Good morning. Aren’t you glad it is Friday, the beginning of the weekend? I am, I love today here in California because it is cool and sunny. I have prayed, read a few chapters from the bible, ate my breakfast and enjoyed three cups of coffee while looking at the Internet. My cute puppy, Gus, is sleeping on his pillow behind my chair. Soon I’ll take him out to play for a while before I get down to the business of laundry and homework for Bible College.
I don’t usually get to enjoy Friday morning like this because I watch my grandsons, but they are with “Big Grandma” (I am little Grandma.) today. I am thankful for this time to relax and enjoy my day doing what I usually do on Saturday morning, which is catching up on blogs I love to read and reading through the Real Estate section of the New York Times.
I have read through Real Estate sections of many different cities in the United States and around the world but none compare to the loving way the New York Times writes about the houses, apartments, and neighborhoods of New York. In California when looking for a house we seem to be interested in square footage, bathrooms, bedrooms, and garage space. If the area around is considered it is how close to a good school, and how many freeways are close by? If the house or apartment is in a planned community the gym and parks may be a consideration but mostly the house and what it can offer is the focal point of the selling article. If a movie star owned the house then you get to read all about that.
In New York it is a different story. They can make an eight story, prewar walk-up, with rusty pipes priced at One Million plus dollars sound like the palace for a King. The houses and apartments they feature are talked about as if they were people almost. They give both positive and negative information but the negative always sounds like a minor inconvenience. They describe it like you would a friend who you love who has that one or two annoying habits you must learn to live with or never see them again.
Then they describe the neighborhood and this is the real draw in these articles. Right away you know that the home you buy is not bought for the dwelling alone. No! It is the neighborhood that you are buying, it is part of the dwelling just as if it was another room. Does it have a grocery within walking distance, a cafe, a really good bakery, restaurant, subway or bus access to all points necessary. If so how many changes will one have to make to get where they need to go occasionally? Occasionally because venturing out of the neighborhood seems to be for those “must do” or special events only type of times. The rest of the time they want to be as close to their home as they can and within walking distance of everything, including work, if possible.
Describing the neighborhood is not done in a matter of fact way. The description is more like a caressing of the neighborhood. The ambiance of the neighborhood is described and you get the feeling that you would know this neighborhood if you were to go there just from the description in the article.
$10,000,000.00 for a 3 bedroom, one bath, 10th floor apartment on the back side of the building overlooking the railroad yard and beyond it gardens and trees? Hey I’ll buy it because I can walk to work, the grocery, have coffee on the sidewalk on Sunday after church, and eat at a few of my favorite places on Friday nights.
I hope I don’t sound like I am making fun. I AM NOT! I love the descriptions and the picture of all the houses and apartments I have seen over the years I have been enjoying the NY Times. I could so be a New Yorker. I am not easily swayed by advertising but these articles make me love New York. I love small walks and side walk cafes. I love neighborhoods with ambiance. I love old houses and apartments. I love the description of New York neighborhoods I read in these articles. I really do and I know I would enjoy that type of life.
But I have lived in California for 56 years and I love it too. I love jumping in my car and racing down the freeway at 75 miles an hour on my way to the beach, LA, the high desert, or the mountains. I love driving 3 miles to load up the car with groceries. Sitting outside at Starbucks or Panera Bread and cruising the Internet or the New York Times on my tablet. I love California and could probably never leave it. But it is fun to see how others live and how much New Yorkers love their city with all it’s drawbacks.
No matter where you live I hope you have a very blessed day. BTW where do you live and if you wrote an article about a house and neighborhood for sale where you live what would you say?
This is my Grandmother, Dad, Mom, and my two boys. Apx. 1982, Doniphan, MO.
