When my husband and I moved from our big house in to an apartment several years ago, we both knew that the apartment was suppose to be just a place to hunker down while we decided what the next, more permanent place, would be. Over the three years that we've been apartment dwellers, we pursued other housing options...sometimes in earnest, sometimes just casually. We've looked at homes for sale in our general neighborhood, and in neighborhoods a little further removed. We've looked at big houses and small houses. We have even entertained the idea of purchasing a condo in the new City Creek project until sticker shock gave us a reality check. We've also looked at homes for lease/rent.
In the process, we have developed a pretty good idea of what we want and where we want to live. We don't need to own a home. A good long term rental property that meets most of these criteria is sufficient.
1. Located within a reasonable walking distance of downtown.
2. Easy access to Memory Grove/City Creek canyon
3. 1700 to 2000 sq feet home that is clean and well maintained.
4. Living space large enough to accommodate at least our dining room table.
5. Outdoor living space
6. Garage
7. Minimum of two bedrooms/two baths
8. Washer/dryer hookups
9. A decent kitchen with a dishwasher and disposal.
10. A yard/garden - not too much
11. Bathrooms that have been updated in the last decade or so.
12. Storage for all the sports equipment, camping gear, etc. etc.
13. Monthly lease payment less than our current lease payment.
Bonus:
1. Hard wood floors
2. Living space big enough for BOTH the dining room table and the baby grand piano.
3. Gas range
4. Fireplace
This criteria doesn't seem to be too demanding. But in our older neighborhood, it's hard to find something that has even a few of the items. It's been frustrating.
The other day, I was taking my daily walk up Memory Grove. I passed a house on Canyon Road that had a "For Rent" sign in front of it. I couldn't believe it. In this little section of the city, you just don't see "For Rent" or "For Sale" signs. Ownership and occupancy generally happen by word of mouth. I took a picture of the sign and emailed it to my husband for him to check out. He set up an appointment to see the home later that same day. He told me that the owner said the house was small - only about 950 sq ft on the main floor. With that kind of square footage, most likely the rooms would be tiny. The kitchen and baths probably would be stuck in the 50s. Even though the location was to die for, we were prepared to be disappointed in the actual house.
But, lo and behold, we were surprised. The home had been remodeled inside and had great space. Whoever had done the remodeling had removed some interior walls and opened up the ceiling into the attic. A loft area in the former attic had room for office space and a TV/sitting area plus a storage area. The main floor was big enough for the dining room table AND the piano. It had hardwood floors and with the original fireplace in the living room. Even though there was just one bedroom on the main floor, it had a nice updated bathroom en suite with a large closet.
The kitchen had been updated in the last ten years or so. It was small, but had good appliances and a GAS range. Off the kitchen, on the way to the basement stairs, was a full bathroom. The basement was totally finished with a half bath, a family room and another bedroom. The total square footage of the home was about 1700 sq. feet. spread over three levels...but all very liveable.
The garage was under one side of the house and accessed off an alley behind the house. Even with one car in the garage, there was still plenty of storage. One small issue was that the washer and dryer hookups were in the garage. Not an ideal set up, but workable. The yard was just the right size and well maintained. A nice size deck on the back of the house filled the outdoor living space criteria quite nicely. There was just the right amount of gardening space for me to putter in.
The home is vacant and, for the most part, meets all the criteria we have. So, we are moving...quickly...like starting today. We will have a lower monthly overhead since the lease payment on the house is less and we won't have to pay for an extra parking space, a storage unit or piano storage. Before the end of the month, we'll vacate our apartment and move to Canyon Road. It's a long term rental with the possibility of being able to purchase it in three or four years. I can't believe that we were this lucky. And believe me, the ability to live in this particular neighborhood is either by knowing someone who is selling/renting or pure luck.
So, it looks like Thanksgiving dinner can be around the family dining room table this year. We will also be able to sing Christmas carols accompanied by someone playing the grand piano. But before then, we might be able to have a BBQ or two. We can certainly gather for some family dinners.
Anyone out there who has any free time, willing manpower, etc. etc. is more than welcome to come help with process. We need to be out of our current place...clean and ready to go...by the end of August. Yikes! I better get off the computer and start packing boxes.
Update: As I was in the home, in the process of signing the lease, a guy walked in the open front door inquiring about the home. Snooze, you loose.
Note - This home is on the upper part of Canyon Road, in the row of about 10 homes just prior to the entrance of Memory Grove. It is also next door to the duplex where my Grandpa Reid lived in the last years of his life.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Thoughts while riding second seat...
After almost three years of not being on a motorcycle, early in July, the husband and I rented a motorcycle and took off for a few days. My husband found a great deal on a bike at a local BMW dealership. He knew the guy in charge of the rentals as well. Because it was a slow week for rentals going out, we got a great deal on the rate. We picked the bike up on Friday, July 1 and didn't have to have it back until Wednesday, July 6, a total of 4 1/2 days. We only paid for three days. We've always ridden a BMW, but this time the husband took out a Triumph Tiger.
As I was riding behind my husband while on this road trip, I started thinking about why I love riding on a motorcycle. Some people who have never ridden a motorcycle may think that it's a passive activity sitting in the second seat...that you're just along for the ride. For me, it's just the opposite.
First of all, I have to pay attention to how my husband is handling the bike. If he's leaning into a curve and I'm just sitting there, not leaning with him, it makes the curve more difficult to handle. I have to watch what's up ahead because that may influence how he handles the bike and how I have to react.
Riding a motorcycle is also a sensory experience. Without being surrounded by steel and glass of a car, you smell the environment. I remember riding over Boulder mountain in SE Utah on a fall trip just after a light rain had gone through the area. I loved the smell of the damp, wet, fall leaves that was all around. On a trip in the northwest the aroma of pine trees filled the air. I also get the diesel and gasoline smells, skunks, and cow pastures
As I ride along, I can feel the ambient air temperature change. Going over a mountain pass, the temps can start out in the 80s. As we climb higher, the air temp changes and cools down. There have been times when I've been very chilly going over a mountain pass because I was dressed for the warmer temps at lower elevations. But I've quickly warmed up as we've descended the other side.
Riding a motorcycle is also a very visual experience. On many of our rides, we've been on roads that we've traveled many times in a car. But traveling these same roads on a motorcycle, I've seen things I've haven't seen before. I noticed birds flying over head and cloud formations. Sometimes, it's like I've never been on that road or in that place.
Stopping for gas is usually an opportunity to chat with others at the pump. People will come over to you and ask about the bike, or where you're from and where you're going. There have been old geezers in small towns who have struck up conversations, sometimes with a little envy that it wasn't them who was riding down the road on a BMW. It seems that people always want to chat with the couple on the motorcycle....well, except for guys who ride Harleys. They are a very different breed than people who ride BMWs. We can be pumping gas right next to each other and they will hardly acknowledge us.
Taking a road trip on a motorcycle is more than just going from point A to point B. The ride is the trip. When we start out at the beginning of the day, we don't always know where we'll be that night. Our unspecified itinerary is how we discovered a charming 1950s like motel in Hope, British Columbia, the small, clean family run motel in Twin Bridges, Montana where the owner let me use her washer and dryer to do some wash and a delightful motel just a block from the beach in Cannon Beach, Oregon. We've found wonderful hotels in Santa Fe, New Mexico and on Vancouver Island, B.C. I'll never forget going through the tiny, tiny town of Denio, Nevada. The ride over the Highway to the Sun in Glacier National Park and through the twisties in the Canadian Rockies was spectacular.
We've had to dodge exploding beer cans that came out of a cooler that fell off a pick up that pulled out in front of us. There was the time that a dog in the back of a pick-up barked at us continually until we were finally able to pass. Then the driver of that pick up flipped us off. We had to ride in over 100 miles in a driving rainstorm of biblical proportions and were rewarded at the end of the ride by snagging the last room at our favorite hotel in Moab, Utah. We've been cut off by careless drivers, but waved to by many more.
Sure there have been times when I've been scared. Like when my husband had to lay the bike down when he came around a bend and saw traffic backed up at a stop sign. I jumped off with no problem, but the bike rolled over him. He was out for a minute or two and I wondered how I was going to get an injured, or worse, dead husband, plus a motorcycle back from Washington to Salt Lake City. But we were able to finish our trip with only some sore muscles and a couple of scratches on the bike.
You don't have these kind of experiences traveling in a car. Most likely, you're focused on the destination and when will you get there. If you ride as a passenger, you're probably absorbed in a book, wired up to your Ipod or laptop, or watching a movie on your personal DVD player and are more or less unaware of what's going on outside your car.
And there's nothing better at the end of a day on a motorcycle than a good hotel, hot shower and great meal, knowing that the next day you get to do it all over again on a different road.
As I was riding behind my husband while on this road trip, I started thinking about why I love riding on a motorcycle. Some people who have never ridden a motorcycle may think that it's a passive activity sitting in the second seat...that you're just along for the ride. For me, it's just the opposite.
First of all, I have to pay attention to how my husband is handling the bike. If he's leaning into a curve and I'm just sitting there, not leaning with him, it makes the curve more difficult to handle. I have to watch what's up ahead because that may influence how he handles the bike and how I have to react.
Riding a motorcycle is also a sensory experience. Without being surrounded by steel and glass of a car, you smell the environment. I remember riding over Boulder mountain in SE Utah on a fall trip just after a light rain had gone through the area. I loved the smell of the damp, wet, fall leaves that was all around. On a trip in the northwest the aroma of pine trees filled the air. I also get the diesel and gasoline smells, skunks, and cow pastures
As I ride along, I can feel the ambient air temperature change. Going over a mountain pass, the temps can start out in the 80s. As we climb higher, the air temp changes and cools down. There have been times when I've been very chilly going over a mountain pass because I was dressed for the warmer temps at lower elevations. But I've quickly warmed up as we've descended the other side.
Riding a motorcycle is also a very visual experience. On many of our rides, we've been on roads that we've traveled many times in a car. But traveling these same roads on a motorcycle, I've seen things I've haven't seen before. I noticed birds flying over head and cloud formations. Sometimes, it's like I've never been on that road or in that place.
Stopping for gas is usually an opportunity to chat with others at the pump. People will come over to you and ask about the bike, or where you're from and where you're going. There have been old geezers in small towns who have struck up conversations, sometimes with a little envy that it wasn't them who was riding down the road on a BMW. It seems that people always want to chat with the couple on the motorcycle....well, except for guys who ride Harleys. They are a very different breed than people who ride BMWs. We can be pumping gas right next to each other and they will hardly acknowledge us.
Taking a road trip on a motorcycle is more than just going from point A to point B. The ride is the trip. When we start out at the beginning of the day, we don't always know where we'll be that night. Our unspecified itinerary is how we discovered a charming 1950s like motel in Hope, British Columbia, the small, clean family run motel in Twin Bridges, Montana where the owner let me use her washer and dryer to do some wash and a delightful motel just a block from the beach in Cannon Beach, Oregon. We've found wonderful hotels in Santa Fe, New Mexico and on Vancouver Island, B.C. I'll never forget going through the tiny, tiny town of Denio, Nevada. The ride over the Highway to the Sun in Glacier National Park and through the twisties in the Canadian Rockies was spectacular.
We've had to dodge exploding beer cans that came out of a cooler that fell off a pick up that pulled out in front of us. There was the time that a dog in the back of a pick-up barked at us continually until we were finally able to pass. Then the driver of that pick up flipped us off. We had to ride in over 100 miles in a driving rainstorm of biblical proportions and were rewarded at the end of the ride by snagging the last room at our favorite hotel in Moab, Utah. We've been cut off by careless drivers, but waved to by many more.
Sure there have been times when I've been scared. Like when my husband had to lay the bike down when he came around a bend and saw traffic backed up at a stop sign. I jumped off with no problem, but the bike rolled over him. He was out for a minute or two and I wondered how I was going to get an injured, or worse, dead husband, plus a motorcycle back from Washington to Salt Lake City. But we were able to finish our trip with only some sore muscles and a couple of scratches on the bike.
You don't have these kind of experiences traveling in a car. Most likely, you're focused on the destination and when will you get there. If you ride as a passenger, you're probably absorbed in a book, wired up to your Ipod or laptop, or watching a movie on your personal DVD player and are more or less unaware of what's going on outside your car.
And there's nothing better at the end of a day on a motorcycle than a good hotel, hot shower and great meal, knowing that the next day you get to do it all over again on a different road.
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