Spike,
That is one of the reasons I didn't like Dallas - there is very much a "f-you" mentality when it comes to homes and where you live. Gigantic homes and some pretty creepy ones, too (down near where Perot Sr. lives, I forget the neighborhood, the one with all the nice manicured grass on the traffic islands, south of Plano)
I remember talking with Dave S. about housing, and then chatting with a co-worker about the areas that Dave was suggesting (nice areas, good homes, well priced, recent construction, by my measure good schools...) - the coworker said "Only poor white trash live there" - this coming from a guy making $100k and mortgaged out to $750k....
You sure do get a lot of house for the money down your way, though... and there are some respectable PoA'ers in the area too! (Except you Spike - nothing we can do about you, sadly
)
Cue Dr. Bruce...
Cheers,
-Andrew
Andrew:
It is very location-driven; some 'hoods are maintaining their "character" quite nicely, with architecturally-appropriate renovations going on. What bothers me is not the demolition of houses which are, essentially, beyond their useful value, and there are quite a few of those, especially those built with less well-engineered slab foundations on our expansive "gumbo" soil around here.
But when we bought our home in 1992, we scrimped and clawed to do it, and knew we were getting what was, for us, a "destination" house- 3700sqft, more space than we could ever possibly need and a cool funky feel to it (50s modern).
Now, the market having done what the market does, we cannot possibly justify spending meaningful money on upgrades, since it is not the kind of house the market wants... so we maintain it, and do little else. It do suck.
Good thing is, I have heard that the builder is a good one with a reputation for quality, and the house is on the west side of ours, so it will not block our morning light, but rather, it will block the blasting sun in the summer afternoons. And, it will be good to have neighbors, again, on that side.
And Frank, the question of what one does with houses of this size is a good one; I used to think I wanted a really big house, but there are parts of our house we rarely set foot in, and 90% of our living is done in 20% of our house, so your question is a good one, for both personal and societal consideration.
When the house on the east side of ours sold, we were resigned to the buyers tearing it down and building a "Junior League Georgian" there, but instead, the folks (couple about our age who, wisely, got their kid-birthing out of the way early in life) just fixed it up as nice as can be- a real show place - and they are as comfortable as bugs in a rug in their 2300-ish foot home. Their reasoning in down-sizing to that? They did not want to have any room for either of their sons to come home to live in!
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It's all the inevitable tides of life, but I don't have to like it, do I?
