When I moved into Lyall Bay just over 20 years ago it was just a quiet working class town not far from Wellington. The only traffic was a taxi and a couple of surfers.

After about ten years a cafe sprung up and we couldn't believe it, then a large shopping center, then a large home depot type place.

Now I have to wait a minute or two for a break in the traffic to get out the gate.

But the upside is the property prices in that time have gone from about 200k to 1.6m.

I do my best to keep property prices down by having broken down cars out the front, chainsawing up piles of firewood out the front of the house. I've recently put a builders site office (Portacom) right up against the front fence looking out at the beach. That got a number of complaints to the city council LOL I won and it's still there.

So I guess I'm a white middle class version of there goes the neighborhood.

This is nothing new. I grew up, and still live in a relatively rural area of NJ (yes, they still exist). My dad was mayor of the township I grew up in in the early 70's and he'd always remark on the people who moved out from a more urban area to a new big house "in the country" on a dirt road (yep, still dirt roads there then) and then come before the township committee to whine about the dust, and lack of sidewalks. And that's how it happens.

Haha, my first house was in a coconut neighborhood. The only other white people were bikies down the end of the street. We used to call eachother names when I walked home from the bank in my $800 suit. That place has also gone up by about the same percentage as the above mentioned beach neighborhood. Strangely (fact is stranger than fiction) the neighborhood has been taken over by lesbians so I'm afraid to go there after dark.

I don't know about where you live, but that's one thing I love about NC....you can be rural and still be just 30 minutes from urban areas....just depends.

edited: My primary house is "urban" now....40 years ago it was in part of my rural boy scout camp...

[QUOTE=Baz;10034832]Fred - the property in the background is the one you used to visit (800 1st Ave.).

This pic (also posted on the first page of the Horticulture thread) is from a project I did a couple years ago for a client on Maple Street. I planted the bamboo for screen and privacy for my client.

That house is not the same one that was there when you were here - it's a more recent build where the old one was. A lot of that happens here.

Small world though, huh?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1522618114.JPG[/QUOTE
Wow, cool, small world indeed. Ironically, 800 1st ave was new construction back then. I belie they had purchased it as a vacant lot, and built to their own specs . Thanks, memories . I had a lot of fun down there.

We are only 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh. 10 minutes south , and east of me, are some of the more desireable ares to live in the North Pittsburgh area .
My wife commuted downtown from here every day for the last 20 years. There is also industrial and professional development all around us . Pittsburgh is actually doing pretty well right now.
I wonder the same thing, where are these people coming from, and how can so many people afford brand new housing?
Lots of people have been moving in the area over the last 10 years, but most of that has been someone buying 10+ acres, and building a mc mansion, now the housing developers are here, and all hell is breaking loose .

I can relate to this feeling Fastfred, my parents were born in Trinidad and in '70s and '80s there was never an iota of traffic, lots and lots of green spaces everywhere and the country was safe and incredibly beautiful. On a small island where there is limited room for growth, it is now all concrete and steel and traffic is as bad as Los Angeles and crime is high. People have been living longer too, so the populating is growing at a rate higher than the government can support new infrastructure.

Same here.

There is a little joke in the building community.

Before you build or buy your home - pro development.

The moment you buy or build your home - pro conservation.


I found a note I wrote 20 years ago giving a friend directions to my house. From US1 to my house there were 2 traffic lights that I referenced, they were the only 2 on the 3 mile stretch.

Now there are 6 of them.

Every winter our sleepy little town gets crushed by snowbirds, traffic is horrendous, it is impossible to go to any store or restaurant and not have lines for everything.

In the summer, it is still sleepy, except I noticed 3-4 new subdivisions are now underway all in our little town. I am not sure how many new homes are coming in.

It kind of sucks.

We toyed with moving to Hobe Sound, I tell my friends right now it is what Jensen Beach was 20 years ago.

The only problem, my business is all up in this area, so I would be adding a 15-20 mile commute to my day when right now it is 2 miles.

We love our little town, after home shopping on 3 different occasions we decided to just stay put. The last time scared us, we put our house up for sale and listed it 50K over going prices thinking no one would want it at that price and it would give us time to shop for a house. Week 3 we had 2 offers, everything we looked at to buy we disliked. Top price being asked with nothing updated in 20 or 30+ years.

We decided to stay put.

When I moved where I live now in 1980 there were farms everywhere. Then the farmers were offered $$$$$$$ for their land and we went from rural to ex-urban in 10 years. My taxes were $750/year then, now well they're still low-ish at $6000 but I have no public water or gas, no sewers, no sidewalks, no street lights, no full time fire dept. But I do have a pond.

The Down Side
I've lived on the same street for 22 years and I liked where I live until about 10 years ago when they started to build 30+ story high rise apt. buildings, over 20 of them within a 5-10 min walk. They brought in the ALRT, aerial light rapid transit, built over a thousand new houses now, in the 2-3 mill range, did nothing to the roads and have ended up screwing the whole area up. I hate it, you cant get anywhere cause the vehicle traffic is snarled up on the main streets and traffic flow is controlled by pedestrians on the side streets.
Some people like to be close to everything, I'd sooner drive a bit when I need to get anything. My area has been rezoned for condo's and there is a land development going on that I'm included in but it can take up to 2 years - so I'm stuck here and it sucks.
The Up Side
I'm one of the world's leading experts on procrastination and its finally paid off, I wanted to get out years ago but never got around to it. The end result is my 70 year old house is worth nothing but the land is worth a small fortune - I've taken "later" to a whole new level and I think I'm a shoe in for the Procrastinator's Hall of Fame.
The Big Up Side
I've been Porscheless for 2 years, the pain and suffering has gone on long enough - I'm thinking 997 Turbo SmileWavy

Finn

The Rockford Files tv show was non-fiction? :D
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1526236351.jpg

I live in a lovely rural village at the cheap end of the Cotswolds

Prince Harry and Megan are moving into a nearby village, next door to the Beckam's. Reminds me, Dave still has returned my power washer I lent him to clean the peasant farm muck off his Range Rover!

The place will be swarming with SAS protection for the royal newly weds, there goes the neighbourhood :(

No problem parking every known farm equipment part/machine on your front lawn.

A few years after I moved in the by-law guy came by telling me he had a complaint about all the cars at my place. Two weeks later when he came back I had tractors, combines, sprayers, plows, bailers, every rusty POS farm crap I could beg borrow or steal, all parked on my front lawn.
I asked if he had a problem with that and he smiled and said "nope...you're zoned agricultural."
I told him if the complaints stop about the cars I might be inclined to move the farm equipment off the front lawn.

A couple days later he phoned me and said the complaint was dropped and assured me there would never be a complaint again.
That was almost 20 years ago.

Good show old boy!
I love the smell of resolution in the morning.

My new neighbors moved in, but the first thing they did was started demanding this and that.
Cut down established shrubs and complain of what is newly revealed.

I introduced myself on the front porch in a 'bugger off' fashion, suggested any problems get worked out mutually, and that I was willing to change anything on demand if needed for the benefit of all, and there hasn't been a problem since.