Arkay
Lunatic Member
A few months ago, an entire old building collapsed here in Hong Kong, causing some death and injury. Someone had been doing redecoration work on a low-level floor in the building, including knocking out a wall, and this was suspected to have had something do to with the collapse. The wall was not "weight-bearing", but the authorities said the building had also been weakened and overburdened by illegal add-on structures (balconies and such).
In typical bureaucratic fashion, the government launched an immediate, massive over-response after the horse had left the barn (in this case), and expanded their "crackdown" on illegal structures, announcing an inspect-and-enforce program to cover all the older buildings in Hong Kong --tens of thousands of them.
Well, they already got to my building... I got two letters, yesterday and today, giving only 30 days' notice to remove the illegal structures "attached" to my apartment. One of this is a decorative metal structure in the front, that I have nothing more than flowerpots on. No big deal; I won't really miss it.
The OTHER one, in the back facing an alley, is an entirely different matter. This is a large balcony --not an add-on, but a part of the building, which has a steel-framed cemented-over roof and glass windows, etc... The roof and windows are the "illegal structure" added; originally, this was an open balcony. There is a door at the far end of it which leads to another long, covered balcony (which is also accessible from our kitchen). There is NOTHING dangerous about it in any way whatsoever; in fact, it helps prevent accidents, because it would catch anything that might accidentally be dropped from windows above from falling on our heads. If it colllapsed, it wouldn't hurt anyone, unless one of us was inside/under it, and there is no way those big welded steel beams will collapse; they can support tons and are minimally loaded. That space is not only my store-room and "shop" space"; it also functions as our laundry room.
Most importantly...
It is where I keep almost all my excess audio gear! I have SOME gear in my office-room, and some in the living room, but the rest of it, the bulk of the "collection", is all in that room! On top of that, the longer, narrower balcony (also covered, with one contiguous roof) houses dozens of remaining rare boomboxes that I was going to sell (slowly) online. Most of those are worth a few hundred bucks apiece; perhaps five are worth four-figure sums. The market for them is almost entirely overseas, though, and they will become worthless in a hurry if left exposed to the elements for long!
I intended to get rid of MOST of this, anyway... but I figured it would take at least a year. Now I have 30 days in which to not only remove all the contents AND the roof, or face serious financial penalties... or more accurately, my landlord will face severe penalties. NOT a nice situation! I'm going to have to move what I can to the commission-sales places, but some of this gear is too vintage or not high-end enough for them; on those, I'll have to cut deals with wholesalers, which means I'll make nothing or even lose a few bucks, on things which --if I fixed them up first and sold them slowly, would bring (in total) thousands more.
I'm looking at losing at least $10,000 in lost profits under this scenario, even under the current economic conditions, not to mention the loss of the usable space for anything but outdoor sitting (with no view worth mentioning, etc... --it's a good indoor space, but not a place where you would want to sit out-doors, as it is on the wrong side of the building for that.)
The situation also gives me a choice of leaving my clothes washer and dryer outdoors (I can erect a canvas canopy over them, but not a solid structure), or get rid of them and lug my laundry back-and-forth a block or two each way, to pay for a (less effective) commercial laundry to do them.
Technically, the landlord is responsible for the cost of the removals, (fortunately I have not bought this apartment yet!) but I KNOW he will "kick and scream" about that, and will not want to spend additional money to add anything like canvas shades (which are allowed).
Well, I had planned to "downsize" the collection, and had even already started the process... but I didn't want to do it this way, on this schedule! Boo-hoo! This will force me to make some rather ruthless and unwelcome choices. I had toyed (mentally) for a long time with the idea of selling off almost everything, and pooling the money into one "super" system... now it looks like almost everything will be going in any case, but I won't be getting the $$ for that "super" system. Actually, I've got much of such a system already, and will end up with one as it is, regardless, so that isn't bad... but I do wish this hadn't been "foisted" upon me in such a rush. I had figured it would take at least a year for them to get to me --it will take a few years for them to cover all the old buildings-- that that would have been enough time for me to do it "right".
How do I choose between my favorite speakers? How do you decide which to keep from DQs, DCMs, ESS, ARs, etc... When you can only keep at most three pair? If I have to haul back in the RS IIs into the living room even when I'm not listening to them, my wife may scream bloody murder, commit bloody murder (on me), or move out and divorce me. Even if she accepts that and puts up with them, what about the others? I can move the NS-1000Ms into my office room (not where I want them, but it will do), and I don't mind giving up the ARs, KLH, and some others, but I really hate to think of the Dahlquists going, and there is no way to leave them sitting outside for extended periods, without condemning them to slow (or rapid, as soon as it rains) deaths.
I'll also face tough decisions on paring down smaller "collections". I'm definitely keeping my newest SX-1980 and the SX-1250, for example, but the other Pioneers must all go. I'll similarly have to pick about two Marantz receivers, but the rest will all go. I will also keep the H/K Citation The Receiver, as it is beautiful and very rare, but that will be my entire receiver collection: I can fit only one stack of receivers in my home-office, and five pieces is just about the limit.
Similarly, I'll have to select only a very few turntables to keep. That will be tough, too! And amps... even nice ones like the BA/CA-2000 pair will have to go. Probably my excess 3650+300dc sets will all go. I like these, and they are getting hard to find, and they've been going up in value overseas (while dropping in value locally). I'm going to ask some friends if they can provide storage (I'll let them use them, of course!) for some things, just to give me time to sell them properly online, but that will only work for a few pieces. Most of these will be "dumped", in relative terms. UGH!
Life is about change. I'll get through this, somehow, and will probably put in nice stained-glass doors from the living room leading out to a nice new balcony garden (maybe we'll grow some herbs or veggies for the kitchen?), maybe with a fountain and goldfish pond or something nice like that. I'll still have my main system in the living room and a few nice pieces in my office-room, and my LPs and CDs to listen to on those. Life won't completely suck. My wife will be happier and I'll live with it... but my days of collecting, of swapping gear around to hear how it sounds, etc... are officially over, and in the meantime, THIS SUCKS!
Rant over. If you own your own place in a less draconian environment, and know that your gear is truly safe, take a moment to give thanks for that. You could be in the situation I'm in. As I say, I'll deal with it and live with it... life turns a page. But I'll miss some of that gear, and some of the funds I could have raised from selling it properly instead of "fire sale", and what I would have bought with that money...
Okay, now rant is really over. I'll need about another half hour to switch my thinking and get myself "excited" about the sense of "freedom" the decluttering may bring, and about the new garden design...
But the loss of my audio space, and all that gear that I hunted out and brought home, one piece at a time, and all the pleasure I get from sometimes pulling pieces out to play "audio mix-n-match", etc... sucks!
Okay, now rant is really, really over. (Do you detect a pattern? I think I should "work on this" a bit... But yeah, it's really over, at least for now.)
Sigh... :sigh:
P.S. -- Yes, I did think about listing this stuff out and selling it here on AK. Unfortunately, (1) I won't have time for the individual packing and shipping of many items, as there is too much to clear out that way within the time limits, and (2) the shipping cost would make most of it not worth doing, anyway; a lot of this stuff was either mid-fi stuff that I got earlier on, or else is big, bulky things like speakers that definitely aren't worth shipping. I might be listing a few things in Bartertown in the next couple of weeks, though. Only a few that might "make sense", though.
Just thought I'd share this news. I'm already convincing myself that in the long run, it will be the proverbial "blessing in disguise" that it will give us a nicer lifestyle, free up some of my time for other pursuits, etc... Just the pain of the actual transition isn't entirely fun, to say the least. Sort of like the time when they were working on replacing the sewage pipes and our apartment got partly flooded with sewage water...
In typical bureaucratic fashion, the government launched an immediate, massive over-response after the horse had left the barn (in this case), and expanded their "crackdown" on illegal structures, announcing an inspect-and-enforce program to cover all the older buildings in Hong Kong --tens of thousands of them.
Well, they already got to my building... I got two letters, yesterday and today, giving only 30 days' notice to remove the illegal structures "attached" to my apartment. One of this is a decorative metal structure in the front, that I have nothing more than flowerpots on. No big deal; I won't really miss it.
The OTHER one, in the back facing an alley, is an entirely different matter. This is a large balcony --not an add-on, but a part of the building, which has a steel-framed cemented-over roof and glass windows, etc... The roof and windows are the "illegal structure" added; originally, this was an open balcony. There is a door at the far end of it which leads to another long, covered balcony (which is also accessible from our kitchen). There is NOTHING dangerous about it in any way whatsoever; in fact, it helps prevent accidents, because it would catch anything that might accidentally be dropped from windows above from falling on our heads. If it colllapsed, it wouldn't hurt anyone, unless one of us was inside/under it, and there is no way those big welded steel beams will collapse; they can support tons and are minimally loaded. That space is not only my store-room and "shop" space"; it also functions as our laundry room.
Most importantly...
It is where I keep almost all my excess audio gear! I have SOME gear in my office-room, and some in the living room, but the rest of it, the bulk of the "collection", is all in that room! On top of that, the longer, narrower balcony (also covered, with one contiguous roof) houses dozens of remaining rare boomboxes that I was going to sell (slowly) online. Most of those are worth a few hundred bucks apiece; perhaps five are worth four-figure sums. The market for them is almost entirely overseas, though, and they will become worthless in a hurry if left exposed to the elements for long!
I intended to get rid of MOST of this, anyway... but I figured it would take at least a year. Now I have 30 days in which to not only remove all the contents AND the roof, or face serious financial penalties... or more accurately, my landlord will face severe penalties. NOT a nice situation! I'm going to have to move what I can to the commission-sales places, but some of this gear is too vintage or not high-end enough for them; on those, I'll have to cut deals with wholesalers, which means I'll make nothing or even lose a few bucks, on things which --if I fixed them up first and sold them slowly, would bring (in total) thousands more.
I'm looking at losing at least $10,000 in lost profits under this scenario, even under the current economic conditions, not to mention the loss of the usable space for anything but outdoor sitting (with no view worth mentioning, etc... --it's a good indoor space, but not a place where you would want to sit out-doors, as it is on the wrong side of the building for that.)
The situation also gives me a choice of leaving my clothes washer and dryer outdoors (I can erect a canvas canopy over them, but not a solid structure), or get rid of them and lug my laundry back-and-forth a block or two each way, to pay for a (less effective) commercial laundry to do them.
Technically, the landlord is responsible for the cost of the removals, (fortunately I have not bought this apartment yet!) but I KNOW he will "kick and scream" about that, and will not want to spend additional money to add anything like canvas shades (which are allowed).
Well, I had planned to "downsize" the collection, and had even already started the process... but I didn't want to do it this way, on this schedule! Boo-hoo! This will force me to make some rather ruthless and unwelcome choices. I had toyed (mentally) for a long time with the idea of selling off almost everything, and pooling the money into one "super" system... now it looks like almost everything will be going in any case, but I won't be getting the $$ for that "super" system. Actually, I've got much of such a system already, and will end up with one as it is, regardless, so that isn't bad... but I do wish this hadn't been "foisted" upon me in such a rush. I had figured it would take at least a year for them to get to me --it will take a few years for them to cover all the old buildings-- that that would have been enough time for me to do it "right".
How do I choose between my favorite speakers? How do you decide which to keep from DQs, DCMs, ESS, ARs, etc... When you can only keep at most three pair? If I have to haul back in the RS IIs into the living room even when I'm not listening to them, my wife may scream bloody murder, commit bloody murder (on me), or move out and divorce me. Even if she accepts that and puts up with them, what about the others? I can move the NS-1000Ms into my office room (not where I want them, but it will do), and I don't mind giving up the ARs, KLH, and some others, but I really hate to think of the Dahlquists going, and there is no way to leave them sitting outside for extended periods, without condemning them to slow (or rapid, as soon as it rains) deaths.
I'll also face tough decisions on paring down smaller "collections". I'm definitely keeping my newest SX-1980 and the SX-1250, for example, but the other Pioneers must all go. I'll similarly have to pick about two Marantz receivers, but the rest will all go. I will also keep the H/K Citation The Receiver, as it is beautiful and very rare, but that will be my entire receiver collection: I can fit only one stack of receivers in my home-office, and five pieces is just about the limit.
Similarly, I'll have to select only a very few turntables to keep. That will be tough, too! And amps... even nice ones like the BA/CA-2000 pair will have to go. Probably my excess 3650+300dc sets will all go. I like these, and they are getting hard to find, and they've been going up in value overseas (while dropping in value locally). I'm going to ask some friends if they can provide storage (I'll let them use them, of course!) for some things, just to give me time to sell them properly online, but that will only work for a few pieces. Most of these will be "dumped", in relative terms. UGH!
Life is about change. I'll get through this, somehow, and will probably put in nice stained-glass doors from the living room leading out to a nice new balcony garden (maybe we'll grow some herbs or veggies for the kitchen?), maybe with a fountain and goldfish pond or something nice like that. I'll still have my main system in the living room and a few nice pieces in my office-room, and my LPs and CDs to listen to on those. Life won't completely suck. My wife will be happier and I'll live with it... but my days of collecting, of swapping gear around to hear how it sounds, etc... are officially over, and in the meantime, THIS SUCKS!
Rant over. If you own your own place in a less draconian environment, and know that your gear is truly safe, take a moment to give thanks for that. You could be in the situation I'm in. As I say, I'll deal with it and live with it... life turns a page. But I'll miss some of that gear, and some of the funds I could have raised from selling it properly instead of "fire sale", and what I would have bought with that money...
Okay, now rant is really over. I'll need about another half hour to switch my thinking and get myself "excited" about the sense of "freedom" the decluttering may bring, and about the new garden design...
But the loss of my audio space, and all that gear that I hunted out and brought home, one piece at a time, and all the pleasure I get from sometimes pulling pieces out to play "audio mix-n-match", etc... sucks!
Okay, now rant is really, really over. (Do you detect a pattern? I think I should "work on this" a bit... But yeah, it's really over, at least for now.)
Sigh... :sigh:
P.S. -- Yes, I did think about listing this stuff out and selling it here on AK. Unfortunately, (1) I won't have time for the individual packing and shipping of many items, as there is too much to clear out that way within the time limits, and (2) the shipping cost would make most of it not worth doing, anyway; a lot of this stuff was either mid-fi stuff that I got earlier on, or else is big, bulky things like speakers that definitely aren't worth shipping. I might be listing a few things in Bartertown in the next couple of weeks, though. Only a few that might "make sense", though.
Just thought I'd share this news. I'm already convincing myself that in the long run, it will be the proverbial "blessing in disguise" that it will give us a nicer lifestyle, free up some of my time for other pursuits, etc... Just the pain of the actual transition isn't entirely fun, to say the least. Sort of like the time when they were working on replacing the sewage pipes and our apartment got partly flooded with sewage water...
-- one day.
But I still looked, out of curiosity and for fun! 
