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

Forum Index » Real Estate

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s the evident lack of durability, rather than aesthetics, that make McMansions so unsettling to me. I’d like to think that if I had several million to spend on a spec home, I’d choose materials that will last. I’d build something that could be passed to a future generation, even if it were small, rather than torn down and replaced with something equally transient. [/quote]

I don't know, I see a lot to admire in the Japanese approach of tearing the whole thing down every 20 to 30 years and starting fresh.  We in the US are too dependent on real estate appreciation and the concept of homes staying in the family.[/quote]

That approach might’ve made sense when you were talking largely about wood construction without internal plumbing, ductwork, insulation, fixtures, and tons of plastic crap that is simply landfilled if it can’t be cheaply recycled. We are not living with bamboo-floored tatami mat houses anymore either here or in Japan (I’m Tokyo-born). Our building methods are grossly resource intensive and overly focused on what’s new or stylish. [/quote]

In what way are the building methods grossly resource intensive? Concrete and steel are quite energy and resource intensive. And wood is a fully renewable resource. There are plenty of 300 year old wood-frame homes in New England. But whatever, you already know that.

Most houses torn down in this area aren't torn down because they're old, or lack "durability." They're torn down because the economics of the location have rendered the existing structure obsolete, or the structure was negligently maintained by a previous owner. No structure, no matter how it's built, is without maintenance needs.

Tastes change everywhere, and remodeling happens everywhere.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics