This post originally appeared on my political blog at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/04/houses-whinge.html.
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I am sitting here in a house with the reek and, in our downstairs bathroom, the actuality of wastewater ("sewage", to use the old, outdated term), and my partner - with a compromised immune system from chemotherapy - sheltering upstairs, because of either a blocked house drain or sewer (we suspect someone nearby started running a hot food business out of their home during the lockdown, and - without a grease trap - that may have blocked the sewer in the street, but it is more probably a blocked house drain given that such occurred just a few weeks ago).
That's actually just part and parcel of living in a house in a modern, sewered city (although it's the worst incident I've ever experienced), but it has brought to mind the many, many, MANY problems with houses here in Australia:
- they're grossly over-sized, which increases cost to build & running costs & the environmental impact from both construction and operation and reduces affordability;
- they're grossly under-insulated (double-glazing and hermetically sealed cavities, people! When I was talking in Mongolia to an an ex-pat from the UK who had winter experiences in the UK, Mongolia, and other places around the world, the coldest he had ever felt in a house in winter was in AUSTRALIA - which is a TERRIBLE indictment of our house construction practices), which increases running costs & the environmental impact from operation and reduces affordability;
- there
is a focus on superficial detailing rather than adequacy of building,
so the houses tend to fall to pieces after a few decades (they should
last for at least two centuries - at least the new metallic fences last
longer than the old timber paling fences, although the overall
environmental impact MIGHT be questionable);
- the rental rules have improved, but if we can no longer hire a plumber to clear a house drain (which, despite the opinion of some real estate agents, is NOT
modifying anything - it is just bloody maintenance, you morons! And not
being able to do so has put my partners health and potentially her life
at risk) something is seriously wrong.
Fortunately our landlords and real estate agents are serious about prompt maintenance and long term improvements, so this problem, even thought it occurred late in the afternoon, will be dealt with tomorrow AM - so we have just the night to survive (unlike people I know in other parts of the world [including a friend in Africa], who may have wastewater to contend with on an extended, semi-permanent or permanent basis); and - decisions about housing affordability are made by:
- too many people who own rental properties and thus have a conflict of interest (they can rent at higher prices if there are more renters and thus more demand),
- builders who make more profit by building bigger, superficially flashier houses of the type that I despise (rather than smaller, more solid and better insulated homes),
- government advisors who think only of housing from the perspective of a consumer and never consider the person who wants to truly (I am discounting those people who project manage the construction of their houses) build their own home; and
- architectural/town planning ideologues with little to no experience of discrimination (and possibly no experience with the joys of gardening) who think apartment/flat living and shared public space are "the solution".
