i recently inspected a house in Downer (Canberra) and it had been renovated rather strangely. Basically, they got the ex-govvie house and gutted it and then built a complete new house all around so that it filled the whole block. They ended up with the walls of the house being on the boundary of the property and therefore the walls also became the fences. This was most strange. Basically it was a McMansion house filling up the 480 sq metre block.
Anyway, it had 4 or 5 bedrooms, 3 with ensuites, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms which all lead out to the enclosed pool. Anyway, only one bedroom, the master, had windows on the side walls. The other bedrooms only had skylights (which didn't open). I immediately questioned the lack of the windows to the agent and he said it was ok. But for me personally, no way could i stay in a room with no windows.
I was once travelling in Taiwan and i was booked into a hotel and i went and checked my room and it had no windows - only an AC. So i changed rooms as i couldn't stay in that room and strangely enough, the guy at the reception said a lot of Westerners request to change from that room but the Asians don't. It may be a cultural thing.
Back to the house in Downer, can you imagine raising children, which become teenagers, and having them living in rooms with no windows - ie no fresh air etc?
I am still puzzled as to how this house plan got approved by ACTPLA. A number of things stick to my mind about this house - it covered at least 80% of the block; the walls of the house were on the boundary line (which i thought was impossible in areas of suburban Canberra); and as already mentioned, just about all the bedrooms had no windows - and finally, it was a renovation that was done way over the top. Someone was trying to build an executive townhouse type of thing in suburban Canberra and they spent a lot of money on it and it was over done...
Anyway, the house got sold for 450k so someone liked it....
BTW - is anyone else like me and spends a lot of Saturdays just checking out open houses?
g