What's your living preference - Urban, Suburban or Rural?

[Nermal]

I'm a bit late to this thread but it's an interesting topic.

I think I'm really lucky where I am - I'm technically in a suburban area, but it's up a hill and is therefore more sparsely populated than the typical suburbs while still enjoying the benefits in being "in town": It's a 10-minute walk to the main street from here, and virtually every required shop is within a 15-minute drive. The hillside causes poor 3G/4G reception, but on the other hand the wired broadband here is excellent.

When I first moved here, one of the annoyances was the amount of natural noise; there are a lot of trees and therefore a lot of birds. It took a while for me to learn to tune them all out

Every time I visit a big city I think "I'm glad that I don't live in a place like this". Commuting 30+ minutes to work. Paying for parking. Traffic lights. While there is a bus system, it's relatively expensive and the information is a bit opaque... I've been asking them to put the data into Google Maps for years and it hasn't happened yet. Apple actually asked for a data feed a few months ago and I can only imagine how that went.

But I digress!

 

[eyoungren]

I'm of multiple minds and moods about local ambience, and I'm just one person!

Loved the hustle and anonymity of the city. Bright lights and buzz but still the simple routines you could set your watch by, like the Times trucks dropping off their newsstand bundles in the evening, going out and getting a paper and a bagel for the morning.

Love the peace and quiet and complete darkness at night in the sticks. Sometimes admire and sometimes rant over the fact that half the county here wears no watch and celebrates "Delaware County Time" also known as "Getting A Round Tuit" when they get around to it. Somehow it usually works out...

Hated the screech of trains on curved tracks and the sirens of emergency response vehicles in the city. Hate the sound of those sirens now too but it's because the responders and the victims are neighbors. John Donne's line "Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee" may ring truer in the boondocks...

I miss the 24/7 of the city as far as services go and sometimes resent having to drive 30 miles rt if i forgot something important during my last grocery run. But I don't think twice about driving 80 miles rt to have lunch with kin or friends, probably because the trip is so scenic.

As far as rural utility services go, there are some drawbacks. We lose power fairly often in the mountains. Our internet service is noncompetitive and not great. I live in a 400 square mile cellular dead zone. But it's ok to be reminded to be grateful for my blessings when one of them does a vanishing act now and then.

I've only really been enraged once by life in the boondocks, when the local water dude shut the water mains for elective maintenance without bothering to notify anyone. I went looking for him hastily dressed and with wet hair (having used a gallon of emergency drinking water to rinse off shampoo), driving around the nearby village until I found him running a backhoe in some front yard. His response: "Well geez, shutting it off at 11am, what were you doing in the shower at that point in the forenoon anyway". Said his wife told him to do it then because everyone would be done with laundry and lunch was ready but not quite time to eat. LOL man, life in the sticks. The right moment to do something is rigid and random at the same time.

Truthfully I enjoy it up here and only really miss the city once in awhile. I've been known to get in the car and just run down there when I miss it... making and storing up extra memories for when that's not such a likely option later on.

I can remember for the year or so we lived on the side of that hill my dad having to pay for propane service. There was a giant tank outide the house and every so often the propane truck would lumber up the hill, down our driveway and then hookup to that tank.

Without that we wouldn't have been able to cook because other than water and electricity there were no other utility hookups.

Of course, living rural I could afford to be the crazy cat person. We had 23 cats at one point. But considering that none of them were inside cats and they all didn't appear at the same time it wasn't such a thing.

23 cats where I live now and there'd be some serious problems.

 

[skottichan]

Definitely urban.

My dream is to have a 500sq ft walk up in a bigger city.

 

[LizKat]

What I want is basically impossible, rural, with easy access to metropolitan areas. I want the wilds with a Home Depot nearby. I'm hoping to see teleportation technology for the next life.

sounds like you should go back to you kinfolk's hangouts of W.Va. or else head up here to the Catksills... possibility of bears or foxes in the meadows behind the mowed lawns of the near-village sticks... still more cows than people... but there's a home dep over the mountain 15 miles away, assorted cultural opportunities abound in the college town of Oneonta over ther too, and Ithaca 90 miles away, Binghamton only 60... otoh the winters are wicked if you like the warmer weather better. Don't bring all your friends since I want it to remain boondocks!

Neither rural or suburban. Have tried very shortly so I know it definitely bores me to death.

Agree about suburban, some people seem to be stuck in a cocoon, or I felt like that in my teens, and even the yards don't really feel like an escape to nature. One needed a car or a ride to get into the city proper and faiing that, waiting for a bus in winter winds of Lake Ontario was a drag.

I think suburbs probably feel ok for parents with kids in school, i.e. safe place for the young ones and commuting to the city for work means errands are possible on way home. A lot of my friends at work moved to suburbs once they had a baby on the way. For a 20s something out of college though, seems like the average suburb would be really stifling. I loved NYC the most when I was in my 20s through mid 40s.

After that I began to crave the slower, queter pace of weekend life here compared to the 60-hour gigs I was still putting myself through during the week. If I didn't run upstate late Friday night after a nap and some supper, I ended up not using the city's myriad cultural opportunities that much any more anyway. I loved hanging out in the apartment on Saturday mornings maybe getting a special coffee up at a favored deli, reading the paper. After that I'd be kicking myself as to why I wasn't upstate. I'd sometimes do battle with myself into the evening, like "well I could still go, I could be outta here in 20 minutes..." Finally I realized what was right for me was to go on Fridays, and if it rained or I ran out of fun upstate, coming back Saturday was an option.

I have to say I like being able to crank up music here, and not give a damn about the Pritchards off my city courtyard, with their penchant for shouting "turn off that f'g stereo!" to anyone with windows on that courtyard who ever played anything above a level 3 on a boombox.

Also, I could not play a musical instrument in the city apartment after 11pm or before 8am. I confess that along with some musically inclined friends I was not above giving the Prichards some free "tickets" to impromptu and fairly lengthy jams on Saturday afternoons. If they yelled something critical, we'd offer several more takes and ask if they liked that one better etc. "How about some Hanon then?" a pal would yell down, and embark on 20 minutes of deathly boring warmup excercises just for the hell of it. Scales struck in octaves, stuff like that. Horrible. Worse than a root canal. We were sinners. I guess the city or a certain part of it does not miss me or my friends either LOL.

Rural though for me, never boring... gardening always calls me and I'm distractible enough by "commonplace" natural beauties -- dewdrops strung along a cobweb in the morning-- that I'll forget that my purpose in going out was to fetch the paper. I'll be back inside, fetching my phone to go out and try to photograph whatever I saw out there, then come back in happy and looking for another cup of coffee and the newspaper that's still out there in the roadside box..

 

[RobinInOR]

You definately learn to be prepared when you live rural. Utilities do go out and you need to learn to deal. If you forget groceries for that special meal, you wait til the next week.

But its second nature, now, pack in the back of the jeep with water, supplies, good walking shoes.

We almost don't notice power outages at home, almost lol.
We have an inground pool of 10k water so we can use that for whaver we need.
Three burner coleman stove with lots of little propane capsules lets us cook normally.
And while we dont have a generator, our UPS keeps the satellite modem and wireless router going for an hour or 2, so we aren't completely cut off.
And we have some old phones that pull power from the landline so we can always call out.
We also have 3 wood stoves and acres of woods that would give us heat when necessary

The benefits still far outweigh the horror stories of animals that go bump in the night.

There is some bad in the rural- the only time we've been burglarized is the first year we moved here. And we've had run-ins with neighbors over water rights. Now were dealing with illegal pot grows that are taking stream water in the middle of the night, drying up the irrigation ditches the next day. And dark skies are getting more rare as the legal grows put up their grow tunnels and blast their lights and fans all night long

I'm surprised at how many families are out here with small children, but it seems to work for them. Lots of homeschooling with lots of activities done by the local district. I think kids have learned not to admit 'I'm sooooo bored' because next minute they'll have a new task to accomplish.

Now, i just need to figure out how to retire! I'm the only one with an outside job, and I'm jealous of the time my husband is home. People always ask me if I'd be bored staying home all the time after working with computers for 30 years. No way!

 

[Huntn]

sounds like you should go back to you kinfolk's hangouts of W.Va. or else head up here to the Catksills... possibility of bears or foxes in the meadows behind the mowed lawns of the near-village sticks... still more cows than people... but there's a home dep over the mountain 15 miles away, assorted cultural opportunities abound in the college town of Oneonta over ther too, and Ithaca 90 miles away, Binghamton only 60... otoh the winters are wicked if you like the warmer weather better. Don't bring all your friends since I want it to remain boondocks!



Agree about suburban, some people seem to be stuck in a cocoon, or I felt like that in my teens, and even the yards don't really feel like an escape to nature. One needed a car or a ride to get into the city proper and faiing that, waiting for a bus in winter winds of Lake Ontario was a drag.

I think suburbs probably feel ok for parents with kids in school, i.e. safe place for the young ones and commuting to the city for work means errands are possible on way home. A lot of my friends at work moved to suburbs once they had a baby on the way. For a 20s something out of college though, seems like the average suburb would be really stifling. I loved NYC the most when I was in my 20s through mid 40s.

After that I began to crave the slower, queter pace of weekend life here compared to the 60-hour gigs I was still putting myself through during the week. If I didn't run upstate late Friday night after a nap and some supper, I ended up not using the city's myriad cultural opportunities that much any more anyway. I loved hanging out in the apartment on Saturday mornings maybe getting a special coffee up at a favored deli, reading the paper. After that I'd be kicking myself as to why I wasn't upstate. I'd sometimes do battle with myself into the evening, like "well I could still go, I could be outta here in 20 minutes..." Finally I realized what was right for me was to go on Fridays, and if it rained or I ran out of fun upstate, coming back Saturday was an option.

I have to say I like being able to crank up music here, and not give a damn about the Pritchards off my city courtyard, with their penchant for shouting "turn off that f'g stereo!" to anyone with windows on that courtyard who ever played anything above a level 3 on a boombox.

Also, I could not play a musical instrument in the city apartment after 11pm or before 8am. I confess that along with some musically inclined friends I was not above giving the Prichards some free "tickets" to impromptu and fairly lengthy jams on Saturday afternoons. If they yelled something critical, we'd offer several more takes and ask if they liked that one better etc. "How about some Hanon then?" a pal would yell down, and embark on 20 minutes of deathly boring warmup excercises just for the hell of it. Scales struck in octaves, stuff like that. Horrible. Worse than a root canal. We were sinners. I guess the city or a certain part of it does not miss me or my friends either LOL.

Rural though for me, never boring... gardening always calls me and I'm distractible enough by "commonplace" natural beauties -- dewdrops strung along a cobweb in the morning-- that I'll forget that my purpose in going out was to fetch the paper. I'll be back inside, fetching my phone to go out and try to photograph whatever I saw out there, then come back in happy and looking for another cup of coffee and the newspaper that's still out there in the roadside box..

You have me fantasizing now and I envy your local. I think I mentioned this before, but the winter weather in West Virginia is relatively severe considering how far south it is. I lived for 3 decades in Minnesota and was quite used to winter there, although I remember the summers seemed to be on the short side. Been in Texas for 8 years and I both hate the summers and love the winters, and mostly miss the change in seasons. It's like one day it's 80 and the next day it's 50, until it goes up the next day back to 60s. Some winters it does not even freeze. We've been fantasizing about moving but I married the wrong girl to ever get a rural life, although she mentioned Harper's Ferry. However my impression, that is now a D.C. Bedroom community. Would I want to go back to a serious winter? A solid maybe.
[doublepost=1500164640][/doublepost]

You definately learn to be prepared when you live rural. Utilities do go out and you need to learn to deal. If you forget groceries for that special meal, you wait til the next week.

But its second nature, now, pack in the back of the jeep with water, supplies, good walking shoes.

We almost don't notice power outages at home, almost lol.
We have an inground pool of 10k water so we can use that for whaver we need.
Three burner coleman stove with lots of little propane capsules lets us cook normally.
And while we dont have a generator, our UPS keeps the satellite modem and wireless router going for an hour or 2, so we aren't completely cut off.
And we have some old phones that pull power from the landline so we can always call out.
We also have 3 wood stoves and acres of woods that would give us heat when necessary

The benefits still far outweigh the horror stories of animals that go bump in the night.

There is some bad in the rural- the only time we've been burglarized is the first year we moved here. And we've had run-ins with neighbors over water rights. Now were dealing with illegal pot grows that are taking stream water in the middle of the night, drying up the irrigation ditches the next day. And dark skies are getting more rare as the legal grows put up their grow tunnels and blast their lights and fans all night long

I'm surprised at how many families are out here with small children, but it seems to work for them. Lots of homeschooling with lots of activities done by the local district. I think kids have learned not to admit 'I'm sooooo bored' because next minute they'll have a new task to accomplish.

Now, i just need to figure out how to retire! I'm the only one with an outside job, and I'm jealous of the time my husband is home. People always ask me if I'd be bored staying home all the time after working with computers for 30 years. No way!

Did you mention where you live?
[doublepost=1500164797][/doublepost]

I'm a bit late to this thread but it's an interesting topic.

I think I'm really lucky where I am - I'm technically in a suburban area, but it's up a hill and is therefore more sparsely populated than the typical suburbs while still enjoying the benefits in being "in town": It's a 10-minute walk to the main street from here, and virtually every required shop is within a 15-minute drive. The hillside causes poor 3G/4G reception, but on the other hand the wired broadband here is excellent.

When I first moved here, one of the annoyances was the amount of natural noise; there are a lot of trees and therefore a lot of birds. It took a while for me to learn to tune them all out

Every time I visit a big city I think "I'm glad that I don't live in a place like this". Commuting 30+ minutes to work. Paying for parking. Traffic lights. While there is a bus system, it's relatively expensive and the information is a bit opaque... I've been asking them to put the data into Google Maps for years and it hasn't happened yet. Apple actually asked for a data feed a few months ago and I can only imagine how that went.

But I digress!

New Zealand = Fantasy Land? I always wanted to visit, but discouraged by distance.

 

[RobinInOR]

Did you mention where you live?

Southern Oregon. Our house is about 5 miles north of the California border, but driving it takes an hour. We're in the Siskiyou Mountains. Wonderful seasons, though summers are getting a wee bit hot. We usually get a week or two that stay in the high 90s. Springs and falls are glorious, and at 2500 ft elevation we usually get a couple of snowfalls about 4 inches deep. And no humidity, I dont think I could take anywhere that had massive humidity

Only bummer is it takes 3 hours to get to thr coast, I really miss the coast.

 

[Huntn]

Southern Oregon. Our house is about 5 miles north of the California border, but driving it takes an hour. We're in the Siskiyou Mountains. Wonderful seasons, though summers are getting a wee bit hot. We usually get a week or two that stay in the high 90s. Springs and falls are glorious, and at 2500 ft elevation we usually get a couple of snowfalls about 4 inches deep. And no humidity, I dont think I could take anywhere that had massive humidity

Only bummer is it takes 3 hours to get to thr coast, I really miss the coast.

I'm envious.

 

[0388631]

How's the fishing there, Robin?

 

[skinsone]

Southern Oregon. Our house is about 5 miles north of the California border, but driving it takes an hour. We're in the Siskiyou Mountains. Wonderful seasons, though summers are getting a wee bit hot. We usually get a week or two that stay in the high 90s. Springs and falls are glorious, and at 2500 ft elevation we usually get a couple of snowfalls about 4 inches deep. And no humidity, I dont think I could take anywhere that had massive humidity

Only bummer is it takes 3 hours to get to thr coast, I really miss the coast.

Your description of your rural home sounds wonderful. No humidity !!!! I've dreamt of no humidity. That's all we have in central Virginia and currently we're in the thick of it. But I'm a true Southern Virginia gal, 6 generations of my family have lived here, through and through and I wouldn't live in any other place. Getting out of the metro D.C. area again was the best I could do; for me and my grandkids. I loved visiting other states and always looked forward to coming home.

Huntn... your impression of Harpers Ferry is spot on. It's definitely a D.C. bedroom community.

 

[Huntn]

The bad thing about the suburbs, at least in the States where I have lived, East, North Central, West, South Central, is that they are in a constant state of change towards congestion. Taxes make the world go round and city councils and developers want to develop.

Even here in Houston, in the suburbs it's all ready crowded, but the motto develop every square foot applies and some areas that used to wonderful, are now congested messes. The perfect example is Northern Virginia, which used to be great, but became Paradise Lost in the 80s. I'd say the same thing for Southern California which was probably great in the 50- 60s, but was really contested in the 80s and when we went back to visit 15 years later, it was even worse. I hate development because it completely changes the character of an area, taking away most things good about it. That's one thing I like about the UK. You don't see rampant development at least not like Stateside.

 

[Micky Do]

Rural….. Grew up on a farm, and worked on farms for most of my life until I made the transition into teaching, and for now am living in an urban environment, just 1 km from work, albeit with a view of forest covered hills, and am woken by roosters crowing in the morning.

I do enjoy urban delights for a bit, but then it all gets a bit strange and full of things that I never knew I needed or were important. People rushing around everywhere, doing what and why, I still neither know nor comprehend.

In a rural environment I saw fewer people, but knew them better. Life may seem rather mundane to some, but in truth it is constantly changing with the seasons.

Suburban….. No thanks; neither here nor there, with no redeeming features from my point to view.

Would be interesting to see a poll included with this thread.

 

[Nermal]

New Zealand = Fantasy Land? I always wanted to visit, but discouraged by distance.

NZ has a reputation of being some mysterious place, but in reality that's a bit overblown. For the most part it's more-or-less the same as any other developed country, with a unique set of problems

It's still worth a visit if you can manage a 14-hour flight though. Having been to Europe twice (~36 hours) I can say that it's survivable!

 

[A.Goldberg]

I grew up in a Connecticut in a suburban town but in a rural area, not too far from NYC. My father worked in NYC when I was growing (and still does to some extent) so I'm very familiar with the city. I personally don't find NYC to be too high on my scale of livable cities.

I currently live within the Boston metro area in a nice place, right on the boarder of suburban and urban. I live in a renovated brownstone apartment, have train access footsteps away, yet yards the street it becomes beautiful brick and Victorian style homes. I'm 20 minutes from downtown Boston on the train, about 10 by car. It's a weird mix but I like it.

I don't mind urban living where I am now. I've lived in more congested parts of Boston like Back Bay and Fenway and I must say I like a little less activity. New York is fun to visit, but way too hustle and bustle for me.

I always find it refreshing to go back to my parents house out in the woods, but it can get a little boring being in such solitude. My parents also own a home on the water in Rhode Island, which is probably my favorite place to be.

In terms of Apartment vs. House- I much prefer a house, but cannot deny the benefits of an apartment. So much less responsibility and upkeep.

 

[RobinInOR]

How's the fishing there, Robin?

Where we are its mostly river and lake fishing. The Rogue River is well known for its excellent fishing-steelhead and salmon. It goes from Lost Creek Reservoir all the way to the oceon, with some nice rapids in there as well. I haven't fished the coast part of the Rogue.

Applegate River is nice trout habitat as well - we used to keep poles in our trunk and go fishing after work to catch dinner.

Klamath River also has nice rapids in parts for rafting and kayaking.

Mt Ashland is here as well if you are a skier.

Google those places and youll find all the info you need. We like to hike a bit, and take the jeep out, from our dirt road you can keep going 'the back way' to Mt Ashland, crossing near the Pacific Crest Trail. The movie 'Wild' was filmed partly near Ashland.

Oregon is pretty proud of its outdoors - theres lots of outdoor activities even up north, but we stick to the South. Not as rainy and cloudy as Portland, more like Northern California weather. I sound like a real estate agent lol, but we're suburban California transplants and love the area we've found.

What I want is basically impossible, rural, with easy access to metropolitan areas. I want the wilds with a Home Depot nearby. I'm hoping to see teleportation technology for the next life.

Home Depot is 1/2 hour away, and another one across the street from where I work. But bigger cities are a ways away - San Francisco is a 7 hour drive, as is Seattle.

 

[arkitect]

Quite happy where I am living right now.

10 minutes walk in one direction from my front door gets me to here:

And 10 minutes walk the other direction gets me to enjoy this:

 

[eyoungren]

NZ has a reputation of being some mysterious place, but in reality that's a bit overblown. For the most part it's more-or-less the same as any other developed country, with a unique set of problems

It's still worth a visit if you can manage a 14-hour flight though. Having been to Europe twice (~36 hours) I can say that it's survivable!

But, but, but!!!! TOLKIEN!!!!

Lord of the Rings and all that! You mean to say New Zealand doesn't look that way everywhere?!!!

Oh, say it isn't so!
[doublepost=1500219101][/doublepost]

In terms of Apartment vs. House- I much prefer a house, but cannot deny the benefits of an apartment. So much less responsibility and upkeep.

Never lived in an apartment.

Went from my parent's home to a duplex (two bedroom house) to a house owned by a family friend to another house here in Phoenix.

We have always rented. Renting a house seems to be a less well known thing than renting an apartment it seems as most people I've talked to about it always seem surprised you can do that.

Despite liking living in an urban setting, both my wife and I do value our privacy so the thought of an apartment has never been a serious topic and we can get more space with a house.

Before our kids came along it was just us in a three bedroom house. Which was nice.

As we rent, I don't have to worry about the things inside and outside the house, such as the A/C which has a high maintenance cost to the owner. If I owned this house that A/C would have killed me financially a long time ago. As it is, the monthly electric bill in the summer is bad enough.

Any issues though, I call the landlord. It's made me understand what I do and do not want when home ownership becomes a reality for us.

Every last damn inch of the front and back yard will be concreted over when that happens. You don't have to weed, mow, or water concrete.

 

[RootBeerMan]

I currently live in what would technically be a rural suburb. Our little neighbourhood has about 10 houses in a rural setting. We're outside the incorporated zone of the city, so we can do lots that city residents can't, (like burn brush piles and the like). Still close enough to enjoy spur of the moment shopping and only about 30 minutes from all the city life you might want. It's a happy medium. Personally, I can't stand the big cities after living in Beijing, DC and Cairo. I like the qiet nights and lack of criminality. Shoot, I even forget to lock my doors at times and have even left my garage door up overnight with no issues, (other than mosquitoes).

 

[eyoungren]

I currently live in what would technically be a rural suburb. Our little neighbourhood has about 10 houses in a rural setting. We're outside the incorporated zone of the city, so we can do lots that city residents can't, (like burn brush piles and the like). Still close enough to enjoy spur of the moment shopping and only about 30 minutes from all the city life you might want. It's a happy medium. Personally, I can't stand the big cities after living in Beijing, DC and Cairo. I like the qiet nights and lack of criminality. Shoot, I even forget to lock my doors at times and have even left my garage door up overnight with no issues, (other than mosquitoes).

Yeah, that was one thing about living at my parents. The doors were often not locked at night.

One time the parking brake was not set well on one of the cars and it rolled into the street. We found it still there undamaged in the morning.

But I'm still not a fan of being 30 minutes away from anything and I know my kids aren't (or wouldn't be) either. They've grown up with access to things less than 5 minutes from them. There are annoyances of course. Loud parties at 2am and such. But that's where city ordinances come in handy.

One of our former neighbors was blasting his car radio from his garage at 1am once. I called the cops. He must have had a scanner because shortly after my call he shut it off and closed his garage door.

They moved shortly after that.

We used to have some neighbors we strongly suspected were coyotes (bringing in illegals from Mexico). A constant stream of vehicles (lots of them with some having Mexican plates) but no one hardly to be seen outside that house at any given time.

Things must have gotten too hot for them though as eventually they left. That was around the time I think that Arizona passed SB 1070.

One of our neighbors knows someone who drives a big rig for a living and occasionally stays at their home when they pass through the area. They parked their rig on the street once with the trailer blocking my driveway.

One note about violating city ordinance left on the truck's door was all it took. Phoenix fines heavily for big rigs parked on city streets.

 

[Huntn]

I mentioned teleportation in a previous post as a method of getting the rural life with easy access to the city, and realize this technology might be bad for those who relish the secluded rural life.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

I'm an urban lover in a relatively small city with a population of just over 1.3 million people. The place we have here is in the outer Southern beachside suburbs about 40 K's from the city. We are lucky and have a nice very large block at the end of a cul-de-sac, with a park adjoining us and where the home is nestled in the centre of the block, surrounded by fish and frog ponds, vegetable patches and fruit groves. We are a 40 minute train ride into the city for all the culture there and locally (within a short walking distance) we have plenty of wetlands/estuaries/conservation parks for our regular nature fixes, whilst being nice and close to a major shopping precinct also. Twenty minutes to the South we have an internationally renowned wine growing region, the McLaren Vale, home also to a number of farmers markets with all manner of fresh, seasonal, local produce available. The local beach is regularly visited by dolphins, porpoises, seals, stingrays, a myriad of fish and even whales, and we have a reef that is amazing for snorkelling or scuba diving. A five minute drive further South from our local beach is a well used surfing beach. We consider ourselves very lucky to live here, with a lot of native birdlife visiting all year round and even have Koalas that drop in regularly.

The mouth of the local estuary, meeting the sea, with the surfing beach visible in the centre of the frame.

The riverbank/arts precinct of the city at night.

The very centre of the city, a square that is used for all manner of festivals and televising major sporting events on a giant outdoor screen. The city itself is a nice mix of new and old architecture.

 

[RobinInOR]

I mentioned teleportation in a previous post as a method of getting the rural life with easy access to the city, and realize this technology might be bad for those who relish the secluded rural life.

Reminds me of the Larry Niven stories where they had 'stepping disks' that could go everywhere. They found they had to adjust society and how to use them - prople started out having a disk in their living room. Bad idea lol....

 

[skinsone]

I'm an urban lover in a relatively small city with a population of just over 1.3 million people. The place we have here is in the outer Southern beachside suburbs about 40 K's from the city. We are lucky and have a nice very large block at the end of a cul-de-sac, with a park adjoining us and where the home is nestled in the centre of the block, surrounded by fish and frog ponds, vegetable patches and fruit groves. We are a 40 minute train ride into the city for all the culture there and locally (within a short walking distance) we have plenty of wetlands/estuaries/conservation parks for our regular nature fixes, whilst being nice and close to a major shopping precinct also. Twenty minutes to the South we have an internationally renowned wine growing region, the McLaren Vale, home also to a number of farmers markets with all manner of fresh, seasonal, local produce available. The local beach is regularly visited by dolphins, porpoises, seals, stingrays, a myriad of fish and even whales, and we have a reef that is amazing for snorkelling or scuba diving. A five minute drive further South from our local beach is a well used surfing beach. We consider ourselves very lucky to live here, with a lot of native birdlife visiting all year round and even have Koalas that drop in regularly.

The mouth of the local estuary, meeting the sea, with the surfing beach visible in the centre of the frame.

The riverbank/arts precinct of the city at night.

The very centre of the city, a square that is used for all manner of festivals and televising major sporting events on a giant outdoor screen. The city itself is a nice mix of new and old architecture.

Absolutely beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing.

 

[A.Goldberg]

But, but, but!!!! TOLKIEN!!!!

Lord of the Rings and all that! You mean to say New Zealand doesn't look that way everywhere?!!!

Oh, say it isn't so!
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Never lived in an apartment.

Went from my parent's home to a duplex (two bedroom house) to a house owned by a family friend to another house here in Phoenix.

We have always rented. Renting a house seems to be a less well known thing than renting an apartment it seems as most people I've talked to about it always seem surprised you can do that.

Despite liking living in an urban setting, both my wife and I do value our privacy so the thought of an apartment has never been a serious topic and we can get more space with a house.

Before our kids came along it was just us in a three bedroom house. Which was nice.

As we rent, I don't have to worry about the things inside and outside the house, such as the A/C which has a high maintenance cost to the owner. If I owned this house that A/C would have killed me financially a long time ago. As it is, the monthly electric bill in the summer is bad enough.

Any issues though, I call the landlord. It's made me understand what I do and do not want when home ownership becomes a reality for us.

Every last damn inch of the front and back yard will be concreted over when that happens. You don't have to weed, mow, or water concrete.

My apartment is pretty quiet, so it's not too bad. There were somebody people living next door for a while who had 3 small children which was a little weird at times.

Renting houses isn't too common around here, at least from what I've seen.

Right now I think my central AC is on the way out. It seems to struggle a bit and the air handler is making some awful noises from the motor. Thankfully I am not responsible for having to fix it.

I guess the one of the big minuses of renting is that it's not worth investing in the property when you want to upgrade things. My LL tends to neglect the front garden so I find myself weeding it.

I don't blame you for cementing your yard, though that's not a common thing in the northeast. I grew up in my parents house, which was quite large, on 4 acres of land (1.5 of which was lawn), plus a pool, and a long driveway. My father often had the philosophy of "don't pay others to do things you can do yourself"... which equates to tons of landscaping/tree work, snow blowing, and pool cleaning and cleaning the mildew and crap off the wood shingle siding. The house was built ~1999/2000 so now things are starting to have to be replaced. The garage door openers (Overhead Door Brand- supposedly very expensive and "reliable") have all started to fail and were just replaced. The roof needs to be redone soon. Last year they had to bring in $5000 worth of top soil to fix the corners of the yard and where the snow plow ruined the grass by the road over the years. The exterior was restained a couple years ago. The pool had a crack last year, no thanks to the freeze/thaw of New England. New washer/dryer etc etc etc etc. And that's just one home.

On the water, the salt and humity kills everything. Everything rusts, rots, or in other way degrades far more quickly under those conditions.

This is why I'm fearful of ever buying a single family home. So much upkeep, granted a smaller home with a smaller yard is far more manageable.

 

[0388631]

Have to agree with your dad. It is easier to hire someone, but doing it yourself is entertaining and a feel good experience, lest you cut an arm or hand off. There are very few things I wouldn't do myself. Most of them require heavy machinery I can't use or rent, or very dangerous stuff like electrical.

I personally love breaking stone and concrete with sledgehammers or jackhammers. So much joy.