Moving (on) UP to downtown living
(or at least dreaming about it)

For the last several years, I’ve had a growing desire to live and work downtown. There’s something novel and cool about it. Granted, I’ve never done it so I really don’t know, but it still seems like fun.

Well, I’m halfway there! In December, I started working downtown (which I’ll post pictures that I took last Saturday of my office building sometime later this week). Last Saturday, we took a tour of some downtown housing. It was part of the Move UP Downtown Living Tour.

It was like window shopping for my dream home. And that’s exactly what it is — a dream. It won’t be happening anytime soon. Economically and pragmatically, we just can’t swing it yet. Downtown living just ain’t cheap! Not only that, it’s not really feasible to move downtown with the girls still living at home. But Karla and I have dreamed of the possibility of moving downtown sometime after the girls leave the nest. (Mind you, I’m not in hurry. They certainly can stick around as long as they want. These are my baby girls we’re talking about, even if they are 13 and 14-going-on-15.)

It was fun looking and dreaming nonetheless. We toured several downtown living properties. Some we liked, so we didn’t like… and there was one that we really fell in love with. It was a penthouse in the Block 42 development. And it was just plain cool. Maybe by the time we’re ready to buy, the couple currently living there will be ready to sell!

The master bedroom had an awesome view of downtown. The large windows and sliding glass door (which lead to a small balcony you could stand on) let in a lot of light and wonderful cityscapes. You can’t see the best views from this angle, but you can get an idea from the photo I took looking out the window of the shower in the master bathroom.

Unless someone in one of those downtown towers had a really powerful telescope, no one would be able to see you in the shower while you were using it. I think it would be pretty cool to have such a pretty view as you basked in the warm waterfall from the shower. The bathroom also had a cool sink, beautiful marble and plenty of storage — more than we have now.

Now, forgive me for starting in the back of the penthouse first. I’m kind of working my way backward through the space. I was just so impressed with the Master Suite and its views that I had to start there.

When you get off the elevator, which is essentially your front door, you walk down a small hallway and into this large kitchen/dining area.

That leads into the living area, which has an abundance of windows that lets in an incredible amount of light and more wonderful views. On the left side of photo, you can see a group of ladies standing in front of the open glass doors that lead to the large balcony with plenty of room for a table and chairs and lots more room to spare. The window over the kitchen sink looks out over the balcony (as you can see in the photo above).

There’s also another cool little nook that would make a nice little office or sitting area or, as these residents used it, a “play” area.

Another one of my favorite features about this penthouse was the cool security camera monitor in the main hallway next to the kitchen/dining area (and that led to the master bedroom). I believe it had more than one camera view, but on this day it was displaying the security camera in the elevator so you could see who was on their way up. There’s no sneaking up on these residents! And it’s always probably no a good idea to do anything in the elevator that you don’t want others watching you do, including “love in an elevator” (as famously sung about by Aerosmith).

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This wasn’t our first stop, but it was our favorite stop — at least for me, but I believe everyone in our family was impressed. In coming posts, I’ll be sharing more photos from our other stops.