Morning gripe

Over the last couple of weeks, For Sale signs have been popping up in front of houses all over town. Just in the mile stretch between my house and the downtown area, there were 12 houses for sale and this morning 3 more had sprouted For Sale signs. It looks like a mass exodus is taking place. It never used to be common to see four or five houses on the same block selling at the same time. Either people are deciding to cash in on their equity before it evaporates or there are a lot of people with refis plus equity who are afraid of losing their shirts.

Anyway. One day last week I turned a corner on my way home and saw a crew out in someone’s side lot chopping down a stand of beautiful old fir trees. Over the course of the week, they removed every last tree on the lot. And now...looks like a new house is going up on the completely denuded plot of sand.

So, here we have someone who just has to have a brand new house with not a tree to call their own while there are over a dozen really nice houses (with established trees and landscaping) for sale in the very immediate vicinity. There really is something wrong with this whole notion that brand new is necessary or better or even best.

Meanwhile, the people who live behind me up on the hill have just started construction on the third addition to their house. By the time they are finished it will rival Versailles. At least they didn’t tear the old house down and start over. One of these days, I expect they will move back in. They’ve been living elsewhere for the past year while their house is enlarged and enlarged again. I shake my head and think I should probably mind my own business because I have no idea of their circumstances. But cripes. They’re up to at least 5000 square feet now and still building. It all seems kind of excessive, y’know?