Total Strangers

For some time now, DH and I have been scouting (both driving and walking) around our neighbourhood for some home renovation ideas and inspirations.

Generally, we have been overwhelmed by the friendliness, generosity and warmness of house owners – all of whom are strangers to us. Two of them even extended welcome into their homes – one at late night and the other early in the morning. Imagine that huh - took us totally by surprise!!! They generously shared their ideas, giving their tips and comments on what and how to renovate as it was the house is the same design.

Another house owner was even friendly enough to give me a contact number of someone to help us on our application with the municipal for renovation. This family (dad, mum and son) also invited me to look inside their house but since I was alone, I thought it was not such a good idea at that time - cannot be careful thesedays.

Guess these people are really house proud even though they have completed their renovations a few years back – well, whatever it is, I am very grateful.

And not forgetting, fellow bloggers, in particular Agnes, for her knowledge and basically giving tips/advices on renovation. I think she really enjoys and has a keen interest in home furnishing & decorations while I only find it all a little intimidating, if not just one big headache! It doesn’t help either that I have a poor sense of colour coordination.

Anyway, back to the topic. Our experience so far talking and interacting with total strangers have been very positive so far…..up until yesterday where we seemed to have thread on toes of 2 house owners. One of which was cool and non-responsive (perhaps he was just tired of the many admirers’ enquiries or cautious that we might be thieves – can’t blame him since robberies are pretty common thesedays). The other, started very defensively by scolding us for taking pictures of his house and that his window design was unique and belong to him, blah blah blah. Imagine our shock, especially since there are a few houses around the neighbourhood with the same grill pattern. When we told him of our observation, he had the cheek to boast that he was the first home owner around our area to have those type of grills and that everyone else had copied him, hinting that he didn’t like the idea of us adopting his grill pattern either. He also commented that if we wanted to take picture of his house that we should actually get his permission first. To me, taking a photograph is the easiest. If he really objected to us taking picture, I could have easily drawn it since it’s a simple pattern, playing with the distance of the horizontal lines, like the one below.

Haiseh, perhaps he should blame himself for owning a nice looking contemporary house. Personally, I doubt his ‘sole exclusivity’ unless he has actually taken out a copyright on it and show it to us, ha ha. Anyway, after calming him a little by talking to him (DH couldn’t believe I was so patient with him), he sort of gave his grudging grunt of approval (I think)!!! This incident bothered us a little though I am sure that we certainly do not need his consent if we were to adopt the same type of grills (who knows, he could have gotten the same idea from somewhere else, the nerve of the man ya!!). Though I acknowledge that it would probably have been courteous if we got permission to take picture of his house first, I wonder whether people generally do the same for other things that we normally take pictures of – food at restaurant, park, buildings, mall, other tangible objects, etc. Having listed out the examples I realize that they are public areas compared to a house dwelling which could be argued as ‘private’ but outside the house boundary, I’m of the view that its public domain and so free for viewing/appreciation on a public road – erm, am I right??? If I were a tourist or in another country, I would be happily clicking away, taking pictures of all objects (including houses) that caught my fancy. Fortunately this grumpy new neighbour doesn't live on the same street!!

This incident reminds me of another incident where we took picture of strangers in a public area. They voiced out their strong displeasure of being photograph without obtaining their consent. In a similar incident, a friend of mine nearly got assaulted because of this. Hm, can only think that these people have something to hide or insecure that they may be under surveillance. Can’t help but wonder if I was the rude one!??