[Info-vax] Completely OT: Frank Lloyd Wright

[Paul Sture]

In article <Wregn2WJMXKz at eisner.encompasserve.org>,
 koehler at eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) wrote:

> In article <nospam-09AF6C.16461925102012 at news.chingola.ch>, Paul Sture 
> <nospam at sture.ch> writes:
> > 
> > Is it because you remember clearing all that snow that you don't like a 
> > long drive then?  Or the lack of privacy?
> 
>    "privacy" is a great thing to have when you're breaking into somone
>    else's property.
> 
>    Not on mine, thanks.

Good point. Many years ago I met a guy who lived somewhere remote and he 
was increasingly fortifying his house as the result of successive 
burglaries.  There's not a lot you can do when the thieves bring back 
hoes.
 
>    It's not that I don't like a long drive, but I consider it a cost
>    to be offset if I'm bidding on the house.

A former colleague had a long drive in need of repair.  He managed to 
get some suitable material for free (chopped up asphalt from a dug up 
road), but the cost of transportation and having it laid was still a 
shock.

> > 
> > In my early teens we moved into a house with large picture windows and 
> > had to get used to folks staring in.  We got good at out-staring them 
> > but it wasn't until the hedge matured that we could get any privacy.
> 
>    Why didn't you close the drapes?

During the daytime?  As it happens, this house is bang on topic for the 
thread.  Designed by an architect for himself, it was a testament to the 
free samples of building materials he got.  It was built by the group 
effort of several folks building their own houses; he did the plans for 
everyone, a solicitor did the legal bits for everyone and so on.  
Unfortunately his was the last to be built and once everyone else was in 
their own houses they rather lost interest in finishing his.

And woosh back to covenants.  This house was built on 2 of 3 strips of 
former orchard behind a set of 3 houses, the middle one of which he had 
previously owned.  He had created so much noise in renovating that house 
that the owner at one side refused to sell him their orchard, and had it 
written into their house deeds that he could never own or rent that land.

As a result the house got built at 90° to its originally planned 
orientation, which detracted greatly from its looks when seen from the 
road.  

It didn't stop there, as the house built on the third plot of land was 
further up the hill and overlooked ours.  When they extended their 
kitchen their plans showed a window looking directly into our living 
room.  My father tried to fight this extension because it contravened 
"right to light" planning regulations, but because the extension was 
less than x square feet, normal rules didn't apply.  However the builder 
did advise next door's owners not to put that extra window in...

Incidentally, the planning laws in existence then meant that if an 
office block or supermarket went up next door, my father wouldn't have 
had the same "right to light" as if a domestic building was concerned.

The next round was that the couple next door were nosy as ever.  My 
father extended the living room, shifting the main window by 90° to get 
some privacy back.

See how it escalates?

>    To reduce crime, folks need to be able to see the house, not see
>    into the house.

There's an odd thing.  When I spent a couple of months away at client 
site I gave my boss a key to my house and asked him to check it was OK 
and collect the post at regular intervals.  Every single time he visited 
he was challenged by one of my neighbours*.  Yet I was burgled in broad 
daylight a few months later.

* One of the advantages of living in a small community is that everyone 
knows you and will challenge folks they don't know.

-- 
Paul Sture