Pretentious People - Do You Know Any?

[moon]

Absolutely! The worst example requires a really long story (it was a thread her on the Dis, too), but it was a high school friend who basically wanted to back out of being my matron of honor. She tried to be nice about it, but I knew the real reasons and after years of her nonsense, I told her never to contact me again.

I'd love to know the story...

 

[usd2bmd]

A house in my town has been torn down and is being rebuilt for new owners - it is on a corner lot. The old address, while nice enough, is a busy street and less prestigious than the side street of the lot, which is a quiet neighborhood street that leads into the most desirable neighborhood in town. The new owners are turning the house so it faces the more prestigious street, giving them the street address of the "better" street which not changing the location of the house in any way. The house is being built on the lot in an odd manner to accommodate a much bigger house and a two car garage.

I find this so pretentious!! Do they think if they rename their street address people will think the house moved locations? Anyone driving by can see they simply turned the house so it faced the better street. In doing so they lost the charm of the lot and just crammed a big house in a weird location so it loses any charm it had.

Another acquaintance once told me she and her husband were moving because he had grown up on and always wanted to move back to "the water." The water in question is a large retention pond/small lake for an industrial plant - not the Atlantic Ocean or one of the Great Lakes lol.

Do you know anybody who does this?

The town I live is relatively small (less than 15,000 residents). The majority of houses are small in today's standards being around 1700 Sq. ft. One family approached two families and bought their houses. then promptly tore them down and proceeded to build an enormous house on both lots.

The house would be great if it was a couple towns over, but where it is just makes it look ridiculous. it takes up all of both lots. there is no garage because there is no room.

But they wanted to have the biggest house in the city and they do...I just feel bad for the neighbors. On the one side their house literally blocks out the sun.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

The town I live is relatively small (less than 15,000 residents). The majority of houses are small in today's standards being around 1700 Sq. ft. One family approached two families and bought their houses. then promptly tore them down and proceeded to build an enormous house on both lots.

The house would be great if it was a couple towns over, but where it is just makes it look ridiculous. it takes up all of both lots. there is no garage because there is no room.

But they wanted to have the biggest house in the city and they do...I just feel bad for the neighbors. On the one side their house literally blocks out the sun.

We have a wave of that going on in STL. The people in the older houses are having a fit over it.

The funny part is, it's a rich pretentious neighborhood to begin with. The newcomers are knocking down 3-5,000 square foot homes to build 8-12,000 square foot homes. And the ones left in the "smaller" houses are whining

 

[LBIJim]

Does changing the way the house faces actually change the address of THE LOT? if there was no house on the lot it would still have the address of the original street. I don't think the orientation of the home has any bearing on that. HOWEVER, perhaps they applied for a permit or a change to the lot to give it the address of the side street instead.

I'm not sure how it works, but I would guess that the address would remain the same. Maybe they DO have to apply to the city or post office to get the address changed.

I've known dozens of corner houses which face one street but have a mailing address of the side street.

More than a few apartment buildings in NYC have main entrances on side streets, yet carry a Park Avenue or Fifth Avenue address.

If the side of the rebuilt house is still on a busy street, I don't think changing the address will increase the value all that significantly.

Jim

 

[indimom]

Hmmm, pretentious? You mean like my cousin who (when I was showing off our house plans which included a full level for my licensed home day care) responded "Oh, it's like a real job."
Uh, yeah, I get paid and everything....

 

[*JoGo*]

A former coworker told me this story... Her parents lived at the end of the Historical District in town. Huge old century homes. Beautiful. Except her parents didn't live in one of those houses. They lived in a normal house and their driveway was shared with some other houses built off the road a bit. Well, her two aunts just could not stand that their sister lived on Historical District Drive because people would assume she lived in a big historical house and it's so prestigious, etc. Btw, this had been the house they grew up in, when the parents died, these aunts didn't want the house. For years these two old birds complained and complained to the city, I don't k ow their exact complaint, something along the lines of the driveway being a lane and the house address not being correct. Eventually the city named the shared driveway. The two old birds were satisfied. And now rescue vehicles cannot find my coworker's parents' house. It's not on a map, the road is not marked, etc. and my coworker worries about ambulances not finding her aging parents.


In my life, I have unfriended a girl I went to school with. She was smug in school and she's still smug and smarmy. Then there's my MIL....

 

[PizzieDuster]

And unfortunately, one couple whom were shown to our table on a cruise. Neither we nor the other couple requested to be seated at a 4-top But, she took one look at DH and I and announced for all to hear, not here!

They turned out to be, one of the most pretentious couples we have ever met.

NFLDERS, real quick..that happened to me too. "Here we go!" is what I heard with laughing. And continued to snub us. We got up and the head waiter got us another table.


I WISH I could move my home about 5 feet to the left...to see the full sunset.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I don't see how this is pretentious either

I'd rather have my FRONT door on the quiet street, than the side of my house. That way, I'd be going in and out of the house and the kids would be out in the yard, etc on the quieter street. And, generally, our living room has been in the front of a home, side windows are often kitchens or bathrooms or something where we spend less time relaxing.

It seems awfully judgmental to have decided your new neighbors are pretentious based solely on how they orient the new home they are building.

In answer to the question though, YES, of course I know some pretentious people.

 

[donac]

My sil moved to a new housing development years ago and the address was Trenton. After the development was finished the builders petitioned to the town to be annexed to Pennington and she was very proud of it.

 

[pkondz]

Pretentious People - Do You Know Any?

Well, I would've said, "Me!".... but I'm above that sort of thing.

 

[Poohforyou]

A house in my town has been torn down and is being rebuilt for new owners - it is on a corner lot. The old address, while nice enough, is a busy street and less prestigious than the side street of the lot, which is a quiet neighborhood street that leads into the most desirable neighborhood in town. The new owners are turning the house so it faces the more prestigious street, giving them the street address of the "better" street which not changing the location of the house in any way. The house is being built on the lot in an odd manner to accommodate a much bigger house and a two car garage.

I find this so pretentious!! Do they think if they rename their street address people will think the house moved locations? Anyone driving by can see they simply turned the house so it faced the better street. In doing so they lost the charm of the lot and just crammed a big house in a weird location so it loses any charm it had.

Another acquaintance once told me she and her husband were moving because he had grown up on and always wanted to move back to "the water." The water in question is a large retention pond/small lake for an industrial plant - not the Atlantic Ocean or one of the Great Lakes lol.

Do you know anybody who does this?

If they're thinking of selling down the road having a better address will help. We have developers doing things like what these homeowners are doing all the time. There are developments named after a desirable town that aren't within that town.

Personally, I'd rather have the front of my house look out onto a side street than a busy main road any day.

Oh, and I do know some pretentious people but I don't think your friends qualify for that label.

 

[Bob NC]

If someone is looking for pretentiousness, then yes, you might find it here.

If I heard all the details about this house and address change I would never even think of it being done out of pretentiousness unless the person telling me the story obviously cloaked it in those terms.

This might say more about the people judging the homeowners rather than what the homeowners are doing.

For valuation, I would prefer my address be on the most desirable street.

For convenience I'd rather be pulling out of my driveway on a neighborhood street rather than a busy street.

I'd rather be looking out my front windows and door at a sleepy neighborhood street rather than a busy thoroughfare.

 

[christineann]

I used to teach kindergarten, and each class had a student of the week, who had a poster of photos. The parents would bring in a special snack, maybe read to the kids, etc. The posters were just a regular size poster with photos - "this is my bike" and "this is my dog" and "this is my family," etc.

One child's mother brought in a triple foldout board the Thursday before her child's week that had a couple photos of the child, and the rest were photos of the house they had just built, even including a floor plan for each floor! The mother told the teacher that she wanted the poster displayed right away and kept in a prominent place in the classroom the week plus a couple days.

Several years ago, an acquaintance and I were talking about shopping for cars since we each had a couple of kids, and she said she could not even consider a domestic vehicle, because "My husband is an attorney, so we are expected to drive nice foreign vehicles." The husband wasn't quite as pretentious and found someone else within a few years.

 

[Lionqueen2]

Years ago, my friend's parents, who lived on a corner, had their address changed from the busier street to the side street. It wasn't done for pretentious reasons, but to allow a swimming pool to be put in. The town ordinanced said that a pool needed to be in the back yard. Since they only had a small back yard and a large side yard, the address was changed to allow the side yard to become the back yard and the pool to be built.

 

[Acklander]

I've met a few pretentious people, and find them quite amusing - but I don't hang with them on a regular basis so it doesn't get annoying. I always figured it was just a sign of insecurity. I've known many regular people who have pretentious moments though.

 

[ronandannette]

I used to teach kindergarten, and each class had a student of the week, who had a poster of photos. The parents would bring in a special snack, maybe read to the kids, etc. The posters were just a regular size poster with photos - "this is my bike" and "this is my dog" and "this is my family," etc.

One child's mother brought in a triple foldout board the Thursday before her child's week that had a couple photos of the child, and the rest were photos of the house they had just built, even including a floor plan for each floor! The mother told the teacher that she wanted the poster displayed right away and kept in a prominent place in the classroom the week plus a couple days.

Several years ago, an acquaintance and I were talking about shopping for cars since we each had a couple of kids, and she said she could not even consider a domestic vehicle, because "My husband is an attorney, so we are expected to drive nice foreign vehicles." The husband wasn't quite as pretentious and found someone else within a few years.

Well sure...I mean, if you can't make yourself feel superior to a bunch of 5-year-olds, who can you feel superior to??? if this story is even remotely true it's absolutely freakin' hilarious

 

[Ephany]

I had a friend whose spouse was being assigned to our local military base. When they were looking for a home, she said she could never live in our neighborhood because it was 'too enlisted/too blue-collar'. The funny thing? We all met in 'A' school straight out of boot camp when her DH, my DH and both of us were enlisted.

All's I know, we don't have to worry about paying our mortgage every month and my DD can walk to both the elementary school and the middle school. If that's blue-collar, I'll take it.

 

[keri125]

Hmmm, pretentious? You mean like my cousin who (when I was showing off our house plans which included a full level for my licensed home day care) responded "Oh, it's like a real job."
Uh, yeah, I get paid and everything....

Wow! Your cousin must not be around kiddos a lot. Being the owner/working in a daycare is one of the hardest jobs I know. You have to think on your feet constantly, and then of course just the physical work... IMO, daycare workers are some of the hardest working, least paid (at least here in the United States) people around.

 

[keri125]

Well, I would've said, "Me!".... but I'm above that sort of thing.

 

[keri125]

Well, I would've said, "Me!".... but I'm above that sort of thing.

Exactly! Responding to this thread is sooooo beneath me!
(Just kidding, in case that wasn't clear!)