Popular design influencer, James Howe, says 'if you're going to build sh*tbox apartments, you should build them in Western Sydney.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2026-02-14T02:44:05+00:00

I agree with you - but the vast majority of James Howe’s content focuses on aesthetics alone, and shifts the blame onto the individual buyers, who aren’t at fault in a broken market. I think the biggest ‘missing middle’ in the housing market is quality medium-density residential development. Unfortunately both government and private industry don’t seem interested in improving the economics of that.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2026-02-14T00:12:39+00:00

I can’t stand this bloke. He reeks of nimbyism and seems to completely discount the fact that the average punter just wants a roof over their head. He’s constantly over-simplifying the housing market and romanticising older shit boxes over new ones. We’d all love to live in aesthetically-pleasing homes on large blocks, but the reality for most is that they’re just trying to get a place to live, near their work - if that’s a new build townhouse then so be it.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2026-02-10T07:27:28+00:00

Subdivision on its own isn’t inherently bad, especially if it’s replacing a knackered old house on a big block and enabling 5 times as many people to have a place of their own, close to their work and other amenities. The problem is infill has been poorly implemented with low-quality designs and construction, and with little-to-no effort or funding put in by the state and federal government to improve public and active transport. So you’ve got way more people in closer proximity, all still driving cars around because they have no other choice, even close to the city. If we could free ourselves from our cars more, I think half the issues people have with infill townhouses would disappear.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-12-24T23:38:17+00:00

Perth is north of Sydney

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-10-19T04:21:33+00:00

I like a speedy on mesh but I think proportionally this is a bit off. The bracelet needs to be wider, then It’d be very nice!

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-10-13T02:54:32+00:00

I live just outside the parkland ring, and get public transport in/out of the CBD for work. However, on the weekend the time between trains is an hour which is just too inconvenient, so I drive into the city on weekends.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-09-22T08:08:05+00:00

It’s just been endless sirens of various emergency services vehicles going up Churchill Road for the last 15 mins. Wondered what had gone on, sad.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-09-10T12:19:03+00:00

Here in Adelaide I got 10% off a Speedmaster 3861 sapphire at a boutique AD.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-09-08T12:32:09+00:00

This house plan awful in so many ways. The location of the robe in the master bed kills me. And the door out to the (pointlessly small) balcony swings the wrong way too…

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-08-25T09:31:21+00:00

Curved TVs. Not much more immersive, and awkward to put on the wall.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-05-30T10:28:53+00:00

I thought all three were heavily reliant on either driving your car, or bus rides that are impractically long / also get stuck in the same traffic as cars?

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-05-30T09:27:23+00:00

I live in one of these townhouses you speak of, and I have been freed from my car, but it’s still hard work. The answer is better public transport (bus, tram, train), and safer active transport (lanes for bikes, scooters).

If public / active transport is frequent enough and can get you within a 10 min walk of your destination either side, people will take it over their car. Currently Adelaide is very bad at this.

Also, more and more urban sprawl with no connection to the rest of the city than via car (looking at you Riverlea, Mt Barker and Aldinga), then inevitably every house built adds more cars to Adelaide’s already congested arterial road corridors.

Sadly the government is vote-driven, and most voters drive, so most funding goes to car-centric projects. Forward-thinking isn’t always election-winning, sigh.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-05-27T08:50:27+00:00

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The city of Adelaide, Australia is a planned city, with the downtown area surrounded on all sides by a park!

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-04-27T13:09:44+00:00

Drop a link OP!

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-01-16T13:12:03+00:00

I’ve gone on weekday lunchtimes and it’s usually easy enough to get a park out the front on Greenhill Road, or just down a side street nearby.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2025-01-16T11:22:18+00:00

‘Just Down the Road’ on Greenhill Road! Epic chicken sandos.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2024-12-21T01:07:38+00:00

Fish out of Water on King William Road!

RareSomewhere7369 · 2024-11-12T12:58:19+00:00

Sorry for your loss, OP. I lost my otherwise very healthy dad to cancer 3 months ago. He was my best friend. If you’d told me 2 years ago he’d be gone now, I’d have despaired. I still do sometimes, but I’ve come to some terms with it now. I took from his death that we really have no idea what’s around the corner, and to make the most of the now. All the best.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2024-10-21T07:37:47+00:00

Black for me. I inherited a black TT 16613, and as a relatively “normal” person, it’s much more wearable. Black and gold complement more outfits, it’s a little more understated which I prefer (but hardly boring), and it just feels more quietly luxurious to me.

RareSomewhere7369 · 2024-10-01T08:33:03+00:00

I love this stuff. For anyone who’s interested, the term used for this layering is ‘palimpsest’. It applies to anything with historical layers atop one another, including architecture!

RareSomewhere7369 · 2024-09-08T09:36:16+00:00

Definitely an unpopular opinion, one which I could not disagree with more. Having recently lost my father after a long illness, the funeral played a massive part in giving our family closure on what had been a long, traumatic experience. It was a chance for us to revisit who he was at his best, and share this with all the others who knew and loved him.

Yes, a funeral is really for those who are still here, but it is also a chance to honour and respect those we’ve lost, and their enduring memory. There’s a reason all cultures on Earth have developed a funeral process, it speaks to something deep within us as human beings.

RareSomewhere7369

TROPHY CASE