SubscribeAs is now ordinary for us, having done virtually the same thing two years ago, we came last Sunday to Missoula, became re-captivated by this area’s many charms and subsequently spent all of one day (today, in fact) racking up over 100 miles driving the city from one end to the other, two increasingly car-sick but still-patient mutts in the way-back, careening down one real-estate-signed street, side-street, alley and crosswalk after another. I don’t care for this approach to examining a potential real-estate market because I come home end-0f-day grouchy and exhausted but the benefit is that we can eliminate whole areas; I know, for example, that I do NOT want to live in the (advertised as desireable) Patti Canyon area, as it appears to mostly feature 25-year-old side-of-mountain homes that probably would have been moderate subdivision properties at best if they were on the flat. The fact that they have views for miles is supposed to make people overlook their multitude of other shortcomings, I suppose, but they didn’t get past Irene and I who just kept on driving. The Target area, on the other hand, is a potential. This area, named not for the somewhat-nearby Target Store as you probably suspected, being as shallow as you are, but instead for the fact that, many moons ago, this area was a military target range, is eclectic at best, but at best is truly charming, backing onto the Clark’s Fork common areas in many places, home to mucho wildlife, great views, trees, and, of course, running water in the form of braided channels from this, Montana’s largest river (albeit a bit further downstream). When I call this couple-of-square-miles area eclectic I ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie…it is world-class Eclectic with a purposeful capital E. For instance, at one point we did a quick turnaround in a for-sale property that consisted of a tiny, fifty-year-old house on a dirt road. Next to it was a jumble-house of innovatively used apparently not-new materials…one side a mass of tiny paint-peeled windows, another side literally corrugated tin. On the other side was a wreck of a place with a tiny, completely rusted-out travel trailer sitting square in its gravel driveway where a car should be and with laundry hanging out on a pole off the back porch. But around the corner was a brand-new spec house that, the owner being outside and insisting on giving us a tour, obviously affluent ready-to-buy-ers that we are, seemed if not worth the $2M price tag, was at least close. This beautiful beast was 6,000 sq. feet of granite, marble, stone, semi-precious woods, and even the world’s nicest RV garage with antiqued cement floors and a total gourmet kitchen and full bathroom….just in case your visitors get tired being in their rig, I suppose. He regaled us with stories of sitting in the afternoon sun on the all-rock patio, watching a red-tailed hawk attack a magpie and capturing the whole fight on his massive telephoto lens. In fact the whole conversation felt like a “bigger than yours” kind of thing, if you get my drift, but on the other hand it was and is a quality piece of work. At the end he asked me what WE were looking for in a home. I was honest and told him; something about 1/3 the size on about an acre instead of the five acres. Graciously he pointed out another Target-area home location and suggested we check it out….it would only be 2,000 square feet “although it does have a finished basement”, as if that would be a negative. And, even though the price would be much, much less, you still have the same great views, you are still in the same superior neighborhood, you still are less than fifteen minutes from the many services Missoula offers and that attract us.
I have to say, though, that at the end of the day I am often glad I am still an RVer. We, too, have the same backyards as these guys, the same sunsets, the same access to superior Missoula services. And if our neighbors get pesty or that red-tailed hawk is too noisy eating his magpie dinner, we can change our backyard by the next day. I’d like to see Steve (the bigger-than-yours guy) try that trick.
A good one, sweetie!