A 'Hood for Good 2

The beginning of Neighbors On Purpose in our new home began before we signed the lease in December of 2008: we interviewed (visited) the tenant next door!

She was happy to welcome us into her home, and into the small building as neighbors. She eagerly told us about the landlord, the building, what she likes about living there and why, and so forth. She relayed who had been in our apartment before us (which explained why she was so happy to welcome us!).

We told her some of the things that we appreciated about the place as our potential new home, why we were moving, and what we missed in this place when we compared it to our ideal... Then she showed us how we DID have a garden, we DID have neighbors who all knew and celebrated one another (she just likes to keep to herself more than that group, "but you'll just Love them!"). We were ecstatic. Almost all of our desires were confirmed! Well, except the "jacuzzi on a balcony just outside our bedroom" one, which was a bit outrageous anyway (some neighbors got a jacuzzi a few months later).

We found our ideal home, and (for me) realizing that it was already perfect was very important BEFORE signing the lease. We met our new neighbors on purpose!

A 'Hood for Good 1

When my partner and I were looking for a place to live together, we physically got into the neighborhoods and felt the vibe there (I wish we'd biked or walked instead of the driving experience.) Equipped with our list of things that our ideal place had, we dealt with awareness of our optimism as well as our ability to welcome upgrades into our life. We used our intuitions to select places (and landlords' voice mails) that felt like "all green lights" and interviewed for an understated place that was surprisingly Out Of This World. The things that made it affordable were things that we could do something about (clean the carpet ourselves, replace the electrical outlets, get some curtains, accept the color scheme) and our structural and feng-shui desires were fundamentally met.

We knew we were lucky, because we knew what to focus on, and what wouldn't phase us. We knew the hard as well as the soft goals we shared, and what was basic and what was frills. We were becoming neighbors ...on purpose.