Every few weeks we point you towards interesting conversations going on in the Forums and the comments area, mostly so you folks who receive Wallyhood as an e-mail will get all jealous of the action you’re missing and come join the fun on the web site.
Of course, the biggest conversation probably in Wallyhood history has been over the SHARE homeless shelter moving into the Gift of Grace Church (see most recent post), but there’s lots of other conversations going on, as well. For example, folks looking for piano teachers and dog walkers, cats missing and missing and found and passed away, crime and the rest.
In the Wallyhood Twitter world, we got an e-mail from someone who found a wedding ring yesterday. We twittered the link to his Craigslist ad and @dacort replied that he’d seen a sign for a lost wedding ring. Hopefully, the ring and its owner will live a happily ever after.
And finally, the owner of the stolen house left reassurances that they were not building a McMansion on 43rd nor a block of condos or other such out-of-placenesses. For our viewing pleasure, she even shared this architect drawing of the home to be constructed:
Looks nice, but don’t you think that front porch should be bigger?
I don’t know about you Wallyhood, but I’d call that a McMansion.
Definitely.
Eh, it is a large house, but hardly McMansion. There are dozens of bigger ones in Wallingford that were built decades ago. Looks like it stylistically fits in with the neighbors, and probably not too out of proportion, either.
McMansion
I appreciate that this house appears to have a single-car garage. Too many new homes in this neighborhood have huge garage doors overwhelming their facade.
looks beautiful – congratulations! Hope your family enjoys it for many years.
Thanks for sharing. It looks great! Will look forward to seeing it next year.
This is by no means a Mc Mansion…. It is essentially the same footprint as the original house with a full second floor and basement that we did not have. Please refrain from being so judgemental. This will be my final post about our new home that we have planned and dreamed about for years (we’ve lived in this location for 8 1/2 years) and love Wallyhood which is why we decided to build a home that meets our needs and is more efficient than what we had. I can not believe how many of the posts are so negative. I hope you all will come by to see the final product and how much love we’ve put into the design.
And remember what your Mother told you…”If you don’t have anything nice to say…”
Looks great! Enjoy the project. I’d love to see it when it’s done, maybe the Wallingford home tour would work out. Try to sneak in some time capsules before the walls are closed up for future generations. One of the funnest parts of restoring or remodeling an old home is finding things from past generations of families. It’s a great thing to get kids involved with if that’s possible.
Steve
Congrats, looks great, and will look even better when you put in a lovely Wallyhood garden!
@Steve So true. We found old ledger books. Also a Stag Magazine from decades ago. Now THAT was funny.
Sorry public school mom – it’s so tough to communicate in a nuanced way on the internets. My comment was definitely a bit snarky. I do applaud you guys for giving away parts of your old house to be reused.
That being said, my initial impression is that you’ve replaced a small single family house with a much bigger one. Maybe this is because the drawing above shows the new house from the side?
There’s something to be said for patching up old things to keep them working. In New England where I am from, there are lots of really old things which are still around because people decided to keep them and fix them and make them work. In Seattle, it seems like we’re a bit more quick to tear things down and start over. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that approach – Seattle is growing quickly and we’re going to need to get more dense, which is going to necessitate tear-downs. I guess my point is that tearing down old houses and building bigger ones in their place (even if they’re in the same footprint) is necessarily an anti-preservationist, anti-stewardship approach to the neighborhood, your goals of fitting in notwithstanding. Again, nothing necessarily wrong with that. I can’t imagine that Wallingford bungalows are still going to be around in 100 years.
I’m all for ‘hoping’ that someone remodelling a home in Wallingford builds it to “fit in” with surrounding houses…but come on people. This house is going to be beautiful, energy efficient, and presumably meet the needs and wishes of the family who OWN the property. Public School Mom is too nice and polite to call all you negative-types out for who you are, so I guess it falls to others to tell you whiners to shut-up and quit bi#ch!ng!! I bet when it’s completed, all you negative people, who are so pre-occupied with others’ lives, will love this beautiful new house. And, if you don’t, tough crap…get over it! I’ve been by the cleared lot and it’s hardly big enough to build a “McMansion” on, but seems just about the right size to build a lovely HOME that can be enjoyed by whomever owns it for the next 100+ years.
i kind of think “corliss rocks” does- rock that is!
I think it looks beautiful. I also don’t think Public School Mom was obligated to share her family’s plan with this blog, and that too many people are quick to attack someone who was so willing to share. I would not have been so willing; if what I was doing with MY OWN lot was legal and not disruptive to the community then I don’t see how anyone should expect me to consider their opinion on the matter. Quit hiding behind the anonymity of the net and don’t be so rude. Besides, I thought this site was created to promote good neighborliness – not serve as an avenue to overuse modern catch-phrases like McMansions (which it clearly is not).
We are very blessed to live in a well constructed older house, so we’ll go the remodel route rather than replacement. But my god did we walk through some humdingers when we were looking – rot everywhere, poorly maintained 80 year old construction that did not fare well, or my personal favorite – mold growing in the carpet, which squished as you walked on it.
Not everything old is worth preserving, nor does everything new have to be built to the current modern fashion. I like the look of this house and think it will fit in beautifully with the neighborhood. I wish you well and look forward to the finished result, public school mom.
Does anyone know if the found wedding ring belonged to the person who posted the lost wedding ring flyers on 50th between Wallingford and Densmore?
Well, it is a pretty large house indeed. I would not classify it as a mansion either, though. But congratulations, enjoy the project, from the picture it seems like it will be something great. Cannot wait to see the result!
I see only one arch, clearly it is not a McMansion.