What exactly is wrong with the mcmansion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NP here. OP could you make your jealousy more glaringly obvious? Grow up and stop using that stupid slang McMansion word that just oozes "what I'll never have because I didn't live up to mommy and daddy's expectations, and they notice when they visit..."

Really, be at peace with yourself first. Don't so lamely try to attack others that you are so easily threatened by. Reconcile your own issues. They are blinding.

BTW, my neighborhood was about 10% knock downs when I moved in and just a few years later are easily 80% knock downs. Because people can. I would if I could. And so clearly would you.

renovate or knock down....??? I use mcmansion to token all of you who "need the new-move in house"...irpnic coming from a conservative. I would rather spend more om my project of love then live in your toll house brothers pos.

[Anonymous]

oh shoot I mispelled ironic please flame....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NP here. OP could you make your jealousy more glaringly obvious? Grow up and stop using that stupid slang McMansion word that just oozes "what I'll never have because I didn't live up to mommy and daddy's expectations, and they notice when they visit..."

Really, be at peace with yourself first. Don't so lamely try to attack others that you are so easily threatened by. Reconcile your own issues. They are blinding.

BTW, my neighborhood was about 10% knock downs when I moved in and just a few years later are easily 80% knock downs. Because people can. I would if I could. And so clearly would you.

renovate or knock down....??? I use mcmansion to token all of you who "need the new-move in house"...irpnic coming from a conservative. I would rather spend more om my project of love then live in your toll house brothers pos.

LOL toll house doesn't build infill teardowns you moron

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every one I've been in has been cold and impersonal feeling. Cheap construction (hollow core doors, thin drywall with no interior insulation) means that when someone slams a door on another floor, you can feel the vibrations everywhere. You can hear every sniffle through the walls. The cost-cutting construction methods lead to clear-cutting of trees (much easier than taking out a select few and working around those that remain), so the houses look plopped down, instead of fitting organically into their surroundings. The layouts and space allocations are often just plain weird. How big does an entryway need to be??

Is that "exact" enough? Want more?

I don't understand what you are talking about. I don't see the difference, my rambler didn't have insulation between rooms, in fact there was no insulation between the interior and exterior except for newspapers stuffed better the windows. When we ran the dishwasher or talked in the kitchen you could hear it in all of the bedrooms. Or if we walked in the hallway you could feel it in the bedrooms. Where are these magical silent old construction ramblers? And doors? We had to replace all the original doors in our rambler because they were old and falling apart and chose to do hollow core because we didn't see a need to spend a lot of money when the value of the home didn't warrant the expense. Also new homes are planned and graded to fill in the lot with a central focal point. I am not sure what country you are talking about with these ramblers and new construction homes? Is this the simpsons?

You're making the point that shoddy construction isn't a new thing? Thanks, I guess.

My 1908 rowhouse is quiet inside. Solid wood everywhere. We're one of those families who doesn't need to turn on the heat or AC until weeks after others do. The house is inviting and comfortable, with the right amount of space in each room for family use. True, when we entertain, things get a little cramped. But that's what, every other month or so? No big deal.

And as for "jealousy", as a PP said, if I sold my DC rowhouse, I could buy a giant cardboard box in the burbs and have money left over for a full-sized SUV and top-to-bottom Pottery Barn. Ain't gonna do it, though. I have more to add, but it's time for me to stroll two blocks with my granny cart to the grocery store. And I can't later, either, because I'm meeting friends at the restaurant a block away, unless we decide to go further afield, in which case I'll walk two blocks to the metro.

I don't quite understand what your point is. OK, you live in a beautiful old historic home. Does every home built before the McMansion era meets that description? You happen to live in a top percentile of old dwellings. You are not the rule. Why make it sound like you are?

Also don't get the granny car smugness. If you saw actual grannies pushing them in the old country, I promise you, you'd never want to be caught with one. It's funny how some poverty artifacts become so embraced by the upper class.

[Anonymous]

I am late to the party, but I am okay with McMansions that are on McMansion sized lots. But the McMansion that my neighbor owns on the lot that was previously held by a small 2 bedroom home is now literally 6 feet away from my bedroom window and blocking half the light that should be coming into my home. This house would be gorgeous in Loudon County with a huge lot, but not in my close in suburb on a .20 acre lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am late to the party, but I am okay with McMansions that are on McMansion sized lots. But the McMansion that my neighbor owns on the lot that was previously held by a small 2 bedroom home is now literally 6 feet away from my bedroom window and blocking half the light that should be coming into my home. This house would be gorgeous in Loudon County with a huge lot, but not in my close in suburb on a .20 acre lot.

you don't own the sun

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am late to the party, but I am okay with McMansions that are on McMansion sized lots. But the McMansion that my neighbor owns on the lot that was previously held by a small 2 bedroom home is now literally 6 feet away from my bedroom window and blocking half the light that should be coming into my home. This house would be gorgeous in Loudon County with a huge lot, but not in my close in suburb on a .20 acre lot.

you don't own the sun

And you clearly down any maturity.

[Anonymous]

Op here. To the poster who thinks I'm jealous..

Really? You got that from my 2 sentences of the original post. I used the term "McMansion" because that is the widely accepted term and I was asking a question. Yes I should have know it would turn into a shit storm as this is dcum but seriously? You show up 12 pages later to tell me that I'm jealous. If we wanted a McMansion we could have one. He'll we could have 2. I asked because a lot of houses that qualify as McMansions I thought were semi nice. Now I know what to look for in our search for a new house in the next year. I will make sure that I don't fall in love with a 6000 sq house on 6600 sq lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. To the poster who thinks I'm jealous..

Really? You got that from my 2 sentences of the original post. I used the term "McMansion" because that is the widely accepted term and I was asking a question. Yes I should have know it would turn into a shit storm as this is dcum but seriously? You show up 12 pages later to tell me that I'm jealous. If we wanted a McMansion we could have one. He'll we could have 2. I asked because a lot of houses that qualify as McMansions I thought were semi nice. Now I know what to look for in our search for a new house in the next year. I will make sure that I don't fall in love with a 6000 sq house on 6600 sq lot.

I don't think you are jealous. But I do think that it's odd to rely on anonymous Internet sources to tell you what to look for in your next house search. If you think the house is nice or fall in love with it, go ahead and get it. Who cares what DCUM thinks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every one I've been in has been cold and impersonal feeling. Cheap construction (hollow core doors, thin drywall with no interior insulation) means that when someone slams a door on another floor, you can feel the vibrations everywhere. You can hear every sniffle through the walls. The cost-cutting construction methods lead to clear-cutting of trees (much easier than taking out a select few and working around those that remain), so the houses look plopped down, instead of fitting organically into their surroundings. The layouts and space allocations are often just plain weird. How big does an entryway need to be??

Is that "exact" enough? Want more?

Get friends with nicer houses then. Ours is wonderful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am late to the party, but I am okay with McMansions that are on McMansion sized lots. But the McMansion that my neighbor owns on the lot that was previously held by a small 2 bedroom home is now literally 6 feet away from my bedroom window and blocking half the light that should be coming into my home. This house would be gorgeous in Loudon County with a huge lot, but not in my close in suburb on a .20 acre lot.

you don't own the sun

And you clearly down any maturity.

damn.. no she dii-ent!

Please keep it going!

[Anonymous]

How about a 4,000 +/- sg ft infill new home on a 12,500 lot?

[Anonymous]

To the PP who suggested a McMansion on a Loudoun County sized lot.... noooo. I live in Loudoun County. DH and I have been house hunting. Nearly all the McMansions out here are on tiny, tiny lots. I figure this is for two reasons: 1. So they can cram as many houses in these developments as possible, and 2. Because Loudoun County has the highest tax rate in all of Virginia, and it would bankrupt these people to have a $900,000 monstrosity of a house on top of a passel of land. We drove through a neighborhood of McMansions that were built on their lots at an angle so that driving up the street, you could not even tell they weren't connected to one another. They were that close together. It was only when you rounded the corner and the angle disappeared that you could glimpse the (whopping) 10 foot gap between them. 3000 sq feet houses on 3050 sq ft lots. Awful. We've decided to go with a townhouse. Believe it or not, many of the townhouses here are less offensive than the megahomes. (And surprisingly spacious inside.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP who suggested a McMansion on a Loudoun County sized lot.... noooo. I live in Loudoun County. DH and I have been house hunting. Nearly all the McMansions out here are on tiny, tiny lots. I figure this is for two reasons: 1. So they can cram as many houses in these developments as possible, and 2. Because Loudoun County has the highest tax rate in all of Virginia, and it would bankrupt these people to have a $900,000 monstrosity of a house on top of a passel of land. We drove through a neighborhood of McMansions that were built on their lots at an angle so that driving up the street, you could not even tell they weren't connected to one another. They were that close together. It was only when you rounded the corner and the angle disappeared that you could glimpse the (whopping) 10 foot gap between them. 3000 sq feet houses on 3050 sq ft lots. Awful. We've decided to go with a townhouse. Believe it or not, many of the townhouses here are less offensive than the megahomes. (And surprisingly spacious inside.)

a 3,000 sf house is NOT a mcmansion

I really doubt there are lots that are only 3,050 sf.

building quality is much better today than 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100 years ago. better materials, better technology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the PP who suggested a McMansion on a Loudoun County sized lot.... noooo. I live in Loudoun County. DH and I have been house hunting. Nearly all the McMansions out here are on tiny, tiny lots. I figure this is for two reasons: 1. So they can cram as many houses in these developments as possible, and 2. Because Loudoun County has the highest tax rate in all of Virginia, and it would bankrupt these people to have a $900,000 monstrosity of a house on top of a passel of land. We drove through a neighborhood of McMansions that were built on their lots at an angle so that driving up the street, you could not even tell they weren't connected to one another. They were that close together. It was only when you rounded the corner and the angle disappeared that you could glimpse the (whopping) 10 foot gap between them. 3000 sq feet houses on 3050 sq ft lots. Awful. We've decided to go with a townhouse. Believe it or not, many of the townhouses here are less offensive than the megahomes. (And surprisingly spacious inside.)

a 3,000 sf house is NOT a mcmansion

I really doubt there are lots that are only 3,050 sf.

building quality is much better today than 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100 years ago. better materials, better technology.

Clearly the numbers were for hyperbole, but I stand beside the rest. This was the ugliest "nice" neighborhood I've ever driven through.