Under Construction on Wessyngton Road

We've been watching with a mixture of curiosity and foreboding the construction going on nearby.  First, they took out all the trees in the backyard.  They did this because the house they are building extends to completely fill what had been the backyard.

This picture (above) was taken last weekend, when they were framing in the basement.  Given that this is what the house looked like on Monday morning when I went to work, imagine my surprise when I came home from a short trip Wednesday afternoon to this:

One floor a day had been added to the house.  This was Thursday:

This has generated a lot of discussion among those of us who live at this end of the street.  We are no longer commenting on how quickly this happened (and it was very quick) but now the conversation is about how astonished we are that a house of this size is being put on a 50 foot wide lot on our street.  

Just to be completely clear, the word that is being used most frequently is "monstrosity."  Our neighbor Scott had the best characterization, that it was a Dunwoody mansion turned sideways.  We will have a clear view from our backyard of second story windows on the other side of Kathy and Steve's house.

Sometime before too long (probably not long at all, given the speed at which this is being built) the construction will be done and we will no longer have construction noise scaring the dogs, debris in the street flattening our tires, trucks blocking the street while people stand around looking at blueprints, and mud tracked from the construction site into the street.  

(In spite of the above "Notice to Comply," I don't think they ever did clean it up but it did eventually rain.  Too bad for the South Fork of Peachtree Creek.)

At some point we may stop being horrified by this behemoth of a house.  Maybe the exterior finishing will be so fabulous that we won't mind that it is at least 4 times as large as the adjacent houses.  Maybe they will plant some trees in front of it and in 30 years it won't be so visible.  Maybe the builder is planning on putting an invisibility cloak over the back three-quarters of the house and we won't even be able to see it.  Or maybe we'll just get used to it.

The thing I am really worried about is what kind of neighbors will end up living in a house like this.  It is not that I think that people who want 6000+  square foot houses are by definition bad neighbors; perhaps they need that much space for their extremely extensive toy soldier collection, or the 23 members of their extended family who live with them.  What troubles me is the thought that our future neighbors would probably prefer to be surrounded by other 6000+ square foot houses, not by the houses that are here, and that they will see the current residents of the street as recalcitrant people who need to get out as soon as possible so the street can be filled with giant houses like theirs, houses that don't have backyards and that are occupied by people like them, as opposed to those of us who actually live here.

I would be very happy to be wrong about this, I really would.  This is a great neighborhood.  There are families with children, there are retired people, and there are young single people, and even some students.  Kids ride their bikes in the street.  People walk their kids to school, chat in the street while walking the dogs, pick up each other's mail when someone's out of town, and really do help each other out when help is needed.  (I don't write about the best examples of helping out, because some things are private -- you'll just have to take my word for it.)  We'd love to have another good neighbor on the street, even if we weren't crazy about their house before we got to know them.  But just like no one asked us to approve the design of the house, we don't get to weigh in on who buys it, either.  So we'll have to take what we get, but we're hoping for the best.

In other news, the orange sign at the duplex has been replaced with a yellow sign, indicating that the tree removal plan has been approved by the city.  Another really big house to follow, I expect.  Stay tuned.