apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Houses with no character and no soul. I see so many huge houses on postage stamps gardens, backing onto major highways. They can't afford nice exteriors so they only brick the front - you know, the part everyone sees!! Oh, and drive by at night, these people are so tight on money after buying these monstrosities, there are no curtains or anything hanging on the wall and no decks, who can afford things like that after the McMansion house payment and the Lexus in the drive!

They can have them!

Hate McMansions. Hate them with a passion.

I have always hated those McMansions. My husband and I have always looked at older homes, that were smaller. Plus, that means I get a yard. Some of those places are so big, you can almost touch your neighbors house from your window because they take up every bit of space on the lot. Not us, we'll take a small house for two, with a garage, and a yard for veggie gardening.

I live in an older neighborhood with lots of little bungalows and ranch houses, but one of the cute little ranch style houses down the street burned down a few years ago. I would have guessed it was 1100ft tops.
The people who bought the plot built a HUGE three story house with a 2 or 3 car garage on the below ground first level. The house dwarfs all of it's neighbors, and must go up to the very edge on the plot because there is about 5 feet between it and the next house. It is the biggest eyesore in the whole neighborhood. Just looks silly and out of place. I'd at least prefer the McMansions stayed in their own little colonies out in the suburbs, instead of ruining my cute neighborhood.

It's unfortunate we live in a culture that believes a 2 story foyer with an unreachable, uncleanable window and a Home Depot chandelier make you a good person.

I'd love to hear any concepts of how this came about.

Yay!! Down with the man!

My sister has a house that is over 5,000 sq feet. She tryes to talk up her house but her kids can't even play in the back yard because there is no room for them to play because of their pool. If I went down her street I wouldn't be able to tell her house from the house 3 doors down. Yet she keeps telling me "One day you can get a bigger house like mine."

BUt my kids are happy and they have a yard to play in with their dog and the neighbors kids as well. We don't need to be apart from each other. More power to smaller houses and happy families.

There are few things more depressing than a bunch of McMansions. I can't understand how anyone would want to live there—especially people who could afford a house in a more walkable neighborhood.

McMansions are degrading on multiple fronts. The "architecture," the magic formula which consists of an addiction to all things vinyl and fake brick or stone which generally only covers the front of the house (the rich families get it on three sides!). Don't forget the windowless sides of the houses. That drives me crazy.

Then there's the monstrous size, which makes up for the total lack of community these places have, which stems from the immense isolation of these places, which seem very lonely.

It all seems very lonely.

Plano! ROFL, I was just there, in one of those houses, and snickering to my husband about how tacky it was! And I swear to Goddess it looked *exactly* like that one. Oh, they're all the same.

I'm pretty certain interest will renew in McMansions when the economy improves, partly because here in TX where the economy didn't tank so hard to begin with, the interest in McMs is already so high. The friends in the McM we visited are new buyers, no kids... my in-laws just bought one too, though they're only two people as well.

Something to think about, though, is that it's doubtful gas prices will fall. Maybe that will spur people to live closer to where they work, and thus the McMansion will die. My guess is that it will be a while in coming.

In the meanwhile, we may be lucky to score a modest home close to work for a good price. Win for us, lose for the environment. Oh, and I'm sure the in-laws will criticize it. Fart.

I used to live in Dallas, and I bought a house in Garland (suburb 2 towns east of Dallas). I picked one that was the right size for me - 2 bed, 2 bath - with a small yard because I'm rarely outside. It was close to work and allowed me to avoid all the highways which were constantly under construction. Finding a house with no homeowner's association seemed impossible, but I did find one that only seemed to exist to maintain the community pool. My favorite part about the neighborhood was that it was over 20 years old (ancient in that area) so there were lots of tall live oaks everywhere.

One co-worker asked me how I even found a house that old with a tinge of disgust. I just said that I liked my trees to be big enough to hide behind.

Living in an 1890s rowhouse in DC now is quite a change, but I liked my little house with its little footprint too. I hope the McMansion trend dies.