By Pedro Arrais, Times Colonist
There’s only one advantage to buying property next to a busy roadway – it’s typically less expensive than it would be further away from traffic noise.
Doug Fleming was a man with a limited budget when he decided to go house-hunting. Fleming had been living in a condominium, but when smokers moved into the suite below, he knew it was time to move. He didn’t want to move back into a condo, but couldn’t afford a typical single-family house within city limits.
All that changed when he spotted an in-fill lot that measured a mere 25 feet wide by 135 feet long. The price was attractive because it was smaller than a typical city lot, and because it was on Burnside Road East, a major traffic artery into town.
Fleming wasn’t too worried about the location – those who live along busy roads often find the sound of vehicles becomes so constant that it becomes white noise.
“I stood on the property, just listening to the traffic before I bought the lot,” says Fleming, who runs a closet-organizing business. “The deciding factor was that the property was also accessible from a side street.”
He set about designing a house that would minimize street noise.