1。老房子所在地大都是成熟，有文化，有曆史，有好學校。。。的好地方。打個比方，您不能把paddington畫廊搬到cherrybrook去。
老房子是老舊些. 但是和"成熟","有文化","有曆史"怕是沒什麽關係.
PADDINGTON, DARLINGHURST, SURRY HILL, POTTS POINTS, BALMAIN,GLEBE ETC, 這些區在過去不過是碼頭工人, 和下層體力工作者的聚集區. 鑒於經濟條件的限製, 建的房子非常dodgy.
A lot of houses in those areas have been built without proper sewage and drainage system, or not even a toilet in the past. People did the laundry and etc in the backyard and the waste was discharged directly to the street gutter. They were absolutely “Shit House”.
Only in modern days these accommodation have been gradually updated to match the current criteria. Like the hot water system was introduced and installed. If you walked at the back lane, you would notice a lot of pipes sticking out of the building. I hope you would not think that is the part of the art design of this building.
Due to lack of planning in those areas in the past, it created a lot of problems for access, renovation nowadays. And worse of all, council put up a lot of restrictions on the renovation, and something just can not be done. 有許多東西沒法改變,簡直就是癌症. For example, a lot of houses are actually linked together. The common wall in between can not be touched anyhow. So if you want to change any structure of the house, you will be left with only one option of building another wall next to the common wall, and you will end up with reduced usable area, which is already very small in the first place.
2。high ceiling。不要小看這個，這是舒適的首要/重要條件。而且不管你怎麽裝修，也沒法改變天花板高度。
High ceiling means ceiling higher than 2.7m, in contrast to 2.4m normal ceiling height.
It is probably good for living area only. But it is definitely not good and comfortable for bedrooms due to lack of intimacy etc. A lot of new houses have been built with 2.7m ceiling or over if you really want to. And like using double brick is just your own choice, purely depends on your budget. And also for single storey house, a major renovation can lift the ceiling height.
3。good bone。結識。大部分都是雙磚的。
As to the material/workmanship and building structure for the old buildings in those areas, the only word I can come up with is “Pathetic”.
If you are lucky enough, you can get a house sitting on a proper footing. Or very likely the house was pretty much built directly on a shallow ground.
如果你感興趣, 你可以remove some of the rendering from the wall, and have a good look at the brick and mortar used. And then you would not say blindly “good bone-結識” any more. Or you can crawl under the floor space, you can find how the flooring and joists are supported, and I bet you will be shocked.
And if you can open the hatch for the roof, and have a peep on those roof rafters / battens and under purlins etc, and how they are supported, You would not jump at the conclusion of “good bone“. And it is going to be a bloody headache to rectify them through a renovation.
4。characters。比如不同時期的房子，具有不同時期的特點，victorian, edwardine, federation，etc。
我相信我們都來自中國. Victorian, Federations style buildings are just something around 民國時期的建築. I can not think they have got that much of historical values. 如果你非要把它們和文化和曆史搞到一塊, 未免有些太牽強了. Most of the old building are not properly laid out because the limitation of living standard back those days. And for so called “Victoria” style house, I guess the only thing you want to keep would be those cast iron columns and lacework at the building façade. But if you want to do major change of the building structure, simply forget about it. Just like what was said before, it is癌症. You would not be expecting that a building of 20m long, 3-4m frontage with 1.5m narrow foot path down one side will have decent 通風采光 through re-design, 裝修, or would you?
And those areas are mainly attracting a lot of young people. 不是因為”是成熟，有文化，有曆史，有好學校”. 而是因為這些區更靠近pubs, night clubs and whore house and drugs. And those pubs have been built as “waterholes” for those wharfies to begin with in the past. If you want to have fun and easy access to those ‘entertainments’, those areas can be defined as “good”. And if you want to enjoy a family life and bring up your kids, those areas are not “good”.
Anyway, I just wonder how many people living in those areas are really into “Art Gallery” etc like you do.
不論澳洲還是中國, 從來都不缺乏付庸風雅的人. In here it might be called “Arty-Farty” But it is like somebody talking “Organic” food to distinguish himself/herself from others, just piss me off.
By the way, Kenthurst and Dural have got good art galleries as well. And lot of rich people (I mean real rich people) choose to live in those area, which are very close to Cherrybrook, as you mentioned before. By the way, personally I like Cherrybrook much more than those Arty-Farty areas, even I do not live in that suburb.
Also for those attached “photorealistic” rendering images about the renovation, you have to look at them with some imagination as well. Because they have been set up with certain view angles and lighting and furniture with a purpose of making look perfect, and if you really think after renovation you house would be looking like that, you would end up with very big disappointment.
