Move In, We’re Losing Ground!
There can be no greater catharsis from a busy week than hearing Ella Fitzgerald sing from Harold Arlen’s songbook, mellowing ‘Stormy Weather’ to accompany this hazy, lazy Sunday afternoon or Gershwin’s championing ballad, ‘That Certain Feeling’. The sweet syrup of her sound can glaze the most jaded wounds for the moment and transport the senses to the suspended enclave of easy feeling. Of course, no Sunday would be complete without a quick morning stroll and a divine breakfast to match. Regardless of the place we call home, it is easily illustrated that we don’t sacrifice the small things which make the rhythm of our lives. But at the same time, I never loose sight of the fact that I feel confined within the walls and bars surrounding my apartment, and the fact that the poorly designed soundproofing doesn’t leave a lot of noise uncensored (remember the bump in the night? It’s not what your parents told you it is as you were growing up).
I have spent the better part of my life in apartment living, consistently downsizing in personal space rather than increasing as time moves on, always mindful of the expenses and the factors of privacy, security and serenity. But as the demand for rental property increases in Sydney and the scruples of the real estate agents fall to their temptation of a quick dollar, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to call home with the comforts of a well-maintained foundation. Whoever thought a two-bedroom ground floor apartment could ever be approved to hold seven tenants? (and I’m not referring to goldfish or cats as respective tenants!)
It’s hardly rare anymore in the inner western city metropolis, and has been a commonplace occurrence in many other places around the world — with the desperate juggle for a vacancy for all, Sydney is finally catching up to it’s reputation as a ‘world-class city’.
To illustrate this change of dwelling over time I refer to moving along a continuum, starting at the youngest age in the castle of the family home, to the post-divorce settlement villa, the university apartment of present and beyond. Not that there is anything inherently ‘wrong’ or disadvantageous about any of these dwellings; in fact, one could argue that apartments are lower maintenance due to their size and the relative difference in expense can be attributed largely to the level of the building they are located upon. But at the end of the day, there is there is certainly no place more inviting and accommodating than a house - be it a semi, a duplex, a townhouse, Victorian terrace, double-storey mansion or even a granny flat - it has all the space and seclusion you need, without the need to polish those social skills for the unexpected ‘bump-into-the-neighbour’ or the charisma for ensuring you never need hear another slamming door.
The great Australian dream to owning your own home seems further out of grasp with the great influx of demand and interest rates which are hardly interesting at all — the young generation of Sydneysiders are to grapple with the prospect of never owning an affordable house. But is the reality of living really that harsh, or are we forgetting that with rising population comes the need to be generous and share some of the land upon which stands the exuberant perks of our crested metropolitan estate?
Owning your own home has reached the iconic status of representing the rich, the hard-working and the lucky with little room for deviance, and even as economic experts confess that house ownership is a quest not everybody can fulfill, this has never stopped many from trying. But is it really that bad to strike up a conversation with your neighbour and even form a friendship of accord? After all, noise from your neighbour would not be such an awkward issue to dispel. Easily accessible, comfortable and secure apartment living is a fundamental aspect of many parts of developed Asia and Europe, and interior designers are forever aware of the tighter constraints of space that furniture can be purchased that fits and has a great aesthetic. It would be ideal for a piece of backyard, a front lawn and a spacious interior for everybody, but this simply isn’t feasible. Perhaps we are stuck in the mindset of some fifty years ago, where the population was at a manageable pace and the Western suburbs were a relatively safer place to live.
Naturally, if the center of Australia wasn’t a sandpit scorched by the hole in the depletion of ozone layer, everybody could live in a house with a matching front lawn and backyard and fences all around. We need variation in accommodation that suits the spacial and comfort needs of every kind of person. No need to recall memories of American Beauty for a clear-cut suburbia; the vision of ‘equally structured’ housing sounds horrific.
There seems to be only band-aid solutions to these escalating problems of housing, but the simplest and most effective shortcut to a remedial act is to learn to live with less. There is hardly a concern for the majority of us who can still stretch their arms and legs in either direction and not touch the adjacent wall - choosing the right property takes initiative and responsibility; the two attributes missing in smart home-hunting. It makes little sense for families in excess of four or five members to squeeze into a two-bedroom apartment where they could fit comfortably in a house, or for DINKS (double-income, no kids) earners to reserve those spare bedrooms for ‘esteemed’ guests, where an apartment offers the low-maintenance solution of a couple working to find the right home to place their work boots and future children’s shoes.
In the meantime, the three member household in the two-bedroom apartment living beside the freight train track, beneath the aircraft, kilometres from the highway and sandwiched between the foyer and the car park will not complain — we’re students after all, with the maturity to comprehend the words ‘temporary’ and ’suitable’. Everybody’s story is unique and amazing in its own right, but there is no reason why we shouldn’t think about the other people in our society who are looking for the same thing - the right place to hang our blue and white collared sleeved shirts, bearing our hearts in an emblem on each one.
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