Entry tags:

urban infill

Changes in the neighborhood - an update

On 2 September I wrote about an elderly couple from our street who had their lives turned upside down when their relatives bunged them into a nursing home. The man died soon after. There was a sad sequel on 10 September, 2009 about their treasured possessions being tossed by relatives into a dumpster.

Well, a ‘For Sale’ sign went up soon after. I heard yesterday that there was a rush of prospective buyers and the place sold for $440,000 dollars, which is a hell of a lot of spare moolah. I was informed the buyer was an 81 year old widower with a grand piano. How about that. We like pianos. I hope he knows some Erik Satie pieces.


Snapped up for $440,000

Meanwhile at the adjacent unit on the front of the same block there has been another sad story. The elderly woman owner in her 90s had a stroke a couple of weeks ago and is now vegetating in a nearby nursing home. The relatives have started preparing the place for sale. They’re having a garage sale tomorrow. It was the son who told me about the price obtained on the other unit. He’s expecting a higher price because there were apparently some disappointed prospectives when the piano man won.

On the vacant block next door, which is directly opposite our house and has been an eyesore for the last couple of years, there’s been some building action at last. Surveyors were there last week and re-pegged the entire site. Yesterday a team of grano workers rocked up and laid the concrete footings, plus the slabs for the two front units.


The concrete jungle

They were pretty messy workers. They parked on the footpath, threw their refreshment rubbish on the verge and in the street, and left a hose running to waste thousands of litres of precious water into the gutter. Plus after they finished the job they left a steel mesh offcut lying across the footpath waiting to trip some unsuspecting pedestrian. They must have had special immunity from the Melville City Council to litter as they pleased. The main roadway and footpath is also filthy because of the black sand picked up by the wheels of the concrete trucks. It’s now getting tracked into our place.

I’ve learned that the sites for the other four units proposed for the rear of the quarter acre block now have separate owners and there is some sort of hesitation to build taking place. There’s no sign identifying the supervising builder, which seems unusual.

© MMIX Paul R. Weaver.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally.  An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!