today's aggravation (minor)

[dsrtao]

aesthetic appendix: 90 percent of the houses in this area have windows bordered by wooden shutters. In a bad storm, these could be closed to prevent window damage. Good idea.

Except that they don't move. No hinges, no clasp. They are useless decorative remnants of a once-functional organ.

Worse, they are almost invariably slatted to provide some ventilation...

Today I noticed a house with the traditional shutters... on a three-window wide array. Even if they were functional, these couldn't cover the windows in question.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

That's why I took the shutters off our ranch house. It was interesting: some were fully-made wood shutters and others were pretend ones of vinyl, which didn't have actual slats, just pretended to.

But it's the narrow shutters on either side of a door which really push my "this is ridiculous" button.

[robertdfeinman.livejournal.com]

How about all the faux stone quoins on McMansions which are made of styrofoam and covered with cement?

I suppose McMansions will be seen a "style" in 50 years, but it's all about pretending to be something you aren't. The best ones manage to mix several styles together helter-skelter.

I've never understood why more buildings don't use modern materials as themselves instead of making them seem to be traditional ones. Much as I dislike Frank Gehry's pretentiousness and his divorcing form from purpose at least his stainless steel looks like stainless steel.

I wouldn't mind living in a stainless sheathed house which never required upkeep instead of wood/vinyl/aluminum/cement siding.