I hate townhouses, I really do. And flats, don’t get me started on flats.
I know some people have issues with townhouses and flats for the fact that one townhouse looks exactly like its neighbour. I can assure you that that is the least of my problems with townhouses.
Getting back to the issue at hand. Yes, every townhouse in a complex looks exactly like the one before it. And exactly like the one after it. My biggest issue with buildings built after the 1990s is space, or lack thereof.
We have a flat that we rent for a few thousand a month, not including the liquids and sparks. That is for 80m², and a garage that locks. In that 80m² we’ve got a lot of stuff piled in. Basically, enough space for us to have our shit all over the place and not trip over anything, except for the cat, but that was her own fault.
Now recently Herself & I went to look at another flat. Advertised for a thousand more than what we’re paying now, but Herself talked it down by R500. Apparently this place is 85m². We looked and looked but couldn’t find the 5m². Besides not finding the 5m², it looked like another couple of square meters got lost somewhere.
We could comfortably fit all our stuff in there under one of two conditions. Either we put all our furniture in piles, or we sell three-quarters of it. Neither of those two conditions was ideal.
It is quite possible that my ideal house doesn’t exist, or it does exist just not in the area I want it to exist in. My ideal home would be like my parents house.
The Parental home was built in the early 1980s. Back when people had larger families than the norm today. Back when people still lived at home, not just a place to consume meals and catch up on sleep before rushing out to meet yet another deadline.
These days you can’t get a house really big enough. It’s big enough for sleeping and eating, and that’s about it. You can’t swing a cat in these modern houses. I could try, but I don’t think Her Royal Cattiness would appreciate being knocked about the head with a wall.
When I moved to Jozi 5 years ago, I had a bed, a chair and two folding tables. With each flat I moved into after that, my possessions have grown exponentially. Then I added Herself into the mix. Herself didn’t have too much in the way of furniture, but together we have acquired a few items. Now we’re quite attached to these purchases of ours and really don’t want to get rid of them in order to fit into a broom cupboard advertised as a “townhouse”.
So, the search for the perfect house, in the perfect location and at the lowest possible price continues. Hopefully, one of these days we’ll be successful. Who knows.
1 comment:
I completely agree with your comment on the lack of space in modern buildings. The house I currently live in was built by my Grandfather in the late 1960's. It has quite a bit of space and we added an extra bit upstairs as well. If we were to move though, we would not get the same space at a decent price. I don't mind small, but there are limits and we too have loads of stuff. In fact the one half of the garage is filled to the roof with crap.
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