1。老房子所在地大都是成熟，有文化，有历史，有好学校。。。的好地方。打个比方，您不能把paddington画廊搬到cherrybrook去。
老房子是老旧些. 但是和"成熟","有文化","有历史"怕是没什么关系.
PADDINGTON, DARLINGHURST, SURRY HILL, POTTS POINTS, BALMAIN,GLEBE ETC, 这些区在过去不过是码头工人, 和下层体力工作者的聚集区. 鉴于经济条件的限制, 建的房子非常dodgy.
A lot of houses in those areas have been built without proper sewage and drainage system, or not even a toilet in the past. People did the laundry and etc in the backyard and the waste was discharged directly to the street gutter. They were absolutely “Shit House”.
Only in modern days these accommodation have been gradually updated to match the current criteria. Like the hot water system was introduced and installed. If you walked at the back lane, you would notice a lot of pipes sticking out of the building. I hope you would not think that is the part of the art design of this building.
Due to lack of planning in those areas in the past, it created a lot of problems for access, renovation nowadays. And worse of all, council put up a lot of restrictions on the renovation, and something just can not be done. 有许多东西没法改变,简直就是癌症. For example, a lot of houses are actually linked together. The common wall in between can not be touched anyhow. So if you want to change any structure of the house, you will be left with only one option of building another wall next to the common wall, and you will end up with reduced usable area, which is already very small in the first place.
2。high ceiling。不要小看这个，这是舒适的首要/重要条件。而且不管你怎么装修，也没法改变天花板高度。
High ceiling means ceiling higher than 2.7m, in contrast to 2.4m normal ceiling height.
It is probably good for living area only. But it is definitely not good and comfortable for bedrooms due to lack of intimacy etc. A lot of new houses have been built with 2.7m ceiling or over if you really want to. And like using double brick is just your own choice, purely depends on your budget. And also for single storey house, a major renovation can lift the ceiling height.
3。good bone。结识。大部分都是双砖的。
As to the material/workmanship and building structure for the old buildings in those areas, the only word I can come up with is “Pathetic”.
If you are lucky enough, you can get a house sitting on a proper footing. Or very likely the house was pretty much built directly on a shallow ground.
如果你感兴趣, 你可以remove some of the rendering from the wall, and have a good look at the brick and mortar used. And then you would not say blindly “good bone-结识” any more. Or you can crawl under the floor space, you can find how the flooring and joists are supported, and I bet you will be shocked.
And if you can open the hatch for the roof, and have a peep on those roof rafters / battens and under purlins etc, and how they are supported, You would not jump at the conclusion of “good bone“. And it is going to be a bloody headache to rectify them through a renovation.
4。characters。比如不同时期的房子，具有不同时期的特点，victorian, edwardine, federation，etc。
我相信我们都来自中国. Victorian, Federations style buildings are just something around 民国时期的建筑. I can not think they have got that much of historical values. 如果你非要把它们和文化和历史搞到一块, 未免有些太牵强了. Most of the old building are not properly laid out because the limitation of living standard back those days. And for so called “Victoria” style house, I guess the only thing you want to keep would be those cast iron columns and lacework at the building façade. But if you want to do major change of the building structure, simply forget about it. Just like what was said before, it is癌症. You would not be expecting that a building of 20m long, 3-4m frontage with 1.5m narrow foot path down one side will have decent 通风采光 through re-design, 装修, or would you?
And those areas are mainly attracting a lot of young people. 不是因为”是成熟，有文化，有历史，有好学校”. 而是因为这些区更靠近pubs, night clubs and whore house and drugs. And those pubs have been built as “waterholes” for those wharfies to begin with in the past. If you want to have fun and easy access to those ‘entertainments’, those areas can be defined as “good”. And if you want to enjoy a family life and bring up your kids, those areas are not “good”.
Anyway, I just wonder how many people living in those areas are really into “Art Gallery” etc like you do.
不论澳洲还是中国, 从来都不缺乏付庸风雅的人. In here it might be called “Arty-Farty” But it is like somebody talking “Organic” food to distinguish himself/herself from others, just piss me off.
By the way, Kenthurst and Dural have got good art galleries as well. And lot of rich people (I mean real rich people) choose to live in those area, which are very close to Cherrybrook, as you mentioned before. By the way, personally I like Cherrybrook much more than those Arty-Farty areas, even I do not live in that suburb.
Also for those attached “photorealistic” rendering images about the renovation, you have to look at them with some imagination as well. Because they have been set up with certain view angles and lighting and furniture with a purpose of making look perfect, and if you really think after renovation you house would be looking like that, you would end up with very big disappointment.