I saw a picture once of a high end resort bathroom that had my same $20 Gatco toilet paper roll holder (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gatco-Form-Toilet-Paper-Holder-in-Chrome-5333/313430132). Now, I'm not one to begrudge someone for refusing to pay an exorbitant price for something whose only job is to hold the roll of paper with which one wipes their butt, and that model is generally serviceable (though I'll note that I consider its design flawed in that it loosens over time and even with the proper allen wrench it's quite difficult to tighten again because it's flush against the wall).
But, burying the lede here, the reason I noticed it in the picture *is because it was installed upside down, with the notch pointing toward the floor* meaning that, in practice, the high-end bathroom did not actually have a functional toilet paper holder.
The gap between what rich people (who do not clean their own homes or do their own research when remodeling, or really do their own cooking a lot of the time) know, and what those of us who do those things ourselves know, has astonished me in my 20ish years of home ownership (we’ve moved several times, sometimes renting and twice buying, both older houses that needed a lot of work). We lived for a year in a one br apartment in downtown DC (my husband opted to spend his entire housing allowance on location rather than space, since it was just a year, and it was fun, if crowded with 3 ppl) that had a backwards kitchen layout and a drawer you couldn’t open bc the handle for the drawer next to it blocked it. Cooking in that apartment was ridiculous. I rented an apartment with a recently remodeled kitchen where the breakfast bar was wide enough that I had to take the cupboard doors off above it to be able to actually access the cupboard (when you opened the doors, they blocked your ability to reach into the cupboard unless you were willing to climb up on the counter that ran perpendicular underneath them). We also rented a house with a gorgeous looking open plan kitchen that meant one was constantly looking at dirty dishes from the living room. But the two houses we’ve owned were both old “handyman specials.” In one we took an 11’x11’ kitchen down to the studs and rebuilt it ourselves for about $5k, using our own labor and my research and design. It became a great working kitchen. Now we’re doing the same sort of thing to a house we bought 14 years ago, having finally gotten to the point where we can afford to remodel: we will spend $$ on good appliances (including a Toto toilet omg those things are impossible to clog and use almost no water) and very little on finishes (ikea butcher block is a way more practical countertop than marble). I’ve definitely learned that what most contractors think ppl want is the latest styles, rather than well-thought out design. It’s weird.
I live & work as a residential painter in a small, rapidly gentrifying, once-industry-now-ski town in British Columbia, Canada. My partner and I rent our home and share it with two lovely housemates. Many of our friends are still renting, and those who do own homes here have housemates given that you can’t get a mortgage for under $3000/mo in this town nowadays.
The housing market here is (un-uniquely) fucked: A rotting singlewide trailer from the 70s goes for half a million dollars, and you still don’t own the pad. You can buy a new one for $250,000....but you have to have land to put it on. And empty, uncleared lots in town are going for over $400,000 CAD. One-to-two bedroom bungalows built in the 50s in town go for 1-2mill.
We’ve got our first child on the way and would love to own a home of our own, but since they put the ski hill in (and the golf course. And as of next year, the SECOND golf course) housing isn’t accessible to those of us working middle class folk in our 30s. The only people I know who own that are my age had serious financial backing from their parents.
I work a majority of the new construction in town, most of my clients are big developers and the contractors who work for them. And these houses - five or six bedroom, 13000 sq ft monstrosities with absurd amounts of glass and polished concrete and useless, heat-sucking vertical space and the same tasteless fixtures throughout - aren’t worth what they’re costing. I find them all rather homogenous and flimsy, kind of like cardboard houses with white paint on the walls and a few faux chrome bits here and there for “flair.” I’ve seen some of these homes go up in 5 months, from ground break to final inspection. I’m just a painter, but I don’t think you can have high hopes for the longevity of something that doesn’t even take 6 months to build.
And then there’s the fact that these huge houses usually only house 3-5 people. A childless couple and their renter (almost all these places have rental suites built in, because it’s the only way anyone can afford them); a couple and their 1.2 kids. The majority of them work from home for large corporations and don’t actually contribute to local economy much at all. While the rest of the town is flooded with essential seasonal workers sleeping in their vehicles in -20 degree weather while they wait for a $1500/month closet to become available.
The community itself is wonderful. People are largely very neighbourly, quick to help or to stop and talk. The landscape is beautiful. We’re very lucky to be here, and love the idea of our kid growing up here...it’s just that the market is so broken for what housing exists already, and the new stuff isn’t being built for people like us. I’m so well-acquainted with this reality now through work that it just seems normal - but how can it be that I spend every day working in multi million dollar mansions and return home to my rental, which I vastly prefer but could never afford either? It all seems so broken.
"And of course, an exclusive neighborhood with tight zoning. The last one is probably the most important. It’s a major reason why houses like this exist in the first place. You can’t build more units to realize the value of the underlying land in these places, so you build more of one unit."
I'm not sure I understand or agree with the logic here.
I saw a picture once of a high end resort bathroom that had my same $20 Gatco toilet paper roll holder (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gatco-Form-Toilet-Paper-Holder-in-Chrome-5333/313430132). Now, I'm not one to begrudge someone for refusing to pay an exorbitant price for something whose only job is to hold the roll of paper with which one wipes their butt, and that model is generally serviceable (though I'll note that I consider its design flawed in that it loosens over time and even with the proper allen wrench it's quite difficult to tighten again because it's flush against the wall).
But, burying the lede here, the reason I noticed it in the picture *is because it was installed upside down, with the notch pointing toward the floor* meaning that, in practice, the high-end bathroom did not actually have a functional toilet paper holder.
The gap between what rich people (who do not clean their own homes or do their own research when remodeling, or really do their own cooking a lot of the time) know, and what those of us who do those things ourselves know, has astonished me in my 20ish years of home ownership (we’ve moved several times, sometimes renting and twice buying, both older houses that needed a lot of work). We lived for a year in a one br apartment in downtown DC (my husband opted to spend his entire housing allowance on location rather than space, since it was just a year, and it was fun, if crowded with 3 ppl) that had a backwards kitchen layout and a drawer you couldn’t open bc the handle for the drawer next to it blocked it. Cooking in that apartment was ridiculous. I rented an apartment with a recently remodeled kitchen where the breakfast bar was wide enough that I had to take the cupboard doors off above it to be able to actually access the cupboard (when you opened the doors, they blocked your ability to reach into the cupboard unless you were willing to climb up on the counter that ran perpendicular underneath them). We also rented a house with a gorgeous looking open plan kitchen that meant one was constantly looking at dirty dishes from the living room. But the two houses we’ve owned were both old “handyman specials.” In one we took an 11’x11’ kitchen down to the studs and rebuilt it ourselves for about $5k, using our own labor and my research and design. It became a great working kitchen. Now we’re doing the same sort of thing to a house we bought 14 years ago, having finally gotten to the point where we can afford to remodel: we will spend $$ on good appliances (including a Toto toilet omg those things are impossible to clog and use almost no water) and very little on finishes (ikea butcher block is a way more practical countertop than marble). I’ve definitely learned that what most contractors think ppl want is the latest styles, rather than well-thought out design. It’s weird.
I live & work as a residential painter in a small, rapidly gentrifying, once-industry-now-ski town in British Columbia, Canada. My partner and I rent our home and share it with two lovely housemates. Many of our friends are still renting, and those who do own homes here have housemates given that you can’t get a mortgage for under $3000/mo in this town nowadays.
The housing market here is (un-uniquely) fucked: A rotting singlewide trailer from the 70s goes for half a million dollars, and you still don’t own the pad. You can buy a new one for $250,000....but you have to have land to put it on. And empty, uncleared lots in town are going for over $400,000 CAD. One-to-two bedroom bungalows built in the 50s in town go for 1-2mill.
We’ve got our first child on the way and would love to own a home of our own, but since they put the ski hill in (and the golf course. And as of next year, the SECOND golf course) housing isn’t accessible to those of us working middle class folk in our 30s. The only people I know who own that are my age had serious financial backing from their parents.
I work a majority of the new construction in town, most of my clients are big developers and the contractors who work for them. And these houses - five or six bedroom, 13000 sq ft monstrosities with absurd amounts of glass and polished concrete and useless, heat-sucking vertical space and the same tasteless fixtures throughout - aren’t worth what they’re costing. I find them all rather homogenous and flimsy, kind of like cardboard houses with white paint on the walls and a few faux chrome bits here and there for “flair.” I’ve seen some of these homes go up in 5 months, from ground break to final inspection. I’m just a painter, but I don’t think you can have high hopes for the longevity of something that doesn’t even take 6 months to build.
And then there’s the fact that these huge houses usually only house 3-5 people. A childless couple and their renter (almost all these places have rental suites built in, because it’s the only way anyone can afford them); a couple and their 1.2 kids. The majority of them work from home for large corporations and don’t actually contribute to local economy much at all. While the rest of the town is flooded with essential seasonal workers sleeping in their vehicles in -20 degree weather while they wait for a $1500/month closet to become available.
The community itself is wonderful. People are largely very neighbourly, quick to help or to stop and talk. The landscape is beautiful. We’re very lucky to be here, and love the idea of our kid growing up here...it’s just that the market is so broken for what housing exists already, and the new stuff isn’t being built for people like us. I’m so well-acquainted with this reality now through work that it just seems normal - but how can it be that I spend every day working in multi million dollar mansions and return home to my rental, which I vastly prefer but could never afford either? It all seems so broken.
"And of course, an exclusive neighborhood with tight zoning. The last one is probably the most important. It’s a major reason why houses like this exist in the first place. You can’t build more units to realize the value of the underlying land in these places, so you build more of one unit."
I'm not sure I understand or agree with the logic here.