I have these periods of real estate obsession. I think it's leftover from my nyc days when i was continuously afflicted with envy of other people's apartments. It doesn't matter how nice or how good a deal your apartment is, there's always someone with an even better place. Lately I'm obsessed with the Macallen Building in South Boston and also with the handful of mid-century modern homes in Lexington and Lincoln, MA. Actually, the homes in Lexington and Lincoln were the among the first mid-century modern homes built in the country. Strangely, now there are so few modern homes in and around Boston at all which makes acquiring these homes very, very expensive.
I want to live in a modern home. Most of the homes in this region are definitely not modern. The ones I have found are waaaaaaay out of the realm of possibility for my financial resources. So I'm forced to settle for places maybe I don't like so much and just dream.
As I've started exploring options for my next home and even briefly considered buying, I began to wonder what would happen if I built a modern home in the middle of some neighborhood steeped in Victorian, Cape Cod and Triple-deckers? What if I just decided to buy a house around here, tear it down and build something modern in its place? And then what if a few others decided to do the same knowing that the city of Lynn was friendly to a variety of architectural styles?
There has been much discussion about how can Lynn revitalize itself and in my view this is the way: through modern and improved design of residential housing. I think efforts in new housing have to come first- before street-level businesses will come. Go to the website of any major chain store and look in the franchising information section and you will see that companies are very specific about the population and per-capita income of areas they are willing to do business in. It makes sense. It's easy to get caught up in chicken and eggs discussions about how to revitalize a city, but in the case of Lynn, it has to come from real estate first, and that's a tough place to be in. Let's face it, people aren't exactly beating down the doors to move to Lynn and the real estate market is still a mess. But the right design approach can attract specific kinds of people to the area. For all its flaws, that's how I ended up at MV24. It was mostly the right design for my lifestyle and price range. (Unfortunately, this building has an assortment of problems that may ultimately force me to move which I've detailed in another post).
Before I moved to Lynn, I lived in Austin, TX. Austin has a variety of older bungalow style homes, McMansions, ranch style, split level, cookie cutter gated communities - just about everything you'd expect in the suburbs. There are also mid-rise, high rise and lofts (new construction) and a significant number of modern homes in a variety of price ranges, many of which have been designed by local architects. There's even a subdivision of very colorful modern homes called Agave that with the downturn probably hasn't performed as well as its developers might have hoped, but it got built and people are living there!
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My point is, if you want new people, you have to build something new (and new can be recycled when done smartly). It will take time. It will be painful for some people and if enough risks are taken it will be awesome.
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Sunday, December 19, 2010
my apartment conflict
The current state of my neighbor situation is making me want to move. The bed above me gets quite the "workout" at all hours and sometimes makes me wonder if it's going to come crashing through the ceiling. I've asked this neighbor to put something under the bed like maybe a few layers of carpeting, but I guess I can consider myself ignored.
The neighbor below me has gotten an electric bass and apparently the only way to practice is to turn it all the way up so that my furniture vibrates. The neighbor to the left has a pair of bulldogs. When they fight, it feels as if the entire building is shaking. He snores rather loudly and seems content to allow the door to slam. The problem with slamming to door, aside from being extremely loud, is that the walls shake so that every other door on the floor rattles and my pictures hang crooked. The other night he put in a movie and cranked the tv up loud. I had to knock on his door 3 times to get him to turn it down (granted not very much). Somehow he seemed surprised.
The neighbor on the other side also likes to watch movies and play video games rather loudly, but sometimes really early in the morning. That is until one morning I was really fed up and banged on the wall screaming. He hasn't done it that loudly since.
But really? Is that was it takes to get people to behave civilly? I have to bang on the walls and scream? It just doesn't make sense. It should be obvious upon moving in that since the floors are concrete and the ceilings are high, noise will reverberate all over the place. Secondly, there's no escaping the fact that the walls are thin. I don't think I have especially good hearing, but I can hear pretty much anything my neighbors do. I know what part of the apartment they are in and what they are having for dinner if it's particularly smelly. The crazy woman who mistreated her dog who lived to the right of me for a year made a tomato sauce so strong I resorted to hanging plastic over the area that seemed to be exposed to prevent the smell from coming through for fear it would take up residence in my clothing. Plus she smoked.
But to me it's obvious that if you are a person who makes noise, perhaps it's better to live in a house rather than an apartment. If you are in a situation with shared walls, perhaps you should keep the volume down a bit. That if you are down the hallway and can hear noise from your apartment, perhaps you are disturbing your neighbors. That if you like to listen to music loudly, wear a pair of headphones. It's hard to me to understand how other people don't see it that way. That it's just ok to be as loud as you want any time you want regardless what the lease says.
So, I've started looking around for another place. My needs are a little bit particular, but I don't thing they're particularly luxurious:
1) commute to boston less than half an hour, or few stops
2) at least 600 square feet, preferably a loft
3) little to no carpeting, preferably concrete or wood
4) a decent amount of daylight
5) appliances made in the last decade
6) demonstrably quiet. I will even ask the person showing the apartment to go to the floor above and walk around to prove how quiet it is.
7) if on the commuter rail, then must be equal or less to what i'm paying now. If on the T then add $200 to what I'm paying now
8) a grocery store needs to be within walking distance
9) a park or beach or walking trail somewhat nearby
Every apartment that I've come across that seems suitable costs about twice what I'm paying now. I just can't spend that much and still consider myself a responsible person.
I've considered Lowell, but the commute could drive me insane and every time I need to fly really early in the morning (which is most cases), it could potentially be a very expensive ordeal to get to the airport.
One solution I've considered is bribing my neighbors to move out. It doesn't guarantee that the next person who moves in would be any quieter though. But it could be potentially less expensive than moving.
So how do you deal with your unreasonably noisy neighbors?
The neighbor below me has gotten an electric bass and apparently the only way to practice is to turn it all the way up so that my furniture vibrates. The neighbor to the left has a pair of bulldogs. When they fight, it feels as if the entire building is shaking. He snores rather loudly and seems content to allow the door to slam. The problem with slamming to door, aside from being extremely loud, is that the walls shake so that every other door on the floor rattles and my pictures hang crooked. The other night he put in a movie and cranked the tv up loud. I had to knock on his door 3 times to get him to turn it down (granted not very much). Somehow he seemed surprised.
The neighbor on the other side also likes to watch movies and play video games rather loudly, but sometimes really early in the morning. That is until one morning I was really fed up and banged on the wall screaming. He hasn't done it that loudly since.
But really? Is that was it takes to get people to behave civilly? I have to bang on the walls and scream? It just doesn't make sense. It should be obvious upon moving in that since the floors are concrete and the ceilings are high, noise will reverberate all over the place. Secondly, there's no escaping the fact that the walls are thin. I don't think I have especially good hearing, but I can hear pretty much anything my neighbors do. I know what part of the apartment they are in and what they are having for dinner if it's particularly smelly. The crazy woman who mistreated her dog who lived to the right of me for a year made a tomato sauce so strong I resorted to hanging plastic over the area that seemed to be exposed to prevent the smell from coming through for fear it would take up residence in my clothing. Plus she smoked.
But to me it's obvious that if you are a person who makes noise, perhaps it's better to live in a house rather than an apartment. If you are in a situation with shared walls, perhaps you should keep the volume down a bit. That if you are down the hallway and can hear noise from your apartment, perhaps you are disturbing your neighbors. That if you like to listen to music loudly, wear a pair of headphones. It's hard to me to understand how other people don't see it that way. That it's just ok to be as loud as you want any time you want regardless what the lease says.
So, I've started looking around for another place. My needs are a little bit particular, but I don't thing they're particularly luxurious:
1) commute to boston less than half an hour, or few stops
2) at least 600 square feet, preferably a loft
3) little to no carpeting, preferably concrete or wood
4) a decent amount of daylight
5) appliances made in the last decade
6) demonstrably quiet. I will even ask the person showing the apartment to go to the floor above and walk around to prove how quiet it is.
7) if on the commuter rail, then must be equal or less to what i'm paying now. If on the T then add $200 to what I'm paying now
8) a grocery store needs to be within walking distance
9) a park or beach or walking trail somewhat nearby
Every apartment that I've come across that seems suitable costs about twice what I'm paying now. I just can't spend that much and still consider myself a responsible person.
I've considered Lowell, but the commute could drive me insane and every time I need to fly really early in the morning (which is most cases), it could potentially be a very expensive ordeal to get to the airport.
One solution I've considered is bribing my neighbors to move out. It doesn't guarantee that the next person who moves in would be any quieter though. But it could be potentially less expensive than moving.
So how do you deal with your unreasonably noisy neighbors?
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