Wednesday, June 18, 2008

There's a Lot of Revitalization Right On Our Street!

So I've been slowly turning my attention from my own plot of land in Laurelhurst. Picking up my head now that I won't get rain in my eyes, to fully realize just how much neighborhood revitalization is happening right here on our block.

Now, naturally, we're a part of it. A pretty big part, if I can say so about myself. But we're not the largest rehab undertaken on our block in the nine months we've been here.

The house next door sold, and is under a slow-but-steady update. Paint, attention to the landscaping, etc. No kids, but that could change any time./

A house on Oak Street, behind us but sharing the alley, has been gutted. The one-story thatched-roof style bungalow is being turned into a two-story modern-interior home that maintains the same Laurelhurst character on the outside. They gutted the whole inside, stripped the outside to the cladding, demolished the garage and completely obliterated the backyard. It'll be nice when they're done, but its currently  a full-scale construction project. One has to expect that this house is being expanded so as to accomodate a family with children.

Two doors down to the east, a house with the same original floorplan as ours has sold, for the same price we paid for ours last year. Its a good house, but needs about $100-$150 in updates to match ours. It's self-evident that anyone buying that house intends to tackle the rehab. Want to bet the family has children?

One house over to the west, a family has been steadily polishing their bungalow to a high degree of detailed finish for the last five years or so. They're no longer the rehab leaders in the neighborhood, but I sense that they're actually done with their work. Their house is restored; just in time to have other houses all around them go into restoration mode as well. This family has children.

That's really quite a lot of activity, isn't it? People want to be in this place. People want their children to be in this place, too. The new population is more youthful - 40's and younger. The old generation is moving/dying, and being replaced by the next wave, bringing kids back to the neighborhood. We're not alone. In fact, we're helping create the momentum. I'm certain that the people who just bought the fixer-upper looked at us to get a glipmse of what theirs could become. That's a good thing.

Not a major-scale epiphany here, but something that is slowly becoming crystal clear to me as I have the bandwidth to look around me once again.

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