who loves their neighborhood?

[ame]

Inspired by DFs thread about home sizes, ect, I realized that I live in the tiniest home/apt of those who answered on PS! It got me to thinking about why I am OK with how small our space is and I know that it's BC of the neighborhood.

We live on Long Island in a very quiet neighborhood yet we are within blocks of a huge grocery store, the post office, our bank, several restaurants, a drugstore, ect. Even though we live in the land of cars I often just walk to where I need to go. This is very rare where we live and it out weighs the small yet still expensive space we rent. i love this neighborhood enough that we are determined to continue to rent as cheaply as possible until we can buy here.

How many of you really love your neighborhood? Did you sacrifice the size of your home or finishes to live there?

I *hate* our neighborhood. It's generally safe and quiet, but nothing really is within walking distance. And during rush hour it's a NIGHTMARE to get out of our street, even our driveway, despite our street having clearly marked signs that it's not a through street during specific hours. They occasionally will park an officer on our street to ticket people but not often enough. I keep petitioning for a cut off on one end. I have a feeling my neighbors would like that also.

If and when we sell, I have a couple areas in mind, but there's not a lot of places where you can walk to a grocery store around here. It's unfortunately "deliberate" in terms of the way they plan shopping centers around here.

 

[April20]

I LOVE, love, love my neighborhood. It's in an older section of Atlanta that has plenty of old growth trees, sidewalks and a mix of original homes that have been restored, some that haven't and need work and newer homes built to fit in. It's a very walkable neighborhood and the people are friendly. That being said, we're moving. I am so, so sad. But we've had our house rented out and need to sell it in order to move forward with our goals. We're buying a nice condo on the other side of town. It's a steal (a foreclosure) and is in a great part of town, a very desirable part of town. It will make renting it out or selling it down the road easier, but the area just isn't *me*. It's a newer, much more commercial area. Close to the nicest malls and restaurants, but in my heart, I want my old neighborhood to always be where we live. Maybe we'll get back there, but I don't know. The good news is, we're only moving about 10 miles away, so it's not like I can't go back over there for local restaurants and shops. I have such a bad attitude, but I feel like this new location is killing a part of me.....

I need to stop whining. We are moving to such a nice area that I should NOT be complaining.

 

[monarch64]

I like ours, but I don't LOVE it. We definitely didn't sacrifice space, conveniences, or amenities to live here. Our last neighborhood was full of character and a fantastic location with regard to proximity to downtown, but it had plenty of flaws--it flooded, it was very close to the major hospital here so we heard sirens constantly, and there were two homes inhabited by older people who'd lived there for 100 years who did not believe in maintaining exteriors, so to speak. Oh, and then there was Lead Paint Baby. LPB's parents began renovating their newly purchased, but super old home without thinking about the lead paint issue, and had to move themselves and their toddler out because the toddler was diagnosed with very high levels of lead in its system. That was scary.

Our new neighborhood is much farther from downtown but we can still hop on a walking trail and get there in less than two hours. So for Saturday walks to the farmer's market it's just a bit more time-consuming but a better workout. Our neighbors are all nice enough, with the exception of Crazy Cat Lady (5 cats and she's always screaming at one of them, as well as her husband). They're all just kind of inoffensively bland. I'm not sure what we add to the picture here, our neighbors probably think we're just as boring.

 

[soocool]

Love my neighborhood and apparently so do the majority of people who live here. The oldest family has lived here 60 years - they are in their 80s and the family who has lived here the shortest amount of time has been here 5 years. People usually don't move away from this neighborhood unless they divorce or get too old to stay in their homes, though there are a few women in their late 70s who still live in their homes after their husbands passed away. So our neighborhood has a mix of very old, middle aged, and those just starting out. Those just starting out have bought the older homes and are in the process of renovating.

Pretty much everyone know everyone else, except for a few families, who despite living here for almost 20 years have never met their neighbors or even want to get to know them (I call them the "prissy ones"). We always stop to talk with the neighbors when walking our dog and they stop by to talk to us when they take their daily strolls. Often you will find a few neighbors bringing their dogs over to romp around in the back yard while we sit on the deck and chat. Our neighborhood is like our extended family.

We are somewhat off the beaten path so if a car is driving around the neighborhood, we are all vigilant and watch out for one another. We are close to New Hope, PA/Lambertville, NJ, Washington's Crossing, a car/train ride to Philly or NYC, an hours drive to the Jersey shore or the Poconos and have a casino about 20 minutes away in Bensalem (Parx) or we can drive up to Bethlehem to visit the Sands Casino. I could go on and on.

The sad thing is that DH and I have been talking about downsizing in less than 10 years when he retires. I am sure I will miss this neighborhood dearly.

 

[packrat]

My gramma lives just kitty corner from us, long time family friends right next door to her and my brother and his wife live just kitty corner from them. The elementary school is 1 1/2 blocks away, the hospital is right next to that. This is such a small town, our neighborhood is close to everything. We have awesome neighbors, retired, to the East of us. Our area is kind of a mix of people types. We've talked about moving at some point b/c we both want to be out in the country but..truth be told, we've worked so hard on our place, especially the outside, I don't want to start all over again.