We now interrupt this houseblogging moment to make a political announcement.
If you haven’t already heard, Barack Obama is bringing record number of voters to the polls including independents and Republicans. Here in Texas, one of the reddest states in the country, we see our conservative neighbors and friends showing a positive interest in Obama. They are ready for change, too. And we see our Democratic friends and family members getting excited like never before. It is time for a change!
But Texas is not where our concern lies… If you are in a state that is voting on Super Tuesday, it is more important than ever that you stand up for change now. We must send a clear message that dynasties are no longer an acceptable form of democratic governance.
With Barack Obama as our candidate, we are convinced that we can win in a landslide in 2008 and usher in a new era of positive politics that collaborates across the red and blue lines for change.
Vote for Obama, tell your friends and neighbors and co-workers about him, put a sign in your window and a sticker on your car. Get out the vote in the Super Tuesday states!!! We can all be a part of the change!
Thanks in advance!
Christiane & David
This message paid for by the Erwin House Political Action Committee for Peace and Peanut Butter Sandwiches.
Austin imposed a moratorium on “McMansions” while we were in the midst of renovating (and super-sizing) Erwin House. In the spring of 2006, our city council unanimously voted in favor of certain restrictions which would limit the size of residential developments in single-family neighborhoods.
Although David and I agreed with the intent of the rule (to prevent house flippers and other developers from outrageously maxing out the buildable square footage of a small urban lot), we were very disappointed with the lack of due process.
A couple of days ago, a former Austin resident left us this comment:
“The question that doesn’t seem to get discussed much around this issue is how big does a house really have to be for a modest family? In the U.S., I think our first answer is always “as big as I want it and can afford!” . . . [H]ow is it that 40 years ago, many of the same houses being demolished in Crestview to make a 3 story, 2800 sq’ mod box for 4 people probably were used to raise families of 6 or more?”
I ask myself the same question ALL the time. We’re raising a family of five (plus a dog and a cat) in 2100sf. It feels exactly right, sometimes even a bit generous. We probably could do without 200 of those square feet, but we’ve also talked about expanding the family at some point… Why did it seem so impossibly to raise our five-person family in 830 square feet?
I have talked to people who grew up in our neighborhood, families of four, five or six in 800 square feet, adults in one bedroom and all of the children in the other, all of them squeezed around a tiny kitchen table to eat breakfast or dinner. Where did they put all their stuff?
My mother-in-law and others I know have explained that they didn’t have a lot of stuff growing up. They had two outfits, one for school/church, and one for play. Their clothes were washed in the sink daily. They didn’t have many toys, and they ate many of the same meals over and over again, mothers shopping for fresh food at the market daily rather than stockpiling in the cabinets.
Call me shallow: this all sounds very spartan, like something I half admire and half fear. The people I’ve talked to don’t look back on these times fondly. They remember feeling poor and being constantly hungry. They resented the lack of privacy. My mother-in-law explained that they didn’t really choose to live in a small house, they had to. They weren’t trying to be environmentally conscious, most people simply couldn’t afford a larger home. And many parents who had grown up during the depression were afraid to purchase a larger home, one they might not be able to afford were the market to suddenly crash again.
We started with a drawing for a 3,600sf home and whittled it down to 2,100, partly because we realized that we had originally drawn a bedroom the size of an airplane hangar (things look smaller on paper, I swear!) and partly because we simply couldn’t afford to build that big.
What is too big? What is not big enough? Are today’s standards gluttonous, or were yesterday’s homes too tight?
If you haven’t heard, the real estate market ain’t doin’ so well these days. Mortgage lenders are shutting down faster than 6th street at 2am. Homeowners are balking at the new rates their ARM’s are adjusting to. Housebloggers are… well, what are housebloggers up to in light of the housing bust?
Newsweek reported this week:
The collateral damage is spreading. Because home sales and moves stimulate purchases of appliances, electronics and furniture, the giant chains that catered to house flippers and renovators have reported recessionlike results. In the second quarter, same-store sales were down 5.2 percent at Home Depot and 4.3 percent at Sears.
Americans who were living high by taking out home-equity loans during the boom have watched their equity drop, and are now faint of heart when it comes to big-ticket discretionary purchases.
I’m working up to a series about how to make sure your renovation makes more money than it takes from your savings account, but until then I’m wondering how other housebloggers are holding up under the crunch. Are you getting hit by the real estate recession?
Lincoln Properties and Walmart hosted an open house last night. It was creepy. Even 7yo picked up on the creepy vibe and clung to me the whole time we were there.
The first thing that struck me was all the high-res renderings, maps and aerial photos of the design. I had to drive to a conference center on a Monday night between soccer practice and dinner to see these? Seriously. Post it online. Why in the world would I trust an organization that holds its cards so close to its chest?
Second, this open house was at least one year too late. How can you say you’re accepting input when construction has already started? Gross.
It’s a big box. It belongs on a highway. Ten years ago. A little limestone on the facade won’t fix that.
If you are one of our local Austin, Texas readers, please mark this Saturday, February 10th, at 9:30 on your calendar. We will be at Northcross Mall with several thousand neighbors showing support for our neighborhood and protesting the super-mega-ultra-giga-Walmart that Lincoln Properties is trying to stick there. We will wear red and join hands circling Northcross Mall at 10:00 for 10 minutes.
Again
What: Arms Around Northcross
Where: Northcross Mall, corner of Anderson and Burnet
When: Saturday Feb 10 at 9:30 am
How: Wear red, make circle, hold hands.
Here’s the flyer.(pdf)
Walmart is trying to build in our neighborhood. Not one of those cute little Walmarts you see on the highway — this would be the biggest Walmart in Texas. Two stories, 225,000 square feet (1000 times larger than Erwin House). They want to keep it open 24 hours. The ass end of a 3-story parking garage would face the street. Not a highway, a street. Semis hauling cheap sweatshop merchandise would drive past houses and churches, and wait at a light between our grocery store and our Junior High.
Walmart has been true to its icky reputation in dealing with the neighborhood. I won’t detail every underhanded thing they’ve pulled, but this one is particularly disgusting. A valiant group (RG4N.org) representing residents passed out surveys to what must have been about 10,000 homes during the worst ice storm in years. At the same time Walmart tried to skew the results by running a push-poll. A push-poll is a fake poll where you try to change someone’s opinion. (Here at the Erwin House we call that “lying” and it is punishable with timeout and no hot chocolate.) In this push-poll, Walmart called our neighbors over and over until they answered. Then asked them if they like the big cuddly-wuddly Walmart. If they say no, they get lectured on why Walmart gets to build anyway just because they say so how ’bout that?
Somebody taped the call.
Count me as never, never shopping at Walmart again.
The US Congress has recently passed a bill that would end Network Neutrality on the Internet and it will soon be up for a vote in the Senate. This is an issue anyone who has a blog or web site, or works for a small company, or cares about free speech should be interested in.
There is a lot of misinformation on the internet. The big telecommunications have built websites that look like poorly funded citizens groups, and they really do their best to confuse the issue.
Here’s what you can do.
- Understand Network Neutrality.
- Call your senators. Be nice, brief, and professional. Say, “I am calling to voice my support for Network Neutrality and I would like to know how the Senator plans on voting on this issue.” If they are undecided, give them a simple reason why you favor Network neutrality. Something like this:
- “The internet has been key to our economic growth over the past 10 years. This is not a time to change its most basic principles.”
- “I work for a small business that uses the internet. My job depends on Network Neutrality.”
- “I already pay for internet access. I don’t want to be double-charged.”
- “I have a website and I can’t pay extra just so my mother-in-law can see the new floor in my bathroom.” (ok, not that one)
- Of course, spread the word.
People who see our house seem to assume that we got permits just before the moratorium and that our house would otherwise be an outlaw. Far from it. We are building about 2200 sqft. Under the moratorium rules, we could have build about 3800 sqft.
This week the TF (Task Force) has fired another shot across our gable. Angled setbacks.
They would start 14 feet above the property line and move into your airspace at a 45 degree angle. If you built at the 5 ft setback, the tent shape would hit at 19 ft. Our lot is not a rectangle, so this limit comes barreling down the property line at a 38 degree angle, almost clipping the southwest corner of the kid’s bedroom.
With two 9 ft stories, 2 ft between them and 2 ft of crawl space under the house, the top of our second story is 22ft off the ground. This means we would have to be at least 8 ft away from the side of the property. We are about 15 ft away.
I think this is really aimed at stopping the gorgeous Metrohouses like Karin and Bruce’s from being built. But it is going to allow the doggy-style additions where a two-story house appears to be mounting a smaller one story.
(photo from House in Progress)
Personally, I think the Metrohouses are doing more to save Crestview and Brentwood from monster houses than anything the city is doing. I wish there was one on every block.
The fed raised rates again. Aside from the more obvious deadline of the baby, there is the cost of renting each additional month, getting building materials before they go to Louisiana and Mississippi, and the race to get the house done before interest rates go up too much. We are on a construction loan, so our actual mortgage won’t happen until we are ready to move in. I really really hope this is the last boost to the interest rate before we’re done.
Speaking of rates and loans, Hakuna Matata Federal Credit Union, has continued to be the weak link in this project. They tried to send our bills to the construction site for months. Even if they had spelled the street name correctly, there was no mailbox there. Maybe they could have tried sending the bills to the same address they send our bank statement to instead of threatening to lower our credit rating for non-payment. When our bill finally arrived, it was pathetically marked up in ballpoint pen. Final payment was authorized via second hand voicemail (long story). I really wonder if they have ever done one of these loans before.
We’re looking into shopping for a different financial institution to handle our mortgage. I’m not sure if it means breaking a contract or paying closing costs a second time. Any advice, recommendations?
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