Zoning.......

I grew up in a very nice suburb outside Chicago. Good schools. Nice downtown. Tree-lined streets. Certainly some neighborhoods featured bigger and grander homes than others, but most of my Leave-It-To-Beaver hometown was full of nice single family homes. Well kept and populated by proud, hardworking homeowners.

As we've been lucky enough to travel around the United States we've noticed that sometimes zoning restrictions seem to be a little more "flexible" than the ones that were in place where I grew up. We first noticed this many years ago on a business trip to Arizona.....huge homes situated next to small, run down "shacks".

This trip we noticed more of the same. Especially while driving those red routes and exploring off-the-interstate communities. There semed to be huge differences between the "haves".....

....and the "have somes"....

... and the "used-to-haves"....

....and the "have some stuff and keep it all on the front porch" houses.....

....and the owners of The Biltmore who "had so much stuff they needed 250 rooms to store it all".......

Driving by all kinds of homes, big and small, well groomed or sadly kept. Wondering about the stories they hold. The families who lived there. Who were they, what did they do and if the house is now empty, where did they go?

I know I really should not judge a book by its cover....but I do wonder....how is it that some seem to have so much....and others so little.....at least judging by the houses they own? Zoning or rather no-zoning made the drive pretty interesting....and had my imagination imagining!