Before and After

Spring 2000 - Before
SW Photo

Twenty seven tears ago next month, I retired from the United States Air Force. Did twenty four, which I felt was enough. They offered to waive high year of tenure for a Master Sergeant (which is, surprise, surprise, 24 years) and let me stay in until twenty six.

"Cool. Can I stay in Germany?"

"Uh, no, you'll have to PCS stateside."

A quick mental calculation ran something like this: when I arrive at the new base with two years to go, they're not going to give me a decent job. Maybe they would but no, I doubt it. Long story short, I said "No." Never looked back, never regretted that decision.

Anyhoo.

We lived with my parents for a couple of months while I looked for work. Which I finally found, right here in Little Rhody. Another no regret call there, loved the company, loved the job (until the wrong people took over), did twenty five years there.

We bought Chez Sarge in September of 1999, moved in in October of 1999. Nice house which needed some work, we knew that, if I had that to do over again, the old owners would have done some work before we moved in. A lot of work actually, or knocked ten grand off the price.

Anyhoo.

You see that opening photo? That's the backyard when The Missus Herself started working on it. You can see her in the background digging, preparing what we call the Oval Garden. (Duh, it's an oval. You can see it in the next photo, with the two dwarf maples, which are, surprise, surprise, 26 years old.)

That stretch of dirt with the rocks piled to the left, that's where the koi pond sits now. I had rented a powered sod cutter to strip off the crab grass which inhabited that region. (We used the sod rolls we dug up to raise the Oval Garden by a foot or more above the surrounding terrain.) The Missus Herself asked, "What are we going to do there? Plant new grass?"

Me? I saw the rocks, and thought, hey, let's do a rock garden.

Which we did, which grew a pond a couple of years later. The first pond was a single piece of molded plastic, maybe a foot and a half deep which was discovered, and occupied by, a couple of frogs. Later The Missus Herself decided we should have koi, so the pond was tripled in size. Didn't bother the frogs at all, in fact I think the local frog population views it as a resort. We have at least one full time resident and during the summer we'll see as many as two others sunning themselves on the rocks next to the water.

Spring 2026 - After
OAFS Photo

All the chain link fences are gone, the shed has been redone, though the bones of the current shed are the same as when we moved in. New siding and a new roof really made a difference. The maple in the northeast corner of our lot was there when we moved in. It has grown a bit since then. (Both photos are looking roughly northward.)

FWIW, the house was originally the same color scheme as the shed, not particularly attractive but not all that bad. With real estate it's all about location, and really, it was the town we fell in love with and our neighborhood isn't far from downtown (a mile or so, walkable, I've done it) and the neighbors are nice. Even though at times we think we live in Portugal, 80% of the neighbors are indeed first and second generation Portuguese, mostly from the Azores. Not a problem, their food is awesome, as is their bread and wine. DAMHIK.

So before and after, that's how Chez Sarge evolved, and is still evolving. Thought some of you would like to see what came before.

Man, that was a long time ago ...