Funny pics

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

All too true.

I suppose a more important question is everyone happy where they live?

For the most part, yes.

[Reliant121]

Not so sure myself. I haven't had an awful lot of exposure to other places in the UK till recently as my partner lives in Derbyshire. Much prettier area of the country than mine with much cheaper prices and a more quiet lifestyle. I really like it in the Midlands despite our southern tendency to be disparaging. By comparison where I live is congested and expensive; though I'd struggle to live away from the Sea now.

[IanKennedy]

Since my town is not big it's hard to tell but the City of Portsmouth just over the otherside of Portsmouth harbour has a population density of around 3100 by square mile (converted from 5100 per square km approximately).

EDIT: I think I found my town Gosport's starts. The 2011 Census suggests that there's 32.6 living in 1 hectare. Since 259 hectares is a mile that would equate to a population density of 8443 living in one Square mile. That seems...high. My maths must be off.

No, your math is correct. Gosport has approx. 8500 people per square mile. The figure I gave for Jersey was an average, including all the farming communities and virgin forest/unsettled land, beaches, etc. To compare, as of 2000 New York City had a population density of approximately 26,400 people per square mile. The fact of the matter is that each of us can only comment anecdotally on the limited areas with which we are familiar. I can comment on building styles and typical properties of central Jersey and the shore area, while McAvoy can comment more efectively on western New Jersey; Relaint can comment accurately on Gosport and its surrounds, while Seafort would be more expert on Liverpudlian trends and Ian would be our local authority on Oxford. In suburban central and eastern New Jersey, typical building patterns tend to be detached homes on decently-sized plots, so ranch homes can be large enough to be a viable home option.

Not forgetting Ian and Graham are both born and bread in Liverpool

[Coalition]

Not forgetting Ian and Graham are both born and bread in Liverpool

Well, if you ate more meat and veggies that would be a healthier diet.

[Mikey]

Not forgetting Ian and Graham are both born and bread in Liverpool

Well, if you ate more meat and veggies that would be a healthier diet.

lol. Get it? Ian wrote "bread," not "bred."

Anyway, I wasn't forgetting that - I never knew that you two were raised in Liverpool.

[IanKennedy]

Not forgetting Ian and Graham are both born and bread in Liverpool

Well, if you ate more meat and veggies that would be a healthier diet.

lol. Get it? Ian wrote "bread," not "bred."

Anyway, I wasn't forgetting that - I never knew that you two were raised in Liverpool.

Lived there until we were 18 when we left for University (Graham is 4 years younger than me so obviously he left later). My parents lived there until 6 or 7 years ago we would visit frequently. They now life in Banbury, near Graham, and about 25 miles from Oxford.

As for bread/bred dyslexia's a bitch

[sunnyside]

I'm curious what most of your houses are built out of? This is the first house I've lived in which isn't exclusively built of bricks and, because of that fact, it's a nightmare to get a mortgage company that will even touch it (it's an ex-PRC home)

While we build out of all sorts of stuff, most homes are made out of wood, or increasingly some sort of wood composite, like Glued laminated timber (Glulam) or Wood-plastic composites (WPCs).

Is the issue worry about fire? Here we just accept the risk. It being cheaper to build them with wood and then smoke a few. We're tearing homes down left and right to build bigger or more modern ones anyway, so the idea you expect the thing to last a century really isn't around much.

On that note:

You go down the road towards Pennington and you will find the weirdest neighborhood in Ewing. Someone was drunk when they set up that neighborhood. You got McMansions mixed in with some fugly 70's flat roof houses mixed in with a sprawling one storey house that to houses that looks like built up trailers to three storey medium sized houses. Then good luck trying to find a way out because like I said someone was drunk when they set up the neighborhood.

I've been hearing about that sort of thing a lot. Actually I think part of the reason for the term "McMansion" was because people were upset about the thing. Specifically that they'd been living in a row of similar homes, and then someone knocks one down to put in a McMansion that takes up the entire yard so now the neighbors can almost reach out and touch the beast that makes their homes look like shacks.

EDIT: As for the McMansion, I've never seen a house even close to as big as those on a quick google image search. In my experience increased cost tends to get a more prestigious neighbourhood.

That's historically how it goes. Proper mansions have been around for ages. The McMansion put the size and fancy architecture within reach of the mass affluent. Popping up in old middle class neighborhoods or new suburbs/exurbs.

Actually the recession has been hard on people, making it harder to get into a McMansion. However apparently once a family of four gets used to having five bathrooms and six bedrooms, and a lot of extra space, there's no going back.

So the current trend is leaning toward what I've heard called Big Box homes. Sort of like a McMansion, (and probably still often called that) but without all the fancy. The idea is just to build something with ~5000 square feet for as little as possible (these days I think some can pull it off for around a quarter million USD).

I'm not sure it counts as a funny picture, but behold, the modern 5000 square foot "mansion"!

[Mikey]

Whew, I don't know where you live. In the northeast Metro corridor - at least my section of it - a quarter of a million doesn't even get you 2000 square feet on a 100' x 100' lot.

[McAvoy]

Whew, I don't know where you live. In the northeast Metro corridor - at least my section of it - a quarter of a million doesn't even get you 2000 square feet on a 100' x 100' lot.

Even around me too.

Also McMansions can pop up in neighborhoods. Giant wide open lawns with hardly a plant in sight. Each one is also unique and not cookie cutter.

There is a house in Freehold/Jackson that was built with a indoor swimming pool and last I heard was about a million dollars. The location was in the middle of White Trashville. The lawn looked small. No one bought it for years and last year early Spring a bunch of high school kids broke in and had a party where they somehow lit one side of the house on fire.

[Teaos]

[Teaos]

[Reliant121]

That's historically how it goes. Proper mansions have been around for ages. The McMansion put the size and fancy architecture within reach of the mass affluent. Popping up in old middle class neighborhoods or new suburbs/exurbs.

Actually the recession has been hard on people, making it harder to get into a McMansion. However apparently once a family of four gets used to having five bathrooms and six bedrooms, and a lot of extra space, there's no going back.

So the current trend is leaning toward what I've heard called Big Box homes. Sort of like a McMansion, (and probably still often called that) but without all the fancy. The idea is just to build something with ~5000 square feet for as little as possible (these days I think some can pull it off for around a quarter million USD).

I'm not sure it counts as a funny picture, but behold, the modern 5000 square foot "mansion"!

I think the closest I can find to that is this property that's for sale a mile or so away from me.



This is up for £1.1million. It's a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom (3 en suite) property with 6 reception rooms (why do you even need that many).

Source

[Mikey]

That's the biggest around you? It's a beautiful home, but would be considered mid-range in some better neightborhoods down the shore (Rumson, Shrewsbury, etc., for McAvoy.)

For a truly disgusting factoid, I believe the record for a home sale in my state was $40 million (a bit over 26 million pounds.)

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Around June '12 I attended a wedding reception for a cousin, in a decidedly upscale locale literally on the Jersey shore (that is, the hotel which held the reception was right off the beach). I don't recall the exact name of the place but the homes around were enormous. Like Mikey said, the home Reliant posted would look modest by comparison.

I can also relate that relatively large homes are sometimes dropped in odd places, as there are a couple of homes near my home (a modest condominium, in an area full of such) which are a fair bit larger than the neighboring homes. One looks more impressive from the front but is relatively shallow, while the other is just big all the way around.

[Graham Kennedy]

That's the biggest around you? It's a beautiful home, but would be considered mid-range in some better neightborhoods down the shore (Rumson, Shrewsbury, etc., for McAvoy.)

For a truly disgusting factoid, I believe the record for a home sale in my state was $40 million (a bit over 26 million pounds.)

How about this one? It's the most expensive house within 20 miles of my place. At £18 million, you won't find much that's more expensive than this.