This Week in Real Estate

Lots of real estate-type activity on the street.  The house that had been owned by the family that is moving to Japan has sold, as has the house of the couple that is moving to New York.  Another house was just put on the market, so there will probably be new neighbors there, too, before too long.  The duplex had been under contract, but now the "For Sale" sign is back up; I guess the sale didn't go through.

I am sure that if the duplex does eventually sell, it will be knocked down and replaced with something much larger and well outside the budget of the former residents of the duplex.  Of course that's the plan for the apartments at Wessyngton and North Highland, too.  The "For Sale" signs there have been gone there for a long time, and the new signs are about the owners' request to subdivide the property into three lots instead of two.

I don't know that it's readable in my photograph but the meeting is on February 17.  Here's my question -- is the property big enough to build three houses that meet current zoning, or are they going to come back and ask for variances to zoning, since the lots are too small?  Tom and I hope to make it to the meeting next week.  We'll see what happens.

There's a sign at Angela's old house too (I still think of it as "Angela's house" even though she wasn't the last tenant there.)  

This one is a public notice that the trees marked with an "X" have been approved by the city for removal.  The date for public comment is past, and I think was already past by the time I saw the sign.

I figured if they had been asking for public comment it was okay to go onto the property and see what trees were being removed, so over the weekend I went into the backyard to see.  

It was depressing.  All the large trees in the back yard were marked with large orange X's.  Just one of them is in the photo below -- I think there were 5 trees that were marked for removal.  Several of them show, I think, in the photo above of the house; they are the trees that are closest, behind the house.  They are all going to be cut down.

It's not all bad news, though.  This house on Cumberland -- my favorite renovation in the neighborhood -- briefly had a "For Sale by Owner" sign in the front yard.  Yesterday while I was walking the dog I had a chance to ask if it had sold.  Yes, I was told.  Three days on the market, three offers.  

And I don't think they removed any trees.