COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR ‘UPDATES’ ARE DATING YOU 
“The ‘needs updating’ knee-jerk reaction that a lot of people have to mid-century moderns is one of the reasons there are so few good ones left. Unfortunately this one had some ‘updates’ at some point, and now those previous updates are, well, dated. If it had been left alone & original, it would still have its classic features and would have more people fighting over it. Of course that wouldn’t appeal to folks who think that anything that deviates from whatever is sitting on the shelves of your local home improvement store or being slapped up by every production builder in the suburbs is somehow bad. ‘Needs updating’ usually just means ‘let’s suck out the character, charm and personality out of it and dull it down architecturally, so it fits the more mundane taste of more mundane people.’ If you find yourself house-shopping and inside a good original MCM and think, ‘needs updating’ just go find the nearest Perry home instead and sign yourself up.” [MCMlover, commenting on Trekking O’er the Terrazzo in a Sharpstown Country Club Estates Home] Photo: HAR
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Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap (rolling into thunderous applause).
..and the crowd roars!
How about if we all just build and decorate it the way we like it, ignore what everyone else is doing, and just be happy. Oh wait – then it would be blasted apart in Swamplot commentary.
That’s why I don’t play video games — lawn darts are the rage. If you want anything less than 50-year old technology in your home, you’re crazy. And shame on you because I have better taste than you.
Or people could simply fixate less on how other people decorate their homes.
It amazes me that we’ve become so rich as a society that we can collectively afford to have fashions of home improvements that will go in and out of style (although remain perfectly functional) the same way clothes do. The funniest to me is when you see on one of these HGTV shows someone espousing all the right ‘green’ mantras, but the first thing they do when they get the house it tear out all the perfectly functioning appliances, cabinets, counters and carpet…etc to be thrown in a dumpster. All the while feeling smug about how sustainable the place is because they are putting in bamboo flooring (no doubt discussed while drinking fair trade coffee in their prius).
Or sometimes “the needs updating” comment just means it needs to be taken back to the style it was/should still be.
It’s even worse when you’re showing houses or looking at houses for sale, and someone comments that the house needs updates … for a place built in 2010.
SMH
Longcat has a good point. They’re saving the world one 5000 ft. house at a time.
I remember one co-worker that updated her house to her tastes just prior to being transferred to another city. She knew she would be moving but thought updates would help sell the house. I told her that perhaps she should consider leaving it as was and maybe asking a bit lower price so that the new homeowner could update the way they wanted.
.
She did as she wanted and couldn’t unload that house for over 4 years! She settled on renting it out after it didn’t sell the first year. I have no idea if the $$$ she wanted had anything to do with the reason it didn’t sell. But I do know that the updates she did would have been a deal breaker for me.
.
Full disclosure: this was not in Houston.
Amen, amen, amen!
@longcat Word.
Whatever. I could care less anymore. It’s all so shallow and vapid !!!