One of the things I like best about our neighborhood, and one of the reasons we moved from Irvine, is that each house on the block is unique. We lived in a designed community in Irvine that was exceptionally boring; plus there was no real sense of community and we rarely talked to our neighbors. That's not to say that it doesn't exist in those communities; it just didn't work out too well for us, that's all. Today when Bailey and I went for a walk, Bails socialized by chasing a cat and enduring the adoration of about 10 little kids at the park. I had a nice conversation with a neighbor that I met at our neighborhood meeting a couple of months ago. It's a nice feeling. But back to the houses. I absolutely adore some of the houses on our block. All of them were built around 1920 and they have that lovely old house "look". This one (below) is one of my very favorites although it's hard to get a good sense of the house based on this picture.
And it's definitely possible for new houses to look great. This one (below) was built a couple of months ago and fits in well stylistically in the neighborhood. Of course, they also want $650,000 for it. Ugh. No thanks.
I fell in love with the houses (below) when I was on a real estate website a while back. Both of these are actually for sale in Tacoma, Washington.
I think it's really hard to make large houses look tasteful. Small houses can look cute and quaint but I think many large mansions tend to look out of place in their surroundings. This house certainly isn't a mansion but it is a fairly large, boxy residence. I think they added enough embellishments to the exterior to make it interesting.
If you haven't tried getting on the website Zillow, then definitely get on it and type in your address.
