What type of neighborhood do you live in?

[sbjf]

Feel free to expand on your neighborhood:

1. How do you like it, is it where you've always envisioned yourself living? If not, what situation might you rather be in?

2. If you live on land/acreage, did you build your home/have it built or did you buy the land with a house already on it?

3. Is this your forever home?

4. What are the pros and cons to your type of neighborhood?

[MelissaTC]

It is hard to live in this area and not live in a subdivision. Most homes are in one. This is definitely NOT our forever home. We bought this home in 2000 as our first home. It is a great first home at almost 2100 sq feet but we are bursting at the seams. We don't have the room in the areas we want so we will be moving by 2008 (I am hoping sooner!). We want as much square footage as we can afford, four bedrooms with a bonus room and possibly a three car garage. It will most likely be in another subdivision and DH really wants it to be a golf course community.

There are some pros to living in this kind of situation. It is friendly and I know my neighbors, but we can still maintain our privacy. The HOA helps keep the value of our homes with the rules and covenants. The common areas are maintained and look nice. People can't just go and do whatever they want. So it was a pita to get approval for changing the color of our home, but it does stop people from painting their homes awful colors, or allowing people to place junk in their yards. I like that our neighborhood has lots of families so there are kids everywhere. 90% of the Moms in the neighborhood are SAHMs so it is nice to live among people in the same situation that I am in.

The cons are that everyone is friendly. There tends to be some clique-ness (we live in the cul-de-sac). People who live on the main street are clique-y according to location. Not that they are mean but they are definitely more involved in each other's lives. That bothers some but personally, I believe in the saying " you don't s@$! where you eat" so I don't like having my neighbors too much into my personal business. I also hate how picky the HOA has become but I understand why.

I never imagined that I would be living in NC. DH and I assumed that after we were married, we would buy a house in the Danbury, CT area and live there (we are from Southern Westchester county, NY).

Anyway, thanks for reading my novel.... :P

[jd11365]

1. I love living in a subdivision. I love my neighbors!

2. Even though we're in a subdivision, we're on just less than a 1/3 acre, so a nice sized lot. We had the home built.

3. This is NOT our forever home. We bought it before we even thought of having children. We didn't even think of children when we bought it...or we would have picked an entirely different floor plan!

4. Pros - neighbors, deed-restricted (no RVs in the driveway kinda thing)


Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03
http://lilypie.com/baby2/030501/1/0/1/-5/.png

[AvasMama]

I LOVE where we live! We're in a historic district right outside of DC. We have moved away from this area twice (both for jobs) and always miss it and come back. We just bought a new house in our neighborhood that we plan to stay in for at least the next 10 years.

This is my absolute ideal place to live because:

* We can walk almost anywhere we need to go (and take metro for the rest). I walk to work and DH works from home, so we get in the car only once or twice a week, tops.

* Tons of character! I love just walking down the streets and looking at the houses. Most were built in the 1800s and no two are alike.

* Lots of good restaurants and cute shops.

* Central location: 10 min. to DC by car, 10 min. to airport, several large malls within 20 min. drive.

Downsides...

* An insane amount of tourists from March - Sept/Oct.
* Very expensive place to live
* Schools are not great, so we will probably put Ava in private school, adding to the expensive-ness of the area

Robyn & Ava

[bcky2]

i live in just a reg neighborhood but next summer we are buying a house with a few acres, that is our dream we finally get to make a reality. we kinda would like a fixer uper. maybe a old farm house. right now we live in unincorperated(sp) and there are alot of perks but we hate the fact that it takes forever for the cops to show up and they dont inforce alot of laws out here. (ex- the dog leash law, drag racing down the street, and stuff like that they usually dont even show up for!) we had to call 911 once and they got here 35 mins later because the local cops dont want to show up, we have to wait for will county sheriffs office to respond.

[sbaker]

I'll be an oddball and tell you about where we live. We live on an airport. :)

1. I love it here, but it's not where I envisioned living. Of course, I never imagined being a SAHM either.

2. We have about 2 acres and purchased it with the house already on it. About a year after we bought the house we built a 50' x 60' hangar in the backyard for DH's airplane to "live" in.

3. Unless something drastic happens we'll probably live here forever.

4. The best thing about the neighborhood is the runway and the lack of fences. :) The worst thing about the neighborhood is there are not many other kids.

Just my two cents...
:) :+ :)
Sara
Mom to:
Rayce 02/09/02
Charlye 12/20/03

[Nooknookmom]

We live in an Historic district in a small town outside Los Angeles. I love my neighborhood, but my house is too small to be our "forever" home. I would stay in this neighborhood forever if we can find an Historic two-story someday. The home prices out here are out of this world, I'm an agent and can't get a lead on an affordable older home!

Yikes.

[C99]

I live in a typical urban neighborhood w/in a large city.

I love where we live now, although when I thought that I'd live in the city, I thought I'd live somewhere closer to Lake Michigan. In Chicago, the neighborhoods closer to the Lake tend to have a denser population and the kind of walking culture that you associate with large cities -- lots of little shops and services (Starbucks, small grocery stores, boutiques, etc.) right in your neighborhood. My neighborhood is a bit more suburban than that because it's further away from the Lake, which makes the property a little less valuable and that, in turn, means more single-family housing and green space.

Although I do miss the eye candy of lots of cute places to shop w/in close walking distance, there are tons of advantages to our neighborhood. I always say that it combines the best of the suburbs (SFHs, green space, trees, easy street parking) w/ the best of the city (public transportation, city parks, and some shopping w/in walking distance). Our street is one of those that has a huge canopy of 100+ year-old trees covering it as you drive down it, so in that respect, it's somewhat suburban. But then you notice the style and the spacing of the houses (and the lack of driveways) and you realize immediately that you are in the city. I love that we have a backyard where I can grow vegetables and Nate can play, but if we want company or Nate needs to really run around, there's a huge playground 2 blocks away. I love that our neighborhood has a very suburban feel to its culture -- block parties, etc. -- but then we can hop on the El or the bus and be in some hot neighborhood w/ smart restaurants (and NO chains!) in 15 minutes or less. I like that Nate can walk to his elementary school, which I did when I was growing up (in the suburbs).

That said, this isn't our forever house and our house and our neighborhood have strikes against it. For one, city dwelling generally means that you are looking at a school system that isn't as competitive or rigorous as suburban school districts -- but that's more a strike against living in an urban area rather than in our neighborhood in specific. And our neighborhood is somewhat far away from the hustle and bustle associated with cities. It's still a 40-minute commute on the train to the financial/business district. There aren't any great restaurants w/in walking distance, and I would find it difficult to live in our neighborhood w/o a car, since so many things to do or places to shop are in other neighborhoods. And, finally, our particular neighborhood is snuggled up against the highway, so we get ambient noise and a steady stream of dust and dirt coming off the highway.

[kijip]

We live a city neighborhood in Seattle. Ballard for all you Seattle-familar folks.

I like:

That I don't have to drive everywhere- parks, pool, shops, grocery, theatres, cafes all in easy walking distance.

I disike:

We live in a nearly all-white neighborhood. It is really getting on my nerves after having lived in a more diverse part of town.

We will not be in this place forever, we will move towards south Seattle when we buy a house.

[nov02mom]

We live in a neighborhood...swim, park etc..... It is the 1st time I've ever lived in one like this and it's a little weird still. I'm amazed by how many of the mommies work (not slamming- just disappointed) so we're here alot by ourselves. I envisioned us hanging out at the playgroud with other SAHM's, having coffee and playgroups!

NOT our forever home.....I like the house ok, but we're gonna build in the next year or 2.

I grew up on a farm so I'm used to having a little more space/privacy!!!