Bang bang, we're dead

Shot down by the Historic Districts Commission. House plan denied by vote. 3-1. With one abstention.

I won't say how many tens of thousands of our dollars in design fees were flushed down the proverbial toilet this night. Nor will I mention the blow to the heart, especially for Pete, whose town this is, who has been so conscientious in his efforts to be: a) a responsible citizen and b) design a house that fits like hand to glove in this historic town.

Both of us emerged from this whipping saying we were done. Finished. We will sell the house and the lot next door. And move. 

And then. And then I got really pissed off. I don't want to capitulate to a bunch of mealy morons with too much power and no sense of reality. I don't want to concede without a fight. If we give up our plan to build next door, I want it to be because that is our choice not because it is something imposed on us but a group that operates (necessarily) on subjectivity and which will, in time, change in its membership, opening up the sure possibility that the next people to petition this commission for the same lot will succeed - with an even bigger house than we proposed. If we choose to sell it must be because that is what we want to do. Otherwise, we risk making a move we will regret. Or not making a move (appealing? redesigning?) that we might equally regret.

Can they really say, in 2010, that an attached garage is inappropriate? When we supplied them with 17 examples of same, all visible along Concord's historic streets? That a house of 3600 square feet of living (read: heated) space, surrounded on either side by houses exceeding 5000 square feet, is too big? 

We are sick at heart. Pete is sick at heart. I need him to get mad. And it's not just because I want company. Anger is energy — make no doubt about it. Defeat is inertia by definition.  I am mad. So you can call me now the Energizer Bunny. I am motivated to beat the Commission at its own game. You heard it here first.

Truffle: Watching Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit at 9 a.m. this morning with William. And Pete. And his brother Dave, who dropped in. And Hana. And Cajun (though she kept her paws over her eyes most of the time). A truly well made children's film has elements of humor explicitly directed at adults (how else to persuade them to willingly take kids to the movies? Let me tell you Alvin and the Chipmunks is painful if you're over nine).

Quote of the day: "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." (Thomas Alva Edison)

Comments

[Nancy]

My heart bleeds for you, truly.

[vicki]

What Nancy said. SO disheartening. I'm glad you're not giving up.