[blparent] house shopping

[dawn stumpner]

Hi, Allison
    Yes, I could totally relate to your comment about blind home 
shoppers and sighted friends/ family/ realtors  not always 
looking at things in the same way.  Sometimes you can ask the 
"right" questions but still get the wrong answers because sighted 
and non-sighted people have different perspectives on what 
accessible, convenient, and other things mean in some settings.  
I remember buying one house where I found out afterward that 
there were no sidewalks to go anywhere.  I had asked about 
walkability and walking distances, but I hadn't mentioned 
sidewalks specifically because I just assumed there were 
sidewalks (since all places I'd lived in Madison, WI before this 
always had sidewalks).  There was a sidewalk-walkway to enter the 
house, so I had the illusion of a sidewalk, and I didn't actually 
walk from the house to the park, etc.  before buying the house.  
I ended up having to walk at the edge of the road pulling a 
stroller or walking with my then-toddler every time we went to 
the park, a neighbor's house, etc.  The street was extremely 
quiet and nearly always empty of traffic, but it was the lack of 
sidewalks and a less convenient than expected bus route that 
prompted me to start house-hunting again after only a year there.  
Another time I lived in Iowa for a while, and I'd learned my 
lesson to ask about sidewalks, but although the little town where 
we lived DID have sidewalks, no one thought to mention that many 
of them just ended abruptly.  Sometimes there was an alternate 
route across the street where the sidewalk continued, sometimes 
the sidewalk resumed in 30 feet or so, but I didn't know where 
the sidewalk was when it ended, and it was disconcerting in a new 
town and with young children.  Each time you move and each time 
you hear stories from friends and acquaintances, you hone what 
types of questions you need to ask.  Live and learn! I love the 
house I'm in now, and the sidewalks are great, too! LOL.