Looking out our old house online

[pinkytoe]

I get a wild hair once in a while to revisit the street we lived on for 20+ years in Austin - online that is. Looking at building permits shows that the little 1950s houses on either side of our old house are being demolished and replaced with modern 5 BR, 4.5 bath houses with 3 car garages, heated pools, cabanas, blah, blah. Multiple old trees are being cut down to make way for these ugly fancy houses and their pools. So sad...It was a sweet, leafy neighborhood with down to earth people for decades but the nouveau riche techies have to have the centrally located big white ugly modern farmhouse style abodes. Our sweet old house will no doubt be next. We paid $135K in 1999. The new ones will go for $2 mil and up.

[rosarugosa]

I get a wild hair once in a while to revisit the street we lived on for 20+ years in Austin - online that is. Looking at building permits shows that the little 1950s houses on either side of our old house are being demolished and replaced with modern 5 BR, 4.5 bath houses with 3 car garages, heated pools, cabanas, blah, blah. Multiple old trees are being cut down to make way for these ugly fancy houses and their pools. So sad...It was a sweet, leafy neighborhood with down to earth people for decades but the nouveau riche techies have to have the centrally located big white ugly modern farmhouse style abodes. Our sweet old house will no doubt be next. We paid $135K in 1999. The new ones will go for $2 mil and up.

Sadly, it's a common trend. There is much of that going on in our area too, and I have no doubt that our house will succumb to the same fate once we are gone.

[Rogar]

New developments in my 50's mostly ranches are housing upgrades but not scrape offs or pop-ups, and that doesn't seem too bad even though I suspect some are house flippers. However, within maybe a ten block radius any vacant space is being developed with apartment buildings. There are three going up right now and one or two a couple years old. I'd almost rather have McMansions, but it's a toss up and they are both obnoxious.

[bae]

This prompted me to look myself. I shouldn't have.

My nice old house in California, a 1910 Craftsman Bungalow that I spent 7 years lovingly restoring, has been destroyed by the current owners, who basically did some madness of a "knock out the back and expand it" scheme. AND THEY PAINTED OVER THE AMAZING FLAME-FINISHED WOODWORK WITH WHITE PAINT.

I weep, it was a glorious home, in a lovely neighborhood. And now it is a McMansion.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2...19658073_zpid/

[iris lilies]

This prompted me to look myself. I shouldn't have.

My nice old house in California, a 1910 Craftsman Bungalow that I spent 7 years lovingly restoring, has been destroyed by the current owners, who basically did some madness of a "knock out the back and expand it" scheme. AND THEY PAINTED OVER THE AMAZING FLAME-FINISHED WOODWORK WITH WHITE PAINT.

I weep, it was a glorious home, in a lovely neighborhood. And now it is a McMansion.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2...19658073_zpid/

Ouch, that hurts, painting the dining room woodwork and paneling white as well as the rest of it. You can see when you walk in the front door how nice that would work is.

and now it has a big open kitchen oh yay! Not.

[bae]

Ouch, that hurts, painting the dining room woodwork and paneling white as well as the rest of it. You can see when you walk in the front door how nice that would work is.

and now it has a big open kitchen oh yay! Not.

I loved the old kitchen. The passthrough to the dining room was super handy, the kitchen was the perfect size, and quite spacious. They knocked the back wall of the kitchen out to expand it - where the mudroom/porch and the stair to the attic-level were.

It was a ~1200 sq. ft. cottage initially.

Weep.

[catherine]

bae and pinkytoe, that's terrible and sad. Here a listing of the house I grew up in with my greataunt in the summer. It was my oasis and paradise. The listing represents the "new" version of it, because it sold for $725k about 8 years ago and they razed it and rebuilt a huge mansion.

Here's "my" cottage: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...58907960_zpid/

[iris lilies]

bae and pinkytoe, that's terrible and sad. Here a listing of the house I grew up in with my greataunt in the summer. It was my oasis and paradise. The listing represents the "new" version of it, because it sold for $725k about 8 years ago and they razed it and rebuilt a huge mansion.

Here's "my" cottage: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...58907960_zpid/

That is stunning. The grounds are just stunning! And the floors, diamond paned windows, and the stone fireplace…wow. So so so nice.

[iris lilies]

I have shown a couple of links to houses of my childhood and while some changes were made, nothing really irrevocable were done to them. Actually I was thrilled to see how well an owner honored one of them with her decorating choices. Kitchens and bathrooms change, but that is to be expected as long as walls arent moved.

I truly don’t think we screwed up our Hermann house with major renovations OTHERr THAN the huge carbuncle of a garage that is now attached, I mean, that’s pretty awful even though it did originally have a smaller garage attached. The rest of our renovations honored the spirit and style of the original house.We even replicated original woodwork and interior door style, being careful to rebuild and preserve exterior doors.

[pinkytoe]

So much of modern housing is soul-sucking IMO. Look alike houses, apartments and condos. Somewhere I read them described as looking like a Samsung showroom. Grey boxes all in a row.