A little bit different

We have a canal at the back of our house - quite pretty with a pretty bridge which we can see from our windows, although we are in the middle of an inner city. We hear boats chugging by and when I am pegging out washing, I can hear ducks quacking and we get the odd heron on our fence or a duck sitting on the patio

Absolutely none. Standard estate house looking just like all the others

We have a view across lovely, rolling, productive farmland and often see deer, lots of birds and wild flowers in the verges. Not for much longer though. The local authority has designated it as building land and there will be 120+ houses built on it in the next year or two. It's so sad and has caused outrage in the area but despite all the protests it seems unlikely that this decision will be reversed.

I'd be outraged oo, Gagagran. I have to lean sideways at the back bedroom window to see the farmland behind us, which I fear will also be under threat when the current farmer retires. But from my front windows I have a glorious view over thriving gardens and allotments, which I hope are safe from future development. I love to look out and see other people working away.

The neighbour at the back of us has a huge garden which is full of beautiful rare chickens and ducks. We can see them from our back bedroom window and it is lovely. One of the other neighbours complained about the quacking but I enjoy hearing them especially when 'daddy's' van comes down the path and they all quack more!

My house has no special features, but I love my garden and that's what makes it special to me.
Katy I'm envious of your canal view. When we had the narrowboat I used to love going past other people's houses and gardens and seeing what they had done with them. Some of them were idyllic, others very neglected and I would imagine what I would do with them!
If we ever move I would look for a canalside property somewhere.

View across to Wales with boats going up and down

That's so sad Gagagran.

The only thing different about our house is the fact that no-one can find it.

We have a glass corridor (or verriere to my mum!!) between the front and back halves of upstairs! We also have high ceilings downstairs and some ceilings open to the rafters upstairs. Our back door goes out through what was a chimney!

We have front and back staircases which I fondly imagine keep me fitter than I might be otherwise - of course they don't as they both lead to the same floor!

Our son in law started school here!

jane I would also like a canal side house. I'm sure no one leaving near water is ever bored. First choice would be to live near the ocean where there is plenty of big wave action - I love that.

As far as my current house goes - I look around the house and see evidence in every room of my husband transforming our "built environment" with vision and naught else but his two hands and some tools! He is amazing and it makes me happy every day to see his handiwork. My favourite thing is the wooden floors (bamboo) throughout the ground floor (entrance, living room and kitchen) because it was only when someone else (a friend) having seen ours bought the same flooring planks and also did his own flooring when I realised - "my husband's an artist!" There was just no comparison in the finished product.

I have a very long garden. Once I have reached the end, I have a view over the watermeadows to the river. I can watch skeins of geese taking off and landing, pheasants, deer browsing, occasionally sheep or cattle grazing - and next door but one's pigs and chickens pootling about behind their fence.

The main house isn't large, but we have converted outbuildings, which means that our house is in two parts. This does mean that we get wet on occasion as we race across the corner of the patio, but as none of us wish to part with our very nice patio we aren't going to enclose it and bridge the gap. So we live in two houses really.

To get to my tumble dryer (my choice, it lives in a lean-to at the far end and keeps overwintering plants heated) I have to cross the patio and then walk the plank, or rather, bridge across our pond. As it is all level with the grass and pond I have to be very careful to neither slip in the snow and ice, nor drop any washing from my basket!

Soundfs lovely kitty. Have you still got a playground?

When we bought our house, over 30 years ago, it needed redecorating in places. Stripping wallpaper brought down much of the plaster with it and it soon turned into a major repair project. However, the good bit was the discovery of a clay bread oven set in the wall where once there was a fireplace. Sadly the door was missing, but it is a much loved feature in our sitting room.
I really feel for you Gagagran, we are lucky enough to see deer too and it is one of the joys of living here and makes up for the inconvenience of no buses etc.I hope something happens to reverse the decision. Any chance of finding an endangered species of animal or plant? Your council sounds a a bit like ours and the countryside has to take second place to profit. Very sad.

Our house is difficult to find as well.

Building work is about to begin on our annexe. We were hoping to have moved in by Christmas but our architect made a mistake with the application which delayed everything by two months When it is finished we will be living in a 'garden house' with two sets of patio doors, large windows and (eventually) a conservatory at one end. I've designed everything but I'm driving DH mad dithering about whether we need to block up the back door because he keeps saying, 'How many b***dy doors do you need'????

I'll win

I do sympathise with Gagagran. When we bought this house it had an orchard to the front which attracted lots of wild life and was lovely to look at especially when in blossom. It was eventually built on but I had to remind myself that our plot was originally part of the orchard too and that houses for the new generations have to be built somewhere (though 120 houses is hard to take).

Sounds lovely GK.
MrA is very good at fixing things, but not very keen on doing anything that's not strictly necessary!

Some lovely diverse homes on here! We love ours!

jings part of the reason we have lots of hard landscaping is that the playground wasn't broken up properly before the soil was put down - so yes but no!! . There are also two modern houses on parts of the playground so our garden is tiny! It took me ages to get DH to look at the house but we are both totally besotted by it!

kitty your house sounds fascinating! Ours is a bog standard four bed detached on a new development(not large enough to be called an estate). We back onto the railway and as we both like trains that's OK. At holidays and special times the Steam Trains come chugging past preceded by a distinctive whistle so we hang out of the back bedroom window and wave. One day I thought |I was seeing things when a London underground trian was stationary outside - it was a new one on its way down to London from Derby- fascinating to us Londoners to see our beloved tube in Melton Mowbray.

We also live on a canal bank, it`s at the front of the house, although, to be a bit like Kitty`s mum, we call it a RIVERbank! It`s not as pretty as when we first moved here, there are so many car owners now that the bank is always full of cars, access to the "river" is very restricted now.

The sea is to the front but alas hidden by a 20' concrete seawall To the rear from upstairs we can see a lake and leisure facilities with hills behind.

All good but nothing out of the ordinary. However, it was originally a police house.

nannyfran I did ask the pet shop if they had any great crested newts or endangered insects I could buy and encourage to take up residence! (Answer - "no")

Unfortunately I am sure the council have done a wild life survey along with all the other ones they do - archaeology, minerals, water courses etc. and it has obviously passed their tests.

So until the dreaded day arrives we enjoy our lovely view and wildlife spotting and just have to accept that this is all driven by Central Government and their dratted targets.

Nearby woods. I feel surrounded by trees sometimes.
When I first moved here, I used to run out in late evenings thinking someone was being attacked.
But it was the local wildlife getting up to all sorts.

or should that be allsorts?