I'm having quite a bit of trouble getting comfortable with the fairly common practice here at the NJ shore of tearing down old homes and building new ones, often twice as big, on the same lot. I can appreciate the need to build a new house when an old one is structurally unsound. If only that was the norm.
A few weeks ago as my wife and I were walking we saw signs for a yard sale. When we got to the house we were both charmed. It was close in size, age & condition to ours. Then we noticed everything was being sold - railings, fixtures, the slab of slate in the entry foyer. When we asked, we were not surprised to learn the house would soon be demolished but our good mood was dampened. When did bigger become de facto better? Some call this progress; I'm not convinced. How about you?
Any developer stumbling across this blog would likely call me naive and have a good laugh reading this. I wonder how that developer would feel watching a home they'd once lived in being torn down just so a bigger one could be built? I'm probably naive for wondering that as well. Oh well; I've been called worse.
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
Pat, this has been going on for a long time without interuption.i see it every day in the wealthy towns i work in. tear down a million dollar house and put up a four million dollar house.even in a down housing market there is a demand for these expensive houses.i guess my momma was right, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan. I guess I'm an old sentimental fart; like the look of the old houses better.
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