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Kevin Rose making new friends in Portland, Oregon

16 points by my_name_is 12y ago

my_name_is 12y ago
Kevin Rose has every right to do this, but the events leading up to it left a bad taste in the mouths of his future neighbors. I don't know why anyone would want to create and move into a hostile environment.
- VonGuard 12y ago
  Or why you'd want to tear down such a nice house? Aren't there open lots in Portland?
  - ewzimm 12y ago
    In the article, it says he intended to renovate, but it turned out to cost millions and was more efficient to rebuild.
    - VonGuard 12y ago
      Doh, missed that part.
  - wmil 12y ago
    Do you actually think it's an attractive house? I find the exterior shockingly ugly, and woodwork like that is impossible to repair if there's any decay... These houses weren't built to last 100 years, I don't see why people insist on forcing owners to keep them up.
davidw 12y ago
One of the really cool things to see here in Italy is how good they are at completely tearing out the guts of a house and redoing it. They'll strip it down to the bricks and then re-add everything they tore out. It's interesting to observe, and nice too, to see something get fixed up rather than just bulldozed and rebuilt as happens with so much stuff in the United States. That said, I know jack about what's actually involved technically, and I bet old wood houses (as are common in Oregon) are a lot harder to do that with than old brick homes.
- dang 12y ago
  A valiant attempt at redeeming a doomed thread with a thoughtful and substantive comment.
- peterwwillis 12y ago
  Well it comes down to the maintenance and repair, and brick is gonna be easier by far (if you do it right). My friends just completely stripped and rebuilt a century-old brick home in Baltimore, which if you use reclaimed materials isn't too expensive. But who knows what kind of gigantic mess a million-plus century-old wooden house consists of? It's bad enough maintaining one that's 50 years old... If you're not doing it yourself, i'm sure it's exorbitantly pricey, and you don't gain anything by paying double for an old house when you could pay the same and get modern construction to boot.
- jmhobbs 12y ago
  Been there, late 1800's farmhouse. Patching or replacing plaster walls is messy and inconvenient, but the concept is pretty similar. We've not changed room layout though, so not sure how that goes. Shouldn't be much different unless you have a load bearing wall to move.
dang 12y ago
This title is so egregiously editorialized, and the post so borderline to begin with, that we're going to bury it rather than edit the title. Submitters: it's against the rules to do this with titles on HN. Please don't.
aresant 12y ago
Can you begin to imagine how much Kevin Rose hates that article "How this kid made $60 million in 18 months."? Which of course was utter bullshit and based on Digg's valuation being $300m+ The Oregon Live's thesis seems to be that this guy is so rich that he just doesn't give a damn. But the reality appears to be they bought a $1.3m home, had maybe planned on a $300 - 400k remodel. But instead likely got a $1m+ price tag to completely refurbish, and stabilize, a landmark building. When price-per-square foot for new construction for something very nice might be $200 x 3,500 sq feet = $700,000 Not defending him, but I get it.
webmaven 12y ago
Looks like he agreed to sell after all: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2014/06/steve_duin_breaking_-_google_e.html http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ss...

16 points by my_name_is 12y ago

Kevin Rose has every right to do this, but the events leading up to it left a bad taste in the mouths of his future neighbors. I don't know why anyone would want to create and move into a hostile environment.

VonGuard 12y ago
Or why you'd want to tear down such a nice house? Aren't there open lots in Portland?
- ewzimm 12y ago
  In the article, it says he intended to renovate, but it turned out to cost millions and was more efficient to rebuild.
  - VonGuard 12y ago
    Doh, missed that part.
- wmil 12y ago
  Do you actually think it's an attractive house? I find the exterior shockingly ugly, and woodwork like that is impossible to repair if there's any decay... These houses weren't built to last 100 years, I don't see why people insist on forcing owners to keep them up.

davidw 12y ago

One of the really cool things to see here in Italy is how good they are at completely tearing out the guts of a house and redoing it. They'll strip it down to the bricks and then re-add everything they tore out. It's interesting to observe, and nice too, to see something get fixed up rather than just bulldozed and rebuilt as happens with so much stuff in the United States. That said, I know jack about what's actually involved technically, and I bet old wood houses (as are common in Oregon) are a lot harder to do that with than old brick homes.

dang 12y ago
A valiant attempt at redeeming a doomed thread with a thoughtful and substantive comment.
peterwwillis 12y ago
Well it comes down to the maintenance and repair, and brick is gonna be easier by far (if you do it right). My friends just completely stripped and rebuilt a century-old brick home in Baltimore, which if you use reclaimed materials isn't too expensive. But who knows what kind of gigantic mess a million-plus century-old wooden house consists of? It's bad enough maintaining one that's 50 years old... If you're not doing it yourself, i'm sure it's exorbitantly pricey, and you don't gain anything by paying double for an old house when you could pay the same and get modern construction to boot.
jmhobbs 12y ago
Been there, late 1800's farmhouse. Patching or replacing plaster walls is messy and inconvenient, but the concept is pretty similar. We've not changed room layout though, so not sure how that goes. Shouldn't be much different unless you have a load bearing wall to move.

dang 12y ago

This title is so egregiously editorialized, and the post so borderline to begin with, that we're going to bury it rather than edit the title. Submitters: it's against the rules to do this with titles on HN. Please don't.

aresant 12y ago

Can you begin to imagine how much Kevin Rose hates that article "How this kid made $60 million in 18 months."? Which of course was utter bullshit and based on Digg's valuation being $300m+ The Oregon Live's thesis seems to be that this guy is so rich that he just doesn't give a damn. But the reality appears to be they bought a $1.3m home, had maybe planned on a $300 - 400k remodel. But instead likely got a $1m+ price tag to completely refurbish, and stabilize, a landmark building. When price-per-square foot for new construction for something very nice might be $200 x 3,500 sq feet = $700,000 Not defending him, but I get it.

webmaven 12y ago

Looks like he agreed to sell after all: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2014/06/steve_duin_breaking_-_google_e.html http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ss...