GTKY: My Neck of the Woods

[lennonkdc]

Since everyone seemed to like last weeks GTKY I thought I'd post one again this week.

This week, let's talk about hometowns

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town?

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt?

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst?

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? 

5. How did you end up there? 

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? 

[lennonkdc]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? H and I live in a very bustling suburb just outside of a big city, so we have a busy main drags, and quiet residential streets. The city was laid out and developed in a grid 100 yrs ago to be a bedroom community, and the main drags used to be streetcar lines

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? We live in a 102 year old house, its a bit of a fixer upper, but I love it

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? The best thing is that it feels like a small town, despite having the highest pop density in the state. We have parades, block parties, movies in the park and a great beach (we're right on Lake Erie). The worst is that there's a large stock of rental housing. Its leads to a lot of transient housing, and slum landlords.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? To the end of the block (about 1/4 mile), there's a United Dairy Farmers.

5. How did you end up there? I grew up in the area (one city over) and H has lived here since he was 5. We both liked the town, and decided to stay

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? I'd love to live Chesapeake Bay area, or maybe Charleston, SC. I'd need to be near the water, I love the beach and sailing too much.

[Deleted]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? small suburb North of Atlanta

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? House

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? small town feel, relative low cost housing as we are in between 2 very high cost zipcodes so we have nice restaurants/shops very close and good/competitive public schools but low real estate, the worst is the fact that we are the 'los cost zip"... and I live in the city limits so higher taxes than unincorporated/outside the city

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? 5 minutes, 2 miles

5. How did you end up there? Specificaly, this house was the ONly freaking house almost worth buying that I could afford at the time. It is ok and suits us short term but the countdown is on for sale. 5 years, once my 12 yr old graduates its list time.  Otherwise I have never lived outside of metro-Atlanta.  I've lived in 3 counties, 7 cities but all within a 45 minute/35mile radius

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? Not if I had to, if $ were improved and/or in 5 yrs we will move further outside the suburbs, I wish to go rural with a little acreage and small home. Now, if $ were way changed then the answer would remain the same but also a second property would be purchased in Florida
edit spelling and to add

[vh2014]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? Started out as a sleepy small town but no more....

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? House

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? All the people that still know each other... and that's the best and the worst. It's awesome to have them but it also means everyone knows everything.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? Less than a mile.

5. How did you end up there? Born and raised here... and my family has been here FOREVER.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? Someplace tropical or warm... after winning te lottery.

[wirt2cute]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? It's not really a big city or a small town. I would say it is in-between.

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? I bought my house a few months after my divorce was final.

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? The best part is that my whole family is here (moms side). We are such a close family so I love that we are all in the same area. The worst part is the crime. We are number 10 on the most dangerous cities list for 2015. It just breaks my heart to see where our city used to be and what it is now. We are such short staffed when it comes to our police department.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? I live 2 minutes from the Wal-Mart and Kroger.

5. How did you end up there? I have lived here all my life. I moved away when I went to college, and moved overseas when I got married to my first husband.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? H and I talked about possible moving to Nashville or Houston, but for his job if we moved anywhere he would have to start out as a rookie again. Maybe once our kids are grown and out on their own we could move to a house on the lake.

[wirt2cute]

lennonkdc, 102 year old house, wow! If those walls could talk.

@kellbell, H's dad lives in Atlanta or a suburb outside of Atlanta. We are supposed to be going to visit in July.

vh2014, I am born, bred, and raised in my area as well. It just feels like home and when I go to other places it never feels the same.

[vh2014]

wirt2cute, The funny thing is my town is NOTHING like it was when I was growing up. DH is from another state and we've gone back to his hometown and he points things out. It's a little different, but still small town. I tell him all the time, at least you can go back to where you grew up... where I grew up doesn't exist anymore. We live here but I grew up in a small town. It feels like a suburb of a majoy city now.

[agpjt413]

May 29, 2015 8:50:24 GMT -5 wirt2cute said:

lennonkdc, 102 year old house, wow! If those walls could talk.

@kellbell, H's dad lives in Atlanta or a suburb outside of Atlanta. We are supposed to be going to visit in July.

vh2014, I am born, bred, and raised in my area as well. It just feels like home and when I go to other places it never feels the same.

I was thinking the same re: lennonkdc's house!!! We would love to live in something with so much history!!

[wirt2cute]

vh2014, that makes me sad about your town. I know things have to change with the times, but I like when things are still the same, just a little bit. It gives me comfort.

[agpjt413]

So much fun, lennonkdc!! I no longer live in my hometown - transplanted to H's hometown, but I'm going to share the fun facts of my hometown b/c I do miss it!

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? It's a suburb...three miles from the DC border on the MD side.

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? Lived in a house then a loft before we got married. Now living in H's childhood home that's nearing 50 years old (so young compared to lennonkdc's fixer upper - and super jealous of that!!)

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? (to clarify, the following is about where I used to live) Everything! The convenience to so many different restaurants, stores, museums, etc and as much as many people like it, the Metro. The worst: congestion, traffic

H's hometown is close-knit and used to be sleepy but getting busier. I do love the small town feel here. The Worstt: probably lack of convenience of what bigger cities have to offer.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? A quarter mile up the road at a quick stop convenience store. Or go another quarter mile there's an actual grocery store

5. How did you end up there? For my hometown, I was born and bred right off of 495 on Ga. Ave in Silver Spring Relocated to H's hometown b/c of his job and his mom was sick at the time.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? Probably some place more spacious, serene and bucolic. We constantly talk about living on a farm some where...with a century old farm house!

[tiresiastheblond]

lennonkdc, thanks for the GTKY!

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? It's Chicago. We live on the outskirts, though, just barely in the city limits.

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? House. We moved in recently, and it's a bit of a work in progress

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? The best thing about the city? The diversity, the neighborhoods, the lake... The best thing about our neighborhood is the great public school, the parks, and the library. Plus, we're actually getting to know our neighbors, which wasn't really a thing (that we saw, anyway) in the other parts of the city we've lived in. The worst thing is the commute, but unless I go at peak rush hour, it's not that bad.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? 1/4 mile?

5. How did you end up there? Chicago? I moved there a long time ago, after grad school, to find a job. Neither DH nor I are originally from the Midwest. Our neighborhood? It was finally time to buy a house, and we needed to do that somewhere that was affordable but still had good schools.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? I'd like to be closer to my parents. I'm feeling homesick these days.

[lennonkdc]

May 29, 2015 8:53:03 GMT -5 agpjt413 said:

May 29, 2015 8:50:24 GMT -5 wirt2cute said:

lennonkdc, 102 year old house, wow! If those walls could talk.

@kellbell, H's dad lives in Atlanta or a suburb outside of Atlanta. We are supposed to be going to visit in July.

vh2014, I am born, bred, and raised in my area as well. It just feels like home and when I go to other places it never feels the same.

I was thinking the same re: lennonkdc's house!!! We would love to live in something with so much history!!

It's pretty awesome to live in house so old, especially when I think how much the world has changed. Watching shows set in the 1910's and thinking about the society then really makes it all seem real. There are downsides too- almost nothing is level or square, the bathroom is tiny, and 'storage' obviously wasn't a concern back then lol. Plus, we're contending with 100+ years of 'handy husbands' who totally knew what they were doing... There's a lot "Who the F does that??" in old home ownership.

[wannabmama]

Thanks lennonkdc these are fun!

So I've lived a million places...I'll answer this based on current hometown.

1. I live in a suburb outside a big city. It's a nice size town but doesn't have a lot of character.

2. House. My first house that I bought it all by myself, pre-DH.

3. Best thing is I could afford to buy a house here with a yard for the dogs and it's somewhat reasonable access to work (barely) and my horse.

4. There's a little mart about 1/4 mi down the street (I usually buy wine there, not milk, ha! but they have milk, I think...)

5. I was in a weird place in my life and that big tax credit for first time buyers was expiring and I had this weird thing where I drove by this house on the way home (at the time I was living in the city) from the barn and it just stood out to me for some reason. Low and behold a couple weeks later I drove by and there was a for sale sign. I moved in just over 2 mo later! The actual choice of town was a little random.

6. I'd either move to St. John or somewhere else tropical (coast of CA would do) or to a huge horse farm (/winery?) in VA. I love the beach but I also love my animals and want a big farm and the horse country in VA is so gorgeous. I'd be happy with either

[agpjt413]

LOL!!! wannabmama re: "There's a little mart about 1/4 mi down the street (I usually buy wine there, not milk, ha! but they have milk, I think...)"

[momtex]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? Big bustling city!

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? Someone please tell me what a Yurt is. I'm curious! We own our house. 1960s ranch.

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? Access to practically anything we could want/need/imagine. People would probably say the worst thing about Houston is the heat and traffic. We are fortunate that neither of has a long commute to work.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? A couple of blocks to the corner store.

5. How did you end up there? I've lived within a 2 hour radius my whole life. Went to college in a small town, hated it, moved to the big city for my first "big girl" job. I lived in a suburb when first moving here but DH lived in the city when we met so that's where we settled.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? You'd have to drag me out of Texas kicking and screaming. If we had to move, it would have to be to another large city. I grew up in a small town and it's not for me.

[PepperPottsJ]

Thank you for starting lennonkdc

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? Bustling teeny tiny city looking at NYC

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? Apartment

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? It's such a diverse little city, and convenient to almost everything, I also love that no one is all up in your business, other than 1 neighbor, such respect for privacy. The worst is that we have some annoying reality TV touristy things that drive me nuts

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? Hop skip and a jump, the coffee shop in our complex has milk

5. How did you end up there? MH's rent was 1/2 of mine and 2x the square footage

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? Either Napa (where we got engaged, married and love to vaca) or Charleston bc I love the southern charm and history

[summergirl1211]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? Smallish suburb on the edge of the Twin Cities. We're likely moving by next summer though, to a suburb nearby.

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? house (I am also confused on what a Yurt is???)

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? There isn't much crime and it's pretty quiet. I just wish it had a better school district and was closer to amazing restaurants and events.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? Less than a mile. Thank goodness for Kwik Trip!

5. How did you end up there? It's within a reasonable distance of my work, which has been the most consistent job between my H and I. We're way out on the edge of the 'burbs though because we got more bang for our buck!

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? Somewhere warm, for sure. Maybe Hawaii, if I had enough money to fly back to the mainland or bring family/friends over, whenever I wanted.

[PepperPottsJ]

lennonkdc love that it's 102 years old, that's my dream and keep trying to talk MH into buying one of the old houses buy us!
wannabmama so cool that you purchased it all on your own

[PepperPottsJ]

Had to look it up wannabmama, momtex and summergirl1211
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt

[Deleted]

ya'll a yurt! Awesome for camping! Love the fancy ones

http://i60.*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!/2w2q9l3.jpg[/

[wirt2cute]

PepperPottsJ thank you because I had no idea what a Yurt was either.

[Deleted]

opps fancy one!

[wirt2cute]

@kellbell, that is really pretty, that looks like an awesome vacation spot.

[Deleted]

I haven't used one but for Easter my family all met at a State Park, one of the couples stayed in the yurt there. They loved it. Only issue is no bathroom so only good for a short visit. (They had to use the bathhouse with the primitive campers).

[lennonkdc]

yurts look awesome, I would totally go glamping in a yurt lol

[boobacat]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? Busy suburb of Detroit

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? Old house

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? Best- the downtown isn't far and it's full of restaurants, nice shopping, but still small town feel. Worst- people in this neighborhood seem to be poor drivers.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? Two blocks

5. How did you end up there? I took a teaching job nearby

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? Someday we might move to the Carolinas or get a winter place there for milder winters and DH loooooves golf.

[mazzola23]

Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? It's a really large suburb- a lot of developments

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? We have a twenty year old colonial

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? It's so affordable to live here, close to stores, a great park, close to several highways. The worst is some times of day certain roads can be so annoying to drive on and lots of snow in the winter.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out of milk this morning? A five minute drive to the grocery store.

5. How did you end up there? When we were looking to move we stumbled on this house when we opened up our search a bit more. We didn't plan on it being our forever house because DH's brother who was mentally ill was going to eventually live with us. However, he died a couple months ago so now this house if perfectly big for us and hopefully two kids. I grew up in this town, so I really feel at home here.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? DH would prefer to be closer to his hometown about 20 minutes away. There are also a couple other really nice towns with beautiful houses that we like, but as I said in previous question there is really no reason to move. We had just refinanced before BIL died to a 12 year mortgage, so the idea of being mortgage free in 12 years is really great.

[femshep]

Fun!

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? A bustling suburb of Boston, just a few miles from the border.

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? House.

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? It's convenient, but the traffic-ugh. And this winter was the worst. Literally, the worst, since records have been kept.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? About a quarter of a mile.

5. How did you end up there? Moved to the area for work, two jobs ago. My ex and I share custody of our oldest, so we're all stuck here for another 8 years until she graduates.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? As soon as those 8 years are up, DH, DD2, and I are heading to Seattle!

[jess9802]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? I currently live in a college town of about 150,000 people.

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? House.

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? Best: it's just the right size, with great stores, arts venues, it's an hour from the Coast and the mountains, traffic is easy. Worst: This time of year, grass pollen. City politics and planning are ridiculous at times.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? About a mile.

5. How did you end up there? I moved here to attend law school back in 2002 and never left.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? Seattle - close to the rest of my extended family.

[rnmommy]

1. Is it a big bustling city or a sleepy small town? We live in the state capital, so pretty bustling city.

2. What do you live House? Apartment? Yurt? We live in a late 1940s house.

3. What's the best thing about your hometown? What's the worst? We're close to everything - 2 hours from snow, redwoods, ocean, San Francisco... We can't get much land where we are.

4. How far would you have to go if you ran out milk this morning? The grocery store is maybe 3 minutes away, but there's a liquor store in our neighborhood that may carry it.

5. How did you end up there? My husband and I were both born at the same hospital, which is blocks from where we live. I've always lived in this county and although he lived elsewhere for a while, his job is here, so he came back.

6. If you had to move, where would you go and why? That's hard for us because we love the California climate. We've talked about Hawaii a lot, although neither one of us wants to sell t-shirts or wait tables. Does Hawaii even need bridge engineers or nurses? We've also talked about Oregon or parts of Washington. We would *not* move to the South - too humid.