illinoisjoe
New member
Hi all, new to the forum and new to Irvine. My basic question is, is there anywhere in town that offers more in the way of private outdoor space instead of indoor luxuries and property amenities?
We're moving here from Santa Cruz soon and have been doing a lot of virtual rental shopping online. Everything seems to be not really what we're looking for. We are much more interested in having nice quiet outdoor space (as private as possible) than having a sweet club house with poolside wifi cabanas. It seems that even when apartment complexes advertise a yard, they invariably have lots of shots of their palatial lobby and rental office, but not a single shot of the yard. When we do see a "yard" it looks more like a walled-off alley with a concrete slab on it and is the size of a walk-in closet. It seems like the only way to get a yard here is to rent a 4 bedroom full house, which we definitely don't need and can't really afford.
I would much prefer a funky/ semi-run down place with lots of privacy and outdoor space than a state-of-the art resort style condo with access to a community hot tub. We only need one bedroom (not opposed to two). We like to cook (strongly prefer gas stoves) and garden and we have indoor/outdoor cats that we'd like to let roam. Is that possible? where should we look? I've tried creative searches like "in-law unit", "back yard", "private yard", "cottage", "garden/er/ing", but I'm not finding much on craigslist, hotpads, trulia, zillow or any of their clones.
Oh, and while I'm dreaming, we also hate commuting, so close to work is better. My wife's work will be just north of the Orange County Great Park. I'm still looking for work but being close to UCI is probably a good bet for me.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
We're moving here from Santa Cruz soon and have been doing a lot of virtual rental shopping online. Everything seems to be not really what we're looking for. We are much more interested in having nice quiet outdoor space (as private as possible) than having a sweet club house with poolside wifi cabanas. It seems that even when apartment complexes advertise a yard, they invariably have lots of shots of their palatial lobby and rental office, but not a single shot of the yard. When we do see a "yard" it looks more like a walled-off alley with a concrete slab on it and is the size of a walk-in closet. It seems like the only way to get a yard here is to rent a 4 bedroom full house, which we definitely don't need and can't really afford.
I would much prefer a funky/ semi-run down place with lots of privacy and outdoor space than a state-of-the art resort style condo with access to a community hot tub. We only need one bedroom (not opposed to two). We like to cook (strongly prefer gas stoves) and garden and we have indoor/outdoor cats that we'd like to let roam. Is that possible? where should we look? I've tried creative searches like "in-law unit", "back yard", "private yard", "cottage", "garden/er/ing", but I'm not finding much on craigslist, hotpads, trulia, zillow or any of their clones.
Oh, and while I'm dreaming, we also hate commuting, so close to work is better. My wife's work will be just north of the Orange County Great Park. I'm still looking for work but being close to UCI is probably a good bet for me.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice.