Two Bedroom Luxury Apartment

I was living in the Catskill Mountains near Cooperstown, New York which is very beautiful but has long, boring bone chilling winters. I wrote a book about it called "It Takes a Village Idiot" about this jerk who moves from Greenwich Village in Manhattan to a town of 600 people in upstate New York. I was that jerk. My wife and I lived there for 30 years. Finally the long, cold winters became unbearable. We would fly to Las Vegas (it used to be cheap to fly to Las Vegas, they wanted you to come) rent a car and drive for miles looking for places to retire and we found plenty of odd, charming and warmer places. Chloride, Nevada. Cedar City, Utah. Las Vegas, New Mexico. But Bisbee was unique. 5,000 people living in a town that until 1975 had 25,000 people. And it was cute. Colorful houses, no two alike, stacked on top of each other like they are on Caribbean islands, Lots of people on the sidewalks the way small towns used to be. Our first visit to Bisbee was in 1998. The bar at the hotel was so hopping, we couldn't get a drink. Remember, this is a place no one had ever heard of, but something was going on, that's for sure. So we went to another bar. Elmo's. It still has a sign in the window that says, "Sorry, We're Open." Anthony Bourdain would have loved it. Yes, it is a tourist town, but like myself, a lot of the people who live in Bisbee came here as tourists and never left. If you're very, very lucky --that might happen to you. I have a friend who says "Bisbee is self-flushing. People who don't get it don't stay, the people who do like it never leave."

Old Bisbee, the center of town is a place for walking and feeling inspired. I have lived here full time for five years and I still take pictures around town every day, it is just so interesting here. I bought a building next door to the Copper Queen Hotel mainly as a place to put visitors (I have seven brothers and sisters and they all have spouses and children and friends and -- well, you get the picture, they can't all stay in my guest bedroom.). The two story building was built in 1908 as the Western Union office Bisbee. I've found a picture of the building from 1924 and it still had a Western Union sign on it. I've heard that the Western Union manager lived in the upstairs part of the building which I've modernized extensively but still has a lot of l900's charm. I'm sure the Western Union manager would have like the steam showers in the bathrooms. I liked the downtown neighborhood because you can park the car and spend a day walking around without much effort. There are other great neighborhoods in Bisbee a five minute drive away. The Warren neighborhood has the largest collection of Craftsmen houses I have ever seen. Lowell is a time capsule of small downtowns with classic cars parked on both sides of its single main street. It's conveniently located on the edge of a 700 foot deep, mile long, open pit copper mine. It's kind of like visiting the Pyramids. In reverse.

I love to go to auctions and antique shops and art galleries and all of that shows up in this two-bedroom apartment. And all of the art is for sale. I'm not sure I would want to spend "A Night in the Museum" but a night in an art gallery is pretty pleasant. And none of it is too precious. I like fun stuff, things spark a conversation. I really enjoyed picking out the furniture and carpets and even the sheets as if they were works of art.