Harry Potter Houses - Teresa Pond Personal Blog #2

In my Centerville neighborhood, no two houses look exactly alike. Each home has a different exterior and a unique floor plan. While many homes fall under the categorization of Prairie Style homes, the uniqueness of each ensures that none is identical. However, just down the road, a new Ivory Homes subdivision is being built where the same three exterior designs and floor plans are alternated around the block.

It the beginning of the first Harry Potter movie, the camera pans down Privet Drive, the street where Harry’s Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon live. I am sure no one missed noticing that each house on Privet Drive looked exactly the same – similar to the new subdivision being built down the street from my home. That is why I choose to collectively call houses in subdivisions “Harry Potter Homes.”

I have never been a big fan of subdivisions. I have many friends who live in them and I know their home means as much to them as mine does to me. However, from an exterior view, in my opinion, the houses are not at all unique. With the exception of the decorations the home owners choose to put out and the cars in the driveway, each house looks almost exactly the same. There is no variety and no outstanding architectural aspects of which to take note. It is monotonous and takes away the individuality that a street such as mine has.

When soldiers began coming home from World War II, families needed homes quickly. They needed a place to live and a place to start their families. That is when the subdivision boom began. Building companies found that they could use the same floor plans and build the exact same home time and time again, ultimately saving money and decreasing the amount of time it took to build one home.

What I find most interesting about the idea of subdivisions is how easily it can be related to American society today. In our society, people want things big, fast and cheap. Take, for example, fast food restaurants: customers expect their food immediately, cheap and, for the most part, they want large quantities of food. I believe this mentality also applies to the builders of subdivisions. They want to build big neighborhoods fast and for a relatively low cost. Just like we eat our big, fast, and cheap value meals at the cost of our health, developers and builders create subdivisions at the expense of the diversity – and sometimes the quality of homes – a street like mine has to offer.