Thoughts on "House Envy" Sunday Freep

[1953]

I like the House Envy segment very much and don't find it at all crass. Would I like to see some Tiny Houses featured, too? For sure.

Thanks,

1953

[MizMotown]

Ahhh, once again we talk about the rich living lives of quiet desperation in the Golden Ghetto. Many of them, despite their wealth, are completly miserable. Sumas, you lead a richer life then many of them, and I'd much rather read your posts than theirs.

Boils down to consumerism....competition, materialism and disconnection.

^{Businesses have realized that wealthy consumers are the most attractive targets of marketing. The upper class's tastes, lifestyles, and preferences trickle down to become the standard for all consumers. The not so wealthy consumers can “purchase something new that will speak of their place in the tradition of affluence”.}

[MizMotown]

Agree with you on this. Some people truly think that it's spiritually noble to be poor. The other side of that belief is if you have money, you also have more to share. It's all about belief. But if hoarding money is FEAR based then money becomes your "God." With everything you want, the best question to ask yourself is, "what is this for?" Why do I want this or why am I doing this? Is it out of fear based thinking or love?

Striving for money out of fear, prestige, power, or because you believe that it will fill a void is only a temporarily fix. Like any addiction you will always feel there is not enough.

Money is nothing in itself. It's the power one assigns to it.

[sirrealone]

I liked it better when it was a 'Real Estate' section with articles about housing trends, prices, and styles. I suppose now that they don't have to pay someone to write the 'House Envy' stuff, so it's a thinly veiled cost cutting measure.

[1953]

If we are providing critical analysis of the section, I would like them to start providing Wayne County home sale prices in the "homes sold" area of the section; I live in the Grosse Pointes and always get a Macomb County paper - and I hate it! Wayne County for life - what what!

1953

[poobert]

Like most of the Free Press, it is a section largely worthy only of lining a bird cage. While I don't find the concept itself crass, there are things about it I find vulgar:
1) The title "House Envy" is rather repugnant. I'm sorry, but did that win out over "Horny for Your House"? You're a allegedly a fucking newspaper. Words have meaning. Each one of these articles, too, sound like it was written by the an eleven year old. I'm rather traditional, not to mention literate, but a title like "Michigan Homes and Gardens" or something of the like sounds much more inviting and tasteful. I may be mildly interested in your big dumb house, but I'm by no means envious of it.
2) The overriding theme seems to be fucking ginormous and single-family. In fact, you'd think, by the articles, that was the only types of homes on the planet earth. To me a large house sounds terrifying to clean and maintain.

For me it has always been more about "home" than houses. I may live in a simple, three bedroom Detroit home but I am proud of it and wouldn't trade it for the Art Van dungeon simply because it is "home."

[canuck]

For me it has always been more about "home" than houses. I may live in a simple, three bedroom Detroit home but I am proud of it and wouldn't trade it for the Art Van dungeon simply because it is "home."

You hit it on the nail when you talked of "home". I think that good house architecture from very old to spanking new should provoke an emotional response, because residential architecture is about personal shelter.

Yes, home; comfort and ultimately style but not the empty "lifestyle" label that popped up 20 years ago.


I love architecture and am often blown away by a very small but charming house. I likewise will be touched by a big but stylish house, but usuallly a pre-war one, although I like a lot of very modern architecture too. It's definitely not about size. I just made an offer on a hundred and thirty year old house yesterday close to downtown Montreal and it was accepted. Tomorrow morning I am going to meet an architect to have the house inspected. I passed on a number of rehabbed houses in the same neighborhood because they had it all wrong. Everything had been stripped in a lot of them. I found one with original mouldings, plinths and doors, a great staircase that looks new but is original to the house and I got it for a very good price. I am going to bring as many features back to make it look like it did in 1885, even if some features are 70 years old and I want to keep those.
The street that it is on has evolved quite a bit; a lot of evolution in styles and modifications over time, but some of them are pretty close to original;

https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=rue+co...ed=0CAgQ_AUoAg


I swear, if I see another exposed brick wall, I will vomit. In Montreal, a lot of older houses with old plaster walls were stripped and now have exposed brick which is really an insult to the folks who wanted to build a "house", not a stable. Another thing that really shits me is the wrought iron balconies and spiral staircases in my city that are being replaced by white aluminum ones.

[MaxCady]

Like most of the Free Press, it is a section largely worthy only of lining a bird cage. While I don't find the concept itself crass, there are things about it I find vulgar:
1) The title "House Envy" is rather repugnant. I'm sorry, but did that win out over "Horny for Your House"? You're a allegedly a fucking newspaper. Words have meaning. Each one of these articles, too, sound like it was written by the an eleven year old. I'm rather traditional, not to mention literate, but a title like "Michigan Homes and Gardens" or something of the like sounds much more inviting and tasteful. I may be mildly interested in your big dumb house, but I'm by no means envious of it.
2) The overriding theme seems to be fucking ginormous and single-family. In fact, you'd think, by the articles, that was the only types of homes on the planet earth. To me a large house sounds terrifying to clean and maintain.

For me it has always been more about "home" than houses. I may live in a simple, three bedroom Detroit home but I am proud of it and wouldn't trade it for the Art Van dungeon simply because it is "home."

Get jealous much?

[poobert]

Get jealous much?

Jealous of what? Some giant tomb? Maybe you folks down there in Burgerland Desert, Sprawlsville County, Arizona different values than me. I sure hope so.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love an Old World Sherwood Forest beauty. However I can't imagine caring for something over 4,000 square feet, or wanting some post-war cheesiness. As it stands I have a beautiful old home full of character in a lovely neighborhood. It's a home full of love and life. I've been away serving this great country for too long this year and right now all three bedrooms of it sound like paradise. I'd like nothing more than a cold brew, my old lady, and my hound dog in my humble home but somewhere those American values got lost on you shallow folk in envy and greed and for that I feel sorry for you.

[sumas]

Oh poobert, don't get mad at simple folk who like those unloved unlivable houses. Why would we be jealous? My home is a bit larger than I would like but we inherited it. It is really a comfy home and we transition people who became homeless. All help us maintain this sweet old house. It's serious cool that we are caretakers of a home that were built when builders cared.

[sumas]

Actually we have no kind of money but what we get we spend on our house. We have one last major project which is to paint the trim this spring. Actually a big job.

I have used the word real many times in my posts. I live in a real neighborhood, my neighborhood kids are real.We have neighbors with names like Tiger or D or E. No doubt not stellar people but they don't shit in our hood. The great thing is, I know my neighbors.

The hollywood homes just have no interest to me.

[gnome]

Alright sumas, I've had it with this stuff. Are you blind to the reality that you live in a neighborhood that was once a different city? I know you know that. I know you know that neighborhood was so far away from the city center that the local school named themselves the Jungleers.

You also know that you live in a neighborhood that at one time might have been featured in "House Envy". You know that your house is adorned with the sculpted details that few folks could afford then or today. In fact that is the reason you like your home, that is why you care for your home, that is why you are proud of your home. Specifically you like your home because it isn't ordinary. It is grand and for people back in the day, it could have been called a rich person's home.

You are living in the exact kind of home you have taken untold time in criticizing.

Do you see that? Stop it.

In fact, to all the Noble Savage types that have gone to contorted rationales in taking up their pitchforks against The Man, remember: when you have out-of-town visitors you always give them a tour of Indian Village, Palmer Woods, Berry and Rosedale park.

you even mention Meis when defending what is cool about the City. Don't get all Poverty Pious when you take pride in what wealth has given you.

[carolcb]

Holy Toledo, this thread is all over the place. Tell me I am wrong but isn't there a difference between pining for one of those houses in Indian Village and some gaudy monstrosity? I do understand what someone said about those houses paying tax dollars, and I do understand the people who might have built those houses in Indian Village 80 years ago might not be any different from the Art Van house today, not that he isn't a great person who has done many, many good things for the Detroit area. Somehow to look at those old beautiful houses doesn't feel the same [[and wanting to keep those old houses standing) as someone's perceived "envy" for some 8,000 square feet place up in Oakland or Macomb or Washenaw counties. It makes me sick that there aren't more people who can afford to buy the homes in Wayne county and pay the taxes and keep the place intact. Face it, class struggle and the whole us versus them and who has what is part of the reason the country is in the shape it is in.

[JBMcB]

^{Businesses have realized that wealthy consumers are the most attractive targets of marketing.}

Not really. If you have gobs of money and you care to show it off, you are going for exclusivity, the opposite of mass-market. You shop at stores that do not advertise. Small boutiques that buzz you in. You get the one of a kind thing that nobody else has.

The mass marketing of luxury goods is aspirational. Many brands have learned the old business maxim - you can go broke catering to rich people or make money catering to everyone else.

[MaxCady]

Jealous of what? Some giant tomb? Maybe you folks down there in Burgerland Desert, Sprawlsville County, Arizona different values than me. I sure hope so.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love an Old World Sherwood Forest beauty. However I can't imagine caring for something over 4,000 square feet, or wanting some post-war cheesiness. As it stands I have a beautiful old home full of character in a lovely neighborhood. It's a home full of love and life. I've been away serving this great country for too long this year and right now all three bedrooms of it sound like paradise. I'd like nothing more than a cold brew, my old lady, and my hound dog in my humble home but somewhere those American values got lost on you shallow folk in envy and greed and for that I feel sorry for you.

Enjoy your sour grapes LOL!

[sumas]

Gnome, I am sorry you distort my comments on my home, my neighborhood and thoughts on my city. I live less than 10 minutes from the city center. I do and have dealt with all of our city problems on personal and community venues.

[sumas]

Certainly, I have been attacked and even occasionally admired on this board, "pious poverty" wins hands down for insults.

No, I don't take folk wanting see our city on tours of what is considered affluent areas. We are more likely to visit cemeteries, We are huge history buffs.

I am a realist, well educated, I "get" our problems, I am all city. I AM PROUD TO OWN AN OLD HOME BUT TRUST ME THIS WOULD BE ON NO HOME ENVY TOUR. Not then, not not now. So shoot me for loving this old pile and doing what I can to preserve a small segment of history.

What does happen is our neighbors unite in wanting to maintain and improve our streets. I am blessed, I use that word rarely!

House Envy, so silly.

[poobert]

I can think of at least three people on this thread this board would be richer for having lost and sumas isn't one of them.

Frankly there is nothing wrong, hypocritical, or jealous about loathing a poorly-written section largely made up of garish houses in an unreadable newspaper.

It's pretty clear sumas contributes a lot more to the city and this board than half you suburban poseurs.

[sumas]

Thank you Poobert, that was sweet commentary. There are many beautiful homes all in and around Detroit. The monstrosities they show make me cringe. They just seem so unloved, just show places.

I'll do a DY party here in late spring. I adore my home but for all its artsy crafty stuff some things are just plain weird and make me love this silly old house better. Over our kitchen sink is an actual medicine chest, mirror and all. We call it the liquor cabinet. So tacky but funny.

In fact every room on all 4 floors have mirrors save one. I find that funny too. We didn't change too much and the mirror thing is a bit over the top but adds charm to an eclectic old house. I doubt this old house would ever have qualified for "House Envy". It is just a sweet well built old charmer that deserves love and preservation.

See you all this Spring, judge for yourself. Sumas

[Farwell]

I swore I wouldn’t comment further on this thread but here goes. I’m thrilled you love your house with all its quirkiness and character. But, you started the discussion on what you considered ostentatious and invited thoughts. By your definition, in your world my house might be considered ostentatious, but guess what, much laughter, love and living occurs within its walls. My DH and I designed and built this “monstrosity” over 25 years ago. We did everything from all the electrical, plumbing, tile laying, wood staining, painting, landscaping and interior design just to name a few things, while holding down full time jobs at the same time. Yes, it took time. We don’t expect any accolades. It’s just what we decided to do for our family. Some people have the ability to accomplish the same thing without the individual effort, and that’s fine by me. The pride we take in our efforts is satisfaction enough. We never mention the history behind our home unless asked. I must admit that I sometimes I get a little defensive when I read all the attacks on this forum directed toward those in my situation. I need to remind myself to consider the source. Envy is such a loaded word and is probably a poor choice for a headline. Your personal dislike of these lifestyles is understandable considering your personal choice of a lifestyle. I take all of pop media with a grain of salt since I know it’s not a social commentary as much as it is about catch phrases for selling newspapers and the like. I read these articles and other home improvement publications not to salivate, but to be exposed to innovative, diverse and unique ideas that may spawn an application in my own life. It’s sad that these discussions sometimes degenerate into pejorative comments on anindividuals life style decisions.

[Bham1982]

The monstrosities they show make me cringe. They just seem so unloved, just show places.

If a big, flashy home built for the rich is in Detroit, it's deemed worthy, but the same home with an address in the suburbs falls short of your lofty standards. No hypocrisy there.

Places like Palmer Woods and Boston Edison contain the same nouveau riche showplaces, but from an different generation.

[JBMcB]

I don't understand the psychology of being unable to express your preference of home or living situation without criticizing the preferences of others.

The closest thing I can think of are the clerks in the movie High Fidelity. You define yourself based on where you like to live, as the clerks defined themselves based on the kinds of music they like.

That's the first part, but the second is the dismissal of anyone else's taste. I suppose it's a kind of elitism, or search for "authenticity."

So how about it? Why do you feel the need to discount someone else's taste? What does it matter to you where someone lives, or what kind of house they live in, or even how they decorate it? Does pitying some poor, sad sap who lives in a "McMansion" make you feel better about your own house, or by proxy, yourself?

[sumas]

Wow, somehow this devolved as a thread, live where you want, do what you want, makes no difference to me. I never expected my comment to get more than a few nods and gone into oblivion. Although I must say the haves are bit more rambunctious then the have nots.

For the haves, why not come sit with me in line, freezing my butt, for free turkeys, four of my neighbors will be there and not one of us needs that turkey, its for other neighbors we adopted, mostly elderly folk.

Don't care if you're rich or poor, it's what in your heart and soul that matter.

Please people try to remember this is "Detroit Yes". It's supposed to be about Detroit and moving forward.

But just for fun and feeling a bit evil, the poor are not the entitlement folk, it's the rich ass "I own the congress" folk. Sumas