Downtown Houston is flourishing! (Dallas, Allen: apartment, city hall, amusement park)

[IndyRC]

chris_ut and HookTheBrotherUp: I totally get what you guys are saying. We have been slowly getting rid of stuff over the last year, but not enough. I'm ready to go through my stuff again and really start gutting it all.

On the other hand, my garage stuff includes our small collection of motorcycles, a lot of mechanics tools (2 roll around boxes full) that I do use, plus a motorcycle lift and extra parts. I'm not ready to stop riding yet.

Something I saw in CO when I lived there that I haven't seen in Houston, is a warehouse type of garage unit that you could instead of rent, and then configure the inside however you wanted. That is something I would consider here to store my bikes and tools is we moved downtown. Anybody know of anything like that in the area?

[atadytic19]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

No plans to give up my lawn until I'm too old and broken down to take care of it.

As soon as I bought the house I went about destroying the lawn.
Wish I shared your enthusiasm with having a week manicured lawn but I am not enamored with them.
I immediately dug up the perimeter to encase the front yard in hedges and planted a couple of fruit trees.

I can see why people would like grass but I prefer the shade and utility of trees and shrubs.
It's the same reason why I'm more of a dog person than a car person. Cats are just there to be taken care of like lawns. Dogs like trees earn their keep.

I would love to live downtown but really love utilizing my yard

[hendersj31]

I was going to ask about this. Many people assume a garage full of stuff is just useless junk. I view motorcyles and tools as a way of life for many. I have friends who ride and wouldn't give it up for any location. I know others who have put kids through college debt free with the money earned building furniture and cabinets on the side.

Originally Posted by IndyRC

chris_ut and HookTheBrotherUp: I totally get what you guys are saying. We have been slowly getting rid of stuff over the last year, but not enough. I'm ready to go through my stuff again and really start gutting it all.

On the other hand, my garage stuff includes our small collection of motorcycles, a lot of mechanics tools (2 roll around boxes full) that I do use, plus a motorcycle lift and extra parts. I'm not ready to stop riding yet.

Something I saw in CO when I lived there that I haven't seen in Houston, is a warehouse type of garage unit that you could instead of rent, and then configure the inside however you wanted. That is something I would consider here to store my bikes and tools is we moved downtown. Anybody know of anything like that in the area?

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

My wife and I moved our family into the city, to Montrose. We use to live in Katy, right by Katy High School. It was a hell of a commute, and we loved living where we did. But when the kids began to do activities, it was just too much to try to get home in time to take them places, and there are four!

We had to downsize, but also did it as a practice run as we had planned to immigrate to Europe. We had so much 'stuff', we worried about it too... so we got four storage units, the big 10x15 ones, not small ones. We went from a 4K sq ft home to 1700! The kids were very small of course.

After two years with all that 'stuff' in storage, it was embarrassingly apparent that A, we could have brought everything new for what we paid in storage costs, and B, more importantly, we did not miss 98% of what we stored!

The latter is key... you THINK you need all that stuff, but you don't! We had am amazing bedroom set, very masculine, bold, solid wood we paid almost 8K... when I liquidated things from the storage units, I let it go for 1100. Sad, but we could not fit it in the house, the stairwell would not allow it.

We quickly learned why people had wardrobes back in those days, they lived simple lives and did not have all the material shyt we have today. 10+ pairs of shoes? Not back then. They had maybe a couple of good sets of clothes, Sunday clothes, and stuff they wore during the week, so they did not need all the storage.

Anyway, I am digressing... what we found is that we did not need all of that 'stuff'. We lived such a simple life after we moved, not having to dust things, worry about things being broken. We sold our China cabinets, curios, nice clocks, and gave a way half of our kitchen to the workers who worked on our house in Montrose.

We had to buy cheap Ikea furniture because it was the only way you could get it through the narrow stairs. Our appliances were too big, etc. What we found that instead of paying $500-600 a month filling up two vehicles went down to less than $100, and we filled up about every 4-6 weeks. No more tolls, 4.5 miles to the office, less than 10 minutes from garage to garage. We got to go home for lunch (I still do), and leave the office for short periods if people need to come to the house. It is just so much more convenient to live close to where you work.

BTW, our house did not even have a garage! That has been taken care of now, but I did not miss all the garage 'stuff' either. BTW, the wife and kids are now in Europe, and I shall join them at the end of the year!

'Sorry for the long post.

I dont think its about needing, but why give up things that you dont have to for the sake of being "urban"? My father in law turned our garage into a greenhouse, something he definitely could not do in a place like downtown Houston. He doesnt "need" to have that, but he very much loves it. My wife on the other hand abhors feeling like people are living on top of her. A high rise certainly isnt in her future.

Thats why we compromised on a neighborhood like Willowbend. Only 5-7 miles from downtown and its a quiet place with a yard and garage.

[LocalPlanner]

I think the point is, there are many types of housing products catering to different market segments and preferences, and those preferences often change as people move through their lives. To make generalizations that "everyone would love Downtown living" is ridiculous - but there has definitely been a segment of the market that does enjoy it and was undersupplied for decades.

[gwarnecke]

Originally Posted by atadytic19

As soon as I bought the house I went about destroying the lawn.
Wish I shared your enthusiasm with having a week manicured lawn but I am not enamored with them.
I immediately dug up the perimeter to encase the front yard in hedges and planted a couple of fruit trees.

I can see why people would like grass but I prefer the shade and utility of trees and shrubs.

I'd probably go with a smaller lawn or xeriscaping if I lived in central TX or somewhere more drought-prone than Houston, but grass just grows so effortlessly here...I've never had to run my sprinklers more than once a week (and often leave them off for weeks at a time during the "shoulder" months).

I do have a few fruit trees, a box garden, and some huge pine trees that shade the south and west sides of the house...very happy with all of them (except for the pine needles in late summer and fall).

[detachable arm]

I don’t understand this place sometimes. On one hand there is a thread with an article saying people are leaving Harris county more than they are moving into it, with the inner loop / urban core taking the brunt of the population loss. And that was pre-Harvey. Then on the other hand, things are flourishing, everything is greater than it has ever been, etc etc. What is really going on and what has this boardturned into?

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by hendersj31

I know others who have put kids through college debt free with the money earned building furniture and cabinets on the side.

Damn, where do I sign up?

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by detachable arm

I don’t understand this place sometimes. On one hand there is a thread with an article saying people are leaving Harris county more than they are moving into it, with the inner loop / urban core taking the brunt of the population loss. And that was pre-Harvey. Then on the other hand, things are flourishing, everything is greater than it has ever been, etc etc. What is really going on and what has this boardturned into?

One thing that's been happening (and not just in Houston) is that housing in the urban core has become more popular in the marketplace. So, more affluent folks are more interested in living in the urban core. However, at the same time, the traditional low/mod income families with children that had lived in these areas have been leaving (because of housing prices, schools, whatever). The net population gain sometimes is thus not that much.

In neighborhoods like Downtown and EaDo, there wasn't much housing to begin with, so it's all pretty much a net gain.

[Texyn]

Originally Posted by detachable arm

I don’t understand this place sometimes. On one hand there is a thread with an article saying people are leaving Harris county more than they are moving into it, with the inner loop / urban core taking the brunt of the population loss. And that was pre-Harvey. Then on the other hand, things are flourishing, everything is greater than it has ever been, etc etc. What is really going on and what has this board turned into?

The population loss article defined the "urban core" as all of Harris County, so the Inner Loop wasn't specified:

We separated the nine counties in Houston’s metropolitan statistical area into three categories – Harris County, the core urban county; four suburban counties (Fort Bend, Montgomery, Galveston, and Brazoria); and four lightly populated exurban areas (Austin, Chambers, Liberty, and Waller).

https://kinder.rice.edu/2018/04/10/h...ris-county-not