Just wonder what type of home folks live in and why they chose that type of dwelling?

I'm not crazy about the categories, why is a detatched single family home in the same category as a Row House?

I live in a dorm because I wanted to experience the dorm life. Ive made a ton of friends and now that I've built enormous social capital I want to get the hell out of this disgusting building. I just signed a lease with my friend for a 3 bdroom house near the corner of Warner and Ohio Ave. The architecture around there is awesome. Theres so much history and so much in walking distance, unlike the craphole I lived in at the bottom of Riddle.

 

I think it would be interesting to know what UO members think is their IDEAL type of dwelling if they're not already living in it. I'd love to live in a condo downtown until I have children, then after that I'd like to live somewhere like Hyde Park (minus uppity people). I guess I just want to live somewhere urban but with big detached houses (dense but still having a small yard for BBQs etc.) and a vibrant square with a park, restaurants etc. I love where I work in the square because their restaurants have outdoor patios and people are always eating outside. They take their dogs for walks and end up at the restaurant where they sit and eat with their dog outside. Since theres so much street life, they often run into people they know walking past them so theres a lot of interaction and it makes a great atmosphere. I'd like to see more neighborhoods planned like that.

^I would recomend gaslight clifton over hyde park for what you described.

Clifton is definitely an ideal neighborhood. If I stay in Cincinnati that may be where I end up. One thing that I personally don't like about Clifton is that, that beautiful fountain was placed in an awkward position. I can see why people would like it there; after all, it is next to Burnet woods but I think it would have been great if it were more integrated with the business district. Gaslight Clifton LITERALLY has everything you need in walking distance, even a public library, grocery store and post office. Also great if you like Indian restaurants. I love Indian food but I can only eat it on occasion : D

I think it would be interesting to know what UO members think is their IDEAL type of dwelling if they're not already living in it. I'd love to live in a condo downtown until I have children, then after that I'd like to live somewhere like Hyde Park (minus uppity people). I guess I just want to live somewhere urban but with big detached houses (dense but still having a small yard for BBQs etc.) and a vibrant square with a park, restaurants etc. I love where I work in the square because their restaurants have outdoor patios and people are always eating outside. They take their dogs for walks and end up at the restaurant where they sit and eat with their dog outside. Since theres so much street life, they often run into people they know walking past them so theres a lot of interaction and it makes a great atmosphere. I'd like to see more neighborhoods planned like that.

 

Thats why I picked the Shaker Square area and a condo building to live in.

 

I do not want to cut grass, take our trash, shovel the drive/sidewalk.  I don't have to worry about groceries deliveries, packages/mail, dry cleaning - since its all delivered right to my door and I can get on with my life and there are ample amenities, retail options and excellent public transportation in an area with a great sense of "community".

Never been to Shaker Square. I just looked it up on google earth. It looks very planned :]

Never been to Shaker Square. I just looked it up on google earth. It looks very planned :]

 

Check out some of the photo galleries.

I lived in the dorms for 3 years for all the same reasons David did.  It was some of the greatest years of my life, meeting so many people.  The reshall was a beautiful historic building with renovated spacious single rooms.  U of M allows you to pick your room, and because of a mixup in the prior year, they allowed me to pick first and I chose the best corner room in the building with sweeping views of campus.

 

Now I live in a house that has been sub-divided into single apartments.  The rental company could take much better care of it, but I enjoy it.  I live in one of the best locations in Ann Arbor, and the place is pretty spacious. 

 

I have to agree that its nice not having to mow grass and take out the trash.  I just throw all my garbage out on the fire escape, and then the wind eventually blows the bag onto the ground.  It then magically ends up out on the street.  To be honest I have no clue who does it.  I've never see how the trash gets to the curb, but I have a feeling the rental company pays the homeless people to do it.

I thought you said you live in east Detroit? You said something about a houes you and your friends bought... Or is that where you're moving after you graduate?

I lived in dorms for two years, moved to a kind-of-dumpy apartment, and now live on the 12th floor of a high rise. I love the city life, where I can walk or bike to restaurants, drug stores, work and school. A grocery store is a tad far for now, though :(

Currently I live in an 87 year old, single family converted to 5 apartment, squirrel infested piece of s#!+. I only live here because I am in College and I found out 2 weeks before school started this year the room mate I was supposed to live with doesn't even go to OSU!!! :shoot: So I had to find something that was available.

 

When I get out of here I want to live in a duplex home or townhouse style condo, I've lived at the top floor of a midrise (that disgusting building David is talking about) and couldn't see doing it again. Though I loved the view!

I share a 1900-built four-bedroom home (3300 sq. ft. including the finished basement) with my S.O. in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood. I chose it because I moved in with him. He chose it because he was living in the area and it came on the market - he had considered the Payne Lofts and Fries and Scheule condos as well.

bump for the newbies

MTS and his surveys!

Two-story detached single-family frame house, about 1,600 sf plus full, dry, unfinished basement. The oldest part was built 1858-1860, followed by five additions about 1880 - 1905. Two-car detached garage and cement-paver patio. I've completly rebuilt the house including electric, plumbing and heating/AC, and removed several non-bearing walls to open up the rooms. It's just about perfect for me, except for the traffic noise. The city has long-term plans, highly speculative at this point, for possibly rerouting arterial traffic out of the neighborhood. I've lived here since 1989, and prior to that from 1972 lived in a 1,200 sf brick house next door that I now rent out. So far as I know, there's only one person on my block (all 4 sides) that has lived here longer than I have.

Rob is running the block.  Get your "Trump" on!

KJP's recent post in the RTA thread got me thinking...so I decided to revive this puppy.

My place is a flat in a two unit building, thrown up with spit and luck around 1904.  There is no insulation, single wall construction on one side, large single pane windows and hardwood floors.  Was originally a single family home, split into two around 1950.  You can't really tell by looking that it was anything other than a double. The lot is 25' x 55'.  I even have a tiny back yard, mostly cement, but with about 3' of overgrown, wild yard.  The house is on a hill, so it is 15 or 20 steps up from the street.

I rent (WAY below market rate) and have been here for the last 15 years.  The place is where I want to be, the rent is cheap, and I have a garage.  The past few months I have been upgrading the interior, with new paint, patching walls, etc.  My next project is new kitchen flooring.  My landlady lets me pretty much do anything I want, as long as I clear it with her first.  Pretty ideal situation for a renter.  Plus I have really terrific neighbors (on one side).  Their house is an old Victorian which has been gussied up, and looks like a museum. Behind me other neighbors are building a new house, 4 floors, very very modern.  Nice contrast.  Don't know how they were able to build so high, but $$$ talks in SF. 

Oh, and I have a magnificent view of 5 telephone poles with wires going everywhere.  If I look out one window in the living room I can see a slice of downtown (between the wires).

That's it....now you know everything.  Visiting hours between 5 and 7 PM and don't show up empty handed!!!

 

What neighborhood are you in Spike?

I'm between the Castro and Twin Peaks, very near Kite Hill.  My house is on Eureka St, a nice residential street with no businesses.  Nice area,  and just far enough from both Castro and Market Sts to not be crazy during Halloween and during rush hour. 

How do you like the Tendernob so far? 

I'm actually back in Cincinnati right now, but from the time I spent there, I love it.  Central to everything but just far enough up the hill to avoid the throngs of tourists and bar crowds.

My house, which sits on a 36' x 150' lot, was built in 1915, and is about 900 sf.  Still more than enough room for a bachelor.  The previous owners did a lot of modernization on the outside, but the interior still has most of the original detail intact. (I guess that will be good from a resale standpoint.)

 

I like having a small yard and living in a dense, urban neighborhood adjacent to the park.  I like gardening and even cutting grass in small amounts, so I don't think I'd want to live in an apartment or condo.

I thought you said you live in east Detroit? You said something about a houes you and your friends bought... Or is that where you're moving after you graduate?

 

Since this thread resurfaced, looks like I missed this.  My friends and I had purchased condemned property on Detroit's East Side.  A small fire damaged an exterior wall, causing it to eventually collapse.  Then the scrappers came and took all what was valuable.  The demise of the property was partially our fault, and everybody elses.  Getting the money to start paying for it was taking forever, and it's impossible to secure anything in Detroit without spending a fortune on advanced security.  We gave the property back to the city, and the house was demolished last month.  We had absolutely no intention of ever living there.

 

I mentioned above I lived in a subdivided house with individual apartments.  I'm in a new place now which is a house with many bedrooms.  I'm living here with 4 other friends.  It's been nice, but I'm ready to switch back to having my own place.

 

I'm stopping by the sales center tomorrow to look at some higher end 1 bedroom apartments.  Hayward is ready to step it up to the $1000-1200 a month range.  A reason why I hate Ann Arbor when the same type of units are going for the same price in downtown Chicago, BAH!

I live in an apt in middleburg hts.  I've lived in apartments for almost 20 years now with the exception of the year+ I lived in LA when I lived in a house (not owned by me).

 

There are a lot of pros to apartment living for me and the con side lines up much shorter given my financial constraints.  I like my apartment itself and the complex, I just don't really like living in MH.  I was kind of forced to move here because I was living in Westlake several years ago (in another apt I really liked) and I got laid off without warning and could not find another job.  Went back to waitressing.  THAT'S fun when you're 10+ years older than everyone working there.  Couldn't keep paying the high rent and asked to be let out of the lease and the mgmt company said we could only break our lease if we moved to another of their properties.  After visiting all of them, where we live now was the best bet - it wasn't the cheapest, that was in Parma, but that place was really dumpy looking.  But it was the 2nd cheapest and offered similar amenities to the one we had in Westlake, even a similar layout.

 

Pros - free heat.  I try hard not to abuse this but I am one of those people who is always cold from about October to May, so this is a huge consideration.  I have yet to find the financial equation that would allow me to purchase a property AND afford heat on top of the other additional/increased expenses, partly because I don't have anything to put down on a property so an increased monthly payment PLUS taxes plus a maintenance fee if I lived in a condo or plus garbage, water/sewer in a house, AND heat on top of it - there's just no way. 

 

Anyway, back to the pros:

- free heat

- nice landscaping including a big lake in the middle of the complex which is great for walking/jogging/bird watching; we have a huge bird population (ducks, geese, herons)

- gas stove, dishwasher, microwave, fridge, ceiling fan all included.  And they're all new or like new/great condition.

- free carpet cleaning once/year.  Other services on request, e.g. I just got my kitchen floor replaced as it was looking really bad after 4 years in this unit.

- quiet neighbors, quiet complex.

- patio and "backyard" that border a big woods; more great bird-watching as well as deer, etc.  We can grill back there as well.

- 2 outdoor pools and 1 indoor pool

- fitness room with TV which is open until very late (this is nice as my gym is not open very late on sundays)

- 24 hour maintenance, and good maintenance.  Free yearly furnace filter and smoke alarm battery replacement.

- Other things that I don't take advantage of including play area for kids, tennis courts, discounted pizza day once a week from local pizza place and an annual picnic for residents, food and games provided for free.

- Covered carport

- Close to malls, groceries, video rental, drug stores, etc.

 

Con:

- No equity since we are renting

- Not as convenient to good public trans as I'd like (I drive to a rapid park & ride station)

- Rent goes up every year

- Am charged a monthly charge for both a moving clause (allowing me to break my lease anytime; learned my lesson there) and "pet rent" because I have a cat, which is retarded.

 

[edited to add another con]

 

bump for the newbies

Never saw this thread before. When I saw its title, I thought I should reply with "I'm white with an Irish, Welsh and German background. W'sup HOME!"

I have not seen this either although I guess thats more likely than KJP missing something. I mean, Im not the WIZARD or anything.

 

2 BR 2 bath Condo in a converted warehouse in the WHD in Cleveland. Lots of fancy crap on the inside but no real building amenities make it the best of both worlds for me. I don't pay for a pool or workout room I don't use but I don't cut grass or shovel snow. Makes the monthly maintenance fee much more reasonable. Plus its tax abated since it was just remodeled!

 

Not to mention the GF can walk to work! We got rid of her car over a year ago and never looked back.

 

Edit: Its a 6 floor mid-rise with a modern working elevator.

...... I don't cut grass or shovel snow. Makes the monthly maintenance fee much more reasonable.

 

Thats exactly why I don't own a single family home and paving over a good chunk of the back yard in Harlem.

We live in a single-family 2-story 4-bedroom home in Oxford, i think it was built in 2003, we are the fisrt occupants. I actually totally dig having a yard to mow, but currently it looks like ass. I have two kids, so it's nice to have a place for them to play. Before our current home we had a loft in Atlanta, GA (Yes! I WAS cool!). Not the best place for a baby, but it was convenient to pretty much everything.

I bump these every few months, for the newbies

bump

I own a Detached Single Family Home in Willowick. The town is 1950's era working class sprawl, built back when suburban neighborhoods had small houses close together, and neighborhoods were still at least a little bit walkable.

 

Our house was built in '58, and as far as I can tell we're the third family to live there. Its a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom bungalow on 1/10th of an acre. I like having a yard, but not spending more than an hour mowing. Its also within 100yds of 2 Laketran bus routes, and a little over a mile from the 39 when I ride RTA.

 

There's a couple short people living upstairs that my wife says are ours, so we picked a town based on;

good transit options (I'm to cheap to drive, and we don't want to drive the short people everywhere),

decent schools (we want those short people upstairs well educated so they leave someday),

decent crime rate (so those short people don't get robbed by anyone but the wife and I),

less than an hour drive from my parents and my in-laws (free short people sitting),

a grocery store and a handful of places to grab a bite of food within walking distance (so the short people can get a job and stop mooching without requiring buying them a car),

low property/income taxes (we're cheap),

and I'm sure there was something else on our minds when we looked at neighborhoods, but it probably had to do with the short people too.

"short people"  LMAO!!

 

I call them "tax deductions".  :-)

Short people were a key determinant in my wife and I picking the free standing home in the sprawly suburb too. Not ex-urb, mind you. Just sub.

 

Got me a 4BR colonial on a quarter acre. Just enough room to let the little midgets run around but not so much that I can't see where they are at all times. I like it. Good neighbors, close to the store so I can ride my bike to pick up my sundries (that is...if I ever get around to buying the bike I keep looking at).

 

I also have the 8 foot solid privacy fence with requisite spot lights tied to motion sensors, attached garage so I never need to get out of the car, and the security blinds on the windows (down all the time of course), so that I never have to actually interact with any of the aforementioned neighbors. It goes without saying that the kids are never actually let outside. Any attempts by my neighbors to speak to me is reacted to accordingly (with mace). If they want to speak to me, they can make a motion at the homeowner's association, subject to a second, and a majority vote of "aye", like normal people do.

 

Danger.....is.......EVERYWHERE!

Found a house that won't repair itself

With its windows cracking

And a roof held together with holes

--for all you fans of XTC

 

Our house is a 1917 "colonial style bungalow". http://www.americanbungalow.com/AmBungalow/whatStyle.htm

 

Sweetie bought it and I work on it.  Six years ago, it didn't even have insulation in it (!).  The original construction was sparse.  The basement floor was a home-poured slabs that got wet and disintegrated.  The house settled and the plaster cracked.  Cat toys can roll a full circle on the living room floor.  My Xmas project is taping the cracks, top-coating and painting the bedroom.  Ya!  Off to Sherwin Williams to match colors.

 

Short people were a key determinant in my wife and I picking the free standing home in the sprawly suburb too. Not ex-urb, mind you. Just sub.

 

Got me a 4BR colonial on a quarter acre. Just enough room to let the little midgets run around but not so much that I can't see where they are at all times. I like it. Good neighbors, close to the store so I can ride my bike to pick up my sundries (that is...if I ever get around to buying the bike I keep looking at).

 

I also have the 8 foot solid privacy fence with requisite spot lights tied to motion sensors, attached garage so I never need to get out of the car, and the security blinds on the windows (down all the time of course), so that I never have to actually interact with any of the aforementioned neighbors. It goes without saying that the kids are never actually let outside. Any attempts by my neighbors to speak to me is reacted to accordingly (with mace). If they want to speak to me, they can make a motion at the homeowner's association, subject to a second, and a majority vote of "aye", like normal people do.

 

Danger.....is.......EVERYWHERE!

 

YOU ARE OFFICIALLY MY NEW FAVORITE FORUMER!

Those categories are little odd, so I didn't pick one, but I live in a very old apartment building in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati.  Just around the corner from the Brewhouse and a short walk to Eden Park.  I love it.  :)

Those categories are little odd, so I didn't pick one, but I live in a very old apartment building in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati.  Just around the corner from the Brewhouse and a short walk to Eden Park.  I love it.  :)

 

Odd?  How so?

I own/live in a 2000+ sq. ft. rowhouse style condo in Citywest in Cincinnati's Westend.  I have the conveneince of walking to anywhere in Downtown, in OTR, or to the Cincinnati Museum Center with ease. It is new construction that replaced the most notorious projects in Cincinnati. 

 

The neighborhood is truly diverse wich tends to keep my bigotted brother-in law from Oklahoma out of my hair. 

 

My neighbors are wonderful and we had over 200 kids trick or treat at our door halloween.  It is like living in the suburbs without being surrounded by Republicans...hehehe

Been at my current place two years now. Live in a three-story, late 1800's commercial building located in an intact historic nabe.  It's a corner lot, so the first floor is for a business, and the building is built to the property lines along the sidewalks with no exterior spaces.  The second and third floor are full-floor apartments.  I live in the former business space on the first floor.  In former lives, it has been the classic "corner grocery/sundries store", an ice cream parlor, maybe a bar, and also the location for several different office type businesses.

It is basically a giant room(900 s.f.) with a 13 foot decorative tin cieling.  It has the large floor to ceileing windows up front and on a portion of the side. These windows make it a bit like living in an aquarium on this sometimes busy corner, and it also makes the heat bills a bitch!

There is a small room in the back that once served as an office, and another as a sort of storage/break room.  I have carved out a little bedroom/bathroom and kitchen from this area.

It's definitely unique, and offers me a change from previously living in a three story 1880's brick vernacular I and a former partner renovated back in 1994.

Been at my current place two years now. Live in a three-story, late 1800's commercial building located in an intact historic nabe.  It's a corner lot, so the first floor is for a business, and the building is built to the property lines along the sidewalks with no exterior spaces.  The second and third floor are full-floor apartments.  I live in the former business space on the first floor.  In former lives, it has been the classic "corner grocery/sundries store", an ice cream parlor, maybe a bar, and also the location for several different office type businesses.

It is basically a giant room(900 s.f.) with a 13 foot decorative tin cieling.  It has the large floor to ceileing windows up front and on a portion of the side. These windows make it a bit like living in an aquarium on this sometimes busy corner, and it also makes the heat bills a bitch!

There is a small room in the back that once served as an office, and another as a sort of storage/break room.  I have carved out a little bedroom/bathroom and kitchen from this area.

It's definitely unique, and offers me a change from previously living in a three story 1880's brick vernacular I and a former partner renovated back in 1994.

 

That sound fabulous.  I would love to see picture of your crib.  Post them in Shermans thread.  hint..hint  :wink:

bump

i've lived in a detatched two story single family (built in the 20's) in PRidge for the past 18 months.  We chose the house and the area because it gave us a nice yard, a lot of space for the two of us, and it's an easy commute.  The craftsman style is really great and we're trying to take it back to what it was where we can.  Some owner went and did some stupid things to the house that we'll undo if we can.