What do you think when you hear the word “condo”? What images pop into your mind? A high rise apartment building? Apartment style two, three or four story buildings lining an ocean, lake or waterway? Or maybe a cluster of connected homes, every one of them identical to the others. That’s what i always pictured in my mind. But what really is a condo? Would you know it if you saw it?
Of course, if you viewed a residential building, you might not be able to tell if they are condos or rental units. But what if you saw houses in a subdivision? Definitely not condos, right? These thoughts rattled around in my brain when my wife said, “Ya know, I don’t think our kids in Iowa have any idea what we are building.”
Then yesterday, we were driving along when we spotted a condo community. Circling in, slowly cruising down one street after another my wife gasped, “This isn’t a community, it’s an insane asylum!” I laughed, but had to agree it was quite “hospital-like”. Sets of two connected homes. Each pair placed a pleasant distance from the others, but all identical. And white. Sterile. White everywhere. The Pink Floyd song, Another Brick in the Wall, began playing in my mind. Everywhere, more identical buildings. Two hundred units I later discovered.
“Who would voluntarily live here?” and then, “How do we get out of here?” were my words as I struggled to find the exit to this hellish white maze.
So, we are having a condo built for us. But explanation is in order. No, we will not be in a building with others. Nor will we be in a hellish white maze.
We will be in a condo community with a mixture of stand alone and semi-detached homes. As every square inch inside our home was chosen by us, we also chose the outside. Colors of shingles, siding, brick, doors chosen. The neighbors homes will likewise be colorful. And with style. No marshmallow houses with green roofs and a few windows
Below is a photo of our street.. The blue house on the left in the picture is a condo. As is the red house. And our semi-detached home will be next door on the empty lot. All condos. Our long winding, quiet road populated by condos within a huge subdivision of traditional houses. Our difference is, while we paid for the lot and the entire home, inside and out… we will only own the inside… and a shared ownership of the entire condo community.
We could have chosen to build a traditional house in the subdivision. My younger daughter and her husband, after touring models with us, decided to do exactly that. Their foundation was poured yesterday, just a couple blocks away. The upfront cost of their traditional home is not much more than our condo cost. But we chose the maintenance free lifestyle. Small yard, no worries about landscaping, mowing or watering. No worries about snow removal. No external maintenance for roof, gutters, siding, etc. Water, sewer, insurance… all covered.
We made that decision, and so did our neighbors. Our larger community becomes “self sorting”. Younger couples with children, like my daughter’s family, surround our street. While our immediate neighbors have chosen the maintenance free condo lifestyle.
And all created by a large, respected builder well experienced with building communities… not just houses. They are actively building 39 communities across Michigan.
Perfect!