McMansions

[Anonymous]

PP here-but we do have solid wood doors and beautiful molding. Our home is only 2000 sqft. but it's enough for us too.

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm not a huge fan of mcmansions, but they sure beat the run down bungalows with trash in the yard that many of them have replaced. I say, keep tearing 'em down! Some of the neighborhoods in Bethesda were total s-holes before the builders came along.

[Anonymous]

I live in Arlington and have noticed that when the old bungalows are torn down, sometimes the builder puts up a new-fashioned bungalow that is huge and totally out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood. Some of these new houses are even featured in my favorite magazine, Cottage Living! I appreciate the sensitivity to the history of the neighborhood, but a $1.5 million bungalow seems kind of antithetical to the original intent of bungalows as housing for the average family.

I just don't understand why people need all this space. Do you really need a living room that no one ever uses? A dining room when you always eat at the kitchen table?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and have noticed that when the old bungalows are torn down, sometimes the builder puts up a new-fashioned bungalow that is huge and totally out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood. Some of these new houses are even featured in my favorite magazine, Cottage Living! I appreciate the sensitivity to the history of the neighborhood, but a $1.5 million bungalow seems kind of antithetical to the original intent of bungalows as housing for the average family.

I just don't understand why people need all this space. Do you really need a living room that no one ever uses? A dining room when you always eat at the kitchen table?

Yeah, $1.5 million and bungalow don't really sound like they should go together do they? I also live in Arlington and I think in general, the huge houses that get put up there are pretty attractive and the quality looks decent. They are much better than the developments I see out in the further our suburbs where every house looks the same and there is just street after street of them. And I think (hope?) for 1.5 million, they must be fairly good quality. The house next door to us is currently under renovation and the new owner said he wants to sell it for 1.3 million when he is done. Our street is made up of smallish capes from the 1930s, I am dreading having this huge house next door - not to mention that I think a lot of the sun we get in our house will be blocked because it is going to be so tall!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm not a huge fan of mcmansions, but they sure beat the run down bungalows with trash in the yard that many of them have replaced. I say, keep tearing 'em down! Some of the neighborhoods in Bethesda were total s-holes before the builders came along.

Trash in the yard is something the local government can and should regulate with penalties if not taken care of since it is a health issue. This should not be used as an excuse to dicate the design of McMassive home construction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there's one than one poster here. i'm one. anyway, i also like those front porches that are 3 feet deep and too small to accept furniture.

and the 3 and 4 car garages right out in front, with big ole white garage doors. like the loading bays at Sam's Club.

Pretty funny. I'm fascinated by those huge garages facing the street. I'm also obsessed with the color of bricks that they use - it's like a pale pink/grey, as opposed to the old red bricks in Georgetown federal homes, where I live. When DH and I drive through areas of Potomac, we try to guess the provenance of each McMansion: French Chateau, next to Mediterranean villa, next to sprawling minimalist modern ranch.

It's like Disney World. Theme homes.

[Anonymous]

PP-you are so right. We live in a charming neighborhood in Mt. Vernon-our neighbors built a McMansion next to us, and it looks like it belongs in Bethany Beach. All of the homes on our street were built in 40s and 50s, have huge 300 year old trees, and lots of them too-yet they haven't planted yet one tree. I guess this is happening everywhere, except if the house is historic.

[Anonymous]

The vinyl on the garage doors is sooo white and sooo plastic and BIG.

[Anonymous]

I understand if you have questions about McMansions, but all you are doing is publicly ridiculing them. They aren't my style either, but there's no reason to go on and on and on about how you think they are tacky. Are you trying to hurt someone's feelings? I'm sure you are accomplishing that.

[Anonymous]

Another McMansion hater here, my reasons:

1. There are always too big of the land that its on
2. Those 3/4 car font loading garages - I think every new development should model DC's alley system -- Your garage goes in the back plus your backyard does not abut your neighbor's.
3. They tend to mix building styles that clash, think brick colonial with corinthian colums
4. Double height foyers. Every one that I have been in seems to have this feature which is a particular pet peeve on mine

[Anonymous]

McMansion owner here. Sorry but I love my huge house esp. my hubby who grew up in a 1500 sq foot house and swore someday he would build his own house that would have room for everything. Well we built it and love it-love that we have a separate guest suite that my parents use instead of staying at a hotel. Love all the bedrooms so no kid will have to share. Love that both hubby and I have separate offices and lovvvvvvve the three car garage. We saved for many years to build this and in fact came from an apartment so we really waited a long time. No plastic on this house since we sprung for stone and yes the door is full wood as are the shutters. It's beautiful and we love it. The only thing that surprises me is the nastiness of the non mcmansion people. It puzzles me why anyone would care what I lived in. We also installed fuel economy systems so our house actually leaves less of a footprint than some of the 50 year old bungalows. I seriously waited 15 years for this house and saw so many people move into their dream homes and never had a bad thing to say since I knew someday I would have my dream house. I think if most people were offered our house, they would want it in a sec because it really is nice. I also think that there are cute small houses but different strokes. What my pet peeve is are people who own a home small or big who just don't take care of it ex. leave their kids toys out all night, leave a broken car in the driveway for months on end, ditto broken washer, don't take care of lawn, put stupid political signs out (for either side) all year long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McMansion owner here. Sorry but I love my huge house esp. my hubby who grew up in a 1500 sq foot house and swore someday he would build his own house that would have room for everything. Well we built it and love it-love that we have a separate guest suite that my parents use instead of staying at a hotel. Love all the bedrooms so no kid will have to share. Love that both hubby and I have separate offices and lovvvvvvve the three car garage. We saved for many years to build this and in fact came from an apartment so we really waited a long time. No plastic on this house since we sprung for stone and yes the door is full wood as are the shutters. It's beautiful and we love it. The only thing that surprises me is the nastiness of the non mcmansion people. It puzzles me why anyone would care what I lived in. We also installed fuel economy systems so our house actually leaves less of a footprint than some of the 50 year old bungalows. I seriously waited 15 years for this house and saw so many people move into their dream homes and never had a bad thing to say since I knew someday I would have my dream house. I think if most people were offered our house, they would want it in a sec because it really is nice. I also think that there are cute small houses but different strokes. What my pet peeve is are people who own a home small or big who just don't take care of it ex. leave their kids toys out all night, leave a broken car in the driveway for months on end, ditto broken washer, don't take care of lawn, put stupid political signs out (for either side) all year long.

All big houses aren't "mcmansions" - I read the OP thinking no one would actually think they lived in one. And it doesn't entirely sound from your description that you do, but if you say so I believe you. I live in a smallish, 3 bedroom, circa 1947 house in Arlington. We love it and it's enough room for the 3 of us and our 2 dogs. I don't begrudge you your house, whatever it looks like. It's great you're happy with it! No need to be defensive about your choices at all. I think philosophically many people (myself included) have issues when new construction changes the character of an existing neighborhood. Arlington actually recently implemented a maximum lot occupancy provision in order to try and limit this very thing. If we wanted a dramatically different/larger house, we would move instead of razing ours and building something that was not in keeping with the character of our neighborhood. But like you said, different strokes.

[Anonymous]

To the mcmansion owner: you say it puzzles you why people care. I think that's been pretty thoroughly explored in all the previous posts. Folks don't like the conspicuous-consumption aspect of them. They don't like the way they loom over the landscape, the way they glorify appearance over substance, while ignoring architechtural norms and environmental standards. They scream "look at me!" rather than making a statement about comfort, warmth, safety. All this, and they're not even built to last. And for my part, I don't understand why kids "having to share" a room is a bad thing. Teaches 'em to get along, and avoid the entitlement mindset.

That said, good for you for springing for better materials, and an environmentally friendly climate system. (My folks did the same thing-- waited a decade or more to build their dream house, which was huge for the area and the era, and they did it right, instead of doing it "right now".) Unlike many of the giant cookie-cutter houses that clog up the landscape west of the city, it sounds yours will be around to enjoy 30 years from now.

[Anonymous]

I totally dislike those houses. There is no yard, you often can't put up a fence, they never put windows on the side. The construction isn't good, too many corners are cut, because they are built so quickly, and as inexpensively as possible. I too hate the two story foyer, it is such a waste of space.

A good friend of mine lives in one of these houses, and has had to do more work on hers, than I have had to do on mine. My house has some outdated bathrooms, but the foundation is good, and the craftsmanship is there.

[Anonymous]

One point I will agree on is building houses that do not add to the neighborhood. Our house is on a lot that is ample for a house of this size. It is also built to have beautiful character (sort of arts and crafts). I have seen some large houses that just are too large for the lot--I blame that on the zoning people in Fairfax. I have even seen in my area (Mclean)-a stupid "house behind a house"--in the Franklin Park area for any people living in Mclean. Apparently the builder sub-divided the lot and built a house for him in the back and one in the front. It's ugly and it could affect the neighborhood if it happens again because looking at house behind houses looks awful.


We did opt for good materials because we do care about this house and hope to live in it forever. Not to mention we have young children and are concerned about toxicity of new materials and selfishly care about heating and electric costs. For what it's worth, we would have gone smaller if we had to compromise on our building materials. Again, we didn't because we saved and lived waaaaaaaaaaaay under means for a long long time.

Now for the houses with the vinyl siding, poor fixtures and lots of size and no land. Yes that's not my cup of tea but I want to be careful before I judge because what I deem attractive may not be what someone else thinks. Also, maybe someone doesn't have the same bank account but has a dream of a larger house. I can think of worse crimes. Again, I see cute little houses and cute big houses and ugly falling on either range as well. As for neighborhood characcter, I may get slammed but sometimes neighborhoods do need an overhaul and may have to experience a decade of transition before enough new houses are built that it seems like a new neighborhood.
For example--there is a neighborhood of split levels in Mclean that I would love to see transitioned. Now someone else may think they are beautiful so their opinion may be different. Finally-I would again love if people thought before all the judgement ex. angry that people don't want to live small. This is the US and everyone has a right to a dream --my husband's dream was to finally get some breathing room and it took him 40 years to get it and he is sooooooooooooooo happy. We barely leave the house he loves home that much.