becomes a neighbourhood nightmare. Check the Herald’s Heckler where members of the Trust share the pain
And they think I’m rude
Here’s the proposition. The most selfish people in your neighbourhood are those who come and look, buy a house, knock it down and build their dream house in what was your dream neighbourhood.
You know the sort of neighbourhood? Where the gardens are established, the houses have that consistent style, setback and look of the era in which the street was built? Where people talk, and know one another? Then in comes the McMansion. All columns, double-door entrance and bulking garage. Out goes the beautiful tall lilly-pilly, the frangipanis and camellias and in comes the stencilled concrete and straggly box border. Out goes the side drive and in come the walls you can reach out and touch from your fence line. Out goes the three-bedroom, one-bathroom; in comes the six-bedroom, five-bathroom (I’ve seen the plans) for what is generally a family of four.
But, you say, you could have objected to the council before it was built. Yes, and what an exercise in futility that was. All those guidelines about blending in with the streetscape don’t mean a toss. Any time the council threw the residents a small bone the McMansionites would put in an amendment to undo the council’s direction and you’d have to ensure six people objected, otherwise the council would just rubber-stamp over its previous direction. Bureaucracy at work is a beautiful thing.
I can see why they want to build in our street. Standing in their yard looking out, it is a beautiful street. After all, their view won’t change – just everyone else’s. They want what the neighbourhood has to offer but only on their terms. It is just a vacant block to them on which to paint their appalling vision.
Another reason they win the selfish award is that they endure very little of the onsite pain of their dream. Unlike a renovation, when you do a knock-down the home owners don’t share the noise, mess, sudden lack of street parking, swearing and shouting and the endless whine of power tools that the neighbours have to endure. No, they are safely ensconced in their other home far away, fluttering in occasionally to ensure the deck is high and big enough to remove any last shred of privacy your backyard had.
I decided to share their dream with them this morning after starting our sixth day of relentless drilling into concrete. I rang them to ask if they could hear that noise and try to imagine it going from 7am to 3pm every day (excluding Sunday) for the past week. Oddly enough they found it rude of me to ask. Imagine that.
Louise Bergfield
One Comment
Gee this heckler hits the spot. There is also the problem that arises when builders of the cowboy persuasion do not follow approved plans.
There is nothing worse for an architect than to watch on as the building gradually rises out of the ground and to see the design hopelessly compromised by a builder who chooses to ignores much of what was on the DA and CC drawings and gives himself the authority to make significant design changes?
One weeps as the exposed-rafter eave detail is turned into a boxed eave, the symmetrical front gable made unsymmetrical, the bagged brick finish becomes smooth render, fake wood grain weatherboards are substituted for plain weatherboards, the colour scheme is ignored, high-front gutters are used instead of standard quad, pressed metal fascias instead of timber and large clunky architraves are fitted to the windows where none were detailed.
One looks at ways to ensure that one’s name is never associated with the final product and struggles with whether or not to report the builder to the PCA for the his failure to comply with the approved drawings (apart from wondering how come the PCA let these things go unnoticed and/or unmentioned).
Tony