What is your area like?

[Oracle of Delphi]

Well I thought I woud start this thread to find out more about other areas people live in. I myself live in an area called Hockessin Delaware. When I moved here 15 years ago there were about 5,000 people living here, now we have about 12,000 people living here. I am attaching this link so you can find out more about where I live. I like to visit other places so tell me about where you live, are you in a town or city?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockessin,_Delaware

As you can see it's not a major city, in fact it's not even a town, it's just suburbia. Far enough away from the major cities, but close enough to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlantic City, Washington, DC, and New York. Washington and New York being 2 hrs away.

[Charger4U]

I think alot of people have already posted about that here..

http://www.cheersandgears.com/forums/index...ic=6762&hl=

Edited May 1, 2007 by Charger4U

[trinacriabob]

As you can see it's not a major city, in fact it's not even a town, it's just suburbia. Far enough away from the major cities, but close enough to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlantic City, Washington, DC, and New York.

It's very "weiss" and, at that level of household income, not much "weisser mull."

Seriously, though, when you posted your Calais picture in a driveway, it looked like it was in more of a Sunbelt location. Where was that?

Ok, folks, I live in the foothill suburbs of Cali's capital city, which itself I find distasteful and boring -- a serious miss in city planning since it ought to have been laid out in grand style a la Pierre L'Enfant -- that's why I live a ways out. But in two weeks, I will put my stuff in storage and be based out of Portland OR, especially while I go to Europe for a month and a half.

Advantages: the area itself is nothing special but, in less than 2 hours, one can be at the waterfront in San Francisco, on a beach at Lake Tahoe, in the upper part of the state such as Mt. Lassen, Chico and all those towns, or in the pissy "Wine Country," which is pretentiously boring as hell. Beautiful areas are even closer in the Gold Country, as near as 45 minutes away.

Disadvantages: there are a lot of stupid people in the north central part of the state with the better labor pool living in So. Cal. or the Bay Area. The mountain areas have rattlesnakes, bears at higher elevations around Tahoe (Bear Xing signs, seriously) and the lower elevations of the Sierra have one of the highest concentrations of mountain lions in the West (I still get weirded out that a woman went out for her nightly run on one of the state park trails by the American River in 1994 and never made it home - she was ambushed by a mountain lion and killed).

I guess the thing that gets to me the most is that it's not Walnut Creek (Bay Area) or Woodland Hills (So. Cal.), either of which would suit me just fine.

[Robert Hall]

I've lived here for the last 5 years...living downtown is fun, but I'm thinking of moving to the burbs for more square footage, among other reasons...maybe here or here.

The little town in Ohio I grew up near is Port Washington and I lived also as a child in nearby Steubenville. My high school years were spent in the Florida Keys, in Marathon..

[trinacriabob]

I've lived here for the last 5 years...living downtown is fun, but I'm thinking of moving to the burbs for more square footage, among other reasons...maybe here or here.

Boy, the first place is unbelievably white. LOL. I've never seen it, really. Is it tucked away or near I-25? I guess it's affluent, right? How much will a nice house set you back in Greenwood Village?

Is the second place near Castle Rock or Castle Pines (Castle something)? How's that compare to Greenwood Village for housing?

Is DEN really a likable place to live? How cosmopolitan is it? I remember the beauty of The Front Range as being dramatic, but that it seemed dry. For some reason, extreme green (like ATL) seems to have a pacifying effect on me. Some parts of the West are just too brown and it almost puts me in a bad mood.

[Sixty8panther]

From 1979 to 1987 I lived in Slovakia (Eastern Europe)

From 1987 to present I've been in mASSachusetts.

[Robert Hall]

Boy, the first place is unbelievably white. LOL. I've never seen it, really. Is it tucked away or near I-25? I guess it's affluent, right? How much will a nice house set you back in Greenwood Village?

The GV (as some locals refer to Greenwood Village as) is a mix of office parks and newish houses...decent houses start about $450k and go up from there...straddles I-25. My company's office is there. Lots of tech industry and other business people live there, so I fit in well...

Is the second place near Castle Rock or Castle Pines (Castle something)? How's that compare to Greenwood Village for housing?

Lone Tree is newer, north of Castle Pines, east of Highlands Ranch, west of Parker. There's a big mall there (Park Meadows) and decent suburban tract houses...Highlands Ranch to the west is cheaper, but blander..lots of beige $250-450k tract houses..

Is DEN really a likable place to live? How cosmopolitan is it? I remember the beauty of The Front Range as being dramatic, but that it seemed dry. For some reason, extreme green (like ATL) seems to have a pacifying effect on me. Some parts of the West are just too brown and it almost puts me in a bad mood.

Downtown is a lot of fun and diverse...lots to do..but I'm thinking of moving out of the downtown area and into the burbs and getting a house w/ a 3 car garage, more room for my stuff... and both The GV and Lone Tree have light rail stations, so I can use the train to go downtown. I've also thought about moving to the north, to the Broomfield area between Boulder and Denver..closer to the mountains and more scenic up there, but still plenty of tech companies.

Politically, the downtown, older near-downtown neighborhoods and Boulder tend to be more Democrat and lefty, but the burbs and the further south you go tend to be more Republican and right-wing.

The problem I see with the older neighborhoods closer to downtown is that they tend to have older, smaller houses that are as expensive as the newer subdivisions..I'd rather live in a newer burb and have a modern 2500-3000 sq ft house than an old 1200 sq ft house that needs a lot of work...it's a trade off, though, since the burbs are more boring..

Denver's suburbs are very tan and brown in the winter, but green in the summer..with the sprinklers running. It is very dry, but I love the infinite blue skies (a lot of cloudless days) and snow-capped mountains in the distance.....with the dryness, a 45 degree sunny winter day feels more like 60..

I would like to have more of the greenery that I remember from living in Ohio, or the greenery of the Northwest, but I don't know if I could deal with the gray days and rain (and lots of cold and snow).

Edited May 1, 2007 by moltar

[FAPTurbo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutus_Ridge

Lived here my whole life. I moved to a different house a block away when I was 10, but that's it.

I live a couple blocks from the church in the picture.

Edited May 1, 2007 by Captainbooyah

[Cory Wolfe]

I think alot of people have already posted about that here..

http://www.cheersandgears.com/forums/index...ic=6762&hl=

Don't be a duesch... That thread is over a year old and wasn't the first on the topic anyways.

All you need to know about Brookville and the area around my house:

Brookville Thread

My House Thread

Wiki on Brookville

Brookville Life

Brookville Borough

Historic Brookville

[trinacriabob]

I'd rather live in a newer burb and have a modern 2500-3000 sq ft house than an old 1200 sq ft house that needs a lot of work

You're not kidding! I DETEST the older housing stock that people regentrify/refurbish. I LIKE the newer suburbs just fine, and always have.

[Robert Hall]

You're not kidding! I DETEST the older housing stock that people regentrify/refurbish. I LIKE the newer suburbs just fine, and always have.

Common things here is for people to do are 'poptops' (add a second floor to an older single story home) or a 'scrape'--tear down an old house and build a new one to fill the lot.

Maybe it has to do with the headaches I saw my parents deal with in owning a 150 yr old home, but I have no desire to deal with maintaining or updating an older house... one thing I do like about older neighborhoods, though, are the big trees...but the small garages I can do without. In the newer 'burbs I can get a house with a basement finished or unfinished that I can built a home theatre in, a 3 car garage, modern wiring, etc..

[PONTIAC06]

Lived in Laramie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramie%2C_Wyoming) for just under a year, and am moving into my new house friday...spent the first 18 years of my life in Rawlins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rawlins%2C_Wyoming) I never really liked Rawlins that much, but looking it up on the internet makes it seem a lot worse then it really is...I like Laramie quite a bit though.

Edited May 2, 2007 by PONTIAC06

[Ravenfreak13]

If you have ever heard of Levittown, then you know it was the first suburb. We are in the town next door. Built a year after Levittown was built, East Meadow was for people who wanted a better, most expensive version of the Levitt houses. They sold for $6995 in 49 and E. Meadow houses sold for $9995.

[balthazar]

As a general rule of thumb, a house's vintage is always a compromise. Newer homes of course have better insulation, better windows and higher capacity electrical & plumbing systems. Of course those things can always be added to older homes and the cost is not as great as you'd think.

What can't be added to newer homes is the better construction quality and quality of many materials. Older homes (here I'm talking late 1800s into the 1950s) are substantially better built, structurally. From the '60s thru today, construction quality has steadily gone downhill, ESP since the '80s. In the last 7 years I've observed construction on homes costing up to $4M, and most crews today are marginal craftsmen at best and surprisingly many are just clueless hacks. I've seen some sorry sh!t, let me tell you.

Thank God for increasingly stringent building codes or we'd be back in the 1700s.

[Nick]

Here

Yeah, nothing too interesting...

[trinacriabob]

As a general rule of thumb, a house's vintage is always a compromise. Newer homes of course have better insulation, better windows and higher capacity electrical & plumbing systems. Of course those things can always be added to older homes and the cost is not as great as you'd think.

What can't be added to newer homes is the better construction quality and quality of many materials. Older homes (here I'm talking late 1800s into the 1950s) are substantially better built, structurally. From the '60s thru today, construction quality has steadily gone downhill, ESP since the '80s. In the last 7 years I've observed construction on homes costing up to $4M, and most crews today are marginal craftsmen at best and surprisingly many are just clueless hacks. I've seen some sorry sh!t, let me tell you.

Thank God for increasingly stringent building codes or we'd be back in the 1700s.

Balthy has a penchant for older things, houses included. :AH-HA_wink: You make some good points. I remember driving around ATL when I first moved there and, in some of the intown neighborhoods, they have those ALL BRICK homes with the 12:12 (or higher) roof pitches, with dormers and all kinds of other projections, that are beautifully detailed and you think "Wow." In your area (I only know North Jersey around Teaneck), they would have those homes in Forest Hills - Queens or Jamaica Estates - Queens and they too hit the "Wow" factor.

However, they are frumpy on the inside. They smell musty. The amount of light let in is depressing. The house plan that "breathes better" and is more interesting is a more recent phenomenon. It used to be that room plan geometries were very rectilinear and formal, and I find that boring. And, unfortunately, that same formality is still sought in the Southeast, for example, and appears to thrive in New England as well as a "saltbox" colonial. In the West, the "5-4-and a door" colonial just would not sell. Here, the market demands real varied geometries, both on the outside of the house and in the rooms. (Interestingly enough, so does Florida, as I can see in the floor plans builders are doing down in that area).

Simply put, the idea is to get the craftsmanship of old with the conveniences of new. It creates a challenge either in lining up the subs to pull it off OR it makes for a very expensive house! What we are talking about can be found in new construction of houses that are on slopes overlooking Lake Tahoe but then, people who commission those homes could put dollar bills on their toilet paper rolls.

[deftonesfan867]

Funky Town

[knightfan26917]

Basically lived in Elgin IL all my life ... except for college (N Manchester IN) and a month in Nashville TN in 1996.

Elgin is growing ... almost TOO rapidly.... Pretty soon, it's going to take me a half hour to an hour just to get to my older 4 MCs in Plato Center ... which, when I first put the MCs out there, was a 15 minute drive ... TOPS.

Cort:33swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker

PICS:lego.HO.model.MCinfo.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"Don’t you knock on my door, I won’t be home anymore" ... Jennifer Warnes ... 'I Know A Heartache When I See One'

[2005 EquinoxLS]

I live in a city of about 12,000 people. Kaukauna Wisconsin to be exact. I have lived in the same house since November 5th 1978. I will be moving in August though because the city is tearing down our house which was built in 1901 to make a right turn lane(We live on a corner). Much as my parents and I like our 1901 house the one we are getting built will be MUCH nicer in a lot of ways. No hill, new electrical,2 bathrooms on the same floor and more good things.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Funky Town

Yeah I grew up near Funky Town! Plano, TexAss to be exact!

2005 EquinoxLS it's always nice to move into a new house. I have been thinking about moving across the state line into Chester County, PA. I want to be Camino's neighbor and park my FWD cars where he can see them!

[deftonesfan867]

Yeah I grew up near Funky Town! Plano, TexAss to be exact!

Yeah well, your wife likes my ass :AH-HA_wink:

And you lived near Denton....something about that place just.....*shivers*

[Oracle of Delphi]

Yeah well, your wife likes my ass :AH-HA_wink:

And you lived near Denton....something about that place just.....*shivers*

She's near sighted, she said she thought that was your face. :AH-HA_wink:

Hey Plano is not Denton. Just ask Ross Perot.

[deftonesfan867]

She's near sighted, she said she thought that was your face. :AH-HA_wink:

Hey Plano is not Denton. Just ask Ross Perot.

She knows my face, beard and all, which has grown back :AH-HA_wink:

You mean Plano equals far north Dallas just as some of Fort Worth is in Denton County?

Edited May 2, 2007 by deftonesfan867

[Oracle of Delphi]

She knows my face, beard and all, which has grown back :AH-HA_wink:

You mean Plano equals far north Dallas just as some of Fort Worth is in Denton County?

Are you copying me? Did you shave your beard off too and now letting it grow back?

Stop picking on Plano, EDS, JCPenny and Frito Lay are headquarted there.

[deftonesfan867]

Are you copying me? Did you shave your beard off too and now letting it grow back?

Stop picking on Plano, EDS, JCPenny and Frito Lay are headquarted there.

I know which companies have headquarters in Plano, I was just razzing ya. And you know I didn't copy you, mine was all shaved off before your's was.

[Satty]

My area is full of dumb rednecks who set up meth labs in their ratty old double wides.

[Oracle of Delphi]

My area is full of dumb rednecks who set up meth labs in their ratty old double wides.

Hey watch it now, I'm kinda like a redneck, from 10 - 20 years old, I grew up in TexASS.

[deftonesfan867]

Hey watch it now, I'm kinda like a redneck, from 10 - 20 years old, I grew up in Texas.

Fixed it for you, calling it TexASS when you've told me you miss this area seems kinda odd, plus you're not even close to being a redneck, Plano isn't small.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Fixed it for you, calling it TexASS when you've told me you miss this area seems kinda odd, plus you're not even close to being a redneck, Plano isn't small.

I like to call it TexAss. I do miss it. Plano is not Dallas, so compared to that it's Redneck, Rich Redneck, but Redneck all the same.

[Robert Hall]

I like to call it TexAss. I do miss it. Plano is not Dallas, so compared to that it's Redneck, Rich Redneck, but Redneck all the same.

I've never cared for Texas much myself..I had a job interview and offer in Addison (Dallas suburb) a few years ago, and it seemed ok enough, but I really didn't care for the flat terrain and the red state reputation...i.e. it seemed to me that moving there from Colorado would be a step down for me.

I have been to Austin a couple of times, though, and I liked it there..seemed very different from my image of Texas...

[trinacriabob]

I have been to Austin a couple of times, though, and I liked it there..seemed very different from my image of Texas...

It's Texas's Berkeley!

When my cousin came over from Italy in 2002 and we were sightseeing around San Francisco, I told her: "OK, we're going to get on a BART train and ride it to the other side of the Bay for about 20 minutes...there's something I want you to see."

Put it this way, the word "granola" has now become part of her vocabulary.

[Robert Hall]

It's Texas's Berkeley!

When my cousin came over from Italy in 2002 and we were sightseeing around San Francisco, I told her: "OK, we're going to get on a BART train and ride it to the other side of the Bay for about 20 minutes...there's something I want you to see."

Put it this way, the word "granola" has now become part of her vocabulary.

Yeah, Boulder is like that also...very much Berkeley-esque. But to offset the granolas, it has a lot of techies and techuppies, so I fit in well when I go up there...

[deftonesfan867]

I've never cared for Texas much myself..I had a job interview and offer in Addison (Dallas suburb) a few years ago, and it seemed ok enough, but I really didn't care for the flat terrain and the red state reputation...i.e. it seemed to me that moving there from Colorado would be a step down for me.

I have been to Austin a couple of times, though, and I liked it there..seemed very different from my image of Texas...

You gotta understand that Addison is towards east Texas (pine trees and swamps) and Austin is in the Texas hill country. No two major cities in this state look the same. I'm only 32 miles west of Dallas and its amazing how the scenery changes when you go this way. We have 5 different geographical regions. Plus Dallas isn't all that great, but most Texans think that way :AH-HA_wink:

[Robert Hall]

You gotta understand that Addison is towards east Texas (pine trees and swamps) and Austin is in the Texas hill country. No two major cities in this state look the same. I'm only 32 miles west of Dallas and its amazing how the scenery changes when you go this way. We have 5 different geographical regions. Plus Dallas isn't all that great, but most Texans think that way :AH-HA_wink:

True..it is such a huge state, lots of geography.. I remember as a kid with my folks driving across Texas from Arkansas to New Mexico in our motorhome....seemed to take forever (2+ days, IIRC).

[Farkas]

Loudon, New Hampshire

The only reason people know of us:

[AxelTheRed]

Swartz Creek is just a little kind-of farm town southwest of Flint. Its small, quiet and nice...just a little over 5,000 people

I don't live in the city though, I live in the area between Swartz Creek and Flint, just about a mile away from both.

[trinacriabob]

My area is full of dumb rednecks who set up meth labs in their ratty old double wides.

You're not kidding...I read that, benign as the Ozarks are supposed to be, that part of the country has a bunch of meth labs tucked away in wooded nooks and crannies and that rangers/wardens unexpectedly run into trouble when they stumble upon them while actually looking for altogether different things (hunters, poachers, whatever)...

...inspiring reading while sitting there in the dentist's waiting lounge...

[Oracle of Delphi]

Swartz Creek is just a little kind-of farm town southwest of Flint. Its small, quiet and nice...just a little over 5,000 people

I don't live in the city though, I live in the area between Swartz Creek and Flint, just about a mile away from both.

I know it well. I've flown in and out of Bishop International Airport enough times, and GM's (Service Parts Operations) hates to see me darken their door. They like me about as much as Holden does! I feel the love.

Edited May 3, 2007 by Pontiac Custom-S

[Enzora]

Home: Dunn, North Carolina, your basic rural southern town. A very conservative atmosphere, where religion is a very important aspect of life (I would pass 8 churches every day on my way to school, and that was just on the main road) big domestic trucks are everywhere, and Bush/Cheney bumper stickers abound.

College: Chapel Hill, baby! Your archetypal college town, with a healthy blend of rich WASPs, unbathed hippies living in their communes in neighboring Carrboro, and the poor labor force. Orange County has the highest level of inequality of any county in North Carolina. The atmosphere is definitely liberal, with a bizarre number of Dennis Kucinich bumper stickers on people's mostly foreign cars.

Honestly, after spending months away at college, it can be quite a culture shock going home. But I've really come to appreciate it, as it gives me a much broader perspective than many of my peers, who have been liberal for their whole lives.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Oh I know where Dunn is my brother lives in Erwin, NC.

[NOS2006]

Flint, MI. Very depressing.

[Enzora]

Oh I know where Dunn is my brother lives in Erwin, NC.

Really? What brought your brother down to my neck of the woods? (for that matter, what the hell does that phrase mean?)

[Oracle of Delphi]

Really? What brought your brother down to my neck of the woods? (for that matter, what the hell does that phrase mean?)

He teaches at a CIA facility on base at Ft. Bragg.

[trinacriabob]

He teaches at a CIA facility on base at Ft. Bragg.

Yo, P-C-S, is that your brother in your Av...or is it you? :AH-HA_wink: What, do your folks have kids scattered everywhere...how many?

[Oracle of Delphi]

Yo, P-C-S, is that your brother in your Av...or is it you? :AH-HA_wink: What, do your folks have kids scattered everywhere...how many?

Thats me in the avatar! :AH-HA_wink: My youngest brother is the one in North Carolina, he's 27, he will be 28 in September. He's the baby in my family.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Where I'm originally from: (They are the same place, the community surrounds the town)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swannanoa%2C_North_Carolina

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountai..._North_Carolina

http://www.blackmountain.org/

This is, of course, right next trAsheville NC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheville

I now reside here for most of the year (And hate every second of it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte

More specifically; University City. (Scroll down)

But next year I'm moving to NoDa or Plaza/Midwood

Edited May 3, 2007 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[sciguy_0504]

Bucks County, PA:

Typical suburban but the area I live in is "old" suburban, not your typical cookie-cutter McMansions. They're about 15 minutes away. The homes in the immediate area (and the home I live in) were used to house workers and executives for U.S. Steel. They were built in the 50's, I believe. I live about 2 minutes away from the PA Levittown. Philadelphia is about a 30-45 minute drive south (it depends whether or not you actually drive 95MPH on I-95) and Trenton, NJ is about 10-15 minutes north.

Overall, a nice area. Quiet but with enough things to keep you busy. Low crime rate, good schools, nice neighbors. Traffic can be a pain but it's the suburbs.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Home: Dunn, North Carolina, your basic rural southern town.

Hey, that's where my traffic light came from! LOL.

Honestly, after spending months away at college, it can be quite a culture shock going home. But I've really come to appreciate it, as it gives me a much broader perspective than many of my peers, who have been liberal for their whole lives.

I agree 100%, as that is my situation exactly. UNCC and Charlotte in general isn't that liberal, but most of my friends are from my and my girlfriends UBER LIBERAL majors.

[Enzora]

Hey, that's where my traffic light came from! LOL.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

LOL.

I took up the hobby of collecting old traffic lights last year as I also collect old signs and anything automobilia related. The first one I bought spent it's life in Dunn NC before becoming a permanent fixture of my apartment here at school. It's just a standard NC 12 inch.

I know, it's a weird tangent, but consider the source.

Edited May 7, 2007 by FUTURE_OF_GM