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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Now you see it....Now you don't.

Update on the house next door

Last summer the house next door to me (a cottage) was torn down and the lot was bare for a year. I wrote posts about it here and here. From the street this is what my house looked like -



I nicknamed it the Titanic - sailing along on the sea. It doesn't look like that anymore -






Now the new house sits in front of my house. It looks like two new houses, but in the front is the garage and the living space is the larger structure in the back.



Above is the view from my breakfast room now - I miss the trees! (see below)


6 comments:

  1. I remember your post about the view, and the trees. Have you made any decision about whether you will have window treatments or not, and if so what kind?

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  2. It's going to be good I think. But it's gone from being private, to being a movie screen. You should see what they've built beside me, a wall of 4-story condos. We've got binoculars. I'm going to drive-by next week.

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  3. Hi Helen, Your home is gorgeous.....I love it. I still think a planted "fence" is a good solution to the lack of privacy. Hang in there.....

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  4. It's tough when the empty lot next door starts to build!

    We have a lot next to us that was bought in the spring. The new owners want to sell their current house before starting anything...so just when we finish our house, they will be ready to build theirs. Too bad we couldn't have built at the same time.

    I would be curious about the view straight out the back of your breakfast room - surely your trees are still there? But - it is startling to see how the new house changes things. I agree with the comments above, tall screening trees would be good.

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  5. Hi all -
    The view straight out the back of the breakfast room is still tress, but you can't avoid the large looming house at the back of the lot. The new house is situated only 15 feet off of the property line, so it is highly visible from the whole back of my house. If the new house had lined up with mine like the house next door on the other side, it would have been far less obtrusive. But since it's "yard" is a courtyard in the middle of the lot, which we can't see because it is obstructed by the breezeway, the house looks much bigger to us than it actually is. From my house all you see is 80 feet of house - very close. It is however, urban living. And the houses in Brookwood Hills manage to be this close together and work. So, I have to hope that it will work out better than it currently looks. Just hard to get used to now since all we saw before was green, because it was a yard, and not a house. If the neighbor's tree had not been there, the house could have been situated like mine and for us it would have been much better. But the tree is there and it is what it is. I'm just going to have to screen it really well with something tall, at least 35 feet.
    Thanks for all of your encouragement! Change is hard. I just liked it the way it was.

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  6. Ah yes, the price of progress. Plywood homes are always a bit startling though until they receive their skin. At least it is to the North of you so hopefully the quality of light has not been impacted negatively. Good luck.

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