OT: The House I Grew Up In - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 11:51:41 am
content: OMG!This is the house I grew up in, and now look at itYes the original house is still there and used as a shell basically.Unbelievable.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:14:51 pm
content: It actually went through a mid iteration.As we left it on the left, then the next owner, then the next. Still the same house, technically...

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:27:15 pm
content: A huge change to the facade, but the original house can still be seen.I notice the "no mow" front yard.The house that I grew up in was demolished and a new, grand 2 storey residence has been built in its place.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:34:55 pm
content: It's a little sad to see how fast things change.I used to work in an building in Meadowbank, NSW which used to be a company called Panaseer (later Commander Australia). It was old, but it had some quirky features, such as huge safe rooms and trap doors in the ground floor which let to storage rooms (not tall enough to stand up in). The history of the building was fascinating.Unfortunately it has been sold off, demolished and is going to be apartments.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:43:58 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on October 07, 2017, 12:34:55 pmWas that near the expansive GEC Marconi complex at Meadowbank (just down the road from the train station)?I used to work there back in the mid 90's and they has a ceramic hybrid manufacturing facility and the biggest water test tank tower in the southern hemisphere. All apartments now

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:48:11 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on October 07, 2017, 12:43:58 pmNot sure, it was Nancarrow Avenue, Meadowbank. It was one of the Commander's smaller Sydney offices which housed mostly the Commander PABX field technicians and some engineering staff. I remember we had a huge environmental stress test chamber for the old ISDN cards and other products we produced. The building actually used to be a factory forAutomatic Totalisators Limited. Heaps of history. Here is a very old photo:

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:48:53 pm
content: Just looked up my first job in Clyde Street Rydalmere at Pacific Communications, the building is still here just as I remember it

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:53:10 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on October 07, 2017, 12:48:11 pmGEC Marconi was at Faraday (yes, that Fararday) Park, Railway Street Meadowbank.Now it's this:

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 12:58:38 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on October 07, 2017, 12:43:58 pmI stand corrected.Some of the old buildings still stand, right next to new apartments! (heritage listed maybe?)And a nod the the complex still exists in Faraday Lane

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 01:01:14 pm
content: At least the kept the street name. It's sad, but at the same time, we can't hang onto every old building.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 02:24:07 pm
content: If you've seen one brick building, you've seen them all. Our city has been sued into not demolishing old buildings but as they are uninhabitable and retrofit is so expensive, they will stand vacant forever. Just mitigating the asbestos is more money than the building is worth.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 09:11:41 pm
content: OK, my turn:https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4461583,-2.2665403,3a,60y,268.59h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEAXEqcJyh02yWvpo5dGqOA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656Not much changed apart from the addition of double glazing. My bedroom was the one above the front door so I got to see who was calling before anyone else. We left there in 1970 although I had been sent away to boarding school the year before.

author: HwAoRrDk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 10:57:25 pm
content: I'm surprised they were allowed to concrete over the entire front yard like that. Would be against building regulations here, as you're supposed to have a porous surface that drains water away. Not that it stops some people, or that the local councils can be bothered to enforce such rules...

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 11:56:02 pm
content: I guess it's one of the joys of growing older. You get to see things near and dear to you, which you took for granted and thought would be forever, changed or destroyed without the world caring about it.I guess the new owner of Dave's parental house really wanted to live in a post office or backwater super market.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2017, 04:15:32 am
content: My family vacated the house I grew up in a couple of years ago after nearly sixty years. Even under one family ownership things change over time. Hedges come and go. Trees age and die while others grow from seedlings to huge sizes. Roofing changes as do exterior finishes. Additions/gardens/outbuildings/orchards... Roads are upgraded and neighboring houses change.Pictures scattered through all of this and it is amazingly difficult to reconstruct exactly when each of the changes occurred. Even when I was heavily involved mixing and pouring concrete and similar activities.

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2017, 07:34:14 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on October 07, 2017, 12:58:38 pmThat looks very very close to the Marconi building I used to work at in 1990 in England.I grew up in a generic 1930s 3 bed semihttps://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8972307,-0.4390893,3a,75y,88.29h,87t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shSlGJI9sgHVOkz5Si7BUPg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656and it doesn't look that different to how it was in 1970

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2017, 08:40:02 pm
content: I notice that the driveway when you were growing up was one that likely helped lower the heat burden of the house.. grass doesnt store heat - it stays fairly cool.. (unless its "artificial turf" which is an entirely different story, THAT, in addition to emitting nasty fumes, it also broils at insane temperatures in the sun!)I suspect that the changes they made- removing that big shade tree, and paving the entire front yard have made your former home much hotter than before.This may have also made it really expensive to live in in terms of air conditioning costs.Before it looks like it would have been cooled by the breezes somewhat.. After?looking at all that concrete makes me wonder.Quote from: EEVblog on October 07, 2017, 12:14:51 pm

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2017, 08:54:32 pm
content: The modifications changed it from a nice comfy looking older home into something that reminds me of a gas station.Quote from: Mr. Scram on October 07, 2017, 11:56:02 pm

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 09, 2017, 11:41:25 pm
content: Quote from: cdev on October 09, 2017, 08:54:32 pmThat's the sort of thing that happens when people want to get "architectural".The concrete front yard might be OK during winter - but it's going to be hell in summer.

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 12:08:47 am
content: looks like the substantial trees are gone

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 01:34:40 am
content: There used to be a group on the early internet groups called "alt.pave-the-earth".

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 04:01:27 am
content: Wow that's a crazy change. That modern style looks "cool" but don't know I'd want it for a house, it feels too institutional.

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 08:13:12 am
content: Just wait till the grafittiTards come to sort out those burbs...

author: TheWelly888
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 08:42:50 am
content: Dave, your childhood home now has all the warmth and cosiness of a crematorium!I'm still living in my childhood home but I remember my grandparent's houses and have never visited them again since they passed away, I know that the new owners of one house had torn out the horrid pink bathroom suite immediately on moving in!My old primary school has been pulled down and the site being redeveloped for more houses - I wish the same thing is done to my hated secondary school! One electronic factory I worked in is now just an office block.Times changes, nothing lasts forever....