I've spent over a decade sweating (read: obsessing over) the details to make this property comfortable, smart, convenient, safe, and overall awesome. Like any old home, this one has given me plenty of projects.
The location is really the main reason for the purchase of this home. From there, it became an optimization of everything else, based on the location.
I immediately tore up the front yard and put in a walking garden because I had small kids and didn't want them playing in the front yard where the traffic was so busy. Then when I put up the front porch swing and made that outdoor "room", I began to enclose that front garden with the camellias, for some privacy when we'd be on the porch, either as a family or hosting guests.
To give the kids a safe and multi-purpose place to play in the backyard, I put turf down in 2012. Again, I was making the most of the property, and turf just gave me the most options. In the Summer we'd have kids over, swimming in an above-ground pool, in the spring a batting cage and Easter egg hunts, and at Halloween, we'd have a huge neighborhood party. It always felt so quiet and private back there, and yet so close to many restaurants and shops.
It was always nice for people to drop by if they were up at the corner for dinner, or if they were in town for some event. We were always hosting people long before we became hosts.
The kids could walk to their elementary school and their middle school. Had we not moved, they could have walked to their high school as well.
The older I get, the less enthusiastic I am about getting in a car and sitting in traffic to go somewhere. Being at or near where I need to be is my favorite place to be.