Living in a house on a semi busy street

All the different ways of solving the shelter problem. To be static or mobile? Roots, legs, or wheels?
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SimpleLife
Posts: 771
Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2013 8:23 pm

Living in a house on a semi busy street

Post by SimpleLife »

Recently while showing my rental house to some prospective tenants, I noticed that even with the windows open, I didn't even notice the occasional car driving by, even though it is on a somewhat busy street, one lane in each direction.

The street only get's a car or four every few minutes during rush hour, as people who either live on the street or are using it as a short cut drive through. After about 7 or 8 PM it is pretty dead, and the same thing can be said after the morning commute. It does have a stop light at both ends of this looong road so it is busier than your average side street but not a major arterial by any means. No sidewalks or bus routes, no retail.

Anyways, as I was saying, the noise didn't even bother me. I decided to go to the back room that is large enough to use as a living room, faces a large back yard, has built in book shelves, and an exterior door, etc. Even with the windows open (fan in the window) I could not hear the cars at all. I had to look for them pass by through the window and the bushes because for a few minutes I thought a car hadn't passed yet.

I had read an article a while back that talked about how the key to living in such a house is to add insulation, water features, white noise, and rearrange the living areas so the rooms you spend the most time in are in the back of the house. The rearrangement of living areas is very effective in this case.

This is great news of course, as I could pour a little bit of money into some sound proofing, a water feature outside, and use the back room as a living room (it has an exterior door). Even just using the back room as a living room with a fan running would solve the problem. The bedrooms are pretty quiet after hours since the road is a residential street after all. Frankly I need to have a fan on some form of white noise going in the background anyways as I am very noise sensitive.

In any case, the significance of this is that is that even if I decide to move back into it to fall back on, or ERE in (VERY walk/bike able, close to transit and everything I do for entertainment and commuting routes).

Yes, the street is not ideal, but not terrible either, and it does at least keep loud kids from playing in the street, and to an extent, if you are out BBQing in the yard on a Friday or Saturday night, you feel "connected". Furthermore, everything else about the house is perfect for ERE other than the traffic noise. I am close to high paying jobs with an easy transit commute, walking distance to stores and entertainment, can have chickens and a large garden and no HOA. The only down side is the noise, but there has to be a compromise somewhere, and in this case if I want a place without the traffic noise, I'd have to pay more.

I could do that by cashing out on this house which I got a great deal on 5 years ago, but I think it's worth trying as is. After-all, I did live there for 2.5 years and liked it way better than an apartment.

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