50 States of McMansion Hell: Fairfax and Loudoun County, Virginia

[Anonymous]

LOL at using the market forces argument to justify McMansions, when it’s a rigged market held down by zoning regulations. If it really was a free market, owners of these half acre lots would be selling to developers to put up high rise condos and selling 1br units at $400k a pop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think those homes are “mac”mansions. They are regular mansions; ie large homes on acreage. The word mansion is outdated now anyway. I think mac mansions = Iamsojealous hereinmytinycondo.

hahaha! I'm warmandcozy in mine. Those houses are literally and figuratively cold.

Honey, the trash just oozes off of you. You are embarrassing yourself.

[Anonymous]

OP here, I wasn't very familiar with the blogger, but she's kind of interesting. Her TedX talk explains some of her approach.

Her tweet about this article has some funny responses:

https://twitter.com/mcmansionhell/status/1193984849587122177

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I wasn't very familiar with the blogger, but she's kind of interesting. Her TedX talk explains some of her approach.

Her tweet about this article has some funny responses:

https://twitter.com/mcmansionhell/status/1193984849587122177

Scrolling through her tweets, wow, this girl is exactly who I thought, just a snooty girl who complains about everything. Yuck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But these people evidently have tons of money and can't hire a decent architect.

This is what I find astounding. If you have that kind of money, why not spend it on quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But these people evidently have tons of money and can't hire a decent architect.

This is what I find astounding. If you have that kind of money, why not spend it on quality.

I assume they want something on a really grand scale, that is fitting of their achievements, and they have an idea of what that looks like to them. They also apparently have more confidence in their ability to design an attractive, architecturally sound home than I do, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But these people evidently have tons of money and can't hire a decent architect.

Have you thought about the possibility that the architects they used had better sense and taste than you do and your just thinking of your shitty taste too highly?

NP here. Those are some shitty architects, likely because they are part of a design-build firm and don’t have a lot of creative freedom.

- signed daughter and sister to architects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of townhouse complexes being built in this area. ^^^^

If we banned McMansions on say, 50% of the parcels where developers want to build them, there would still be plenty of McMansions built right? But fewer, and they would be scarcer and more expensive than otherwise.

Well that is the reality today for townhomes. We severely restrict where they can be built, which makes them scarcer and more expensive than otherwise.

I am NOT saying every teardown needs to become townhomes (or, grab your pearls, apartments) instead of mcmansions. Just saying let the market decide, instead of having zoning that in many places bans anything except a detached SFH.

The problem is the modest SFH you seen being built in the 70s-90s that’s 2500 sq ft, 4 bedrooms on a .25 acre lot are virtually gone these days because people like to cram these expensive 5000 sq ft McCraftsman on tiny lots.

It’s kinda funny when people rag on McMansions while living in those $1 million dollar craftman houses like these that are ALL over NOVA.

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/4712-N-Carlin-Springs-Rd-22203/home/148032889?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

Honestly most of the homes looks different unless its a tract builder or Focal point, NDI etc.. To me the "Mc" means mass produced and repeated,.

I guess the original cracker box homes in this area should be called McShitShacks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of townhouse complexes being built in this area. ^^^^

If we banned McMansions on say, 50% of the parcels where developers want to build them, there would still be plenty of McMansions built right? But fewer, and they would be scarcer and more expensive than otherwise.

Well that is the reality today for townhomes. We severely restrict where they can be built, which makes them scarcer and more expensive than otherwise.

I am NOT saying every teardown needs to become townhomes (or, grab your pearls, apartments) instead of mcmansions. Just saying let the market decide, instead of having zoning that in many places bans anything except a detached SFH.

The problem is the modest SFH you seen being built in the 70s-90s that’s 2500 sq ft, 4 bedrooms on a .25 acre lot are virtually gone these days because people like to cram these expensive 5000 sq ft McCraftsman on tiny lots.

It’s kinda funny when people rag on McMansions while living in those $1 million dollar craftman houses like these that are ALL over NOVA.

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/4712-N-Carlin-Springs-Rd-22203/home/148032889?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

Honestly most of the homes looks different unless its a tract builder or Focal point, NDI etc.. To me the "Mc" means mass produced and repeated,.

I guess the original cracker box homes in this area should be called McShitShacks

I drove on Carlin Springs Rd the other day into Ballston/Clarendon. Nearly all the houses look like the one in the Redfin house. They all look the same now.

It’s funny that people strive to be different but are falling into the trap with all the houses looking the same still. I get it, they’re cramming a giant house in a lot that wasn’t made for a house of that size so you only have a few builder options, but still. I think I rather pay a ton of money for a McMansion if it had some land around it than to pay for a McCraftsman house that looks the same as all the other ones but are crammed on a tiny lot on a busy street. To each their own but if I’m buying a big house, I want some land to park my cars, have a pool, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of townhouse complexes being built in this area. ^^^^

If we banned McMansions on say, 50% of the parcels where developers want to build them, there would still be plenty of McMansions built right? But fewer, and they would be scarcer and more expensive than otherwise.

Well that is the reality today for townhomes. We severely restrict where they can be built, which makes them scarcer and more expensive than otherwise.

I am NOT saying every teardown needs to become townhomes (or, grab your pearls, apartments) instead of mcmansions. Just saying let the market decide, instead of having zoning that in many places bans anything except a detached SFH.

The problem is the modest SFH you seen being built in the 70s-90s that’s 2500 sq ft, 4 bedrooms on a .25 acre lot are virtually gone these days because people like to cram these expensive 5000 sq ft McCraftsman on tiny lots.

It’s kinda funny when people rag on McMansions while living in those $1 million dollar craftman houses like these that are ALL over NOVA.

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/4712-N-Carlin-Springs-Rd-22203/home/148032889?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

Honestly most of the homes looks different unless its a tract builder or Focal point, NDI etc.. To me the "Mc" means mass produced and repeated,.

I guess the original cracker box homes in this area should be called McShitShacks

I drove on Carlin Springs Rd the other day into Ballston/Clarendon. Nearly all the houses look like the one in the Redfin house. They all look the same now.

It’s funny that people strive to be different but are falling into the trap with all the houses looking the same still. I get it, they’re cramming a giant house in a lot that wasn’t made for a house of that size so you only have a few builder options, but still. I think I rather pay a ton of money for a McMansion if it had some land around it than to pay for a McCraftsman house that looks the same as all the other ones but are crammed on a tiny lot on a busy street. To each their own but if I’m buying a big house, I want some land to park my cars, have a pool, etc.

good for you, not everyone one is 100 millionaire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But these people evidently have tons of money and can't hire a decent architect.

This is what I find astounding. If you have that kind of money, why not spend it on quality.

Why does everyone have to conform to what YOU like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But these people evidently have tons of money and can't hire a decent architect.

This is what I find astounding. If you have that kind of money, why not spend it on quality.

What do you mean? Is your statement based on facts?
I recently build a new house and I can comfortably say that the quality is way better than all the older houses I’ve toured before.
This forum has developed into such a maniac stage that people just take crap out of their asses and force it to others to accept it as truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But these people evidently have tons of money and can't hire a decent architect.

This is what I find astounding. If you have that kind of money, why not spend it on quality.

What do you mean? Is your statement based on facts?
I recently build a new house and I can comfortably say that the quality is way better than all the older houses I’ve toured before.
This forum has developed into such a maniac stage that people just take crap out of their asses and force it to others to accept it as truth.

Quality= what some moron says on a site that gets little traffic.

[Anonymous]

I dont have a dog in the race but reading through forum i deduce envy, jealousy, and a bit of immigrant resentment. I saw one comment (which was removed by the moderator) which was rather resentful and perhaps a bit hateful. What does it matter how people spend their $$ so as long as they earn it honestly to pursure their wants, desires, etc. Very sad to see people behave like teenagers...

[Anonymous]

What we “Americans” consider tasteful, classic, etc is obviously not congruent with others, particularly others from diverse cultures. Im betting the people building these “mcmansions” likely are doing it because they find the existing, traditional American dwelling structures to be equally deficient and/or lacking.