$650K in Seattle will get you this: [link]
Not my neighborhood, but the one I'd buy in if cost were no object.
Here's a house similar though not identical to our rental, not too far from here: [link]
People who read Bitches will know that we've made tentative plans to buy this house directly from our landlord. It'll only work out if we can get a discount from him based on our long residence and the fact this place is a serious fixer-upper (needs a new roof, an earthquake retrofit, major work in the bathroom, etc. etc. etc.)
Susan, are you going to let him mention a price, first?
A condo is what you shop for when a house is really out of your price range.
Or if you hate the fuck out of yard work enough.
I don't know. When DH talked to him last night, we left everything very general--we want to take a few months to get our finances in order, get the place inspected, get an idea of what kind of repairs we'd need to do immediately. The landlord said that was fine, just let him know when we were ready.
Huh. I think I was parked in front of this house
[link]
last weekend.
It's kinda freakish how the web helps my memory. And I don't mean google -- that's external storage. I mean the process of framing a google query or a question here often answers it ... "What's the word for landscaping with native pants in dry clima...right. Xeriscaping. Cool."
Is anyone familiar with xeriscaping? I'm assuming you end up with a more low-maintenance yard, because watering's not a big deal. But do you tend to end up with a garden (full of plants, but nowhere to lounge) instead of usable space?
$650K 20 miles west of DC.
I think I was parked in front of this house [link] last weekend.
75K and no visible boarded-up windows? What's wrong with it? Because the Baltimore plan could easily get moved up by a coupla years....
This listing includes a "lobster temple": [link]
Intriguing.
How are you defining usable space, ita? A place where you can put a couple of lounge chairs and a table? A place where you can toss the frisbee around with the dog?
Xeriscaping tends to vary depending on where you are, because the plants that do well vary depending on where you are. The immaculate green lawn look doesn't do well in a lot of xeriscaped areas because it really requires a combination of water and sunlight that isn't all that common. But you can put down non-turf ground cover that may be quite usable, depending on your needs.
