Recently, I had the opportunity to go back to Yosemite for a NPS retirement celebration (congratulations to Jack Hoeflich for an amazing career—someone who deserves a book and movie made about his life story).
(Not my photo. Credit to the original photographer.)
I almost didn’t go by the old house, yet I did. I approached from the rear, on Tecoya Road. I could quickly see it was vacant and the gates standing open. So, I took a look. It’s been a little over five years since I’ve been this close to the place—and that’s a long time in the park. I knew it wouldn’t be the same.
Having lived here for so long, we did a lot of personalization to the house, and expected the next residents would too. Plus, I knew that the Facilities team would cover our wall treatments after I left. The interior of every unit gets painted an eggshell white/light tan—I think it’s called Navajo White. Plus, knowing it was used as a bunk house after I moved out ensured it that the place was probably trashed and would need to be fixed up before a young lady from H.R. ultimately moved in.
The outside. First, I don’t think people realize the amount of yard work this small place requires. When we moved in, it had been vacant for over six months and I don’t think any yard work had been completed for a longer time. There is almost a constant need to do something every 7-10 days to keep the yard looking acceptable.
Today, some of it looked good, other parts looked horrible. The backyard looked great. The rear light fixtures I installed in the back porch were still there. The stepping stones leading from the back porch and my former BBQ to the rear gate are gone. Come winter, someone is going to miss those. It becomes a floody-muddy mess back there.
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The fire extinguisher inspections had not been completed, so I took care of it. (If you just chuckled , you know the inside background history about extinguisher inspections.)
The front yard is overgrown. The lawn has been neglected. All the plants we had put in, real and expensive fakes, around the patio and front door are gone.
The folding shelf outside one of the kitchen windows had been torn off and is on the ground. The shelf was there before my time, and it was handy for a lot of things, including holding a couple small potted plants. On occasion I’d remove the window screen and use it for food serving to others on the patio. The north side of the house has large accumulation of forest duff.
I noticed a door ajar, so I knocked, got no answer and then went inside the obviously vacant house. The inside had some odd changes, and some surprising good memories.
Unfortunately, the good people in Employee Services (Housing) and Facilities are not known for their contemporary interior decorating skill sets. All the flooring has been changed. I’m sure it needed it after being a bunk house. When I was there, the flooring was in great condition. The kitchen, laundry hall, and bath had a medium brown wood grain linoleum floor. The living room, bedroom, and entry room had beige carpet. All of it has been changed to a dark brown wood grain laminate. The flooring itself doesn’t look bad, and may be good quality. The issue is the use of such a dark shade of brown in this small house that already has significant tree shade. The dark flooring just makes the place feel small. It felt smaller now as empty than it did with my furniture.
The upper kitchen cabinets that were a natural wood color and had a clear coat are now stained dark. This gives the place an even more closed in and depressing feeling.
In the decorative yet functional built in kitchen hutch, someone installed some funky wallpaper on it that was also put on the backboard behind the laundry shelves. It’s someone’s style, yet certainly not mine.
I was pleased to see the three ceiling fans I installed were still there. Typically, those are some of the first things that disappear after a unit is vacated. I didn’t see the remote controls for them, and didn’t bother to look for them.
In the bathroom, for whatever reason, Aramark’s Facilities had refused to replace a defective ceiling electric heater for me. As a result, I purchased one and replaced it. It’s still there and churning away. The towel loop holder, medicine cabinet, curved shower rod, and glass shelf over the toilet I bought and installed are still there.
The window coverings had been replaced. We spent a good chunk of money to replace the worn mini blinds with nice roll up cloth backed shades. Those were all gone, and replaced with inexpensive pull down shades. I noticed some didn’t cover the width of the window.
The fireplace tools were still there. They were originally from my parent’s former home in Ventura, California. (It later burned down during the Thomas Fire in December 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fire .)
It was a bittersweet experience. I hold very wonderful memories of the house and miss the times we had there with family and countless friends. On the other hand, I feel like I’ve moved on to a much better phase of my life. I hope future occupants can have as much fun and great memories as we enjoyed.
At least the front yard view is still spectacular!
