One may not want to think of their lifestyle as “trendy,” yet that’s the word that comes to mind when thinking of the popularity of loft-style living popping up all over the metro. With tony pads in the sky in Edmond, on Northwest Expressway overlooking Lake Hefner and an assortment in the uber cool revitalized downtown OKC, I had to see for myself what all the hub-bub was about last Saturday at the Downtown Living tour, which touted eleven housing options downtown – and not one of them living at the bus terminal or under a bridge.

My neighbor Darcy and I decided to go it alone – she the navigator, me behind the wheel – as we maneuvered my modmama minivan sans kids for a trip to see how the other half live. The other half being those without children, because, it seems, families with tykes aren’t a big draw for loft-style living, though we did see some young uns in tow. I had in mind a chic place for regular weekend rendezvous’ for the hubby and me once that prized lottery ticket hits my hot hands, but enough about me. The point is – the lofts, mostly two and three bedrooms, two or three-storied options, are marketed to singles, newly marrieds, or retirees. As my friend pointed out–families live in apartments in New York, why can’t they do it here? The why not seems, at least at this writing, to be about access–to schools, grocery stores and parks. Lack of, you know, the basics for a functioning family in need of a quick market run for chocolate milk. But with those convenience fam-friendly options in place, I most certainly believe that families wanting cool urban living would ditch mowing and mosquitos for a family-planned community that wasn’t for silver hairs.

Loft-style and apartment living seems to equate to modern, contemporary or even retro interior design and furniture with funky lighting and abstract art splashed on the walls. While I believe this is just the accepted and expected phase one, I am certain phase two would more represent the populace–the place dictated by the owner’s personality and not how the builder represented it in the glossy brochure.  

I’m on board. I like the idea of being a hop, skip and a jump away from the holiday parades and concerts and great restaurants. I like the idea of actually walking to get my errands done instead of zig-zagging around town to do so while I cloud the environment and hand over precious dollars to the gas gods. I like the concept of a courtyard where families gather like one might imagine families did in the ‘50s before busy schedules made us lone rangers. Kids swing, families swap, if not recipes, at least take-out menus, and share the cost of things like a large swimming pool, which in many people’s backyards go practically unused, even in the summertime. It’s too bad, for growing families at least, that concept has not yet arrived yet.

Next week, stop back by to hear the buzz about the hot new trends in outdoor living.