Living in the Golden State:

Outside of the New House

This is what we saw the first time we pulled up to the place (except it now had our car in the driveway). It looks like your standard California house, leading with the garage, and in some sort of Spanish mission style. That usually means a tiled roof, good for two reasons. One, it doesn't burn, and we do have a fire season out here. (People actually live in houses with cedar shingles around here. Why live in a box of kindling?) Two, it has a projected life span of fifty years. That's good, given that the house was built around 1989 or 1990, so the roof should be around for longer than we will.