Not Elated

There hasn't been much action on the blog front because there hasn't been much action on the housefront. After selecting every colour, fixture, powerpoint and window the building company runs away and hides in a bucket gleefully counting out how many children we need to promise them to build the house. This appears to take about four weeks of drafting by hand and caluclating on an abacus by the feel of it.

Our contract date is set for Friday however based on the fact that we have received NO documents as yet, it's unlikely we will sign on Friday. Terrified by stories of lawyers in dark rooms with low lamps shining in the clients face, pen outstretched in a sinister, beckoning hand we felt that to best protect ourselves we needed a few working days with the contracts to go through, mark out our queries and seek legal advice where required. Legal documents take a long time to write and to read but I think in the case of most building companies, they try to get you to sign quickly so you don't read the clauses too carefully.

In other news, more related to the title of this post, our street name looks like it is being changed. One of the key reasons I was attracted to this estate was the connection to Eltham with the key figure of Jorgensen and his historically significant estate, Montsalvat. Our true dream is to live in Eltham, but with land prices well beyond our reach we figured a stepping stone would help us in the mean time.

I have felt a number of omens with the street name and the house plan name (Which is my cousin's name) and superstitiously I believe that these mean good omens for the future. But the street name has always been a bit of a confuzzlement. Monstalvat street originates in the estate next to ours, The Promenade, which is about five years old. Our street is the extension of Montsalvat street, however the street numbers go in the wrong direction to the extension. We've always wondered how they would coordinate this with the old estate as it seems rather unreasonable to renumber the existing houses.

Last week we came head to head with the decision that apparently is to solve this problem. The street that we will live on will eventually become a thoroughfare between the Plenty River estate to the North and the Promenade Estate to the East. The decsion seems to be to use the name of the street from the Plenty River Estate and bring it down through our estate. The street name is Elation Boulevard.....................



That name again:

Elation Boulevard

I can tell you now, I am not elated. I am disgusted. Dry retching at the Yuppy, McMansion living, soy decaf latte sipping, I-park-my-sports-car-in-two-car-spaces swine who decided that naming our street Elation Boulvard was a good idea. What next? Avenue of Destiny? Climax Court?

The opportunity to name a location should be a thoughtful occasion that emcompasses the area in a meaningful way. I can't believe that someone in a planning department somewhere has decided to bypass the opportunity to use local artists, authors, political figures, flora or fauna to name an area. You could use anything. Why would you use a word that roughly translates to Wanker Street?

So I'm not happy. Or elated. I am pissed, and I will be writing letters. So help them.