The View from Santiago Estates

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JT

The View from Santiago Estates

Post by JT »

As long as we're rehashing old ideas and sore spots for the club, how about that view from our neighbors at Santiago? Andy Prychiak and I took a tour today to see the shade structures they have in their rec area. Andy wanted to take the scenic rim drive.

The view wasn't really that bad but several things were easily discernible.

The present gazebo, thankfully, disappears due to the plant life.

Overall, with the trees, the parking area and LZ are pretty presentable as a park.

Erwin's auto sales and service, not so good, although the green bus does blend well. If the two were parked in the shade of the pepper trees, they'd be nearly invisible from the ridge.

The containers, good and bad... mostly bad. They give the area that industrial-strength look. The canvas-less frame between them looked as if there were skeletal bones left after a fire. We also noticed that the lattice on its side softened the impact of the older box.

Suggestions: I know that the BOD is acting to place shrubbery in pots to the South of Erwin's estate. That will help but you should take a look from Santiago's perspective. A large part of what you will see is the top of everything.

Which leads to... camoflage. The roof of both boxes needs to be green... or the wisteria could be transplanted. Jasmine will grow faster. A park-like mural on the side would look better than you'd think (Larry is an artist, let's give him a canvas). Everything is flat from that distance, anyway. The wood lattice would probably work well, too.

A last optimistic note: we aren't the biggest eyesore; go up there and look down on the RV storage they have. Ouch!
JBBenson
Posts: 182
Joined: Thu May 12, 2005 9:19 am

Post by JBBenson »

Greblo asked me the same thing and I came up with stretching camo netting over the containers. Using turnbuckles at the corners could make it nice 'n' tight and neat looking.

Cheap and designed for use outdoors.
JT

Post by JT »

I like the "cheap" part. It wouldn't hurt to try. We still need someting for the doors or can netting beadapted for that, too? Do you have any idea on pricing?

Is anyone else reading these things? I mean there seem to be many hits but few replies.
JBBenson
Posts: 182
Joined: Thu May 12, 2005 9:19 am

Post by JBBenson »

This board is all ours, no worries.

I paid 120 per piece, which was about 12 x 20 feet, I think. This was "new" price from surplus. Also paying L.A. film production "Idiot" tax. Online probably much cheaper.

Mine had had a nylon rope around the perimeter. I used it on a music video, and then donated it to my barn to provide shade for saddled horses.

http://www.loadup.com/nets.htm

http://www.vtarmynavy.com/camo_netting.htm

The prices seem all over the place, so best to measure what is needed and then go shopping. I can't imagine it costing more than 300-400 hundred, with a little more for the hardware. Will last for a while, and is easy to replace.

Paint the doors. Easiest.
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Frederick
Posts: 104
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 11:24 pm
Location: Altadena, CA

Value

Post by Frederick »

I think the appearance of the flight park is likely a huge part of our neighbors' perception of us, and well worth efforts on our part.

Related stories:
I lived in a van quite successfully for 5 months, believing that appearances were pretty important to people's perceptions of me. I went for the "surfing enthusiast" (vs. Spignoli) look, and it worked quite well. Clean wealthy people invited me into their homes for dinner, unafraid I'd try to move in. One even had me over for movies and meeting her daughter.

BTW, if you're interested in hitch-hiking, I've got an image program worked out for that too. Once got a middle-age woman who had never before picked up a hitchhiker.
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stebbins
Posts: 649
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:02 am
Location: Palmdale, CA

Post by stebbins »

I agree that spiffing up the top/side of the containers would help a lot. But I think planting vines of any kind on the containers would be a horrible mistake. They are invasive. In the long run, we would regret the damage they will do.

I don't know much about netting, but if it won't degrade too quickly, that sounds cool.

Mainly I just wanted to suggest no vines. Any plants used to hide the containers need to be physically separated from the containers.
Fly High; Fly Far; Fly Safe -- George
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