What Is Your Living Situation Like?

[quote]But, then, it IS Madison, after all.

J'adore Madison.

I live in Boston in a condo building with two others below me, built about 1890 and last gutted about 1985. I’ve updated it a little since. My neighborhood was very Gay when I moved in, but is now totally gentrified. Mostly financial types with a kid and a nanny. That’s fine, just different. It’s walkable to whatever I need. It’s 1200 sq. ft. I wish it was bigger, but I couldn’t afford that.

It’s a different way of living. Such as, I have no parking spot and park on the street, so I have to think about that when going out. Sometimes Uber is better than having to look for a parking spot when I come home. It’s tough to have (non sexual) overnight guests because I have no guest room, but I think I could get an air mattress. You have to ignore some level of neighbor-noise or disruption because they are abutting. I have to hire a crane to bring in/out the couch, or fridge because the stairs are ancient and narrow.

I love it here,

Ugh, you sound EXHAUSTING, OP.

[quote]I love it here,

That's great, R2.

I live in DTLA with my husband in a large loft. Love the loft, love the husband, fucking HATE DTLA. It's disgusting. I'd leave but am financially stuck here for now.

Oh... not to HUMBLE-BRAG or anything!!

My husband and I recently moved from Minneapolis, MN to Columbus, OH. Husband moved in March for a new job and I followed at the end of May when I finished the school year.

We live in a three bedroom 2.5 bath victorian house at the edge a suburb. Our house is on about 3/4 acre and has a sidewalk that leads us into the old section of town with great sidewalks and old trees. It is the best of both worlds - the land allowed us to get about 1/3 acre fenced for our six year old Flat Coat Retriever, Buddy, and it’s an easy walk into town for restaurants and evening strolls with Husband and Buddy.

We’ve got a unique mix of people around us. We, unfortunately, are in Trump Territory. We’ve got families on both sides and an older single lady across the street. One of my husband’s best friends from high school and his wife lives a few houses down. Husband’s friends and I have had a rocky start but I think it was because I’m not from around here and just settling in!

The best feature of our house is the yard. We looked at houses over my Christmas break and another weekend in early February. Over my spring break, I flew into Columbus and we got to begin to settle in. Best of all, I gave my “honey do” list of projects to my very talented and handy hubby. By the time I moved in, we had a new deck and outdoor patio. Buddy was excited for his new yard too! We planted some wildflowers and did some other landscaping which was fun! I’m hoping we can keep moving toward our dream house in the next few years!

Sounds great, R7! I always thought Columbus was pretty liberal, so too bad about your Trump-supporting neighbors. Good luck!

[quote] A: My [Boston] neighborhood was very Gay when I moved in, but is now totally gentrified.

Q: What is the South End.

New England for $300 please, Alex.

why can't gays be gentry? Discrimination!

Live alone in a 1-bedroom apartment in Harlem (Hamilton Heights). Just moved in about 3 months ago, so don't really know the neighbors but everyone seems friendly for the most part when bumping into them in the hallways/elevator. I really like the apartment and the neighborhood, so hoping to stay here for a good long while.

2 BR co-op on UWS of Manhattan, building is pre-war and has a gym, playroom, storage room, doorman, etc.. Just me and my dog, though boyfriend stays over a lot. Mix of older, mostly Jewish couples who've lived here forever, young families, mostly Wall Street or parent's money with young kids, well off empty nesters from the burbs and some singles, both my age and divorced/widowed older people

Bought it 9 years ago, thanks Mom and Dad and Nana for the help on the down payment. It has appreciated significantly in those 9 years and I could probably not afford it today. It's close to two parks, subways, and pretty much any kind of store you can think of, though like the rest of Manhattan, it's gotten much blander, lots of chain stores, banks and drug stores. My parents live two subway stops away, my brother the rebel lives across town on the UES with his wife.

I know most of the people on my floor, there's an older couple from NJ (60s) who moved in about two years ago who I actually talk to beyond "hello" and the weather and if she bakes she will sometimes drop off cookies or cake for me because "if it's in the house I'm only going to eat it and if I don't, it'll go stale." We water each other's plants when we're on vacation too.

What’s it worth, R12?

I live with my husband Brad in a smallish 19 room house in Greenwich Ct. We bought it five years ago. Well, I bought it actually. Brad is currently unemployed but I know he will soon find a job. I go to the city every day where I work for a hedge fund and Brad tells me that he always checks out the want ads in the newspaper. Brad is much, much younger than me and I am sure one day he will have a career as profitable as mine. We have done a lot of work on our lovely home. In fact our contractor, also named Brad (so many people in Greenwich are named Brad!) often stays overnight when I am in the city, just to make sure that nothing untoward happens to any of our construction sites. Brad the contractor is so neat -- his bed (he has his own bedroom, given that we have nine!) never even looks like it's been slept in. What a nice man! Sometimes Brad our gardener stays overnight too, because he says his wife is a light sleeper and if he works in our garden late he doesn't want to wake her). He is also very neat! So that's our story here in Greenwich, Ct!

Live by myself in a basement suite in downtown Vancouver. Paying a fortune for it too.

I live with my husband in a house in an inner ring suburb Of Dallas. There are two gay couples in our subdivision. Everyone is friendly, I just got voted onto the board of directors of our HOA.

1740s Cape in NH. Woods on three sides. The village consists of four buildings: church, school, town hall, and an old tavern that is now the town office. Nearest supermarket is 30 minutes away. Nearest gun store is five. One partner, two cats, one dog, two goats, eight geese. The barn has a permanent marionette theater.

My partner (we haven't gotten married...) and our two young kids live in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath in Berkeley. Love it here. Nice neighborhood. Mainly str8 - but very gay friendly. Been here 11 years. Hard to imagine living any place else.

If I ended up in Wisconsin I’d just end my life.

Hey R11 - Just moved to Hamilton Heights the beginning of July myself - the block with the Key Food. Still getting used to dealing with the longer subway ride.

I own my own home, in Cincinnati. I think it's a nice home. It's not very big. I have a lot of houseplants. I work from home, so my car doesn't get a lot of use. I like my neighbors, and they seem to like me. I don't know who knows I'm gay, and don't really care. They all see my (ex) BF coming and going pretty often. I've lived here longer than most people, so that seems to earn me a little respect. One of my neighbors is one of the most attractive men I've ever seen (think Giancarlo Esposito) and even my ex-BF had to agree that we just had to stop in our tracks when he was working in the front yard with his shirt off. I think he's caught us looking. He had some young blond friend cutting his grass, and this young blond cut my grass, too, just as a courtesy. I gave him some money, since I'm not a cheap ass, and he gave me his name and number. Apparently, they were in jail together. I have no idea why. But I've been in jail, so I just shut my mouth.

[quote] Apparently, they were in jail together. I have no idea why. But I've been in jail, so I just shut my mouth.

I dare any of you to top that for a closing line.

forget it jake, it's cincinnati

Have to move from place to place a lot and have most of my things in a storage unit.

R11 and R20 I lived in Hamilton Heights for a decade. It's fantastic. Stop by Convent Garden on 151st and Convent Avenue. It's Hamilton Heights version of Gramercy Park. Hope you enjoy your homes there.

I now live in Washington DC in a condo at the top of Wisconsin Avenue. Have a beautiful view of the entire District. I love it here.

I live a block from U St in DC. There's a lovely homeless camp right down the street from me I walk by daily. The building I live in is a converted warehouse that was built like shit and I can hear my neighbors tromping up and down their metal staircases. we paid just under 780K for it. It is now worth almost $1.2M. That said it is convenient to everything but I'd like to move to a quieter neighborhood but that wouldn't be as convenient. Dilemmas.

To be honest, unless you're sharing details of your sex lives, I couldn't care less. I probably speak for all of us in that.

OP: You are indeed lucky to be living in Madison. I grew up in nearby Janesville and Madison (or Chicago) was where we went to play, shop, get some culture. It remains a lovely place. //I live in a major city in Texas, now. Came here many years ago for partner's career move, and I welcomed the opportunity to change careers and re-invent myself (all the rage at the time). I live in a wooded suburban area. Mostly nice. Mixed and very tranquil until about 5 or 6 years ago. Most of the older homes are being torn down and replaced with ultra-modern eco-box structures: I actually like them and try to imagine what living in them would be like. The young families who have moved in, for the most part, are insular, not very considerate, not conscious of their surroundings, and uber self-entitled. If you do not have kids, you are invisible and useless to them. I tried to be at least friendly and neighborly to several families and was just plain iced out. I hate how they all feel like they have to stand around on the FRONT YARD and have cocktail gaggles, etc. So, while I still like the area, and my house is paid for, I don't feel comfortable in 'my' long-time neighborhood and am starting to consider next steps.

OP, be careful. It would be very easy to identify you and your home based on the details you gave.

R29 - trust me, no one cares about OP or where he lives.

I live in a 1br in Woodside Queens. No pets, no man, no plants and I love it. I moved here in April; there are 120 apartments so it's an easy place to be anonymous and not know your neighbors.

I finish my graduate degree in May and cannot wait to leave New York for a less crowded, colder city.

Suburban Philly 1920s house in a super liberal suburb 25 minute train ride to Gayborhood. Great lifestyle, walkable but with lots of green space and easy access to everything. While Philly people are annoying occasionally, it’s a great metro area and has everything I want at less than 1/2 the price of most other major Northeast cities.

I've lived alone for eleven years in a rented 1905 2-story brick house in an impoverished, inner-city neighborhood of transient minorities, hillbillies and roving homeless people. I sometimes feel like that little old cat lady still clinging to her house in what used to be a nice neighborhood.

The house next door is a Section-8 rental and has had 8 different families in the past decade. On the other side is an abandoned house with high weeds.

R28, I would love to hear more about your relocation. As I mentioned in R7, I recently moved several states away for my husband’s career change.

I started another thread if you’d like to share anything that you’ve found to be useful!

OP this she knows everyone’s political affiliation in her neighborhood. How cute.

R33 - good to know there are still some old-fashioned GWM around who aren’t moving to a McMansion in a “safe” suburban neighborhood with their 1.5 kids

There would seem to be a middle ground between McMansions and poverty R36

R18 Why are you not married, especially with young kids? Seems to be a story there, which I’m sure the DL will jump all over if you choose to share.

R38: the honest answer is our tax guy said, from a tax standpoint, it's better for us not being married. We are Registered Domestic Partners in CA - which gives us many - if not all - of the same rights as being married.

[quote] And one thing I can say for certain: There is not one Trump supporter in the bunch. All pretty well-educated and liberal. But, then, it IS Madison, after all.

There's more of those in Madison than you think.

R39 It may be better for taxes now but did he look more long term into your Social Security payments?

Can I come for my Vacation, please?

Hubby and I live in a 3 bedroom house in Thornton, CO, with our labradoodle, Charlie. I love the neighborhood because everything is a short drive away. It was a foreclosure, so while it was a great deal, we’ve had a lot of projects. I recently ripped out the carpet and put in some laminate flooring and some tile. Lots of work, but worth it. Also worth it is the private backyard. While hubby is away on business, I can bury bodies there without anyone noticing. Oops, I said too much.

Thanks to a DL thread about it, we are now living in Palm Canyon Mobile Club in Palm Springs and LOVE IT! Moved from Kansas City this past Spring

R44 I think I was the OP of that thread! They looked very nice.

Larry says "hubby." Twice. Sure you're not really a Linda, Larry?

R45 thank you so much. It has been life altering.

I live in a house with a big yard. My husbands 28 yo son from his first marriage lives in the basement like a living DL cliche. However he goes to twelve step meetings all the time, so not very DL.

Live with my partner in Staten Island, NY where we both grew up. Bought a two family house and moved my parents in upstairs. They contributed to the down payment and cook dinner for us most weeknights...otherwise they don’t bother us or barge in our house at all). The house is a little small for me (no dining room, small bedrooms) but the neighborhood is nice (despite our horrific racist neighbor who flies a Trump flag on his house on the holidays and is stupid enough to think my partner and I are brothers) and we have a great group of friends in the immediate neighborhood. Also a decent sized yard with a large screened in porch and a wood paneled retro basement complete with an orange formica bar, which we love. We’ve been here six years and our house has appreciated over 250k in value. I’d sell tomorrow, but my partner doesn’t want to leave.

Houston, 900 sq ft apartment, first floor, nice view of the carport. MG & BW sofa, the rest is Crate & Barrel or West Elm. Kate Spade lamps all around, obtained at Homegoods. Have a cat. Kitchen is too small for meaningful cooking but at least I have a washer and dryer. "Den" is my home office. Work from home and get cabin fever every day. Books strewn everywhere. Trader Joe's is right behind me, Whole Foods a block away. Neighbors are quiet. No hot guys though. Not complaining.

Suburban Philly. 4br 1930s singles house on a commuter rail line to the city and gayborhood within 30 minutes. Perfect for middle aged gay couple. Little yard for gardening, well educated, progressive neighbors, everything within reach. And not as crazy expensive as every other Northeastern city.

Weekdays, I live with my sister in a two bedroom condo that my parents own in Washington Heights. It is convenient to our work. The building is mostly occupied by doctors from the nearby medical center. Weekends, I have a small place in a beach town in New Jersey. My sister owns the house next door. I can't seem to get away from her - not that I want to.

The condo is pretty generic, stuff bought by my mother and sister in a hurry when I broke up with my ex-Fiancé and had to move out of the brownstone that we owned together. My sister lived in the basement apartment, so we both became homeless pretty much overnight.

I inherited the beach house and haven't done much decorating yet. I do have a hand painted surf board depicting the beach in Ireland where I learned to surf hanging over the fireplace, but, other than that, its just beachy stuff.

Cheesehead.

Single, 2bd/2ba mid-century skewed traditional ranch. Completely renovated it myself and now just sharing it with my Husky and a Roomba. Life is good, but I'd like a third bedroom for guests.

2br apt in downtown Savannah with my husband and 1 cat. Are you pretty good mixture of college students and blue collar workers. A pretty good and eccentric artist community. Savannah is a minority majority city. I love our life here but also kinda anxious to move on

Nobody is going to comment on what R14 wrote? Perhaps everyone knows what he wrote is fiction.

As for me, I retired early and sold my house and condo in 2016 then moved to Europe. I either travel around or find a place to stay for a month or two during the year. I either stay in an Airbnb or a Hilton property and have stayed in over 60 different Airbnb properties over the past three years. I stay two or three months each year in a flat in Edinburgh's West End. I'm single now. Friends and family know where to find me and sometimes we travel together for a week or two.

Currently I'm traveling in Ireland for the next few weeks. Just completed a stay in Londonderry (also known as Derry) and now in Sligo in a three bedroom home. From here I'll visit Galway, Limerick, Cork, Waterford, and Kilkenny. Then will travel to Scotland and stay near Balmoral to attend the Breamar Gathering on the 7th of September. The Queen and family usually attend each year. Okay, now I'm just bragging.

R56, the Brad story is obviously fiction and pretty funny. I W&Wed it.

I live in a house with my partner in a smaller town in Northern CA about an hour north of San Francisco. It was built in the 80s and has a good sized yard where I love to garden. Our neighbors are friendly and quiet. My close neighbor has chickens, a dog, and a toddler, but they are so nice, their dog so friendly, and their kid so cute, that I'm determined to love the sound of chickens. Seriously, I've never seen such a well-trained dog, I fully expect the son to follow suit.

I'm originally from SF, my parents helped me with the down payment years ago. We have a cat, there is good hiking nearby, and some very charming towns in the area with lots of good restaurants and all kinds of entertainment, festivals, and events. We are not wealthy so mostly we go out for breakfast or lunch rather than expensive dinners at local restaurants.

We collect antiques and the house is filled with art and quirky stuff. We're both in the arts and love to be surrounded by interesting things. The house has some deferred maintenance issues that worry me because of the expense. It really needs interior painting and new flooring and who knows what's lurking behind the caulking in baths. The outside has been easier to maintain, it looks good.

I have fantasies about living other places but my partner has an elderly mother who would be impossible to leave behind or uproot with her fragile health. I think about selling out and buying a small house on the coast of Oregon but it's not happening anytime soon.

Husband and I spent 10 years renting a 900sqft 1bdrm apartment one block north of Madison Square park. It was great but we both felt the city wearing on us. Moved to Colorado and rented a 8k sqft house for shits and giggles, which of course was far too big. A year later we ended up buying a ~3k sqft 3bdrm 5.5bath mid 1950s home on an acre of land in an estate neighborhood. We adopted a couple of rescue pups and absolutely love it here. The neighbor on 1 side has been living there since the year my mum was born. The other side has been there since the year I was born. Most of my neighbors are ancient, but nice and friendly enough. Most of them also have full time gardening crews working 5 days a week, but I think the garden work we do ourselves is just as good, if not better in some cases.

I oddly landed in suburban Phoenix and live here with my partner and our dog. In the summer it is so hot I never see my neighbors but can hear their air conditioners so know they are there. My favorite part of living here is the fact that I can afford it. I always struggled to pay the rent when i lived in California. We bought this place last year and the mortgage is a third of what I was paying for rent in Los Angeles. I am in my late sixties and at this point I am finished setting the world on fire so this works fine. My partner loves it here.

Wow - really interesting stories. People seem to adapt to where they are. All of these sound like they could be interesting places to live - even though I wouldn’t think of most of them.

I own a 70 year old two bedroom home in a blue collar neighborhood. I love my neighbors, lots of immigrants from various countries. Only one Trump supporter that I know of but he's not too tough to deal with. I have a huge backyard so lots of flowers and a big vegetable garden.

I live in a rent controlled three bedroom apartment in West Hollywood. It's ridiculously cheap. I can afford to leave, but chose not to. Instead of using my saving to buy a home of my own, I bought a triplex and live off the rental income. Redid the apartment on my own dime to make it feel like mine. My rent is so cheap, 1/4 of one of rentals covers it.

I live in an old carriage house just off a lake in rural Connecticut. The main house burned down in the thirties, and around that time, the land around my house was turned into a small private neighborhood. It's now about a 50/50 mix of weekenders and full-time people. I bought it almost 20 years ago and while I love it for many reasons, I'd be happy to move on too. The house is an ivy-covered stucco and shingle charmer with a long rolling front lawn down to the main road across from the water. It's right out of a storybook. The drawbacks are, it's small and dark--the beautiful huge old oak in front keeps the house a little gloomy inside, not a great thing when you struggle with depression. AirBnb has changed the neighborhood, and it's swarming with people on the weekends during the season. I don't even bother using the beach on weekends. Even though I bought the house for a song, the market hasn't rebounded to pre-recession levels. I feel like I missed the right time to sell.

I met my now spouse when we lived in Boston 31 years ago. After awhile we grew tired of the east coast and moved to Oregon. We lived in a ranch style house on 3 acres 40 miles outside of Portland for 20 years. We retired at age 56 and moved into Portland. I love it. We own a 1929 English tudor that's a mile from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and the train. We travel during the winter and enjoy the beautiful PNW the rest of the year.

I live alone in a single-story 3 bedroom 2 bath house with attached garage. Fully paid off, no mortgage.

I rarely have anyone over. I leave to work, eat, and shop for necessary items. Otherwise I sit in my home alone.

Sorry, there is no basement.