dream:

In which my family were living back in the house at San Doris Circle, which was much changed.

My mother had a militant and energetic little black dog of a breed called a Fire Terrier, as well as two huskies-- the inimitable Bo (free of leg problems in the dream) and an elderly Chinook. Add to this small menagerie the following:
A rooster, who lived in the house in a wire cage that sat on whatever surface was near to the people (a social bird, with a large black beak that was most un-chicken-like). This handsome fowl was ostensibly quite friendly, but threatened to bite me whenever i got close.
Another bird- perhaps a a parrot or macaw of some sort, whose personality I didn't get a chance to fathom.
I can't recall what else, but I know there were others...

Jon was there, as well as Flip. I believe Jon lived there, but Flip and his family just spent a lot of time there. I was merely visiting, and to the majority of animals, an interloper.

There were a number of staircases in the house, all of which were curving, steep and incredibly difficult to navigate. The main stair led up to the bedrooms, and appeared to have two sections which looked at odds with one another; poorly designed for use, although it made an interesting visual. The portion that gave an impression of having been added on hurriedly bent away toward the master bedroom. There was also a servants' stair, which went from the semi-below ground garage up into the kitchen, and was quite curving after the fashion of a spiral staircase, but larger, and I never recalled that being in the house before. (Indeed, the garage had never been remotely sunken before!) Next to this garage-room was a sort of alleyway, also with stairs, and to the right was a door through which to get to the garage, and on the left another door- looking into a kitchen. (At first I took this to be some second kitchen- perhaps lately of use for the servants of the spiral stair-- but then I saw some strangers in it and realized it belonged to the house next door.).

I'd been following my mother up this stair-alley and we came out upon a vast backyard, where a party seemed about to begin; people here and there and it was a lovely sunny day. She told me to walk around and see the front yard-- see what they'd done to it. I was just in awe the whole time because most of it was very different and much larger than I'd remembered it (and completely different, of course, to what the house was like in reality)-- the decor was of such and eclectic style-- combinations of brightly colored modern exaggerations of victorian pieces and patterns mingled with kitschy fifties elements and some really wonderful chintz. Unbelievable, but somehow very homey and comfortable too. There were strange toys on the floor- like blocks that were also little army tanks, and they made a sound like industry or monsters.