April 17, 2008
How To Detract from the Landscape
Before I start giving you pictures of houses I really like, let's start with some I don't like much at all and why.
The rest is below the fold because it got too long.
Very near our current house, there is a small subdivision. About 25 houses sitting on 2-3 acres each. The terrain is beautiful, hilly, there are trees, and when you reach the top of one hill - the view goes for miles. It's stunning, especially in the fall.
Unfortunately, the town decided it would go ahead and give permission for a "tract house" builder to come in and develop the land. If you have ever driven through vast swaths of tract houses, you will understand the bland dullness, the total unworthiness, of the houses that now squat on beautiful portions of land.
Mind you, tract houses have their place. I've lived in them nearly my entire life. They make housing affordable to most people. But that doesn't mean they should be allowed to sprout everywhere. Once they have rooted, they will be there for 100 years, blighting the landscape while hapless owners work frantically to keep them from falling to bits.
I know about this particular builder - they build in the Midwest too. They were building a subdivision near one of my Illinois houses - over 1000 houses, 3 or 4 different "exterior styles" ensuring you can almost tell your house apart from the other 999 in the neighborhood. With all the "features" one expects from a slapdash style of building by a large builder churning houses out in vast quantities.
You know these amenities I'm talking about. Doors that open into each other, posts in exactly the wrong place to get furniture down in the basement, jack and jill bathrooms with one door to each bedroom (thus ensuring your children will be constantly fighting about who locked who out of the bathroom). To name a few. I won't elaborate on some of the shortcuts taken to save money. We spent too many painful years fixing those things for me to dwell on them very long.
So, let's have a look...
Now I know you're looking at this house and thinking "damn she's gone round the bend, what's wrong with that house?" Well, for a house that will run you in the high 6 figures, it's simply not a worthy contender and certainly not when it gets in the way of beautiful land.
Dull, dull, dull. Look at the lines of the roof. Nothing to catch the eye nothing to distinguish it. All vinyl siding too - charming. As far as we can tell, there is one single house with a brick front. None even have cedar siding. Nope, they all have the tacky vinyl (which creaks with the temperature changes). This house probably has nearly 3000 sq. ft of living space. It's large. Even better, have a look at this:
This is the furnace chimney. Right at the peak of the roof in all its metallic glory. We have looked and out of all the houses only 2 of them have made an effort to cut the length of the pipe so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. The builder made no effort to disguise this blot on the house, didn't even try to do a chimney surround that might have made some aesthetic sense.
Let's look at another...
If possible, it's even more dull than the first one. There are even fewer gables on this house. It's simply one large box. You will notice the entire side of the house only has 2 small windows. Basically the builders built the cheapest structure they could manage. (although quite a bit of the cost of development here is preparing the land which probably needed blasting before they could build - granite is hard to dig through)
So, instead of building something smaller and nicer - with better roof lines, maybe some varying outer walls to add interest - they went with big and bland. A box with a roof. Lovely. And look....
As you can see, it too has the lovely furnace pipe stuck at the peak of the roof for the entire world to see. It's typical, but disheartening. I should be used to it, but I can't help thinking of all the great houses they could have built on that land and yet they chose these. *sigh*
So there you have it, the mini- McMansions of the Midwest have moved to New England. There is nothing wrong with them per se - they are simply the wrong house in the wrong place. The fact that we can't go back and undo this is just sad.
One wonders what the town advisors saw when these were proposed. I'm pretty sure it was dollar signs because they weren't chosen for looks.
The rest is below the fold because it got too long.
Very near our current house, there is a small subdivision. About 25 houses sitting on 2-3 acres each. The terrain is beautiful, hilly, there are trees, and when you reach the top of one hill - the view goes for miles. It's stunning, especially in the fall.
Unfortunately, the town decided it would go ahead and give permission for a "tract house" builder to come in and develop the land. If you have ever driven through vast swaths of tract houses, you will understand the bland dullness, the total unworthiness, of the houses that now squat on beautiful portions of land.
Mind you, tract houses have their place. I've lived in them nearly my entire life. They make housing affordable to most people. But that doesn't mean they should be allowed to sprout everywhere. Once they have rooted, they will be there for 100 years, blighting the landscape while hapless owners work frantically to keep them from falling to bits.
I know about this particular builder - they build in the Midwest too. They were building a subdivision near one of my Illinois houses - over 1000 houses, 3 or 4 different "exterior styles" ensuring you can almost tell your house apart from the other 999 in the neighborhood. With all the "features" one expects from a slapdash style of building by a large builder churning houses out in vast quantities.
You know these amenities I'm talking about. Doors that open into each other, posts in exactly the wrong place to get furniture down in the basement, jack and jill bathrooms with one door to each bedroom (thus ensuring your children will be constantly fighting about who locked who out of the bathroom). To name a few. I won't elaborate on some of the shortcuts taken to save money. We spent too many painful years fixing those things for me to dwell on them very long.
So, let's have a look...
Now I know you're looking at this house and thinking "damn she's gone round the bend, what's wrong with that house?" Well, for a house that will run you in the high 6 figures, it's simply not a worthy contender and certainly not when it gets in the way of beautiful land.
Dull, dull, dull. Look at the lines of the roof. Nothing to catch the eye nothing to distinguish it. All vinyl siding too - charming. As far as we can tell, there is one single house with a brick front. None even have cedar siding. Nope, they all have the tacky vinyl (which creaks with the temperature changes). This house probably has nearly 3000 sq. ft of living space. It's large. Even better, have a look at this:
This is the furnace chimney. Right at the peak of the roof in all its metallic glory. We have looked and out of all the houses only 2 of them have made an effort to cut the length of the pipe so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. The builder made no effort to disguise this blot on the house, didn't even try to do a chimney surround that might have made some aesthetic sense.
Let's look at another...
If possible, it's even more dull than the first one. There are even fewer gables on this house. It's simply one large box. You will notice the entire side of the house only has 2 small windows. Basically the builders built the cheapest structure they could manage. (although quite a bit of the cost of development here is preparing the land which probably needed blasting before they could build - granite is hard to dig through)
So, instead of building something smaller and nicer - with better roof lines, maybe some varying outer walls to add interest - they went with big and bland. A box with a roof. Lovely. And look....
As you can see, it too has the lovely furnace pipe stuck at the peak of the roof for the entire world to see. It's typical, but disheartening. I should be used to it, but I can't help thinking of all the great houses they could have built on that land and yet they chose these. *sigh*
So there you have it, the mini- McMansions of the Midwest have moved to New England. There is nothing wrong with them per se - they are simply the wrong house in the wrong place. The fact that we can't go back and undo this is just sad.
One wonders what the town advisors saw when these were proposed. I'm pretty sure it was dollar signs because they weren't chosen for looks.
Posted by: Teresa in
House Blogging
at
11:02 PM
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Posted by: JihadGene at April 17, 2008 11:31 PM (no8nn)
2
JG - exactly. Yeeech about covers it. LOL.
Posted by: Teresa at April 17, 2008 11:49 PM (EPWWA)
3
From Weeds:
Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
Posted by: Jerry at April 18, 2008 12:41 AM (nrKIR)
4
The white one looks like a horse barn with an attached garage.
But before you get the idea that I would turn down residence in one, they make the Cracker Box look like a box in an alley. LOL!
But before you get the idea that I would turn down residence in one, they make the Cracker Box look like a box in an alley. LOL!
Posted by: pam at April 18, 2008 05:58 AM (l6NIn)
5
That one with the red door looks like the Freddy Krueger house. There are some modest, and quite tiny bungalows in Sheepshead Bay, not much bigger than my first floor studio/one room/whatever my living arrangement is called. I'd be happy in such a place. I'm not a living large type.
Posted by: Erica at April 18, 2008 08:50 AM (OQDyt)
6
Sad to tell you that these are all over: Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Colorado. Every place looks like every place else now.
Also, how did Al Gore let these things go up, what with all the fossil fuel consumption required to keep these things warm for a family of four that is out of the house from 7am till 6pm?
Modern life - ya gotta love it.
Posted by: Suzette at April 18, 2008 12:01 PM (Dt42Y)
7
And you *like* my house?? Are you sure??
Though we do have a bit of brick action happening on the front...
Though we do have a bit of brick action happening on the front...
Posted by: Richmond at April 18, 2008 12:46 PM (6Qx6k)
8
Jerry - that's hilarious.
Pam - I know in a few places I've lived I would've given anything for a house like these. I don't "hate" them so much as I hate where they are. In certain areas they would be fine and very likely nicer than other housing.
Erica - I think the door is the only thing that gives it character. *grin*
Suzette - y'know on thinking about it - if it's gonna give Algore hives I may just have to get me one.
Rich - your house is great - LOL.
Pam - I know in a few places I've lived I would've given anything for a house like these. I don't "hate" them so much as I hate where they are. In certain areas they would be fine and very likely nicer than other housing.
Erica - I think the door is the only thing that gives it character. *grin*
Suzette - y'know on thinking about it - if it's gonna give Algore hives I may just have to get me one.
Rich - your house is great - LOL.
Posted by: Teresa at April 18, 2008 05:11 PM (EPWWA)
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