Our Neighborhood

When living in a college town, you don't need a calendar to tell you when the University resumes classes...almost overnight, the community comes abuzz with life. 

You know there are certain parts of town, and even stores for that matter, that you avoid for the coming weeks until everyone settles into the groove of things.  The other thing that becomes quite obvious, very  quickly, is all the student drivers.  Yes, I realize I was one of those drivers back in the day--and of all things, I was let loose in a Mustang in Omaha traffic!  Hehe, that was FUN!  But these kids--half of them don't know how to work a roundabout, others don't know about yielding to vehicles with the right-of-way, some act like they've never experienced a stoplight (and maybe they haven't!  It is an agricultural university after all), some try to text while talking to a buddy and trying to shift gears.  But after a few weeks, they seem to figure the driving out and things are back to normal.

Fortunately, we don't have many college students in our neighborhood.  With being downtown, it always surprises us when leases renew and it's either a young couple or a family moving into a newly vacated rental.  Trust me, I'm not complaining!

I realize that downtown living is not for everyone.  When living here, you definately live "with the people."  One neighbor may be a well established professional while the neighbor on the other side of you may be a bit off their rocker.  There's also plenty of foot traffic downtown--some residents walk for enjoyment whereas others walk out of necessity.

I love the diversity that comes with living downtown...our newest neighbors hardly speak a lick of English and that's just fine with me.  We still exchange friendly greetings and we manage to "talk" with them while they work in the yard.  The conversation doesn't get very far, but we've definately achieved the feeling of being neighborly towards one another.

I could go on and on about why I love living in the heart of the community...but the best part of living downtown is the homes.

There are some seriously awesome homes in our neighborhood....central Manhattan has TONS of great houses but I decided to show you some properties that are within a 3-4 block radius.  Most of them are scattered along the route we take when walking the dog.  The eye candy makes the steamy hot walks worth it!

My absolute favorite house is just two doors down from us.  It's the old historic Runyan house.  What the history is, I'm not sure--I could always read the sign someday...but I do know that it's just plain awesome.  I semi-seriously tell Justin that whenever the owners sell, we're buying it (after winning the lottery, of course)!  How easy of a move would that be?!



This 4-plex sits next to the Runyan house and is owned by the same people.  For some reason, it always makes me think of Southern California in the 1940s!

The historic Wolf House museum is about 2 blocks from us. They are currently remodeling the interior and it will reopen this fall for public tours.  One of these days I want to go over and tour the interior!

 This old Craftsman sits across from the Wolf House on Juliette Ave.

On Leavenworth, just off of Juliette, sits a row of Victorians.  How cool are they?!

Across from the Victorians is this place...I love, love, love it!  I would also move into this house given the opportunity :-)

Also on Juliette is what I call "the mansion."  This place is HUGE!  I can't get enough of the front porch and balcony...and the house still has a bunch of the original *and fabulous* leaded glass windows.  I would also take this house if given to me :-)

This apartment complex is around the corner from us. I love the taupe stucco with pops of red.  Plus, the awning and Lion Heads are too cool!  Based on the lines of this building, I would almost guess that it was a single-family residence once upon a time???

And another apartment complex, also around the corner from us, that I love.  A lady who goes to our church lived here when she went to K-State...and she's almost 90 years old.  She was thrilled to hear that it was still up and running!

The porches and balconies off of each unit of the Wil-Mar...

This "house" is around the corner from us, too.  It's actually a therapist's office!  There's a big addition and second porch on the back that I forgot to photograph.  But on those days when I'm finally convinced I have fallen off the rocker, I would be more than happy to visit this charming little place!

A section of new brownstones just one block from us. The apartments were "filled" before construction was even completed and they continue to build more of them!

In addition to having some cool houses in the neighborhood, there's some cool old churches...

Such as the Presbyterian Church's tower on Leavenworth:

And this little church--it's also around the corner from us.  Remember our church friend I mentioned earlier?  She and her husband got married here over 60 years ago (for the life of me, I can't remember what church she said it was).  It's now Vintage Faith, a non-denominational church, and the congregation has poured their heart and soul into restoring it.

Finally, this church I'm partial to.  It's our church!  St. Paul's Episcopal on Poyntz.  I love that it takes us about 8 minutes to walk there from our house :-)

The "left side" of the church where the nave and offices are...

The "right side" of the church where one of our outreach programs, The Encore (thrift) Shop, is housed.  I absolutely love the stone arches!



So there you have it!  Our nice, usually quiet, mostly-student-free neighborhood.  And before I forget, welcome back to all the students!  And that smile will only last as long as you avoid smashing into me with your car :-)

Grinding My Gears

You know what really grinds my gears???

If you follow my Facebook, you may have remembered something about us getting a letter from Code Services about having our "holiday" lights up past 90 days.

I have to admit--we forgot to take the top lights down (the icicle lights were taken down back in January as we saw them everyday and they took 2 seconds to remove).  This winter was so cold and brutal that when it finally warmed up this Spring, we were no longer thinking about the top lights.

From what I could gather in the letter, having lights up 90 days after the holidays is deemed a fire hazard.  I'm also guessing the intent of the code has something to do with keeping the neighborhoods looking nice..

My issue with the code:
1) Our lights had been unplugged since Jan 7...can't really see a legitimate fire hazard here
2) Since when can the city determine which religious--or even cultural--holidays I celebrate with the hanging of lights?  Boy, can I see a lawsuit here if they messed with the right homeowner
3) If they want to be in the business of keeping up with appearances, why did they cite the most maintained property on the block?  What about the landlord across the street that has 6 nasty-@#$ trashcans with no lids sitting on the city sidewalks all year long?  The landlord was reported almost 4 weeks ago and the city has yet to take any action.  What about all the other properties around town with 3-foot tall grass, houses that look like they need to be razed, beer cans in the yard 5 days a week, etc?  I'm sure out-of-towners would be more put off by those sights than a house with lights still up.
4) You couldn't even see our stupid Christmas lights.  You really had to look to see them.  We hung clear bulbs along the top of the gutters.  But then you have the Griswold-style homes that everyone flocks to each Christmas and their tacky lights are still up.

But you know what REALLY grinds my gears???  I just noticed yesterday evening that downtown Manhattan still has their lights up.  Um, talk about visibility!  Their lights are placed on top of all the buildings, just like our lights.  I realize Downtown Manhattan Inc (the group responsible for hanging the lights) is a separate entity from the city, but really???  REALLY? 

It's pretty obvious that I'm annoyed by this.  I'm also annoyed that our new City Commission is repealing an ordinance that requires landlords to keep their properties maintained and up-to-code by conducting rental inspections.  What is more important?  Ensuring tenants have safe, clean housing or the city taking the time to make sure residents have removed their holiday lights within 90 days?  Man I tell ya--we love living in the Little Apple but there are some things that definately make ya shake your head.

Picture Perfect

I did not want to get up this morning.

We had company in town this past weekend and all the fun wore me out.

Saturday night was Daylight Savings Time and I really, really wanted my one hour of sleep back when my alarm went off. 

Justin received a text at 5:15 this morning saying they were called off work for the day.  It's only the second time it has happened ALL winter.

Thus, I was convinced we had a blizzard last night and school would be cancelled.  Then I remembered they have state testing this week and had to laugh at my crazy idea.

I finally crawled out of bed, put on comfy clothes and headed to work.

As I turned the corner from our house, this is what I saw...

I was too lazy to get out of my car so I took it through the windshield...I'm kinda impressed with how well it turned out!

I've said it before--I'm done with winter for this year.  However, the beauty of the morning temporarily swayed my opinion!  The sights reminded me of images from Christmas cards.  The best part, though--the snow was gone by the time I got home from work tonight.  Now that's how I like it!

Going, Going, Gone!

One of the things I love about Fall is the changing trees...there was an article in last week's paper about how all the trees are behind schedule this year because of warmer-than-usual temperatures and something about precipitation levels being off.  Our maple tree in the front yard *finally* began turning a few weeks ago and we just realized yesterday that it's leaves are disappearing as well! 



The Happy House

I think our house might have sucked before we bought it.

The maintenance on the house itself was superb--but we knew it needed some interior cosmetic work and attention to the yard...



Our house last October, when it went on the market the 1st time



After buying our house, we found out it had been painted just before it went on the market.  It went from being all white to its current khaki color.

But what's wrong with an all white house???  Nothing that we can think of!



In the past few weeks, we have gotten TONS of compliments on our house.  The neighbors have all said, "We really like what you've done--the house looks happy--it's like someone lives there now."

Justin has been spending lots of time outdoors and complete strangers have stopped to tell him our house looks "happy."

This weekend we were standing out front looking at the house when our photographer stopped by.  He asked why we were standing in the yard and well, we didn't know what to say.  Why do you just stand in your yard???  Turns out, he thought we lived on the other side of the alley and when we told him we owned THIS house he was floored.  He said, "Wow, this house looks happy.  It looks like someone actually cares."

Our house, October 2010--somewhat decorated for Fall!



Granted, he works caddy-corner to our house so he has seen this house on a daily basis for MANY years.  But we haven't done much of anything to the exterior of the house so far...next Spring the fence will be painted white, landscaping put in and the new stairs & retaining wall will be installed.  We've only really planted new grass, trimmed back some trees, put some hostas out front and decorated the porch.  Randomly enough, we found the original triple-sectioned window that goes in the top of the house--I'm hoping, hoping, hoping the Heating & Air guy says we can put it back in because that would bring so much charm to the house!

All these comments lead me to believe that our house must have been pretty pathetic in it's previous life.  When we looked at the house, it was back in January...everything was frozen and grey--we expected it to look worn. 



However, the resounding comment is "happy."  Don't get me wrong--I'm glad our house is bringing some cheer to the neighborhood...and secretly, I'm trying to compete with the stone historic Runyon House two doors down at 5th & Osage.  In fact, the house across the street is under new ownership and is experiencing a major facelift...and the bungalow behind us is also getting a new roof and siding after many years of neglect.  It appears that our neighborhood is experiencing a surge of TLC and I can't wait to see the results...as long as those results don't include me scooping smashed pumpkins off the sidewalk!

Freaky Friday

Yesterday morning--Friday the 13th--Justin clocked in to work at 6:30 am so they could beat the heat.  They got off around 4pm and we were sitting outside talking about the day's happenings...the sky was overcast and looked like it could rain, which wasn't a surprise since we had a shower come through earlier in the day.  Out of the blue, the tornado sirens started blowing so I ran inside to check the TV--just in time for our power to go out!  Go figure!  And I'm not kidding, the wind went from non-exisistent to 93mph within a matter of seconds...we got Justin's Cadillac in the garage right as the rain hit.  As I headed to the basement, I grabbed the laptop and weather radio hoping we could keep up on the storm--but, duh, no Internet if the modem/router isn't juiced up and our weather radio wouldn't turn on!!!  And, please, let me mention that while I was bunkered down in the basement Justin was running around the yard and the house watching trees blow over, yelling "we're getting called out, we're getting called out!!!"

<><>

<>

<><>

Downed tree just at the end of our block

Right he was!  By 5:30 pm, they already had orders from Westar to meet up at the yard.  We had a chance to check out the neighborhood after the storm passed through and trees were down EVERYWHERE.  Thanfully, thankfully we had no damage to speak of.  But what a crazy way to spend Friday the 13th!

With Justin at work, I waited around to see if our power would come back on.  By 8pm I was hungry and decided that HyVee's Chinese Kitchen would be cooking supper...I came home, hung out with the animals and surfed the Internet on my phone before calling it an early night.  As the battery was dying, I realized I needed enough battery for an alarm in the morning!  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sleep last night because the house was becoming unbearably muggy and Westar trucks were in the street off and on throughout the night.

Finally at 6am I gave up on sleeping.  I fueled up the car, plugged my phone in and headed to the office--we had families scheduled for supervised visits and exchanges today and I was hoping to have power back on...and we did!  Next came breakfast from Dara's gas station and then watching Malcolm prepare his breakfast.

Our church, on Poyntz Ave--their poor "centerpiece" tree!

Since it was still fairly cool out, I propped the back door open.  What a stupid idea.  Next thing I know, Malcolm brought in a half-dead bird and was trying to eat it on our white area rug!!!  I was beyond freaking out because 1) the bird was still trying to fly around, 2) I can't stand the site of blood and 3) I didn't want my rug ruined!  I went outside at this point and frankly have no idea what happened to the bird or where he finished breakfast...I'm sure I'll find a pile and feathers somewhere and then I'll know!

On Fremont, northwest of our house

Eventually things calmed down in our house--Mitzy and I hung out on the front porch where there was a cool breeze and chatted with the electric crew working in our alley.  We finally had our power restored around 11:30 am this morning, 19 hours after it went out!  Justin eventually came home around 1 pm but they have to report back at 6:00...they gave the guys 5 hours to shower and catch a nap, which is GREATLY needed  since he worked 30 hours straight with only a 1-hr break. We'll see what his motivation is like when he wakes up--my guess is being the workaholic he is, he'll find a way to go back out there until they get called off for good!

My tamale from the Farmer's Market--VERY justifiable since I had no way of cooking lunch!