Went there yesterday and spent three hours of voyeristic quests through other peoples houses. It turned out three hours of walking and climbing the narrowest staircases isn't recommended on the shoes I was wearing: my left calf still doesn't bear much walking (which means that for the fourth time this year, I will miss P's Combat class... damn it!). Seriously, the average width seemed to be somewhere arround 40 centimetres. Not very child-friendly. Or elder-friendly.
Anyway, voyerism and exhibitionism appeared to be the dominating themes in most of the houses: the houses were situated in a semi-circle around the bay which resulted in an extremely nice view from one house to another, especially from the balconies. And there were bedrooms in which there were no curtains or even a slightest hint that there might be curtains coming. So I'm just saying: how can one have sex in a place in which there is a direct view to the nice big double bed from the window of a neighbouring house? And to continue with the same subject: there was a house in which there was one big room for the entire family, that is it had a double bed for the parents and three smaller beds. It might take a while before the other two smaller beds are occupied if the only time parents can have sex is when the kids are not home.
Furthermore, all the houses had a special room for household chores such as washing machines and so on. They all seemed very nice except for one thing: I don't recall any of them having room for *hanging* the laundry. And why is it that apart from Col Legno (lila), all the girls' rooms were pink? Boys had different shades of blue and green. At the end of the trail I skipped most rooms titled as "a girl's room" when one glance revealed the dominating colour surprisigly enough to be pink or -if they were feeling breathtakingly adventurous- red.
The houses that somehow stood out were the Stone House, the Vaasan Meri and the Lighthouse House. The Stone House was all stone (or concrete or whatever it is called). The interior's dominating colour was white. Hurts the eyes, actually, on such a bright day. The view from the balcony, however, was probably the best as it had the directmost view towards the bay and the sea. And it was a somewhat surreal experience to look at my left and see a lighthouse next door. =) Which brings us nicely to the Lighthouse House. I don't really recall any major things (positive or negative) from the house otherwise except for the huge balcony and the lighthouse on could enter from the balcony. The public wasn't allowed to go to the top of the lighthouse but I could see from the Stone House's balcony that it did have a big bulb there to be lighted.
And then there was the Vaasan Meri appartment house. The Penthouse was spectacular! The actual appartment was far from being finished but the the balcony that will circle the entire apartment (and have, for instance, two pools in it) was humungous and the view... wow. You know, I've alway wondered the penthouse thing. The elevator door open straight into the apartment. How does one keep unwanted visitors out?
Some of the yards didn't appear to be very practical. I'm sure it's very nice to have elaborate backyards but the winters won't be too much fun, I should think. Speaking of yards, the voyerism/exhibitionism was present in them as well. As said before, the houses were in semi-circle so people have a very good view on each other's backyards. And half of the backyards had pools in plain view (the exception was one house that had an atrium of sorts in the middle in which the pool was; very inviting but only *nearly* perfect as it could be seen from the street [!]).
There were several separate houses alike one another in very close proximity to each other. I cannot understand that: why buy a house and live so close to the other that you could basically share a wall since the result's the same? I had the same idea while watching the actual houses. Why buy an area of land and build a house on it if you have no privacy at all? Okay, I grew up on the countryside so I'm lacking experience on this type of living but still... the idea of a house is to have something of your own, right? So if you can't go outside and stand on your own balcony or your own lawn without being seen by someone, then what's the point of having a house?
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www.asuntomessut.fi
Vaasan Meri on the right, the Stone House on the left and the lighthouse you can see for yourself.
