COMMENT OF THE DAY: A REAL ESTATE CHILDHOOD 
“When I was a kid in the 80s, I used to write letters to builders requesting floor plans & brochures. Every holiday and birthday, my favorite gifts were house plan books. I would pick out my favorite houses and design communities on giant posterboards, with lots drawn out and all. I was a weird kid . . . who grew into a weird adult who works in GIS and tinkers with home design software in my spare time. One of my favorite games is Try-To-Figure-Out-The-Builder. . . .” [Bridgeland Dude, commenting on Fulshear Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Zamboni Finish] Illustration: Lulu
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That’s funny, because I used to get the house plan books, too, and then draw up my own house plans using Paint on an Apple II. I branched out into public buildings and skyscrapers, and some urban planning. I grew up to be an architect.
Odd Comment of the Day–what do you say to that?–you where an odd kid?–but it’s good you found something you love, I suppose –hmmm
Honestly, who the fuck choses these comments -what do you say to a comment of a weird guy enjoy knows he’s weird?–C of D should be a bit provocative and thought provoking to generate comments, have any one at Swamplot even paid attention to what C of D get read and responded too, really I think the comments are often picked just because you think it might make a good idea for the daily scribble –also how about rotating illustrators —give Art students in college a shot every week at drawing for you site–it would be cheap and they might get noticed–
Bridgeland dude – I don’t think that was a weird childhood. But then again, I did similar so who am I to say? My obsession was cutting out the new home floorplans, neighborhood information and pictures from the Sunday paper. Of course then I used the neighborhood layout to play real estate agent with my Barbie dolls and plan out which one would put what house on this or that lot. I kept binders and folders of all the clippings and drawings for years too. I wish someone had thought to give me house plan books for a present! I just bought them for myself when I was older and had an allowance to play with.
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Now I’m a Realtor, so when I tell people real estate is my passion I really mean it.
This sounds much like me. I was a 90’s kid growing up in Seattle. Getting books of plans for things like the Monorail expansion project (now dead), WSDOT transportation project concepts or Sound Transit light rail expansion project always interested and fascinated me. I spent a lot of spare time drawing big sprawled out plans of imaginary cities and street grids or skyline drawings of highrises. Urban planning and development interests me a lot – but I’m unsure what education to pursue for that or whether it would be a viable career path or not. I guess I will keep dreaming…
Shannon, WTF? That was a great comment. This is a real estate blog. We’re all real estate geeks here, to one extent or another.
Ah Shannon, we can always rely on you for a daily ray of sunshine posting.
See Shannon? There’s plenty of comments and yours is the only negative one.
I think it’s a great comment of the day!
Come on!–this is an awful comment of the day–give me a break–but whatever –but how about some new blood on the illustrations–give some Art students a chance –they certainly can’t do any worse
Chill out, Shannon, and any other people who regularly complain about the COTD. You come across as bitter that your comment wasn’t chosen.
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Not every comment or article has to appeal to EVERY reader. If all COTDs were exactly the same slant, maybe it’d be okay to complain, but this is a little silly.
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ANYWAY, back to the COTD. I did things that were just as nerdy, if not more so. I just couldn’t draw well, so I wouldn’t have been into drawing up house plans. Kids with nerdy hobbies grow up to have good careers in interesting fields, make money to do the things they want to do and get financial security early on, and then at that point, they really never have to care what anyone thinks of their hobbies for the rest of their life!
For me, it was Sim City. And then Sim City 2000, and then Sim City 3000, and then Sim City 4. And maps, I love looking at all kinds of maps of pretty much everything. I probably should’ve gone into geosciences or civil engineering, but what’s done is done.
I like the COTD as well. I never collected the plans but preferred to get the plans of the subdivision showing the lots. Then I started playing with SimCity. I eventually got a city planning degree and now I’m a real estate developer.
Oh yeah, floorplans were my thing. I would collect the floorplans my parents would get when they were house shopping. I would just look at them and see what I could do better. I was around ten or eleven. Played sim city 4 all day long. That was my thing back in the day.I designed neighborhoods on many sheets of computer paper. I thought of the Bridgeland design before Bridgeland was a thought . Maybe I should have gone into urban planning instead of Law.
Maybe Mattel or Disney should hand out a set of blueprints with every dream house or princess castle they sell.
(In a whisper, with back of fingers next to mouth) What are the chances Swamplot could change names and move to a new location, and no one tells Shannon?
I don’t see anything weird about architectural or design doodles. Myself and all my kids did exactly the same on paper or on computer – Sim City.
Yes SimCity! I loved playing SimCity – starting with SimCity 3000 and then SimCity 4. Countless hours were spent laying out and building the “perfect” cities. It’s been a long while since I played…I wish they had a decent mobile version, since I’m on the go a lot.