There are dual-frequency geodetic-grade GPS receivers that can solve exactly this kind of problems with centimeter-level accuracy.
If you aren’t so much uptight, you can get away with a cheaper mapping-grade one. If the areas are already known and at least somewhat marked, and you need just to select between existing “football fields”, you can get away even with consumer-grade one from a cellphone, at least if the sky is well visible.
But errors happen even then. A single worker assuming instead of checking is sufficient for that.
Oh I’m not trying to claim the surveyors are excused because land developers bulldozed the sites until they all looked identical, just that it does make their job harder, especially if they’re relying on old cadastral maps or similar at some point in the surveying process; i.e. GPS is only useful if you have an point of reference with GPS coordinates.
Newer surveying methods certainly use GPS coordinates, but half the skill in the surveying profession is knowing what techniques were used at different periods, reading the old maps, etc then working around that.
“Box-like dimensions”–I’ve, uh…never seen a house that wasn’t roughly box-shaped? Well, no, I guess I knew some folks who lived in a yurt once.
This is like that thing where people get frothingly furious when someone enjoys eating at Olive Garden, right? That whole thing of elevating your personal tastes to something objectively worthy of outrage? I mean, it’s not a pretty house, I don’t like the garages taking pride of place, but the balconies look quite cozy.
I dunno, I’m probably just stirring up trouble. I really have no interest in defending rich douchebags with too many houses, nor gated communities. But the whole thing just…every time this happens, I’m reminded of an anime forum I used to frequent, around 2000 when a new Gundam show came out, with a rockstar designer hired to design the look of the starring robot, and people were so angry that it wasn’t quite the same shape they were used to. Disliking someone else’s aesthetic choices, I can see that, sure; but getting really angry about them just seems like a waste of good rage.
You seem to be confusing “distracting myself from my studies by calling an ugly building ugly” and “frothingly furious”. I have no idea what Olive Garden is, so I don’t know, I assume its like the Greek equivalent of Nandos?
Box-like dimensions was probably a bad way to put it. The house is essentially a cube, which could perhaps look good if the building was modernist, but a generally a building of this size will look a hundred times better with some articulation, the slightly extended balconies aren’t really cutting it here.
The most important part of a building is its functionality/comfort inside. If that fails, no embellishments will save it. If that is good, any unnecessary (and often maintenance-sucking) ornaments on the outside won’t make it better.
Edit: The block house misses a tower. Where else to put the antennas and possibly a telescope?
I’m sure that my wife would be willing to share her experience in classical vs operant conditioning techniques as well as offer general commiseration services…
If she can provide some guidance in getting the television un-stuck from the food/cooking channel, it would be worth every penny.
As for the eventuality of living in a UFO, well, it wouldn’t be used. We’d be building it from the site plan on up so I can at least make sure the floor plan isn’t stuck in the 50’s.
"We’re all victims of the architect. Architecture is the only art that you can’t help but feel. You can avoid paintings, you can avoid music, and you can even avoid history. But good luck getting away from architecture."
