I'm not sure if the moderators will view this as too off-topic, but here goes.
About a six-minute walk from where I live stands a stately house built in the early 1900s of gray stone, with many twists and turns in its architecture, including a large tower, and surrounded by a stone fence and gate. A circular drive brings one up to the car port, and a few low steps up to the front doors, which are heavy ornately carved wood and thick cut leaded glass. Across from the entrance is a fountain, and beyond this is spacious, two-story Tudor-style carriage house not visible from the street.
The home instantly reminded me of "Dark Shadows" the first time I saw it ... it seems to be a cross between Seaview Terrace and Lyndhurst's Gothic architecture. I walk often at night and sometimes see a light in the second floor of the tower room, and speculate as to whom is locked within ...
I have taken pictures of the house on two occasions, and one of the moderators of this board has seen some of them.
Last week, for the first time in all my years of walking (slowly) past the house, I noticed a sign on the gate saying that an apartment on the estate was available. My heart nearly skipped a beat -- this could be my chance -- a one and only chance in a lifetime -- to live at "Collinwood"! I imagined what it would be like to actually live and breathe an atmosphere so reminiscent of Dark Shadows -- it would be as if the show were brought to life every day.
My call the next day was answered by one of the staff, who then made an appointment for me to see the apartment, which wasn't in the main house ("the one that looks like a castle") but in the carriage house.
The carriage house was no garret -- high cathedral ceilings, hardwood floors, a fireplace, balcony, a breathtaking view of the grounds from the second-floor bedroom. And the rent was close to what I currently am paying for far more prosaic living quarters.
There were a couple of drawbacks, the primary one being that parking was limited to outdoors. Also, since one section of "the mansion" (as the caretaker referred to it) had also been made into apartments, parking within the gates of the estate wasn't always available.
If this were California, that might not be a problem. But having had the experience of parking outdoors through sub-zero winters and being dumped on by freezing ice and several feet of snow sometimes for weeks and months on end, I didn't know if I could trade my current more comfortable and convenient parking situation. I said I would need to think about it.
I took an application, and after two nights of tossing and turning and discussing my tortured decision with anyone who would listen, I finally returned with my application two days later. You guessed it -- the apartment was gone! It had been snatched up in less than three days!
If I had another chance, would I have said yes immediately, as someone else seems to have done? I'm not sure -- there are some very practical decisions that one must make when it comes to moving, and there were a couple of other aspects that wouldn't have been quite as convenient as my current situation.
So ... living in a dream world of Dark Shadows, or choosing practicality ... the dilemma still haunts me.
