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Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
Looking at real estate ads earlier today, I viewed a listing of a one-owner 1959 house in Bellevue, and the listing featured period pics with a couple of not the most common cars. I thought these were kind of neat:
Only one modern day exterior pic was in the listing:
And none of the interior, as it was being advertised as a gut reno or a teardown. Good but not the trendiest neighborhood, maybe a difficult lot, it can be yours for roughly a cool million even (and could be asking for a bidding war at that).
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
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Around here, I was never a fan of houses on lots that were lower than the street. I always wondered about drainage. That might be all for naught though.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
With all that asphalt sloping downhill towards the house I do wonder about drainage.
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I also avoided houses that were too high up on a hill, with steep driveways that looked like they'd be a ton of fun in snow and ice.
I hate the driveway, though.
For one, there's no checking any automotive fluids on it. Secondly, in 2008, six weeks after I bought my new Cobalt, I was trying to listen for an exhaust rattle in my '63 Lark Daytona Skytop, in drive, with the parking brake on--which I'd done a handful of times before--and I watched it roll down the driveway into the side of my Cobalt. A few thousand damage to the Cobalt (both doors on the left side), but really only damaged the right front corner of the bumper on the Lark and bright metal headlight surround, and a smallish crease on the body-colored grille and headlight surround. The body shop took care of that, and the bumper corner and bright headlight surround I bought NOS very cheaply and had the shop install. They actually did better work on the Stude than my Cobalt.
I took it back for their guessing where to put the little square "GM" emblem. It was half an inch off from the other side. I hate when people think "Ah, no one will notice", and I noticed it instantly after my wife had brought it home.
My girls were 11 and 14, and their cousin, 13, were out front at the time of the mishap, as was my wife. I began to swear and my wife said to the kids, "Everybody in the house!".
Regarding drainage, on that house and many others like it in the area, the house sits lower than the street, and also on a hillside. Something I'd worry about would be landslides after heavy rain events, or the weird hypothetical, an earthquake after a heavy rain event, with massive landslides everywhere.
Bellevue boomed in the 50s and 60s, there are entire neighborhoods of mid century houses, many still intact, but some being lost to time and updates. There's also little in the way of a preservation movement, so architecturally significant houses are still being razed or gutted - the survivor houses are labors of love for their owners. I like the mid century stuff too, but really, I like preserved houses from many eras. I am now in a part of town with a ton of development from 1900-1940 or so, there fairly intact streets of craftsman bungalows, brick tudors, all of the interwar revival styles, etc all over the place. I'm amazed to see many original windows in a place with this climate, too. Some specific areas are a bit ritzy, and I imagine maintaining some of these big old houses is a neverending job,
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The C-pillar on the 2-door wagon is also really thin, looking like it doesn't really serve much structural support, but rather just something to separate the middle and rear windows.
This contradicts my love of underdogs, but I still like '55 Chevys, and '56's too, quite a bit.
Lot of house for little money, but looking at the pics on Realtor.com I can’t help but think of Tom Hanks in The Money Pit. I could see that place crumbling before my eyes at anything you touch.
2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Ram 1500 Bighorn, Built to Serve
2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech, 2006 Acura TL w/nav
Still need to do more digging into COL (mostly taxes on pension and SS) since that makes a huge difference on picking a retirement place. Housing costs and property taxes, that is easy to figure out.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
It was built in 1890 according to the Zillow entry but the pictures show a very odd structure. The front that you see from the street is very shallow, with a small vintage-looking 2-storey addition behind it and another later 1-storey addition behind that. The photos show the beauty salon part with drop ceilings and everything else that would need removal. No photos of the kitchen I could find. The foundation appears to be stone and of course looks damp. There is an apparently decommissioned oil or gas-fired hot air furnace down there. The heat pump or AC unit outside is dated 2006. Electrical looks newer. Bring your checkbook.
Looking at real estate in Greenville, it would be hard to make a business case for doing extensive renos on any house there since property values seem ridiculously low. Of course if you're buying for yourself to live there long-term that doesn't matter as much. You'd probably have to treat such things as expenses more than an investment, though I can't believe those values will stay that low forever.
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2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/391-S-Main-St-Greenville-PA-16125/78715347_zpid/?mmlb=g,1
My Dad worked at the post office, which was built in the early thirties. The USPS was going to build a new one but people got the existing one on the Historic Registry I think, and the USPS acquiesced. A guy on NPR a decade ago or so was a post-office hobbyist (I told my wife, "And you think collecting Studebaker stuff is weird!") and called this post office "the most beautiful of any of the 1,300 in the U.S. I've visited".
It is grand, for a town of probably about 5,500 people--although it serves the surrounding rural townships too.
https://blog.evankalish.com/2010/10/beautiful-post-office-greenville-pa.html
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Although we're supposed to get pounded with snow today and tomorrow, my plan is to go there Friday and put a wreath on my parents' graves and maybe swing into the little hardware store downtown and buy a case of furnace filters--I absolutely can't find the size here, and I like that little shop. Of course, I'm supposed to quarantine upon return, sigh. Yeah right. I don't think I'll pick anything up from anybody up at Shenango Valley Cemetery, LOL.
And the price, even at Spokane levels, it is insanely cheap. Of course, this metro area is over 500K people, so not apples to apples.
The small town my mom lives in most of the year, has a 30s era post office - maybe a little later, it is that kind of neoclassic modern style that I'd joke would have looked current in late 30s Berlin. IIRC the city hall is a similar style, must have got some WPA money.
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Davidsonville/2907-S-Lake-Dr-21035/home/10071344
The listing doesn't show it, but I remember looking it up a few years ago, I think on Maryland's property tax database, and it showed that it had originally sold for around $399K when it was brand new, in 1989. Well, just to keep up with inflation, it would have to sell for around $838K today. I remember when I looked at it, around April 2016, they were asking something like $795K. It finally sold, in May of 2017, for $680K.
It was a nice house, but up on top of a pretty steep hill, and it had a driveway shared with two other houses. In icy weather, I could almost see having to park down on the street and walk up to it, which isn't exactly safe, either. It had a large 2-car garage, but because of the slope, and all the trees and such, I think building any extra garage space would have been very expensive.
I think a lot of "luxury real estate" here in Maryland (at least this part of it) tends to fall victim of price drops as it ages. There's always going to be a big demand for starter homes, which helps fuel their prices. But with luxury homes, it seems like every time a new neighborhood gets built, it overshadows the old one. And a lot of those big, older houses sort of become albatrosses.
I also remember looking at a few that had sold for $700K and more, back around 2005 or so, but were advertised for less than that once I looked at them, and ended up selling in the low $500K range. Heck, even the house I posted above sold for around $850K back in 2005, when people thought the prosperity would go on forever.
The difference for us is that she's the one who wants to be there! But me? I'm pretty easy going, so if she feels strongly about it and I don't, then it's a 'yes.'
I think most surviving post offices in WA now are either from the New Deal era or the postwar boom. So you either get a seemingly oversized imposing neoclassic kind of thing, or a low modern single story building (always brick). Seems odd, the nearest post office (90s era building) where I used to live was on leased land - landowner didn't renew the lease, so it was knocked down and replaced by a hotel. Seemed wasteful. To relate to cars, that one was next door to a high end used car lot who had a MB CL63 AMG that they overpriced and was in inventory for literally a couple years - I think the owner was using it as his driver. The post office then relocated to a site I think was a Nissan dealership back in the day.
I promise this is the last pic I'll post from my hometown (no need to say 'Thanks!', LOL), and to get back on-topic, but here's the Presbyterian Church there...it's so wide across the front I don't think the whole thing can make one picture. I did not go here, but a longtime friend and classmate is currently the organist and Musical Director there, after living in FL for 35 or so years and retiring back with his wife (also from town).
Thinking of modern churches, I always liked the Mormon Temple in Bellevue - I could see this with a bunch of early/mid 60s cars in the driveway:
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Here is one walking distance from where I grew up.
Not totally dissimilar to the picture posted by Kyfdx.
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Same church, two views. Not as pretty as the first one.. lol
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Definitely not as pretty
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It’s been added on to and expanded in the last 20+ years, though.
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2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.