Hello all, I hope you are well. I hope your weekend was pleasant. Ours was quiet, but it ended with the Eagles winning their playoff game and homemade corn tortillas with our dinner yesterday (courtesy of The Tim), so I'll take it.
Today let's discuss rules. Now, I will admit that I am a conundrum of a person, because a) I love rules and order, and b) I am not good with micro-managers in a work situation, and in general am someone who is highly suspicious of anyone in a top management role (especially wealthy types who are VERY impressed with themselves).
But I'm here today to show you how something can follow the rules, but still not follow the rules. Even though the only rules I'm talking about are in my head.
One thing out of the bazillion things that annoys me in the universe is when you go someplace and, say there are streets upon streets of colonial-era houses, and then someone (probably in a top management role, to be honest) buys one or more of the houses, and builds an ultra-modern house there. To quote a long-ago co-worker, it really "jacks my jaws."
I'm all for variety in a neighborhood, I like seeing different houses and how people fix them up. But I also think that if you live somewhere where 95% of the houses are of a certain style, throwing in something else is just stupid. And believe me, in Center City Philadelphia, where there are a LOT of old houses, people think they are being so creative but instead I think it looks awful. (Certain neighborhoods are protected as historical, but not the whole city.)
Which is why this particular house always makes me happy when I walk past it.
Now, you may not like it at all, but this to me is acceptable. This is clearly two rowhouses turned into a single home. And it's modern, but not ultra-modern and when you are walking along this street and see it, it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, really (even though I have isolated it here). You can see in my photo there is a typical rowhouse on one side of it - I didn't manage to get the one on the other side, but it's a typical brick rowhouse that is actually the same height as this one. So as you are walking down the street (or driving, I guess, I never do), you notice it but you aren't hit in the face with LOOK AT MY BIGGER MODERN HOUSE AMONG THESE OLD THINGS. It uses red brick, like most of the houses on this street, and so it actually blends in while also being different.
I'm sure the people who re-did the house and/or live there would be happy to know that I approve of their design, because it follows rules that I think make sense. 😉
Unlike some just ugly houses near us that I'll have to show you sometime. In one case, they tore down an entire half block of rowhouses to build new ones that would have elevators and "dip pools." 🙄 In another case, they took an empty lot and built two ugly "rowhouses" on the corner. I call these two sets of buildings "Ugly" (first example), and "Butt Ugly" (second example).
Don't get me wrong - I love architecture, and a lot of different styles. But I hate things that seem to have been built to not fit into an area. It really annoys me, and as I have told The Tim on many occasions, I wish I could be in charge so such things could be avoided. Which he then reminds me that I want to be in charge of so many things, I wouldn't have time for them all anyway. Which is true. So I guess it's a good thing I'm in charge of nothing ... because really, I don't want to be top management either ...
What can I say? I'm full of contradictions.
And don't even get me started on a set of houses built in the neighborhood about ten years ago with a numbering system that causes my OCD to take over. (I seriously at all costs avoid walking past them, and if I have to, I walk on the other side of the street. The Tim finds this more than amusing. Which of course irritates me even more.)
6 comments:
I'm surprised that these aren't protected by some historical district rules! Out west, if something was built in the 1950s (!!!) it is hard to change it or tear it down because of preservation of the architecture!! I like the brickwork of the house.
You should see what's going on here at the beach. They've been knocking down the little old houses and putting up these ugly three story square boxes that come right up the the little neighboring houses on both sides. I don't know how they get away with it zoning wise. They block the water views from all sides. I'm sorry but we are way past the point where we should be eating the rich.
Rules and a sense of decorum . . . the world is a better place when we follow them, non? Our neighborhood has a certain "look," but every once in a while, someone decides to veer a little bit. One of our next-door neighbors had their house painted a couple of years ago. It's a cedar-sided house, and it's a light, creamish-shade, which is fine. But . . . they decided to paint some of the planks on the gables in a blue and whited striped pattern -- with a bubble-gum pink front door. Now it has a cabana/beach house look, year-round. And . . . with several months of gloomy weather here, it looks quite silly. (Especially when decorated for Christmas -- with big red bows.) It makes my eye twitch all winter long. . .
I think you have described perfectly the problem with the ultra rich, they want to stick out like a sore thumb. They don't want to fit in, be part of, or be considered "one of them". Sad but true. And I am with Araignee, we are well past the time of eating the rich.
I feel you - In Dave's Grandma's neighbourhood - it was filled with a combo of war bungalows, 60s/70s ranches, and 80s sidesplits (with the biggest being about 2000 sq feet), and variations thereof. And they all somehow worked together. But over the last 10 years, one by one, so many have been bought, torn down and replaced with 3000-5000 sq ft monstrosities that take up almost the whole lot. Many are three stories high and thus tower over their smaller neighbours, taking away any semblance of privacy in their yards - not to mention sunlight! I don't understand how you can move into a neighbourhood because you "love the character" of the area - and then just take a giant crap all over that character! There's definitely ways you can build a big house, but still make it fit in!
Oooooh, I like it, too! Well done renovator!
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