Flirting with the idea....

What a view, huh? The big red building in the distance it the University of Utah.

And you turn a little to your right to see this....the Wasatch mountains.

More to the right there is this....

Then you start seeing downtown....

And all the high rises. Imagine how pretty that view would be at night.

This is the view from the living room and balcony of a 9th floor condominium on South Temple, a street which happens to have been declared to be one of the prettiest streets in America.
We were in the condo because we have a new real estate agent, and because we are flirting with the idea of buying a condo in a high rise building instead of a suburban house.

Just flirting, mind you...

Our new agent is a delight. That's her chatting with Bernie. We asked her to show us just one condo so we could meet her and get a feel for how it would be to work with her when the time comes to seriously look for a house. (No nibbles on the Houston house; this truly was a dry run.)

Bernie and I are finding life in a small 700 square foot apartment to be quite charming. And the downtown location to be terribly exciting and convenient.
That three to six minute commute is fantastic! Walking to restaurants and to the park is delightful. Church bells and trolleys, high rises and cityscape fascinate us.

It is all so different than how we have ever lived before.

We are having a hard time thinking about living in the suburbs again, and doing the homeowner-ish stuff like trimming and mulching and taking in the trash cans.

Anyway, for now, we think and talk and pray and flirt with the idea of urban living. And we both keep coming to the same thought:

We just don't know what kind of housing we will get in the end.

So we're just going to enjoy living life in the city in an apartment for as long as it lasts.

This is the front of the condo building from the street. It has flowers everywhere, and inside there is an atrium, an indoor swimming pool, workout center, HEATED garage...

Fun to think about living there. But until our house sells, it is just thinking, just for fun.

Another interesting view: A pile of rubbage on the street that is a routine event in SLC. They have regular neighborhood heavy trash days, when everyone just dumps all their discards into the street. As I drive around SLC, I'll come around a corner and EVERY house has a pile of junk out front.

What really surprises me is that almost every house has either a sofa or a mattress to discard. Guess they must be hard on beds and couches around here!

I stopped and picked up clay flower pots for our balcony garden from one pile. I guess that would officially make me a trash picker.

Oh well.

I was glad to have the pots for free!

Homeless folks walk along and get all kinds of treasures...it would be hard not to want to go trash picking regularly as I've seen lots of very usable stuff out there.

You could probably furnish a whole house that way if you weren't too fussy.

Want to start a whole new life, cheap and real easy like?

Just head for SLC, rent an unfurnished apartment, and start poking around town.

This just might be just the solution to America's woeful finciancial problems.

Don't worry if your retirement income has gone with the wind.

Just come to SLC instead!

Everything you need will be found somewhere on the streets!

The views are wonderful above...(my attempt at splicing two pictures together. I need to work on it a little more if I want to create seamless panoramic shots.)

I guess I am just going to have to admit that this is a pretty trashy post

I just thought that the tiger striped trash trucks are pretty interesting too.

Although I would appreciate it if they would stop being so interesting at 6 am on Saturday mornings!

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to live downtown in a major city?

Does the idea thrill you, or scare you?

Would it be an adventure that you would chose to go on if you could?

And do you think having an endless view and a garden balcony with perhaps a fountain, small table and chairs, potted trees and vegetables growing in pots could ever be as satisfying as having your own front yard and a garage that had a door right into your house?

Is knowing that you will NEVER have to shovel snow be worth giving up a garage to store your stuff?

We have lots of things to consider. Feel free to flirt with the idea along with us.

Point out the the pros and cons as you see them.

We're still very open to suggestions.