By Teresa Durand-Stuebben, guest blogger
June 1, the “baby” graduated from Bartram Trail High School. Chris is the youngest of five, a blended family of four boys and a girl. His graduation resulted in our official “empty nest.” This empty nest is located in a beautiful oak-canopied riverfront area with a sparkling pool and plenty of nature. This empty nest also needs the lawn mowed, pool cleaned, an armadillo trapped and leaves bagged. All this work continues, but now without the contribution of our previous free labor, the children.
For the six months leading up to the final family high school graduation, my husband and I became serious about the repeated discussion we had for years – about the possibility of becoming more “urban.” Why did we have this reoccurring conversation?
Obvious motivations:
- Reduce our commuter time for quality of life (daily 1 hour, 30 minutes).
- Less commuter time in the car supports our commitment to environmental awareness.
- To enjoy the many activities around town more frequently without the dreaded 45-minute ride back home.
We look forward to Art Walk each month; we are proud owners of works by our local art community such as photographer Doug Eng and artist Jack Allen. However, incorporating a leisurely couple of hours at Art Walk and dinner, following a hectic work day with the time-consuming drive home, was a rare event.
Thus, for quality of life reasons, my husband and I made the plunge from the remote suburbs to the Southbank – to San Marco Place Condominiums, 1478 Riverplace Blvd. We will be sharing our processes to become “urban,” the experiences and adjustments, the good and the bad. We hope you will find it entertaining and enlightening in my follow-up posts.