Anonymous
Post 02/14/2012 08:55     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Alot of people don't want a full brick house because siding is low maintenance and can last ss long. They just want some brick to add some aesthetics. My wife hates brick homes and thinks they look drab, ugly and old unlike the west coast style homes she is used to. I grew up here and am used to the all brick giant square boxes in our area. When we built we compromised on all siding with and brick lining the foundation a few feet up.


If you are going to do a semi, it looks better for the brick to be at the base all around rather than on a face.


That is your opinion. To me the half brick all around looks very dated and 1960's/1970's. Not a very good look to me. I had that on my last house that was built in 1967 and always thought that it was just very period. Kind of like shag carpet. I happen to prefer the brick front.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2012 07:37     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:Alot of people don't want a full brick house because siding is low maintenance and can last ss long. They just want some brick to add some aesthetics. My wife hates brick homes and thinks they look drab, ugly and old unlike the west coast style homes she is used to. I grew up here and am used to the all brick giant square boxes in our area. When we built we compromised on all siding with and brick lining the foundation a few feet up.


If you are going to do a semi, it looks better for the brick to be at the base all around rather than on a face.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 21:48     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Mullet houses.


What's a mullet house?


Brick on the front, vinyl on the back.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 20:53     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Alot of people don't want a full brick house because siding is low maintenance and can last ss long. They just want some brick to add some aesthetics. My wife hates brick homes and thinks they look drab, ugly and old unlike the west coast style homes she is used to. I grew up here and am used to the all brick giant square boxes in our area. When we built we compromised on all siding with and brick lining the foundation a few feet up.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 16:00     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:People need to quit taking threads like this so seriously. We all have our likes and dislikes. Why feel insulted by someone on an anonymous message board who has different tastes than you? I'm sure there are people who don't like things the OP likes either.


ITA
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 15:30     Subject: Re:Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:Split levels
Split foyers
Raised Ranches (I call these "mushroom" homes because the top hangs over the bottom like a mushroom)



Yes! Yuck, yuck and yuck. With the mushrooms, especially because the bottom is inevitably brick while the top is siding.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 15:00     Subject: Things I hate on homes
People need to quit taking threads like this so seriously. We all have our likes and dislikes. Why feel insulted by someone on an anonymous message board who has different tastes than you? I'm sure there are people who don't like things the OP likes either.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 14:53     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:Mullet houses.


What's a mullet house?
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 10:53     Subject: Re:Things I hate on homes
Some of the items mentioned in the original post relate to poor design choices vs. quality or cost of construction.
I find lists like this useful because they do prompt me to reconsider design choices (e.g. fake shutters).

This website has an interesting related discussion: http://www.lindsaydaniel.com/library/dos-and-donts.html
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 10:01     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Easy to answer...BTW, I live in the suburbs, don't ever go into DC.
The answer is that I would like to bring some sort of awareness. Maybe, people will start to take a closer look at details and start to ask the contractors to do it right, rather than big.


You make a lot of silly assumptions, like that our McMansion was not built "right" just because it's big. We took part in designing our house from the start. We worked with the builder to do things the way we wanted it...and for us, the "right" way. I also put in the contract that I had two times, once BEFORE the walls went up and once at the final walk-through that I could bring a contractor that I hired on the side to do the walk though and look for issues. This contractor was the contractor that my insurance company had assigned in my last home when I a major disaster that required about 75% of the house to be rebuilt. So, I hired that general contractor to come out, do the walk-throughs, flag anything that he thought needed to be addressed. He actually said that he was quite impressed with a lot of the workmanship. He told us to take photos of all of the walls before the drywall went up. He caught a handful of issues (all small), that he had the builder address, and they did. So, while you may not like a McMansion, just the fact that it *IS* a McMansion does not mean that it was built big and poorly. Some of us took special pains to get big and well built. The style of the house, whether big and modern, or small and artsy/with character dose not determine the quality of the construction. The two are completely independent. I've seen many a small hosue with "character" that have been poorly constructed.


NO ONE said that big means poorly built. Most new homes have many shoddy short cuts. Most new homes are big, but that does not mean all.


Oh please. Read the bolded text that I was responding to. The clear implication was that big suburban houses are built big and cut corners and are not built "right". If you can't see that from the quoted line, you need to learn to read subtext better. While you may be judicious and give the PP credit for meaning "some", the implication is clearly "all" or "most". But, then, you get what you pay for. If you want a big McMansion cheap, then you'll probably get shoddy workmanship. If you pay more for it, you'll probably get better workmanship. But that has nothing to do with style of house or size.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 09:59     Subject: Things I hate on homes
I think all of this stems down to the high cost of housing in this area people being jaded that they can't afford a new home. They condition themselves into believing new homes are bad, ugly and poorly constructed. Logic would dictate something new would be better than something old because the structure is based on newer building codes, better energy efficiency and over all more livable spaces based on the current family dynamic. Older homes were of an era where you had separate rooms, dining rooms, kitchens etc... now open areas is desired .
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 09:53     Subject: Re:Things I hate on homes
But for the OP's incredibly refined sense of good taste and aesthetics, we never would have known that some people look down on vinyl siding. Who knew?
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 09:22     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Mullet houses.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 08:33     Subject: Things I hate on homes
Anonymous wrote:NO ONE said that big means poorly built. Most new homes have many shoddy short cuts. Most new homes are big, but that does not mean all.


Can you explain how you know this, have you built one, inspected one
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2012 08:13     Subject: Things I hate on homes
NO ONE said that big means poorly built. Most new homes have many shoddy short cuts. Most new homes are big, but that does not mean all.