One Reason Houses Cost So Much

Near my office, they are building some houses that I expect will cost a great deal of money when they come on the market. This construction has been going on for much of the past year, causing annoyance to those working in the Campus Drive area of San Mateo.

A few months ago, they built a concrete retaining wall where the site fronted the street. Besides it holding back part of the earthen berm that will separate this Exclusive Gated Community from the adjacent business park, it looked like it was also meant to be decorative, including some tile along the upper fringe of the wall.

Some time later, they knocked down part of the wall that they'd poured a while ago.

A week or two ago, I saw them replacing the section previously destroyed with a cinder-block-wall that didn't match the style of the original wall at all.

And finally (for now) this week, there has been a crew out there on that wall chipping off the decorative tile and covering the entire wall with decorative stone that is supposed to make it look like it's actually a stone wall, not a slab of concrete-and-rebar-and-cinderblock covered with rocks.

You'd think they could get this stuff right the first time, instead of having to build the same wall three times.

Not that it's going to affect me -- no way I'll ever earn enough money to afford one of these mansions they're building.