[Melanie68]

Get a futon - couch and bed.

[bysmitty]

That is a dang good idea. *writes down Mel's suggestion in his mental book of things to remember*

...bysmitty

[Sage]

We are expecting photographic progress reports in this thread, you know.

[RLacey]

But... it's made of wood...

[Melanie68]

Like every other freakin' house in America. If you guys posted pics of your brick/mortar/non wood houses, I really doubt we'd be complaining.

[Sage]

Wattle and daub is a little hard to come by in the Midwest.

[RLacey]

Mind you, my current university "house" is actually a concrete monstrosity.

The rest of the college looks nice, though:

[Sage]

Except for the central tower and the peculiar roof detail, that looks very much like the high school I attended.

[bysmitty]

I haven't had a chance to stop by yet; hopefully Friday. When I talked to the builder today, he said there are shingles on the roof now. I asked him and he said the house is still made of wood though.

Photographic updates to come soon.

...bysmitty

[smashing]

Originally Posted by RLacey

But... it's made of wood...

... at least it's not pink...

Really envy you guys. You literally need to be a millionaire here in Singapore to even own a plot of land, let alone a house! Most of us live in little pigeonholes in monstrous flats.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by smashing

... at least it's not pink...

Well, the sheathing isn't on the outside yet so there's still hope.

[UPtimist]

What I'd do is grow a hedge there by the road, to get some privace and some feeling of actually having your own place, but then again, that's probably not even allowed...

To keep everything as similar as possible I presume I wonder why every freaking suburb has to look exactly the same. I mean look at those houses there! Everyhing is so unbelievably formal and schematic! Why isn't there any originality allowed... And the same thing is happening with all new areas.

Oh, even things like that were better in the old days

And of course, congratulations! I just had a little outburst there

[bysmitty]

I know what you mean by all houses in neighborhoods looking the same. It is almost impossible to find a house build within the last 10 years that isn't exactly like the rest in the neighborhood. They do it to keep costs down though. Most neighborhoods are built by one builder and having to order a dozen different kinds of something is much more expensive than ordering 12 orders of the same thing. Economies of scale I think is the term. Anyways, I'm just kinda' used to it. I knew that in order to afford the house I wanted I knew I would have to sacrifice a bit of individuality and privacy.

...bysmitty

[Sage]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

What I'd do is grow a hedge there by the road, to get some privacy and some feeling of actually having your own place, but then again, that's probably not even allowed...

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Developments sometimes have covenants that specify allowable landscaping materials, but not always.

Originally Posted by Uptimist

To keep everything as similar as possible I presume I wonder why every freaking suburb has to look exactly the same. I mean look at those houses there! Everyhing is so unbelievably formal and schematic! Why isn't there any originality allowed... And the same thing is happening with all new areas.

Here's how it works: A developer buys a large parcel of land, divides it into lots, builds roads, and gets utilities routed to the location. Then the developer either walks away once the land is sold or hires a contractor to build homes, usually with one of five or six possible floor plans and a selection of exterior trim options.
By selecting floorplan "C", barn red for the body of the house, and grey for the trim, you get a house that's similar to but not exactly like the ones of your neighbors. There might be three other plan "C"s on your street, but one is green with green trim and a front porch, one is grey with white trim and black shutters, and the other one is blue with grey trim and is reversed because it's on a corner lot.
By buying a house this way, an individual doesn't have to fool with a lot of expensive headaches that they would if they built a home from scratch on their own land...no architects, no inspectors, and no utility installations for starters. You pay your money, they build you a house, and you move in...no muss, no fuss, and no hassle.

Originally Posted by Uptimist

Oh, even things like that were better in the old days

To what period are you referring?

Originally Posted by Uptimist

And of course, congratulations! I just had a little outburst there

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

By buying a house this way, an individual doesn't have to fool with a lot of expensive headaches that they would if they built a home from scratch on their own land...no architects, no inspectors, and no utility installations for starters. You pay your money, they build you a house, and you move in...no muss, no fuss, and no hassle.

But surely then you have a really limited choice of house layouts?

[Sage]

Originally Posted by RLacey

But surely then you have a really limited choice of house layouts?

Well, homes within a given development tend to be of similar size. For example, Shady Acres might offer homes in the 1500-2000 square foot range for around $200,000 while Toffee Hills offers homes in the 2500-3000 square foot range for around $300,000. In either case, you can only slice up "X" amount of square footage in "Y" different ways. At least three bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, and at least two bathrooms can only be arranged in so many ways.

[UPtimist]

Scott, I know... Still, I wonder

And by old days, well, I don't know really. But over here the nicest stuff is from around the 30's maybe? Well, something like that. My house was built in the 30s...

Well OK, often later than the 30's, there were barely any houses here then Now it's quite close to the center. Or whatever it should be called

I don't know what I'm talking about Recently most of my talking has decreased into ramble

[tabacco]

Here's an engineering tidbit for you... out on the west coast, we have virtually no brick/stone/whatever buildings, because they tend to fall down in even minor earthquakes.

The thing about the US is... we have a lot of wood lying around. Seriously, it's everywhere. So, why not build houses out of it? It's cheap to put together (woodscrews and metal fasteners), it's light, and it's pretty flexible in that you can cut it to size or laminate and bend it. Crazy.

[Stoofa]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

Oh, even things like that were better in the old days

Not really! Many old city houses were built in rows of the same design, as the years have gone by people have made changes to these houses so they don't look so similar.


We used to have a lot of brick homes where I live. Then in 1917 the biggest pre-atomic artificial explosion occured and knocked a bunch of houses down (which of course crushed anyone unfortunate enough to be in a brick building at the time). Wood is definitely the way to go .

[tabacco]

Originally Posted by tabacco

Here's an engineering tidbit for you... out on the west coast, we have virtually no brick/stone/whatever buildings, because they tend to fall down in even minor earthquakes.

By the way, for those who don't realize how common (small) earthquakes are:
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm