Question

[mstakenidentity]

Where do people want to live?

I've been thinking about where I'd like to live, work, raise a family etc. I've come to the conclusion that though my dream would be a double terrace in Story st Parkville it ain't gonna happen. I've come to another conclusion: I don't actually really mind where I live as long as I'm not too far from friends. The reason I like where I am now is that I am in the middle of Kate and Michael and Eva and Shayne and Sarah and Daniel and Helen and Lisa. I'm actually pretty sure they're all in a 2k radius of our place, or not much more at any rate.

So I'm interested, where do people want to live? Inner city? Out bush? East? Weat? North? Bayside? And what is your dream home like? I'll start:

My dream home is probably single story and detached, with a very small garden but a large park nearby. It has a reliable tram/bus. It is 3 bedrooms plus study or has room for a study nook, with 2 bathrooms or at least a separate bathroom and toilet. It is energy efficient. It gets a lot of natural light. The walls are thick so sound doesn't bleed from room to room. It has mainly wooden floors. It is close to something soothing like a river, beach or mountain (in the case of the Story St terrace the soothing thing would be PA's or the Corkman I guess). It is somewhere I could live for the rest of my life- I am so sick of moving house. I guess if I were given the choice it would be in: Parkville (hah!) carlton (hah!) East Brunswick, Brunswick, Seddon, Spotswood, Footscray, Marybinong, Yarraville, Kensington, Ascot Vale or Essendon.

What about you?

Comments

[melbournian.livejournal.com]

A double storey terrace house in Drummond Street.

More realistically what you described, though I still don't think I can afford any of those areas and am currently looking a little further north-east.

[sylver-spiders.livejournal.com]

My dreams conflict. I'm a country girl at heart, and love the space, silence and actual darkness at night. Yet I love having friends around, and being close to work. I like the inner city so I can walk everywhere. At this point I wouldn't want to live anywhere where I really need a car.

Currently, my goal is to one day own my own apartment, as inner-city as possible. Doesn't need to be huge, but enough to have my own space and fit the important things: Computer and Calligraphy desk, Loungeroom big enough for Wii-Fit, and a reasonable kitchen. Anything designed to be energy efficient is a huge bonus. And I'd love a balcony for growing plants.

I wish us all luck on our quests.

[melbournian.livejournal.com]

I'm still conflicting between the detatched house and garden, owning the land and have room to renovate and expand where I can be settled for years and maybe start a family, with something more efficient, smaller and closer.

The home seems more private, has more opportunity, more of an investment. A close apartment seems more realistic and matching to my needs and doesn't have a big travel time. What I need is a smaller, convenient place. What I want is the great Australian dream.

I know I should be looking at apartments close to the city but I am looking at houses further out. What I don't want to end up with is a place like Coburg North with rising damp, no privacy and no outside area at all.

There really seems to be a stark contrast between the detached house further out and the apartment right in the city.

[vass]

In the case of Story Street, you'd be near Royal Park. My parents live in Parkville, and they walk in Royal Park with the dogs every day.

I'd like to live in an apartment, not a house. A house is too much work. The body corporate would be OK with pets. I'm a little torn over whether it'd be ground floor or first floor. I really love being level with the treetops, but I'd like it to be disability-accessible too. Maybe first floor but with a lift. Near a river. Nice neighbours who keep to themselves. Enough soundproofing that I can sing. I would own it, not rent.

Western or northern suburbs. Footscray would be best - I like to live where it's diverse. Maribyrnong or Essendon or Yarraville would also be OK.

Three bedrooms. A balcony for plants. Since I'm dreaming, how about a gym in the block of flats? And the block of flats would be brick, and old enough that the architecture isn't all modern and 'interesting'. And I'd be able to afford to have someone come and clean for me. And a piano. Maybe a cello too - it'd be nice to pick it up again (I learned in high school.) Home LAN with a computer in every room. A comfy couch. A cat and a dog. Not too far from public transport. Near friends.

That's the realistic dream (well, realistic except for the money involved.) The unrealistic one is that I do what lilacsigil did and move way out in the country with a partner and be the only geeks in town, and do all my socialising and shopping over the internet. And have lovely sea air. But I know I couldn't cope with living that far from the city.

[joee-girl.livejournal.com]

If my parents ever decide to sell their house, I shall let you know
*lives in a house that pretty much satisfies your requirements*

[cows-might-fly.livejournal.com]

My dream home is very similar to yours, funnily enough, particularly in choice of location and proximity to friends. However, I would include North Melbourne in the list of suburbs and probably in my top three; I love the diversity of its population, its sense of community/communities, its wide streets and plentiful parks, interesting shops and cafe all within walking distance of the city (and the Queen Vic Market). Okay, sounding waaaay to much like a real estate agent,apologies to all and sundry. Point is I'm quite happy in my current suburb and certainly don't want to live too far out.

As far as the actual house goes, I can't see my self living in anything very modern and am probably doomed, like my mother to be renovating/maintaining an old house/houses all my live. I guess two-three bedroom, plus study/library. Open plan kitchen/dining/lounge. I've never lived in a two-story house, so I imagine it as one floor. It would have enough indoor and outdoor space for at least one dog and possibly (one day) kids. Also plenty of space for my kind of garden: a bit rambling with vegies, herbs as well as flowers and trees (including a lemon and possibly an orange/mandarin) and full of my own sculptures and mosaics. Oh and while we're dreaming, a studio for me to create messy, long-term projects in and another sound-proof one for Shayne and band members to practice in.

You know, with the exception of the sound-proof studio, I've pretty much described my mum's place. Mmmmmm.

Sorry to go on so.

[mstakenidentity.livejournal.com]

You could probably turn the little room out the back into a band room, and the yard is big enoough for a small studio... Now we just have to kill your mother!

[cows-might-fly.livejournal.com]

The little room out the back was going to be my studio, but I'll take a bigger one.

Any ideas of ways to put Mum out of the picture? Quick, painless ways, of course, after all she's treated me well over the years!

[lena-supercat.livejournal.com]

Where I want to live is precisely where I live right now, but to own the apartment, so we can do things like put in proper curtains, and double glazing. Apart from the windows, our current place is absolutely perfect as far as I'm concerned.

If we're talking about if-I-won-the-lottery dream houses, then I'd like to have an apartment in the CBD, like the one we live in now, as well as a house in the country, with a large garden to grow fruit and vegetables, to go to on weekends and for holidays. I like CBD and I like country, but I don't like the idea of living in the suburbs. Anywhere further than Carlton would be annoyingly far for me, unless it was far enough to be surrounded by farms.

Yes, I realise this is unrealistic, but the question did say "dream home"!

[vivienne-aster.livejournal.com]

This is a matter of much debate and confusion for us, and the problem is I also like wide open spaces and plants and clean air, while still wanting to be close to my people and having things to do at night. I love the country, the hills, and the sea. I love the city. I really don't like the suburbs, it seems to be the compromise that pleases nobody.

At the moment I think I might finally have convinced my dad that I am not going to move to Warragul, ever.

My dream home would be probably something like Eva's Mum's place too...

The problem is we like places like Fitzroy and North Melbourne and these are expensive places to live. Places with little cafes nearby and areas to walk dogs in and parks and trees that seem to be a perfect compromise. Who can afford anything ever?

I think we're going to find out where we want to live when we start seriously looking and start to get realistic about prices and income. I think it's an awesome coincidence that we've all ended up in the same general area, but I also expect that we're going to disperse a bit and it will be a bit of a bumming experience.

But yes, in summary, I do love my inner city suburbs (they're not real suburbs, so they're okay). Little houses with decent yards *do* exist. They're just crushingly expensive...

I do want a house and a yard. There will be a dog. Michael has expressed an interest in gardening.

[mihalis-aya.livejournal.com]

I am very much a city person. I would gladly live in a tiny apartment (my current apartment is about 17sqm and I love it) above a cafe, a two bedroom with a study and a kitchen as the biggest room. Wood or tile floors. I love Carlton, Brunswick, and Fitzroy, and really like the terraced houses, too, but a single story would be necessary for us realistically.

I want to be as close to the inner city as we can afford, up to and inclduing the CBD, and right on a tram line. Kit hates busses and trains, and I greatly prefer to take public transport whenever possible, so we a tram line is important. A single story, separate house with a small garden for Kit (and me to try not to kill by existing), with lots of natural light. Being able to compost is important to me, so having a garden is incidental to that. Two or three bedrooms, and one and a half or two bathrooms. I need to have a space that I can go when I'm feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated, so a loft space would be nice--I have a fascination with bookshelves built into staircases, and lofting coming off of that, but I don't think I have those skills. Finding a house with that would be a clear sign it was My House.

If we could have an apartment in the CBD, all interior thoughts apply, but I'm willing to lose the garden as long as there's a lift for Kit to get up to the apartment itself.

[impostinator.livejournal.com]

I think it would need to be a house, or at least a rather large flat - I have too many hobbies/interests/obsessions that take up a lot of space... And I hate being cramped. I'd rather live in a bigger place further out than a little place in the inner city.

Lots of natural light. Brick. A garden big enough to grow some foodstuffs in. I'd love a lemon tree. If we're talking dream houses - one with a walk in pantry that I can stock with obscure food items, endless jars of homemade jam, and enough breakfast cereal to keep me going when the zombies come. On that note: a big kitchen with lots of cupboard space. Oh, and grass in the yard, even if it's only just a square big enough to lie on. Nooks and crannies that I can cram stuff into. Public transport nearby so that I don't have to drive.

If we're talking total fantasy house, I want the bathroom that a customer at my work has: the dividing wall that separates his shower from the rest of the bathroom is a GIANT FISHTANK! Seriously, how cool is that? Expensive and impractical, yes, but imagine coming home after a long day and having a hot shower, gazing at the fish...

[fnoo.livejournal.com]

Worker's cottage in Northcote.

Or.

Cottage in Victoria's High Country, with lots of land and surrounded by trees.

Never ever the suburbs.

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

*comes late to the party*

In Melbourne, the house from my April Fools' Day prank is pretty much the Platonic House as far as I'm concerned. I loves me some beach, some proximity to Acland St and some small, easy-to-take-care of gardenage, and it's not so far out of the city (or from the apparently sizable Parkville/North Melbourne/Carlton crowd!) that PT, bikes or taxis would be a problem. Plus, you know, it's insanely beautiful.

In Oxford, I would quite like to buy one of those monstrously big, slightly ratty townhouses on Iffley Road, make the basement level into a flat with my own kitchen and bathroom, and rent out the other three floors to grad students who could provide me with entertainment and a supply of attractive young people whose lives are being eaten by academia to schadenfreude at love and support...

(One look at the price of the Iffley Road houses on that website will, however, communicate the unlikelihood of this ever happening!).

[vox-diabolica.livejournal.com]

And it would be quite operational by the time my friends arrived.

Or the moon.