Condo Dreamin'

From 1998 until 2003, I lived in a wonderful apartment in Somerville, halfway between Davis and Porter Squares. It was on the third floor, with a southwest exposure so that I got a lot of sunlight. I felt as if I were in a bird's nest. My bed, a futon, tucked underneath the eaves. I walked everywhere I needed to go. There were two Anna's Taquerias where I could stop, one in each square. When I was first there, the original Bertucci's was so close by that we could (and did) walk down to pick up a pizza for supper in subzero weather and get back home before the pizza was cold. There was a great bakery-coffee shop practically next door. There was a Starbucks for when I was feeling wealthy and two Dunkin Donuts for when I was feeling cheap. There were four Indian restaurants within walking distance. I wished I could stay there forever.

Eventually, though, I decided it was time to stop renting, and I bought a house. As much as I wanted to stay nearby, I couldn't afford to buy a house in Somerville. So I ended up in a poor city north of Boston. My commute involves a drive, a subway ride, and a bus ride, and takes over an hour each way. There is a convenience mart and a bad coffee shop within walking distance. The closest Indian restaurant is in the food court at the Square One Mall in Saugus. We have to drive 15 minutes to get to a Bertucci's (and they've gotten overpriced anyway), and in order to get to Anna's, we have to return to Porter or Davis Squares. I have a garden, but I feel isolated, and I miss my old home more and more each day.

Some friends who still live in Somerville have been keeping me up to date on my old building. It had been sold and was being converted into condominiums. I had always said to myself that if my old apartment was converted to a condo, I'd buy it. Last week I looked it up in the real-estate ads and discovered that, of the six condos, three were already spoken for. Two were listed, one at $379,000 and one at $539,000, as I mentioned a couple of entries ago. I don't know what happened to the third one.

My son and I made a couple of trips to Davis Square recently - to eat burritos at Anna's and to buy bread from When Pigs Fly. Last Monday we walked past my old building, and I took pictures. Here's a side-by-side comparison:

This is what it looked like when I lived there. If you look carefully through the tree branches at the highest windows on the side of the house, you'll see my "slider-doors-to-nowhere." I think they had hoped to put a balcony on that side when they renovated the house back in the 1970s.



And here's what it looked like on Monday. The slider-doors-to-nowhere are still there! I was sure they'd go. The other windows on that side did. But they added dormers on the front (where my kitchen was) and on the back (where my bedroom was). They've put some kind of balcony in front of the dormer where I could put a small tub of herbs. If I could live there. Which I can't, since I'm guessing it's one of the units that has been spoken for.

Both units that are for sale are on the other side of the building (the shady side...). They've put in central air. The building was gutted and completely remodeled. No wonder they're charging so much for the places, even in this economy. And I'm sure they're worth it for the location alone.

I think maybe tomorrow or Friday I'll call the realtor and ask to be taken through the less expensive condo. Maybe I can get them to take me through my old apartment, too, just because I want to see what they've done to it. I don't know, maybe if I act as if I can afford to move back there, it'll happen. Can't hurt, anyway.