@gadgetgirl The people that own these houses have staff. In fact, the staff spend more time at the homes than they do. There are landscapers, maids (only white ones - I worked right next to the real estate agency - basically they did not have any POC on the island, even entertainers) and they have personal assistants that open the homes up for them and stock them with wine, cheese, pasta, fruit - all the fundamentals one needs to entertain. I, personally, do not enjoy the idea of needing to manage a staff. My dream home will instead have robots that serve these functions.
I like your idea of cocooning but winter isn’t my thing now that asthma gets me when it’s cold outside. Or maybe, I could do you thing but only on the condition that I never ever go outside and then there is a very handsome milkman who services my needs (for milk, of course).
@kxkvi I keep trying to find this one amazing home that was on Extreme Homes - desert and all weird and amoeba shaped. It was just so primally soothing. My Google-Fu fails me.
I liked a lot of those, but some didn’t load for some reason. The shark was particularly nice. And the upside down house. I admire people who have crazy ideas AND the guts (& money) to actually implement them.
For a few months, I lived with an aunt and her family, and they had a housekeeper. She thought it was very strange that I didn’t want her to wash my clothes for me, especially because all wash was done by hand and hung to dry. This was in Central America. I just couldn’t deal with the idea of a stranger touching my underwear, especially getting out period stains. Just no.
The very idea of having house staff makes me uncomfortable, but that’s probably a socioeconomic thing. I’ve been house staff (live in childcare) and that was strange but not off-putting, except for the time my boss’ visiting father was taken aback that I would eat dinner at the table with the family. Gratefully, he shut that down real quick, because they might have been rich, but they were not assholes.
Your winter cabin sounds lovely, as long as it’s warm and cozy inside!
I would like to be wealthy enough that if I knew someone in a precarious position falling on desperate times I could give them a job house-sitting (with room and board included). But the blurred lines between friend, ‘like one of the family’, employee, and houseguest would likely get messy (as those things tend to do), and I wouldn’t want to have to deal with that. So maybe I’m lucky to not be that wealthy.
If one were wealthy enough to require staff, I don’t think managing them would be that difficult.
Appoint one person to be in charge of it and give you occasional updates. Make sure they understand that their bonus depends on making sure the staff are unionised, paid more than a living wage, have pensions, are given private healthcare and that all of their dependents’ educations are paid for.
Employing people doesn’t mean you have to exploit them; quite the opposite, in fact. The problem is that most people who are wealthy enough to employ staff are also greedy little capitalist gobshites.
I’ve been apartment hunting for a place by September. Yesterday, my friend and I stumbled across a possible room for rent the owners hadn’t really considered renting, it just got drywalled. One bedroom in a concrete-walled home that had seen better days, with a rotting roof of mixed materials.
Anyway, we got to talking, but I made it clear I needed more space, because cats, and more protection against weather, because oil paintings.
But then I had an idea today. I’ve assumed any place I got on the cheap would need work, so I figured I’d be painting walls and laying tile at the minimum. The people were very nice, and the man spoke some English.
I’m starting to think I might go back to him and see if they could rent me the room to me cheaply, but in addition, match me on costs to replace the roof entirely with a concrete slab (extremely common here), and allow me to build out a good apartment that they could take over once I got a few years’ use out of it.
My brother dated a woman who was the niece of a senator. She was born to wealth. She was also a partner in the firm that defended Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky stuff. Top dollar defense lawyer. My brother had the hardest time with the way she had to be so careful about what she said to her staff, and how guarded she had to be. He was not used to being in a social circle where everyone had staff and the staff would talk. He wasn’t used to not being able to talk freely with another person who was in the room. I LOVED her and thought she was perfect for him, but there was all kind of drama going on in her life at the time and she wouldn’t include him in the lawyer/society circles of her life. I wish they could have worked it out.
In 5th grade, our math teacher had us do this exercise, including creating blueprints, etc. (for the mathy elements). My dream house was a sphere and required special vehicles to get from one end to the other. Don’t remember much more than that.
All these years later, the number one, absolutely essential detail is that it must be all one level (or have a way to easily get between levels without requiring stairs). We all get old, as do our friends and relations, and stairs become a real barrier. I grew up in rental apartments so I thought giving my kids an actual multistory (town)house with a small yard was the way to better their lives, but now that they’re grown I’m so ready to move someplace easier to navigate in my old age.
Another aspect of my dream home is that there would be the main portion, which seems like it’s the real McCoy and has 2 guest rooms (one can be multi-purpose with a sofa bed or such…I really do have house guests on a nearly constant basis) and then a secret doorway to the space I actually live in, which could be a simple studio apartment.
The obvious choice is an apartment building, so that I can lock up and leave whenever I want to travel, knowing that there’s a mail room for any packages that come in my absence. An indoor pool would be high on the priority list, as well as being within a few blocks of a decent grocery store, with ample public transportation options to get around to everything else.
Minus the secret room, the rest of it is a very achievable reality for me in the next 3-5 years. My kids have been warned repeatedly that they will have to pack or purge by then because I won’t be able to take everything with me.
All the money in the world would mean more travel and cultural events for me, not a better house.
So, right now I will be paying 1,500 pesos (about $82) per month for the private bedroom, and before September we should have a temporary shell for a shower and a toilet in the back where there’s a plumbing fixture.
The plan is to raze one side of the upper story which is most rotted, and get an estimate for leveling the floor, and putting up concrete masonry walls and roof. This will be one of the most expensive parts, but well worth it.
He asked me what I want in an apartment, and I stated that it’s his family’s house. He responded that I get a lot of input, since I’m helping make it happen. This is going to require some thought. At minimum, I think 1 bedroom, a living space, a small kitchen with a bath off to the rear - next to each other to save on plumbing, and a little laundry room.
We figured we’d mirror the other apartment on the other side when the time comes, and just use the unfinished part like a veranda for the time being.
I think the best part is that after most of the work is done, his mom will have some decent apartments to rent for her own support in the future.
I’ll have a decent place also, until I can definitively figure out what happens to me in my future (do I marry Graciela or no). It’s a win-win.
