Anonymous wrote:McMansion Hell does a really good job explaining why certain houses are ugly. It's mostly to do with proportion - proportionate height vs width, use of visual "blocks," and proportion of windows to each other and the house.

To a lesser extent she points to symmetry, and to mixing architectural styles badly. I don't always agree with her on these - for example, I love Victorians, which are typically asymmetrical (but still proportionate and visually balanced, if done well). Her issue with mixing styles seems to mostly be about features that had a function in their original style, but putting them in a place that negates that function. So for example, gables on a roof that doesn't need them; unusable porticos that pop out like warts, huge tall foyers that need a catwalk-style upstairs passageway to get around.

I am not a fan of colonials, btw - and I love a Sears house. But when you look at what McMansion Hell points out and compare to an actual mansion, you see the difference.

Anonymous wrote:I really dislike what I've heard called "garage-forward" or "car-forward" houses-- where the garage or the car pad is the first thing you notice about a house.