This question is so old. It’s almost a year old and the funny thing is I think about it all the time. I found this notepad while cleaning out a cupboard in my kitchen but I still love the question. I had my granddaughter Trinity one morning before school. On a two hour late start and we started watching Hairspray. This opening scene is what inspired my question. It’s at 140 into the video when she opens her front door and goes outside.
It hit me that I can’t even begin to imagine opening my front door to that. Or any other door for that matter. I just can’t imagine not having a yard. Or grass. Or a driveway or deck. I just simply can’t imagine it.
Since I noticed that that morning, it made it seem so magnified while watching other things. Like all the Law and Order’s and CSI’s that take place in NYC. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very beautiful homes and neighborhoods but to me, it’s so foreign.
I also realize that not many people live like I do either. I mean I could go outside and unless those pesky neighbors across the road or down the road have binoculars out, I can do pretty much whatever I please and nobody would know.
Just what is your neighborhood like? Do you have privacy? What is it you see when you open your front door?
Us Girls..Our Views 
I LOVE my neighborhood and am so glad Toby didn’t want to move back to the cities! Out my front door is a huge yard dotted with skinny trees and a flower garden. My view out the back door is better though and it’s why I love where I live.
I’ve always wanted to have that kind of privacy. Not that there’s anything I “want” to do in private, it’s just how I feel most relaxed. My family always had a yard, but we always had neighbors close enough to peep if they wanted to. But, mostly, I haven’t had neighbors who would want to. The reality is, I could probably go out back and do almost anything and nobody would notice, even if they were close enough to see. I kinda like it that way.
Well, right now, I live in a suburb with a decent yard. The backyard goes up a hill, and down a ravine on one side. My next-door neighbors’ houses are positioned so they can’t see my patio unless they pretty much walked into my yard. Some of the houses farther back could look at us, but we have trees blocking most of that during the warm months. So, I often go outside and do yoga stretches or whatever and I don’t bother about what I look like. The neighbors might see me, but since they’d have to go out of their way to do it, it still feels somewhat like privacy (and I’m not going out there naked, anyway). I’ve had deer in my yard who were a lot nosier than my neighbors.
Oh and raccoons and skunks? Very nosy. Bah.
Out my front door, there is a small house across the street but huge trees that almost make it so you don’t even notice it. There are only 3 houses I see from my front door, really. And one is the side of the house, the one across the road, and the other one is quite a ways down the street. I really like where we live, it’s quiet and peaceful but not too secluded. I like that Bailey has a handful of friends within walking distance from us.
I can’t imagine not having a yard. It’s not the type of living for us. I am too much of a flower/yard work kind of person, and Bailey and the dog would go nuts!
And yeah, I don’t relate to people who actually feel sorry for me because I don’t live in an “exciting” big city. Where you can go to a new restaurant every day, but you have to smell the garbage on the street on your whole way there and back. And even expensive “luxury”accommodations are reminiscent of your first work cubicle. No thanks. Even though my family was borderline poor, we always had some space and some green on our property. I couldn’t afford new shoes or clothes, but I could grow vegetables or have a dog in my yard. It’s important to me.
And being able to send my kids outside to play. Very important to me.
Unless those pesky neighbors have their binoculars out Joy? Are you talking about us 🙂 Yes I enjoy our neighbor hood also. Out the front door is a big field. Out the back is a pasture and a ways off is a road. There is no way I could live in a town! I’m a country girl.
Oh yeah, my front door looks down the street/hill and I can see every house on our street from there, if I want to. That would be about 30 houses, I guess. They are your typical Midwestern $200K-ish suburban family homes and set back from the street. Seems most of them are inhabited by elderly people, and the neigbors are friendly but not gregarious or nosey.
My place is pretty much like Joys, right down to the neighbors with binoculars..LOL
I am starting to think the “neighbors with binoculars” that everyone is referring to is Jenny and myself!!!!!
LOL, I was referring to everyone but myself of course. 🙂
Plus the binocular thing is an ongoing joke. lol
LOL Vicki!!!! Too bad I didn’t have them that night in the car looking at the lights. I might have seen a bare naked lady!!!! LMAO!!!
LOL Joy, no kidding, SCARY!!
I was just being clever when I wrote this Jason but if the shoe fits…….LMAO!!!
We are in the Burbs too. Our home is on a corner. Across the street is the neighborhood aminities (clubhouse, swimming pool, three tennis courts and a volleyball court) but the only thing visible is the clubhouse and tennis courts.
We have a nice yard/lawn with large oak trees on the side and a huge 40′ cedar tree in our front/side yard that I had lighted with white lights for an outdoor Christmas tree… and I must say it looks fabulous and has generated many positive comments.