On that note, may I introduce my next topic, which is a short pictorial review of some examples of the hideous and swollen houses that are being built out this-away at present. At least this is what they have been building up until the money dried up - tar paper shacks are likely to top the list of building choices next year.
My first example, which as with many of these obese beasts, is for sale. I used to think that the McMansion was only being built out west where the blocks are a bit bigger. Nope. These days, they are shoehorning them into the smaller blocks that characterise much of the inner west. You can still find HUGE blocks out this way, but they will set you back well into 7 figures. I don't mind someone building a monstrous folly on a big block, but I am a bit over the idea of building one of Rommel's two storey Atlantic Wall concrete bunkers in something the size of a backyard sandpit.
Anyway, the above joint is for sale. I wonder whether the owners have suddenly found themselves a bit overstretched in the current financial climate, and are selling up? Note the original bungalow next door, which is what you still see all over our suburb - and then you get these grotesque mushrooms sprouting all over the place. I can't really complain though - as a firm believer in property rights, I believe you should be allowed to build whatever the hell you like on your property, and everyone else can go to buggery.
Another exceedingly ugly pile - this time not for sale. We live in a hot climate - where are the eaves, for goodness sake? When I see a new house with no eaves, the first thing that pops into my head is "bonehead architect".
Rommel would have loved to have put this baby up as part of his Atlantic Wall. There would be an 88mm in the garage, and a few machine guns upstairs. It's hard to believe that this is a house. It looks more like a factory to me.
And there you have it. A quick architectural critique and property market review, by bike.
2 comments:
Good lord! You sound like my brother.
Where's the eaves
is his catchcry!
My house has .9m eaves.
I don't mind the second place...
I'm in Queensland and you should see how few houses they build up here now with any eaves at all...
All airconditioned. I think many of them are off the plans for Melbourne homes, which have rooms in the middle of them and which have furnaces on the walls, not like Qld where it's hot most of the year.
WV: bothern
Ten-year houses, these, built to minimum specification for cheapest price. Framing in walls is usually radiata pine 3x2.5 (inches in the old money) rather than 4x2 hardwood.
I have seen quite a number of these houses with whiteant (termite) infestation withing 2 years because the concrete slabs used as foundations don't have adequate underfloor chemical treatment or physical protection.
Most of these places were trade-ups for a couple of years while there were capital gains. Build and get out quickly.
In a few more years they will be very woolly, bad paint that will need to be stripped and redone, bad interior work, structural trouble. Basically demolition jobs in 20 years.
My house was built in 1919 and is still sound, though it has been given good tlc since 1975.
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