The residential bubble is burst. Gone are the days of making money from flipping, or just waiting a year or so. In fact, in some areas prices are coming down.
This is probably a good thing. Housing prices were out of whack. When it makes much more sense to rent than own, something has gone wrong with the American Dream. There are lots of other places to have the discussion as to how and why all of this has happened. Our question is now what?

So, now what? It depends on what you want to do. New construction? Actually, it’s a great time (assuming you can get a loan). Contractors are really feeling the heat. Starts are down considerably. This means that contractors are looking for work. Our office has been getting calls fairly regularly from contractors asking if we have anything they could build. The same goes for remodeling.

The other thing to do, if you can afford it, is to buy and sit on it. Rent it out…since there are renters out there. Again, it depends on your ability to get financing (or how well your stocks have done recently), but now would be a great time to buy propreties that people are eager to get out of because they can’t afford them anymore.

So, take advantage of the situation…call an architect.

This is a quick test of some new software we’re trying out for posting to the blog, w.bloggar. You use the software to compose posts and it automatically updates and posts to the blog.  The idea is to use something with a bit better interface than the Wordpress editor.

---

We’re also testing out Zoundry. I’ve figured the interface out a bit quicker with Zoundry… (at least as far as being able to download & edit previous posts). But’s remarkably similar in execution and concept. I’ll also include an image, just to test it out.

My partner designed a “traditional” house for a client of ours. It’s currently under construction and we went out for a site visit. It’s nicely designed. However, the owners have made some poor decisions and mucked up the proportions. It’s now taller than it should have been. As designed, it was pretty good. But I couldn’t like it. I kept wondering why.

Last night, if figured it out. I figured out some of what I don’t like about traditional styles, or why modern interpretations of traditional bothers me so much.

It’s really not very complicated. While I may not like some “traditional” architecture (and by this I mean early 20th century or older) I can appreciate it. I do enjoy their proportions, detailing and I’ve gained a better understanding of why they did what they did.

What I don’t like about modern “traditional” stuff is simple. It’s badly done. And, there is so much of the bad stuff that the good stuff sometimes just gets lumped in with everthing else. The details are similar and from a road distance, the good blurs by. I’m so used to seeing poorly done “traditional” that I’ve stopped looking at it all together. In the end, I may miss well done “traditional”.

It’s much like thinking that Totino’s Frozen Pizza is what pizza is. If most of your experience is Totino’s, then you may not have much of a desire for a really good brick oven pizza from the local pizza parlor. Good pizza is easy to find and make. Unfortunately, good “traditional” isn’t easy to design or build. That’s probably why we don’t see much of it. And when we do, we’re likely to lump it in with Totino’s.

PS: I actually like a Totino’s… once a year. Any more than that and we’ve exceeded my ability to deal with it.