As I drove through the city I grew up in yesterday, I couldn’t help but laugh when I drove by this neighborhood…
You see that white house kinda near the center? There’s an interesting story about that house.
According to Zillow it was built in 1961. You see the roads surrounding that house? You notice how there are multiple cul-de-sacs with no houses around them? It looks like a developer is going to be building a good 100+ houses in that community huh?
Not so much. Those roads were actually put in around 2004. A developer bought all that vacant land you see and had plans to build a starter home community. There was only one problem. The developer couldn’t convince the person that owned the white house in the center to sell their property.
After a bunch unsuccessful negotiation attempts, the builder quickly realized it was a lost cause. They would just build all of their new homes around the 1960’s abode.
That was, until something interesting happened.
The homeowner took a stand. They bought a couple of cans of spray paint and wrote the words “F*** You” in big bold letters along each side of the house. It was a big, offensive, eyesore.
The developer, obviously angry, went to the city hoping they would force the resident to remove the profanity. The city, however, refused to involve themselves, citing “free speech” rights.
So here we are eight years later. The builder had to walk away from the land, realizing he would never be able to sell homes in the area.
I mean, how would you list these homes? “Three bed, two bath charmer with wonderful views of the olympic mountains and the words”F*** You” from the living room and master suite”.
The lots are vacant and will probably stay that way for the forseeable future.
You can’t help but feel bad for the builder. He lost his business because of this one pesky homeowner. But I also feel bad for the resident. His amazing view of the Olympic Mountains were threatened and he didn’t want his home to be smack dab in the middle of suburbia. Turns out something similar happened in Utah.
A Riverton, UT resident was forced by the city to reduce his roofline by 18 inches after his neighbor complained about a height violation. This violation cost the resident 10’s of thousands of dollars to correct. So what did the homeowner do? He got revenge. He had new “air-vents” installed on the side of his house that faced the complaining neighbors abode. Check it out…
Seems crazy, but I can totally understand where these frustrated homeowners are coming from.
Would you go to extreme measures if your view, privacy, or safety was at stake?
If I bought a house and the view was a big factor in my decision to buy and all of a sudden it was taken away from me I would be furious, I’m not sure what kind of action I would take though, I’m a pretty passive individual. We’re planning on starting our homebuying journey next year and we’ve already discussed this a little bit, they’re developing like crazy in our area but there is a lot of state preserve property which will never be developed and that’s something we’re going to pay attention to.
Ha that’s kind of funny. If I was in the white house, I definitely would not want 100+ houses being built around me. I can only imagine the noise.
Haha that is hilarious! I’m not a homeowner yet, but I live in an area with bluffs and beautiful views. I can imagine being pretty upset if someone were going to block them. Makes me think I should buy in an established neighborhood where there is a less likely chance of this happening.
There are three really ugly, narrow, 4 story high homes in the downtown area of my city. The developer wanted to build more “normal” looking, 2-story units for student housing (as it’s close to the university) but neighbours got testy about the size of the houses he was going to build, so they put up a fight. He virtually said, “F#$% you” to these neighbours when he got permission to build these tall, skinny, eyesore units instead. They hold the same amount of units, but really look awful. I guess the lesson is that you best not piss off the wrong person!
About the white house-DH always wants to move “just outside” of the city, for the bigger lots, etc., but I tell him, eventually, that will be “in the city” and there will be a subdivision surrounding it. Apparently, this is true, unless you paint profanity on your house.
Haha, actually I don’t feel bad for the developer, s/he should’ve checked into the existing homeowner first! Before buying all that land and setting down roads. Idiot. ANd for the homeowner, actually, I rpobably would buy a home next to that dude. Becuase it would be someone who probably wouldn’t bug me about stupid sh!t like my neighbor now does!
LOVE this story!
That is totally funny and I love it! HA
But… would I like to drive home every afternoon to have my own house barking at me like that? I’d rather find a way to sell at a profit and buy somewhere else (better).
Legally, a view is not something you own, especially if the obstruction to your view is on someone else’s property. Therefore you have no right to complain when the gets taken away by something that complies with existing building codes. When you buy a property, it’s on you to know the codes and the risk a legal building can take your view away. When someone exercises their right to build to code, you have to leave them alone, or buy that property to get those rights. I can’t buy a Corvette and sue an SUV driver because they cut off my view of the road ahead.
I like to root for the underdog and it makes me happy when the underdog wins! Both hilarious stories. The developer should have done more thorough due diligence when he purchased the property.
I wonder what the final offer was, if it was high enough I would probably take the money and run. But I admire them for standing their ground. Reminds me of this Chinese man, except he is in a much worse situation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236746/Road-built-building-couple-refuse-China.html
Part of me wants to build a giant obstructive house blocking that guys view. If he didn’t want houses next to him, he should have bought the surrounding land himself.
I get the idea, but the first one just seems like “oh, you bought some spray paint and gave it to a 13-year-old” in comparison to the last one. That’s some serious planning and investment for those vents. I’m pretty impressed with that guy.
I personally think the guy that spray painted his house is a complete d*uche. They wanted to build houses near his. That’s not all that uncommon. It’s not like they wanted to stick a McDonald’s with big parking lot lights next door or something that actually would be worthwhile. If I were the developer, I’d petition to allow him to put a berm on the adjacent properties which could block out the idiot that would choose to deface his own house. Although guys like this wouldn’t stop, you’d probably hear about him ruining construction equipment or something equally as d*uchey.
What a complete jerk.
That is awesome. The developer should have convinced that homeowner before they bought the land. That was poor research on their part. Oh well, you learn the hard way.
I am still laughing. Its a case of a big ol developer coming and thinking that everyone will kow tow to their all might dollar. Maybe this person didn’t want to sell because he lived there all his life or his wife of ill, or he was ill, or he raised his kids there and loves the house.
The developer can taking a flying Flip! I love it!
I am sorry that the home owner has to live with those roads around his house. Maybe he should by a bunch of go carts and sell go cart rides! Make a fortune and build up the property the way he wants!
HA HA big bad developer! HA HA!!!
My parents had a custom-built house, and the builder did some things that were wrong and it was a huge hassle for them. Also, there were some delays in construction which cost my parents a lot of money because they couldn’t lock into a lower interest rate — the delay made them have to do some higher-interest something or other.
So after we were in the house, my dad painted “WE WILL NOT BUILD AGAIN WITH (builder’s name) on our garage. One letter per square. It was nuts! We were not the favorites in the neighborhood. The builder called the cops on my dad, but the cops were like whatever.
Eventually they painted over it, and they were burned because they had to sell the house a few years later due to a job transfer. The house sat for months. Maybe it had a reputation.
This reminds me of a point several years ago when Donald Trump wanted to build something big and expensive in my state. The problem was that this building would have obstructed the view that a sizable number of people living in that area enjoyed. There were petitions against, Trump’s guys kept pushing the benefits of having this structure (I really can’t remember what it was going to be), and eventually the project was cancelled.
I think that second picture you posted was creative. Cactus or finger, hmm…
OHSU (a hospital here in Portland) put in a tram and a homeowner put up a “F the tram” sign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOHoh0Fov7U
Haha! This is great! I don’t know what I’d do in either circumstance, but I find it amusing (and a tad immature) how they handled it. I see both sides and believe the homeowner was childish, but the man should have talked to the homeowner before buying the land. Overall a bad experience for them, but a funny experience for us!
Thanks for a much needed laugh, Ninja. I’ve been feeling quite discouraged here in month two of our journey to debt free, and this post cheered me right up . 🙂