Birthday Answers

[susandennis]

(For my birthday, I asked for Ask Me Anything Questions. I got so many wonderful ones. I'm answering them in entries from here until I get to the end. If you think of something you want to ask, just leave a comment or a note. Deadline is totally not a thing.)

christalin80


Did you look at a lot of homes before settling where you are? I do love your place.

Not that many actually. I got very lucky. I had one weekend to either find a place to buy or decide to rent until I did. If I rented, IBM would pay for me to move into the rental but then I’d have to pay to move again. Oh and IBM was paying the closing costs on a purchase so really the pressure was on.

I knew I wanted a condo rather than a single family house. And I knew I wanted downtown. I had been living in California and spent way more time in the car on the road than I liked. My new office in Seattle was in the middle of downtown so I drew a circle (radius=1 mile) with it in the center and gave that to the realtor. Anywhere in that circle was fine. I wanted a walking commute. Downtown living wasn’t quite a thing yet in Seattle so there weren’t a lot of choices and my realtor did not think it was a good idea to live downtown anyway.

So, the first place he took me was an old warehouse that had been remade into condos in a not very nice part of downtown. Then we looked at one outside of my mile and another on a giant city lake that had float planes landing that you could see from the picture window in the living room oh and another one that was just one ginormous blank room with a kitchen on one side and a bathroom behind the kitchen. All had pros and cons but the first place we looked at sucked me in and kept digging at me all day long.

It had just opened up for sale and there were probably 10 units sold out of the 108. We had looked at most of the floorplans available. I had them in a folder that the marketing rep had given me.

That night I decided that I’d be living in the building but which unit??? I spread the floor plans on the floor of this hotel room and marked each with what I liked and didn’t like. I was able to narrow it down to about 3 units. So the next day I made the realtor take me back to the building and revisit those 3 units. I finally decided that the one I wanted was not one of them but the model unit.

It had a bath and a half (instead of just one the one bath) and it was close to the elevator. (You know when you get home from running errands and really have to pee … )

And that’s the place I bought. The guy I was dating at the time, and my realtor both thought buying any unit in this building, in this neighborhood was a bad idea. A waste of money. I have never regretted my decision one time not for even a skinny minute. I love the condo, I love the building, I love the neighborhood still - 30 years later.

Comments

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Cool.

[christalin80.livejournal.com]

Very cool! You have an awesome place.

[susandennis]

Thanks, I think so, too :)

[stainsteelrat.livejournal.com]

Has it changed from a not-very-nice-part over the years?

[susandennis]

Actually, yes. A few times! It's the oldest part of town. The part where Seattle started. (BUT Seattle got started and then burned itself down and so started again so while we got nothing over you guys in terms of old, Seattle's old started just after 1900.)

Anyway, in the 90's the tech industry started to bloom and they filled the cheap, empty offices around here and the rest started to perk up. Then the bust of 2000 hit about the time an earthquake kind of broke things up down here. But, then... phoenix rising, it started to come back. It has really, since, then become trendy. They built apartments across the street and another condo building so more people now live here and play here. It's cool now :)

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

You were prescient. I love your place and the reasons you chose it all make perfect sense to me. Except maybe the elevator choice - I would be annoyed by the noise of other people using it.

[susandennis]

Unless I'm right by the front door, I can't hear anyone in the hall. So, while I did not consider that, it turned out to be ok. What I really should have considered, and did not, was which side of the building. Half the units face west and half face east. Those on the west side get fried in the afternoon sun and stay hot all night. Those on the east side get morning sun but then are pleasant the rest of the day.

Thankfully the one I chose for other reasons, faces east. Whew.

[mollywheezy.livejournal.com]

We had that same situation when we moved to Huntsville. My husband's company would pay for the move, but once, so we were motivated to find somewhere. We did manage, but could not find a ranch house, and ended up with 24 steps to the first floor. Only the garage was on ground level. We knew when we purchased it that we would not be retiring in that house, lol. We lived there for 16 years until we moved into our current ranch house, which was timely right before the pandemic since my parents could not come over to the other house.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think I might have been tempted by being able to watch the sea-planes — but I guess they would have been very noisy!

[susandennis]

Oh it was very tempting and you couldn't hear them at all. It was really a marvelous view. BUT it was too far from my job and on a street with traffic that was too fast or backed up and it was not easy to get to and from. I pass it now often and know those people have such a great view and such a sucky life on the ground!