Generica

[plonq]

I called up Google Maps and selected one of our newer subdivisions at random. Have a look at the street view and pan the camera around. Do you notice anything? I am going to say that you probably did not, because there is nothing to notice here. This subdivision is so generic that it could be dropped into any number of North American cities and nobody would think that it was out of place.

When you drive down the any street in this subdivision you are met by row after row of huge garages with little houses hiding behind them. They are all built from the same 3-4 designs, and coloured in bland earth tones with that ugly prolapsed car barn sticking out in front.

Compare that to a street like Cathedral, up in the oft-maligned north end of the city (i.e., our end of town). It's not quite as upscale as the other neighbourhood, but it's also nowhere nearly so generic. The houses come in different sizes and shapes and colours. Each one has a unique stamp put on it by the builder, or the current owner.

Now that our house is nearly paid off, I've had a few people ask me when we are planning to sell it and move to a newer, or more upscale home? You mean buy some faceless garages with an attached house down in Forth Richmond or Island Lakes? How about never? Even if it currently screams white trash with its torn up side-walk and fence lying in a heap, our house is still unique from the ones around it. I don't think I am ready yet to surrender my individuality to live in one of those herd-like stalls down in the south end, thank you.

If we sell this house, it will be to either move somewhere interesting like Wolseley or Tuxedo, or to buy some land out of town and build a geodesic dome house.

Comments

[aeto.livejournal.com]

Where I work, there is a homeowners mailing list, where people can ask questions like "I need a contractor to fix my plumbing in Belltown, any recommendations" and similar things.

Recently, there was someone asking if anyone happened to have a can of a specific paint. It turns out he'd painted his fence white, and the homeowners association came down on him because it wasn't the "approved shade of white" allowed in the community. He wanted to make sure the new paint he was going to buy was going to sufficiently cover the non-approved white and be approved.

Let me repeat. It wasn't the approved shade of white.

People offered up options to make sure the new paint would work, etc.., yet nobody brought up the underlying problem: Not only did he move into some overly generic neighborhood, it's an overly generic neighborhood with homeowners who demand it stay that way.

That was one of my rules both times I have bought houses: no homeowners associations.

[atara.livejournal.com]

Our sentiments exactly. A homeowner's association is a sure way to get us to run away screaming from a potential house. Fortunately, they aren't nearly as widespread in Canada as they seem to be in the US.

I have a friend from elementary school on Facebook who recent bought a house in Indiana. All of the homes for sale that met their specifications (number of bedrooms for the kids, yard, proximity to schools, etc) had homeowners associations. All of them. She said "We either would have had to buy in the inner city or have a 1 hr commute to work to not have a HOA."

Urgh.

[wolever.livejournal.com]

You know what's interesting though? The house on Cathedral you pointed out is the exact same house as the the ones next door to it, which are in turn the same for at least the next 5 or 6 down the street. The only difference is that over the last 100 years (give or take) some of them have undergone drastic renovations, were repainted differently, boarded up and left to be burnt by arsonists, etc. while others remain more unchanged. What was once just a cookie cutter subdivision of the era, is now unique and diverse due to age and circumstance.

[pierrekrahn.livejournal.com]

No, no, no. When I asked if you were going to sell and move, I didn't mean into a cookie-cutter neighbourhood.
I can totally see you guys fitting into Wolseley or Tuxedo.

I'd love to buy property just outside the perimeter so that it's more quiet, safer, cheaper, etc but still close enough to have services such as snow plowing and sewers. Not sure if I could find the right balance, but I'll start looking when I pay off my current house (aiming for ~ 6 years from now).

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

You know, if it weren't for the snow...