Historic Renovation

I was reading the Commercial Appeal online (as I usually do daily) and saw this article on the renovation of Carrier Hall in Central Gardens. As I've posted before, I love historic homes and this article does a great job of spotlighting one. The article also talks about how Memphis has a very large number of historic homes and not just mansions - you can get a home on the National Register of Historic Places for 100,000 or 4million, depending on your needs.

I'm a huge fan of Midtown. Having lived there (with a brief stint in East Memphis in between) almost my whole life, I can say that it is somewhere I'd love to move to. It has an urban feel without the issues of living downtown (while I love downtown, I wouldn't live there because of parking issues and proximity to things I do daily like grocery shop). I love that in Midtown I can walk to the corner coffee shop, I can be in downtown in 10 minutes for church but hit East Memphis for my usual target run in 15 minutes. I love the charm of the houses, I love the eclectic mix of people in the neighborhoods, and I love the tree lined boulevards. We are members of the zoo and love being able to hop on over for an afternoon walk whenever we want. The Brooks Museum is another asset, along with Overton Park in general. I love taking a blanket to Overton Park in the spring and just enjoying being outdoors. The types of restaurants in Midtown are also another plus. We love Boscos, Paulettes, Young Ave Deli, Dinos, Finos, Hueys, Blue Monkey, the Milkshake Place (Wiles Smith Drugstore), and so much more. And as you can see, there is such variety - that isn't even delving in to the array of ethnic cuisine offered.

I'm glad that this article was written to spotlight one of the great neighborhoods of Midtown - Central Gardens. I love driving around and looking at the gorgeous houses. Knowing people that live there, the community feel is outstanding. In our neighborhood growing up, I had a great pack of girls to run around with and we could basically rule the neighborhood, riding bikes, rollerblading, as long as we stayed within the neighborhood there were no worries. That was the life! There are so many great neighborhoods to choose from, all with historic homes, near good restaurants - when it comes time for us to buy a house, we are definitely planning on looking in Midtown.

Now I know that there may be some worries about security. I will say that our backhouse has gotten broken in to several times, cars have gotten windows smashed out, and I know people that have had home invasions (during the day though). To that, I'd say to do your research - there are crime statistics by zip code and you can find that information on any good realator's site. Crime is everywhere in our city - for example, Bartlett just had a rash of car break ins a week ago. It is something that concerns me, though, and I'm not exactly sure what to think about it.

Maybe one day I'll be able to own a house like the one described in the article. The utility bill alone is 1,700$ a month.