighborhood there is a close in suburb of Cleveland and full of old classic houses.  It is a beautiful neighborhood with mature trees, old homes and several high rise condominium and apartment buildings. 

I used to think it unusual to have high rise buildings among the classic homes in the neighborhood, but now it is just home.  An interesting fact is, my building is over 50 years old!  It is truly a mid-century modern home!  This building was built as apartments and changed to condominiums years ago.While I was in Ohio, the weather was rainy and the fog was so thick along the lake that I couldn’t see the building across from ours most of the week.  BUT, one day the sun came out and it was glorious!  Out I headed for a walk through the neighborhood.  I do miss having my own garden, but the grounds of the condo are lovely, you can see the daffodils were beginning to fade.  I had so many hostas growing at our last home in Ohio, it is nice to see them around the building and I don’t have to worry about keeping the deer away or separating them when they need it.

If I had the space I would plant myself a cutting garden.  I often used hosta leaves in my flower arrangements.  Oh, how beautiful all of the flowering trees were!  I was so glad I finally got a day to get out and enjoy them.

This is one of the first homes I come across on my walk.  Almost all of the homes in this neighborhood have these glassed-in side porches like this one does. 

 

The glassed-in porch on this home is on the front.  Don’t you love the arched detail over the driveway?

This is the tragic beauty of our neighborhood.  I don’t remember all of the home styles I studied in design school, but I think this is a classic Italianate.  This home was for sale for many years and is certainly not in good repair, nor are the grounds maintained like this lovely home deserves.  The wrought iron fence still stands all around this grand old lady, but as you can see the gate is rusted and in ill repair.  This is a house that is loved, as is the garden.  You can see the pansies planted in case there is another cold snap, but this garden gets prettier as the summer goes along. 

There are a handful of French style homes that are a couple of my favorites!  The inside of this home glows when driving by at night. 

There are several Federal style homes nearby, but there is this particular row of three that is quite impressive. I was tickled to come upon a Little Free Library!  I will bring by a few books the next time I walk this way!  Don’t you like how they painted the library to match their home?  

Do you live in a neighborhood of older homes? There are so many different styles as I wander through the community.  I will share more later this summer, like the sweet little storybook house my daughter always called “an elf house”.  She thought it looked like a place the seven dwarfs might have lived!