Originally Posted By: Brons2
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
...living in an apartment or condo with no place to be outdoors is totally counter to human nature. In fact it SUCKS. Urban life is OK when you're 23. Its just sad if you're still stuck in a high-rise without even a little postage stamp of back yard when you're 40.
There are plenty of places to be outdoors if you actually WALK places rather than drive everywhere! And there are lots of public parks here in the Austin area including 3 within WALKING distance from my house!
Taking care of a yard is a burden! I hate my yard! What I am supposed to do back there anyway? Watch the grass grow?
I just don't understand the mentality of having to have a little piece of dirt to call one's own. It's a free country, and if that's what you want, it's your prerogative, but don't tell me it's sad because I don't want the same. I think getting out gives you MORE of a sense of community not less. People who want to isolate themselves in a suburban cocoon (or urban in your case), well, I don't get it at all.
Its great that we both can live in the same country and do what we want. I feel exactly the OPPOSITE on every thing you mention.
When I walk outside (daily), I don't want to see concrete and steel canyons. I want to have some sight distance and some grass. I want to stop and talk to the neighbors I pass without having to shout over city traffic. I want to OWN my residence,spend money endlessly on rent or "buy" a condo but still have to abide by the nutty condo association's sense of taste in how the exterior looks. I don't want to depend on my neighbor to not burn the his place and mine down with scented candles, a cigarette, or whatever.
I LOVE working in my yard, gardens, and flowerbeds. I love landscaping it, putting in new paths between the beds and taking out old ones. Landscaping/Xeriscaping- seeing how much I can do with how little water. Mulching and composting, tilling, weeding, mowing. Then I like to sit out there, enoy the breeze and the birds, watch the wildlife, read a book, and drink a frosty one. Its far and away the best stress-reliever that I know other than wrenching on one of my cars.
Which brings up another topic. I like having a garage/workshop where I CAN work on my cars (washing and waxing and all that stuff in the 'detail and wax' forum is nothing to me- I want to overhaul an engine or restore an old car). I drive by condos at the edge of my area with garages so small the owners can't even get a full-size vehicle in them, so some of their new cars have to sit pathetically out on the street. That does strike me as strange and a bit sad- spending 40 grand on a car or truck and letting the weather ruin it or having it hit by drunk driver at 3 AM (saw evidence of that recently). Can't even change their own oil... this is what I don't get.
Yes, those are all just opinions... but that's why I'm willing to keep my HOME in one spot and commute to work if I have to. That was the original question, right?
Quote:
In 2004 I sold my house and moved much closer to work, only 2.2 miles away, in an area most people living in the suburbs would consider way too urban. Well you know what, I love my neighborhood now! There are people coming in and flipping houses left and right now because they see the inherent value in a close-in neighborhood. Since I bought before it became trendy, I got it cheap!
It actually sounds not that different from my area. The only problem with my area is that developers are taking lots the size of mine and trying to stuff 10 houses/acre on them. Which is KILLING the cool vibe, not to mention overloading the infrastructure- streets can't handle it. Bike lanes can't handle it. Sewer lines can't handle it (fortunately no major gushers... yet). Water mains are too small. That kind of thing.
