What kind of home do you live in / what kind of area [city, country, urban...]?
![What kind of home do you live in / what kind of area [city, country, urban...]?](https://thenewstalkers.com/blog/image/blog_image/2260/xxxlarge/_v=63f541600947729)
I live in a suburban town just south of Detroit called Wyandotte. Neighbors homes are near mine, but we're a close neighborhood. We all know each others names and help each other when needed. The type of home I live in is what one might consider a farm style house; it was built in 1906. We've put $65,000 into it to make it our own and to make it warmer, more efficient, and more comfortable. However, without my family here, it wouldn't be a HOME. There's five humans in my household and two fur kids: my 50 year old husband, myself (41), my daughter's boyfriend Eric (19), my daughter Mikayla (17), and my son Carson (12)... oh and my cat Palooza (5) and my puppy Rocky (going on 2).
This is my house before renovations:
House after renovations:
We've replaced the patio with concrete, new windows, new siding, new porch, new fencing and porch railing, new furnace, installed A/C, new hot water tank, redid the main bathroom, repainted all the rooms, and built new walls in the basement... I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but we've done a lot to bring life back into a historic home.
Sure, we'd like more property, but I also like that my kids are close to their schools and friends and family. My mom's side of the family has been here, in this area since 1701. It's pretty astonishing to see family names in local history books.
So, what kind of home do you have and in what kind of area do you live?
I love my home.
It's a beautiful home.
I live in a subdivision inside the city limits (small city <30,000), but I live in the middle of 3 acres surrounded by trees so it's much like living in the country. The subdivision itself is small and once part of a farm. I would tell you the name of my road but I don't want to divulge too many details. Most homes here are at least an acre and a half and there are 3 dead ends.
It's a great neighborhood and very peaceful. Mr Giggles and I call it our little slice of heaven.
Lovely home. I love old homes!
Live in a decaying 1880 farmhouse that keeps trying to fall down on me and keeps trying to drown me when the rain comes hard. An exercise in attempting to defeat entropy.
On the plus side, the basement does make a pretty good wading pool when the sump pumps burn out from being constantly on..
Yep, my house was built over an underground stream. That may have made sense back in 1880 due to Indians and outlaws, but not now.
No wonder the agent waited to show me the property after it hadn't rained for awhile.
Bummer that it floods. I love old homes. That's one of the reasons I love the city I live in; it's filled with historical homes and businesses. Most people are hell-bent on keeping it that way too.
It's very nice, MsAubrey.
I bought the worst house I could find in the best neighborhood I could afford. Renovated it myself, like you did. It was probably one of the best moves I've made. I'm getting ready to finish a part of the basement.
Very smart move!
That's the way to do it!
I live in a small wood built crawl space foundation home in beautiful Redding, Ca. It is a 1037 square foot home with 3 bedrooms, 1 and 1/2 bathrooms, with a living room dining room single room and a modern kitchen with a small dinette with a sliding glass door to patio and rv parking and backyard. It has a single car attached garage with washer and dryer in it. The house sits on a 70’x110’ lot with a huge fruitless mulberry tree providing shade for the whole front of the house for the afternoon and evening sun. It is at the very end of a dead end street so it’s quiet and safe for kids to play and for animals. I’ve updated and upgraded it over the years. I live in Redding, Ca, so we have lots of parks and green belts, even wild forest land in the city and lots of bicycle and walking trails, great kids sports facilities, a great library, great schools, and all the lakes, rivers, waterfalls, forests, mountains, State and national parks, and foothills one could need from right In town to 50 miles out. We have great restaurants, hotels, and very good shopping opportunities here.
https://www.visitredding.com
Looks lovely there.
I’d post pictures of it if I knew how and they were small enough to post.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=37Yo7rH7DQ0
I live outside Sacramento, was in Redding end of January, drove there from the coast, it is nice there. Went to sundial bridge, Shasta dam, then to mount Lassen and Lake Almanor.
We like it here and the living /housing costs are low enough that many here are willing to make less money here and be in proximity to what you described as well as to raise kids in a low population density area even in the city limits and still have access to great parks and schools and two very good hospitals. My sister and her family live just outside Sacramento as well, on the boundary area between Rocklin and Roseville.
I live in old Fair Oaks, a bit east of Sacramento. Like it here, we can walk to American River, it is close to many lakes/rivers so we can fish, close to National Forest so we can shoot (not hunt) and camp. Had great time exploring Redding.
I live in a modern version of what we have used for thousands of years. It's on a nice piece of land, 806,000 acres and we have our own fishing hole next to the home. It's 289,000 acres.
We need this much room when all the kids come to visit. Two children, four grandchildren, twelve great-grandkids, and three great great grandkids. Now add in all the rellies and you can see why we need room to stretch out. Just my cousin Luther Walks the Horse has ten kids and we've lost count of this grandkids.
Oh, it's located in northern MN.
LMAO!... it actaully looks quite lovely and cozy.
Actually it's our summer home. Much too cold for me in the winter.
WOW! Lots of generations! That's fantastic!
Yeah, northern MN is mighty cold in the winter!
What kind of home do you live in / what kind of area [city, country, urban...]?
For my first 50 or so years I lived the suburban life in and around Dallas TX.
This was the home I left back in 2003. Kind of indicative of my lifestyle back in Dallas. 1600 sq ft in suburbia, Wife, two kids and a dog. (smile)
Cancer took my wife in 96, our youngest left home for collage in 2002 and I left the corporate life in Dallas behind for a slot in one of our remote sales offices in Fayetteville AR in 2003, where I found my own little slice of heaven.
Stayed with the company another 4 years or so, until the math worked out, then retired in 2007 in my mid 50's.
I've been a full on misanthropic Recluses ever since, living in my 900 sq ft wood and stone shack, sitting on an isolated 20 acres about 30 miles east of Fayetteville AR.
Go to town for supplies 6 times a year and talk to the kids maybe 3 or 4 times. Other than that it's just me and the critters which makes me just as happy as a clam, thanking my lucky stars each and every day that I get to live this life.
It sounds fairly idyllic. You do have the internet keeping you in touch with insane outside world though. Do you ever think of giving that up, too?
Nope, one needs the internet if one wants to stay a comfortable old coot while still keeping human contact to the barest minimum.
Even though my internet, (and TV), are both slow and expensive, being satellite based, I'll be keeping them for now.
The internet access in particular helps me live the way I do, what with allowing me to shop, bank, pick out books from Amazon for my Kindle, get contractors out to fix problems through American Home Shield, etc, etc..... and yes visiting places like NewsTalk, which I think of as where I can go to get my daily "Office water cooler" fix.
I don't talk all that much on here but I do like to hear everyone's thoughts so I use the thumb up option a lot to act in the same way I once used eye contact and head nods in the real world, as a polite way to show I'm listing and to encourage the conversation to continue.
Love the fireplace!
The internet is a pretty amazing thing.
I have noticed that your comments are few, but wise.
Your home looks very comfortable. I don't venture out much, only when I have to, so me and my kitty Yoda Girl keep each other company.
While you may not comment much, you tell it like it is when you do, and I truly appreciate that. I really enjoy reading your comments.
A great retirement. keep enjoying it
That's awesome, good for you !
Over the years I've owned a number of homes, but this was my first one, and probably the one I loved the most. It was designed by famous Canadian sculptor Walter Alward (creator of the Vimy Memorial in Europe, and among many others, the most imposing and well known statue in Toronto) as his own home, with a separate building behind that was his studio. As you can see it was set back from the street, had a side drive to a double garage at back. It was close to downtown Toronto, within walking distance of fashionable Bloor Street, the University of Toronto and Toronto's hippie heaven - Yorkville. It's Mediterranean in style, outer walls three bricks thick, a forced air system which was was ahead of its time of construction, two working fireplaces, a two-story living room under the sloped roof, overlooked by a balcony, lots of dark stained wood and great wood floors. I got married to my first wife during the time I lived there, and once we had our first child my wife wanted to move to an area with more children so reluctantly we gave it up. Selling it was a great experience.
When we decided to move, a home across the street was having an open house. So I prepared the standard Offer to Purchase forms (Real Estate was a big part of my practice), and we put up our own sign on the street. A young woman who had looked at the other home came over, our first looker, and she said she needed to see the basement first. I asked why, and she told me her husband was a photographer and there had to be room for a darkroom down there. Well, guess what? Many of you know I'm an amateur photographer and it was back in the days before digital cameras. So I took her downstairs, into the laundry room and opened the door off the laundry room to my professionally outfitted darkroom. (I used to develop my own films and enlarge my own pictures.) Her jaw dropped to the ground. She did a cursory look around the rest of the house and told us to please not sell to anyone until her husband came over. She called her husband and he came over right away, saw the house, marvelled at the darkroom and right away they decided to buy. We knew how much the house was worth, that was the price and there was no negotiation - we all signed the agreements then and there. We then took a bottle of champagne that had been in our fridge for a long time and all celebrated the sale and purchase.
When I was a little kid I used to spend my summers at my grandmother's cottage and dreamed ever since to own a home on the water myself. My best friend bought a home on a lake a 2 1/2 hour drive north from Toronto in the Haliburton Lake District of Ontario, and as we had always been close since we were roommates in our first year of University, he wanted me to be there as well. A man who was divorcing his wife who had a chalet home 4 cottages away from my friend told my friend he wanted to sell the place for what he paid for it, because it was an ugly divorce and he wanted to share as little as possible with his wife, so my friend told me about it and I jumped at the chance to be on the lake and for a cut rate cost. We were there for a number of years. Not long ago I posted a photo-essay about it and our life there. While in my canoe I took this photo of our home from about the spot in front of it where the bass fishing was great.
HOWEVER, for the past 14 years I've been in China, and presently my second wife and I are living in a three bedroom apartment with a spacious living-dining room, kitchen and bathroom, and two balconies on an upper floor in a modern building adjoining a big multi-level mall, across the road from a subway station and a huge department store with multiple restaurants and general retail stores all around us, a farmer's market around the corner, and we're surrounded by three beautifully landscaped university campuses. I have posted many photo-essays of the beauty of our surrounding area. I'm pretty happy here.
Love your homes especially your home on the lake. How peaceful.
The homes are beautiful Buzz. And glad that you are happy now where you are, and who you are with.
10th & final home, Texas, although we still have investment in 2 homes in PA & NV
Where in Nevada?
I have a home in Henderson.
Sorry, we had a home in Henderson NV. Now we have one in Bullhead AZ
Small world?
Wife refers to the whole area as Henderson, lol
It's been a while since I've been to Bullhead City.
Just got a $15.00 ticket for the trash can being visible while the occupant was in the ICU for a couple of weeks.
SMH
No one needs to be in Mohave County or anywhere else in AZ as far as I'm concerned.
The whole area should have been covered by RECA but that doesn't stop the rate of colon cancer.
I will never live there and will sell it remotely rather than in person for any future settlement.
Wow... 10 homes? Are you sure number 11 might not come along?
Very nice. I like brick homes
If there is a number 11 some day,
it will be a return to number 1 in Philadelphia, I don't know if that counts, lol.
I think that counts... your moving, right?
Nothing special here just a four level split in a small subdivision of a little town (<14,000), it take about an hour to mow the lawn so it's a decent sized plot for not being in the boonies . About 3 1/2 hours to the nearest city, so I guess it's kinda rural.
Once I retire I'll sell it and downsize somewhere else (too cold up here)
Yeah, my husband and I, if we ever get to "retire" will probably move south or southwest to get away from the freezing temps.
You saw my summer home in a post above this is my current winter home in Ocala, FL.
I don't think you had it all landscaped when you moved in. It's really pretty.
Starting next month we are totally redoing the entire back yard. We're adding an extension to our lanai of 8x17 ft. A very large patio of 12x20. Taking out a couple of trees and adding others new plants etc etc.
That looks like a great house Kavika.
Here's some photos of our downtown area:
During the Christmas season
Summer
Overhead
Bishop Park early morning
A view from the platform on our back hill and a view of some of our garden. I posted these photos earlier this summer in Creative Arts.
Oh Wow, gorgeous backyard and setting! And I have to pay you a compliment with your photography. Beautiful!
Thanks!
I had actually posted the photo showing part of the jacuzzi because I mentioned in a discussion in Creative Arts that I had just seen a coyote using it as a watering hole.
Very nice!
Thank you
Beautiful G.
Thanks Kavika
Beautiful!!!
Thank you. We have lived here for 23 1/2 years. I love it.
Looking at the view in the first photo, which is towards the southwest, it is about 7 miles to the ocean. There is no road through that area of the Santa Monica Mountains, so our shortest drive to the beach is a little over 16 miles. We get a lot of heat, but sometimes the fog comes creeping over the ridge and we get the cool marine layer.
We have a 1500 sq. ft. ranch [no stairs for us] with a deck and a 'lean to' greenhouse attached on the south side. We're on just under 2 acres, mostly wooded with Black locust, Sassafras, Maples and Sycamore. Neighbors on both sides about 150' away and 250 acres of woods and farmland behind the property. There's a 25'x60' gambrel greenhouse on the north side and a 30'x30' camp/fire pit area in the back on the south side. There are fruit trees along the east side. Lake Michigan and the Michigan border is 6 miles North, town is 10 miles South.
I had purple robe locust trees in my yard. Beautiful and the fragrance was amazing, but they were small and broke in the wind... but there's certainly a reason they're called locust trees! They were trying to repopulate my entire yard!
Mine are white.
The four homes on our road were all the 'kids' houses, part of a huge farm at one time, mine is the only one with it's original trees. They planted black locust close together, for use as fencing. They grow straight and tall, mine are over 60' and over 70 years old. They're wood is hard as hell and insect and rot resistant. You can cut one down and a 'clump' will regrow in it's place. I 'paint' stumps with strong vinegar to kill them, though I've only cut down 4 in 18 years because of damage by a car running off the road.
The fragrance from my grove [over 50] is wonderful and it looks like it's snowing when the flower petals fall with the wind.
Oh... I know that! Yeah, black locusts are beautiful; I'm surprised they do so well where you are, I would think it's too cold for them. I don't see them here near the Detroit River. I would suppose it could be because of the type of soil we have here.
I have a beautiful Cape Cod in Chili, NY (Rochester). My husband swore he would NEVER own a Cape Cod (wasted space with the dormer windows), but the minute we stepped inside at the realtor showing & he looked at my face he knew..... he was doomed.....
We lived for about 20 years and raised our kids in a Cape Cod style house - the dormers were on the back roof.
I love the trees all around the house in the pic.
After that photo was taken we planted a couple of apple trees on the right, and that white picket fence surrounds our back yard, that leads to a reverse ravine - the street is a dead end. There was a river about a two minute walk away.
I love trees. They just feel so majestic when I sit & meditate near them. They help calm my spirit.
Our white picket fence only goes across the front walk - our back both of our neighbors put up fences for their dogs, so we lucked out.
My home is currently (not so) quietly nestled between Fayetteville, Spring Lake and Pinehurst, NC. It has three airfields large enough to land 747's with ease and covers over 251 square miles. I moved here for work and stayed even after retirement. To say it's quiet would be a lie. The whole area shakes due to low flying aircraft and the noise level many would not tolerate. But that's part of living on the military installation that is home to the 82nd Airborne Division and the Special Warfare Center and School.
The first house I lived in was in front of train tracks and next to a quarry, which would shake our house every time they would blast. They stopped blasting years ago now, but they were still blasting in the 70s and 80s. Oh... and just beyond the train tracks was McClouth Steel where if they dropped a hot coil, would shake our house too. I sleep through EVERYTHING and I attribute it partly to that house; my parents bought it before the build was complete and she was pregnant with me. I didn't know anything else until I was 7 and my parents separated... it was too quiet for me for a while.
I grew up in a town like that. No quarry but the trains and steel mills just outside of Pittsburgh. I remember the trains and the noise from the mill. Joined the Army as Field Artillery. THAT is where I learned to sleep through EVERYTHING.
It's crazy how similar some of these northern states are in regard to industry.