Turtle Creek Address Lets You Forget About Rent

What’re you over-paying for a 1,000-square-foot apartment on the east side of Turtle Creek? Cross the creek and see this 1,025-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bathroom, sixth-floor condo at 3701 Turtle Creek.  It’s a block off Blackburn … you know the street that runs through West Village … and the street that takes you two blocks to Turtle Creek Village with Paul Martin’s and Tom Thumb.

Unit 6C is listed with Grant Vancleve with Briggs Freeman for just $179,900. Let’s add in a mortgage of $680, HOA dues of $616, and taxes of approximately $300 per month.  That’s $1,596 per month and it includes utilities.  That same apartment plus utilities in Uptown is running how much?  Yeah, I thought so.

Dragged out of my box of tricks, here’s the (sideways) floor plan. Entry is on the top left. The living/dining area is a generous 16 by 29 feet with a good-sized 16 by 11-foot bedroom and wall of closets.  Before we continue, look at the kitchen.  I like this configuration.  The side opening is a little wonky, but it allows you to put in a whopper, double-deep island and still have plenty of space for a dining area (remember that).

Entering the unit shows you exactly how things are arranged.  At 16 feet wide, it’s not a thin room.  In fact, being almost twice the length as width are typical church proportions. In this case it gives open but zoned spaces.

The built-ins are a nice bonus. They add storage without hogging up a lot of space.  The center niche can be reworked to accommodate the TV of your choice.  All in all, plenty of seating space and even a desk area near the windows.

Off the living room is the balcony with views north and east.  Being so close to Turtle Creek, gives the added benefit of skating above the trees of its green belt.

Remember what I said about the kitchen?  What’s there now is certainly well-maintained and move-in, but if you wanted to tinker (I tinker) you could return the kitchen entry to where the cooktop is.  From there you can dump the wall oven and put a range into the then closed-off peninsula. That would create a galley with one open side that I’d bump-out from 24 inches wide to 48 inches for a large “island” with a range in the middle — the perfect cocktail and appetizer staging area for entertaining. Or leave it as is and order a few trays from Eatzi’s.

The bedroom is well-sized and well-lit. I’d probably toss the carpet and go with wood floors, but I’m a rug person. Wall-to-wallers will have no problems here. Heck, I even like the paint job.

It was the 1960s and bathrooms weren’t large.  You did your business and that was that.  Considering this unit will likely house one person, it’s a good space.  I mean would you rather have a bigger bathroom at the expense of a smaller living room?  Hopefully you’d want the largest room to be the one you spend the most waking (and dry) time in.

For urbanites, the views are pretty good.  Immediately in front of you are some low condo-mansions while you get the drama of some high-rises far enough away to be visually appealing without being able to read their newspapers.  Oh, and note that the two main high-rises are offices so they’ll be there when you’re at work to keep prying eyes at a minimum.

There you have it, a Turtle Creek condo for less than rent.

 

Remember:  High-rises, HOAs and renovation are my beat. But I also appreciate modern and historical architecture balanced against the YIMBY movement.  If you’re interested in hosting a Candysdirt.com Staff Meeting event, I’m your guy. In 2016 and 2017, the National Association of Real Estate Editors has recognized my writing with two Bronze (2016, 2017) and two Silver (2016, 2017) awards.  Have a story to tell or a marriage proposal to make?  Shoot me an email [email protected].