One year after the fire on our street, the rebuilt houses are finally near completion. The couple who own the house (on the right) are planning to move in this weekend. It will be nice to have them back.
The duplex (on the left) just had its gas line connected, so it should be ready for occupancy soon.
As you can see from the old photo below, the owners of the house tried to retain the flavor of their old house, even though they made it quite a bit larger. It’s gorgeous on the inside. I covet their pecan flooring and cherry cabinets, while Larry lusts after their upgraded plumbing and electrical.
They were able to salvage their 100-year-old fireplace mantel from the original house. It was refinished and looks awesome.
As for the duplex? The old one (below) was the most modern house on the street, built around 1981. It didn’t really fit into the neighborhood, but at least it was kind of interesting. It had a long extension on the back, with a bank of south-facing windows that looked like they would have made for a wonderful space.
Sadly, the owner chose to rebuild as cheaply as possible, and now it looks like crummy army barracks. Believe me – it looks much better in the top photo than it does in person. I didn’t know you could get vinyl siding that was so thin. The first big windstorm or hailstorm is probably going to do major damage.
Oh well, I’ll just be glad to have the street back to some sort of normalcy, without all of the construction vehicles clogging up the road.
CabledSheep 
Bummer about the cheapskate owner…
I’m glad your block will be returning to a normal hum. We had a house built behind ours in the spring. The new occupants have been busy building a shed, planting trees, moving dirt… We were delighted when it finally settled down a few weeks ago. The larger house is lovely. I would covet the front porch!
The house is a great fit, and lift, for the neighborhood. Too bad about the army barracks building. Maybe they’ll cover it up with shrubbery and you’ll be spared.
The yellow one is cute! (I would covet upgraded plumbing and wiring too – next place I move I’ll count the outlets in the kitchen before I sign the lease, and I hope we get out of this place before the upstairs tub falls through the floor.)
I covet their porch.
On the bright side, maybe the next winter storm will rid you of the barracks house.
Plumbing and electrics all the way!