Friday, October 17, 2008

Another monster, another gate

Last year I noted that the neighbors were irritated by this builder's neglect of a pair of empty lots. Since then, the builder has taken care of the weed problem on one lot by covering it with another noxious invasive:
Yes for a mere $567K, you can own the north-facing side of a duplex that will get no direct sunlight except at midsummer. And which has no backyard, as far as I can tell.
And you'll have a lovely view of the still-empty lot next door, which may or may not be filled with the sounds of heavy equipment and hammering at all hours for however long it takes to put up another monster duplex.
To the north of that is something I do like, though I find it baffling. Look at this gorgeous, ornate pair of gates in a nicely executed brick wall.
I can't figure it out. Was there a beautiful old house there before?
I'm thinking no, the owners salvaged the gates from somewhere else and had the wall built. The house itself is a ratty old stucco bungalow in a vaguely Spanish style, from what little I could see of it through the weed-tree-filled yard.
Maybe I'll walk by there again and ask what the deal is. Boy, do I covet those gates!

5 comments:

  1. 567K for a duplex! wow...who can afford that?!

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  2. Those gates ARE wonderful. Your theory makes sense (gates brought in from elsewhere and re-installed), but it would be fun to figure out if there was indeed a big old house there at one time. I looked up your neighborhood on Google Earth the other day (isn't the world an odd place now?). Looks like your neighborhood has alleys and garages? Nice! I like alleys.

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  3. Steamy, that's my question! A lot of these things sitting around empty these days.

    Pam, on second look today, the yard was not as unkempt as I imagined, but still it doesn't fit. We do have alleys and I like that. It means the houses aren't garage-centric like many suburbs, and there are convenient dumpsters everywhere for getting rid of dog poop when I'm out walking Sophie. Plus you never have to remember when trash day is.

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