February 08, 2008
A frustrating blog
Thanks to Damon, a fellow Floridian building green- visit their blog here for always checking in AND sharing a love hate relationship with another FL couple's building of a home near us in Englewood on Anna Marie Island in Sarasota. It's the New York Times' Dream Home Diaries and it can drive a sane person mad. Both of us have been following I believe since it started. i am personally jealous that I do not have The Times sponsoring this blog just for all the feedback I would receive. The reason the blog is annoying is because they aren't building anything special, certainly not green or a unique design, they have a budget of 700k, and they don't respond to the readers comments except once monthly and only to just a few. Basically it is a waste of the readership although I still find myself reading it usually just for the comments and to confirm that although my house is my house at least I tried to think things through a little bit. If I'd have had the 700k budget I could have had the dream home we originally set out to have with all the high-end green this and green that, not to mention a true passive solar design. Anyway, I am not one to judge, I guess it is just jealousy of their opportunity with all that cash and exposure to do something really interesting and instead be completely absent-minded about almost every detail. The Times has many interesting reports on current trends in building and design, I always wonder if they ever read the paper they work for... as writers, aren't they curious about what's new out there?
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1 comment:
Thanks for the recognition ;)
It's true that I love to hate that Dream Home Diaries blog. I love to read the comments to the [idiotic] posts, which I absolutely hate.
It is an example of how to waste a million dollars ($750ish house + $250K lot) on a house. Someone even commented on the latest round of pictures basically saying that it doesn't look like a million dollar home.
I agree.
The authors' home seems to combines the worst elements of a subdivision spec home and a custom build, with cheapish finishes, strange design, and mismatched elements. The roof deck looks tacked-on, and the exterior of the house is just plain boring. Their last-minute kitchen design fiasco was beyond frustrating, especially for the awesome kitchen designer who offered great (and free) advice and drawings. It was as if they are building the house to spite people who know better.
And they couldn't be more detached from the process or reality. I mean, their builder had budgeted $20 per sink -- in a home he quoted out at over $650,000. My initial reaction was "What is your builder thinking?!?" and then "Wait a second, you didn't have your faucets and sinks picked out before you broke ground?"
After tracking them for over a year I can definitely say that the authors of the Dream Home Diaries Blog have no vision, no style, no concern for the environment, and no business building a custom home.
Thank you for the appliance information, by the way. We're just a few weeks away from making our purchases and I was really struggling on the dishwasher and fridge. I like the Bosch fridges too, but I may go with the LG counter-depth (skinny kitchen) and have mismatched appliances -- oh! the horror!
Keep up the good work!
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