Caught On Google Street View

Have you ever been caught on Google Street View?

Turns out I have!

What a way to be immortalized. Hahahahahaha.

It really captured me in my element too.

I was doing what I pretty much do every day – try to save this house from ruin. The jury is still out if I’ll be successful. The forces of nature are a strong foe, but I am a determined woman.

Being caught unaware aside, I am a big fan of Google Street View because you can access the archive of every year Google has photographed your home.

Have you tried it?

In the top left corner of Street View, there’s a black box (see below) and if there are photos of your home from multiple years, there will be a “see more dates” or “see latest dates” hyperlink. Please note that Google blurs license plates and I’ve also removed any identifying location information from these photos.

Here’s our house in October 2008.

It was captured again by Google Street View in July 2009.

Camera technology and the software used to stitch photos together were not great in either of these years, but I’m sure we thought it was the best thing ever.

Google must have forgotten about our part of New Jersey after that because they didn’t come back around for seven more years!

Here’s the house again in April 2016. The trees in New Jersey don’t fully leaf out until May. Please notice what is NOT visible in these photos so far – the Carriage House.

We purchased this home in 2019, but it wasn’t photographed again until November 2021.

As you can see, we did A LOT of brush removal after we bought the house and hadn’t started planting anything new. The important thing about this photo is you can now see the Carriage House.

To illustrate how much overgrowth there was, you can reach out your hands and touch the corner of the garage and the corner of the Carriage House. They are built that close to each other, but the brush made it look like there wasn’t a building back there at all.

Here is the house in August 2023.

It must have been a wet summer because our lawn is still quite green.

The most recent Google Street View photo we have is from September 2024.

Those are the same ferns hanging on the front porch, by the way. They sure grew larger in one year.

If there is one over-arching theme for this series of photos it is our effort to reclaim our property from the overgrowth.

Here is the side view of our home in October 2008. I swear there’s a house back there.

A year later, in 2009, it looked like this.

The really tall tree you see in front of the house was removed sometime between 2009 and 2016.

I was told the tree was diseased or rotting and in danger of falling on the house. Another tree between the house and the barn was also removed.

(The previous owner saved two slabs from the big tree and left them for me. One of the slabs I turned into this table.)

The tree removal definitely opened up the sightlines. Here’s the house again in 2016.

What’s hard to tell from the below photo is that by the time we purchased this home in 2019, the forsythia bushes along the road had grown to 10 feet tall and 15 feet deep. Another 6 feet or so and they would have overtaken the house.

Here’s the side view of the house in November 2021.

All the brown marks along the stone wall are where the grass was recovering from the forsythia removal.

We had free help removing those bushes and it’s the most amazing story. The moral of that story is it doesn’t hurt to ask, even if you’re wearing your pajamas. You can read about it here.

I think forsythia is so pretty when it blooms. Those yellow blooms are a welcome sight after a dreary winter, but I shudder a little now when I see people planting forsythia willingly because I have seen what can happen when it is not kept in check.

Handy Husband worked tirelessly to make sure all of the forsythia roots were removed and then planted grass in that area.

It was looking much better in August of 2023.

Now, pay attention to the waviness of the siding on the side of the house.

We had the siding redone in mid-2024 and you can tell the difference in this photo from September 2024.

It’s still the same size lap siding. It’s just less tired-looking.

The barn, on the other hand, needs some love again.

As you can imagine, we spend a fair bit of time working outside. Slow and steady wins the brush battle.

One of the nicest ways we’ve met members of our community is when they stop while driving or walking by to tell us how much they enjoy watching the transformation of this property.

Get your popcorn buckets, friends, because we aren’t done! There are still plenty of new projects to tackle and maintenance to keep up with. One thing is for sure, we won’t be bored.

What are your feelings on forsythia? How about Google Street View? Seen anything funny there? Let me know. You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Wishing you safe and happy travels if you’re using Google Maps today!

Thanks for hanging out with me. I hope you had a good time. Here are some other blog posts you might enjoy more than trimming overgrown brush.

How I’m Connecting Two Decks With Landscaping

Painting The Carriage House (Phew! That building was tall!)a

Barn Art – Painted Flag On An Old Door