Perspective
I’m looking out at this new house across the ravine from my hilltop. It’s white and stands out in contrast to the surrounding chaparral of greens and beige rocks. I have watched this house being built for more than the last two years. It took so long for two reasons. It’s being built by the future inhabitant and he unfortunately had an OTJ accident that caused the project to get delayed by some eight months. The second reason is, of course, the advent of COVID, which has made sourcing of building materials challenging. There is an added issue that may or may not have slowed construction, and that’s the way the footprint has jammed itself upon the quaint Spanish-style house directly north of the new house. I’ve now seen the house from three points of view. From my desk, the house looks decidedly modern with a roof that looks like a cross between a flat roof and a lightly sloping shed roof. The roof, as one would expect and hope out here in the land of sunshine, is covered with photovoltaic cells. I can’t tell if they’ve also installed a battery or two to give them at least a small degree of energy self-sufficiency, but given our 6+ hour grid outage this week, they presumably now know the importance of having grid back-up. I know my new southern neighbors (who just moved in today when their moving van arrived) are planning to install solar, but not planning to add batteries…at least not right away. They have had to throw out a refrigerator full of food. Given that both of those neighbors are biologists (one is actually a clinical lab manager), I’m sure they know how quickly unrefrigerated food can last safely. From their perspective, it ain’t worth it to do otherwise.
That new house has two other points of view. The most important one is the view from the street in front. It’s on a small circle cul-de-sac and it looks to be cheek-to-jowl with the Spanish-style house next door. I’ve had the opportunity to meet both the builder and his wife and the woman who owns the other house. When I’ve raised the obvious question with other neighbors, they all said the Spanish home is oriented North, so perhaps the closeness of the new build was not such a problem. But that’s not what I heard from the owner of the unfortunate older home. She was more than a little agitated by the situation. From her perspective, her master bedroom now looks out fifteen feet to the new home’s front entry. The builder said she should be patient and see how her perspective might change once he puts in his landscaping , which he says will make her feel like her perspective will need to adjust to the better. She scoffed at this palliative and reminded me that no amount of landscaping solves a fifteen-foot setback problem. I am incline to agree with her.
The funny thing to me is this had to have been a problem that could be seen coming around the corner from the moment the propriety was purchased or perhaps the first moment the design was drawn. No architect worth his salt wouldn’t be able to see the impending conflict. You can imagine the conversation, between husband and wife over “what will the neighbors think?” I can only assume the builder either felt he could solve the problem on the fly or else he just didn’t care. Building codes don’t completely account for all field conditions, so taking out the measuring tape and determining that the setback of fifteen feet is compliant is simply not the point. There is a lot of land on the hills out here. Most of that land is available for building assuming the utilities are either available or at least not prohibitive. There is much talk of water shortage and land that doesn’t “perk” and therefore can’t easily support the needed sewage. The perspective that one simply must build on a spot regardless of the impact on the neighbors is, strange to me.
I guess to some people, a few dollars is all it takes (along with a strong sense of entitlement) to go forward with any plan an a Devil-may-care basis. The builder, and especially his wife, seemed like very pleasant people, the kind that wouldn’t sign up for forcing themselves into a difficult situation. But here’s what I’ve learned over the years – everyone has their own perspective. I recall an investment situation where someone who got introduced by me to the deal, played games and took advantage of everyone else in the deal. including me. When I confronted him about it, his response was that he simply saw things differently. I felt that not only was he not in any discomfort with the circumstances, but he was very much of one mind to take advantage without any consternation. He simply didn’t care what anyone thought of his actions.
I know we have all been told at one time or another that we should not care about what others think of us, but this is different. Respecting your own perspective is a fine attribute, but ignoring your impact on those around you is no way to go through life. Taking a holistic view of perspective is an important part of maintaining your perspective.