[From the Fall 2023 Showcase of Homes Magazine]
Written By Cindy Conaway | Photos Provided
What we wanted was a mid-century ranch house within walking distance from downtown (or at least a place to get coffee) and a local pool, either in Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls or Ballston Spa. What we are buying is... not that. But it is, according to paperwork from our builder, a one-story “Open Concept Split Bedroom Layout” house at a price we can afford, with the interior design style planned to our liking, a potential for aging in place, and as “green” as we can afford.
Let me back up a bit…
I never wanted a house, or even thought about it much. As a kid I always planned to have a loft in Soho and act on Broadway. As an adult, I never really thought much beyond renting, or maybe buying a condo or townhouse. When we started this process, we were engaged Associate Professors at SUNY Empire State University (I have since been promoted to Full Professor). I teach Digital Communication and Media Studies. Chris teaches Political Science and has taught Business as well. We returned to Saratoga Springs from New York City in December of 2020, when the pandemic made living and working in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with no patio or porch in upper Manhattan (in fact, on Broadway—although north of the George Washington Bridge) unbearable.
The lease was up, and Chris, who I had met in Saratoga Springs and had a long-distance relationship with for three years before moving to New York myself in 2012 (and working, ironically, in Soho, but in a very ordinary office building) was moving from an administrative job back to a faculty line. Returning to Saratoga seemed like our best choice.
We were teaching and having meetings fully online, so we each needed a home office and were ready to have two bathrooms again. Outdoor space was a must, and I really wanted a pool. I found a two-bedroom two-bathroom apartment with a den in Saratoga Springs with a terrace and pool, and arranged to move in, sight unseen, with a 15-month lease. Since the rent included a space in a parking garage, cable, internet, and a washer and dryer (all things we paid extra for in the city), it cost about the same as our (rent stabilized) NYC place. Although we did not see much of our old Saratoga friends until after we were all able to be vaccinated, the pool was a great place to socialize with neighbors and I took to strapping on a mask and going to Kru Coffee or Fresh Market, both just a few steps away. We decorated, adding a few pieces to our collection of mid-century and mid-century-inspired furniture, which I’ve been collecting for over 20 years. I love bold colors, particularly red and cobalt blue, which looked nice in our apartment, though it was hard to ignore the worn beige carpet.
When we renewed our lease, our rent went up. I learned at the pool (where I spent more time reading or chatting on the steps than actually swimming) that second summer, that the building had new owners. Some neighbors’ rents had gone up as much as $600 per month. Many were looking to buy. We started discussing it ourselves.
We loved the ease of apartment living. Chris, who had refurbished two old houses with his ex (a realtor), one in Saratoga Springs, another in Glens Falls, had told me early in our relationship that he never wanted to do any kind of construction, yard work, or snow shoveling again. I had lived in five previous big cities in apartments and was not anxious to start doing these things at the age of 55. Each night, as we watched Jeopardy!, we’d see commercials for all kinds of things like gutter cleaning and roofing, things I never had to deal with and didn’t want to now. However, given inflation, it made sense for our financial security to find a home where Chris and I could age in place. This meant, among other things, no stairs (even to do laundry).
We are both tenured, and I had saved enough for a good down payment. My parents offered to help with a generous wedding gift. But we wanted to keep to a reasonable budget. We are not rich, but comfortable, and don’t want to become “house poor.” We like to be able to travel in general, and go away to warm beaches in the winter, especially in February, which I call my “stabby” month.
Could we find a house in our price range that met our needs in Saratoga?
Evidently not.
Nearby Wilton felt too suburban. It was clear from Zillow that we could get more for our money in Glens Falls. We looked first for condos with pools in their complexes. No sign of them in our price range. The townhouses we saw (also pool-free) were on roads too dark for me to navigate at night. Realtor Lisa Capone steered us away from some newer houses with boring white kitchens and potential drainage issues in “up-and-coming" neighborhoods and showed us several older houses that needed repairs and would have taken even more money to decorate the way I had in mind. One had its own pool, which seemed like more work than we wanted, and an Americana décor theme that I wouldn’t be able to live with. There was one house that was “build to suit,” but any deviation from the standard would be considered a costly “change order” and it seemed overpriced for the run-down neighborhood. Nothing was near a coffee house and only one older two-story house was near the YMCA, so at that point, the distinction between “in town” and suburbs meant a lot less.
I began to re-think suburban, as something that was not “country”—If I saw a cow, I knew we would be out too far.
Click Here to Read 'Choosing A Home Part II'
Click Here to Read Part III
