The Fairydiddle Mystery house.

My house: is built up off the ground because I live next to a river. Very next. The first section is four feet above ground level, the second four and a half feet. The sunporch dips down to only three and a half feet. But the whole is constructed so the river can run under it if it wishes. It has so wished. On several occasions. The one thing I forgot was the car. So when flooding looks eminent, I drive it up the hill.

The highest the water has ever come under the house was during hurricane Isabel. It was two feet up under. Many things I'd stored under the house were carried away. But I waded back in the next morning, and the lights were still on, and I stumbled to bed. There had been times during that night in the car on the hill, I was pretty certain that the whole house would float away. With day's light, it was clear: not even close.

Isabel carried away years of work: specifically, 110 feet of hand-laid stone wall. Which had been constructed to give me some outside ground-level play space. And hundreds of square feet of stone terrace. I don't have the heart, the energy, or the time to do it again. I now have a beach. The river has told me that she likes beaches, and who am I to argue with a river? She's been here much longer than I have and brings me pretty things. That'll have to do.

(That's the sunporch you see. It now has a clear roof. This picture was taken just after Isabel.)