And now here is the backyard, such as that is (the house, built in 1940, had the rear addition built in two stages in the 1950s and mid-1980s, evident by the ridiculous "wet bar" in the huge kitchen here -- since neither John or I drink, it's now a cocoa and tea nook), as most of our open yard space is in the front. Note the homage to John Twist with my ratty, falling down wooden fence that the carpenter ants have been consuming. We never got around to replacing it this year.
That fallen down plastic lawn chair is my statement about how one reacts to getting a near-$14,000 bill to replace the entire roof. This is a big house, and it's now becoming a four week project, but it's still scary money.