Our House is a very fine house

There really is no way to get a good picture of the outside of our house in Dakar because there are so many trees around it! That's a really good thing! It keeps the house cool. This is the front of the house. The two living room windows that we are standing in from of look out onto a small park. It's not much of a park (a slide is its only attraction), but we'll have fun with it. There are three 'yards' (outside areas) within the compound walls. The first is the entry way, which is all concrete. It is just inside the gate to the right of the picture, behind the car. The second is the 'back yard', really just a utility area behind the house. It is mostly concrete, though it has a 4x6 foot garden area. At one time, this area had a canopy of vines over it, but it died in the few months that no one was living here to water it. This is where the stairway to the roof is. Roofs are very much a part of the house here. You entertain guests, you can sleep, you can do laundry - all on the roof. The laundry room really is on the roof! (For now, we will use the garage. Moving the Washer/Dryer to the roof is NOT going to be easy!) This roof needs to be fixed up to do any of these things, but it won't be long. I want to build a hut on the roof (a common addition) that provides shade for entertaining. There is also a storage-type room and a bathroom in this yard. The third yard is our most favorite thing about the house! It is a 20x40 yard (dirt, not grass) with a patio. This yard is encircled by pine trees and has a mango tree right in the middle. This will be Claire, Chase, and Caleb's yard! In the picture, the outside entrance to this yard is on the left of where we are standing, just outside of our living room.