Where I Live: Royal Oaks

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My neighborhood is Royal Oaks, but I refer to it as “the bubble.”

I found my house in 1991 while I was only casually looking. A friend who was a home inspector knew I was in the market, so I went to see it. I knew from the first step inside that it was mine. I’m a big outdoors person, and from the front door you can see straight through to the backyard. I’ve been here for 35 years.

The biggest change in that time is that my family used to be one of the youngest on the street, and now we’re probably the oldest. As the older families moved out, young couples with lots of children moved in. I live on the flat side of a cul-de-sac in the middle of a curved street, and right now there are probably 15 to 20 kids between the ages of five and 10. They play in the circle all day, where one family has put up a basketball hoop. At Christmas they ride a float around the neighborhood and sing carols in English and Spanish.

I raised my son in this house, and I taught most of his friends how to ride a bike in the cul-de-sac. We also practiced fly fishing casts in the circle. Halloween was his favorite holiday, so we went all — motion-triggered fog machines, witches on pulleys in our trees and plenty of candy. The kids loved to lie in the yard and sit up on unsuspecting visitors. It was so much fun.

The house itself was built in 1970, and I recently finished a complete renovation that took about two years. I designed my own kitchen cabinets, picked out the tile and wallpapered every room. It took so long because I never went shopping for a specific item. I let the furniture and accent pieces find me as I browsed for hours. It is definitely my house.

But the neighbors are what make it home. Everybody knows everybody. I walk my dogs every day, and I can tell who’s in town and who’s away. I often pick up their newspapers. Most mornings I walk with neighbors, and the school bus stops right in front of my house, so I get to chat with the parents and children as they head out. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.

A few years ago, a neighbor on a walk saw me up in the trees taking down the Christmas lights. “Not while I’m your neighbor,” he said, and he finished the job. We look out for each other, and we make sure nobody is without somewhere to go on the holidays.

I think ours is the most decorated street in the city at Christmas. Everybody puts up lots of lights, and there are plenty of inflatables. The lights start at Thanksgiving and stay up through New Year’s, and we have a block party almost every year.

After 35 years, what keeps me here isn’t the house. It’s walking out the door in the morning and knowing who I’ll see.