Going Home Again on the Net

New Google Maps Street View

I took a look yesterday at real estate sales in our old Arlington Virginia neighborhood, and there it popped up – a new street view photograph of our former Arlington home on Google Maps.  The picture shows the house as of a late June Friday morning last year, the timing identifiable by trash receptacles out front, the position of the sun and the “For Sale” sign with an “Under Contract” addendum.  For posterity, or at least for the several years that stand in for posterity on the Internet, our old pre-WW II revival colonial is primed for sale. The grass is lush and green, foliage clipped, flower beds mulched, porch, garage door and trim freshly painted, porch glider adorned with fresh cushions, the porch itself framed by hanging flower baskets and sitting flower boxes, and new double hung windows installed.  It never looked better.

Even so, Google Maps does not do the house (or the work Teresa and I put into it) full justice.   The Mouse On House picture I took below presents a street view better and brighter.  




Mouse On House Street View



I showed these pictures to the kids, asked if they missed the old place. Our South 5^th Street home was one of the dozen largest in its Arlington Heights neighborhood.  So what do the kids say?  Blake says "Nice cottage."  Blythe says "It's like a chicken coop."   It sure didn’t take the kids long to adjust to the open expanses and larger sizes out West.  Someday I suppose they will be off to college where they will need to confront down-size reality once again. 

As for myself, I wish Google had waited a few months to refresh the picture because I would have liked to see the front porch with the railings, side extension and stairs down to the driveway, which I understand the new owners have built in.  I expect it will be some point beyond Internet posterity when I have the pleasure.