Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why people hate them so much to the point it becomes some religious or political movement.

I wonder if housing was cheaper around here that there would be less complaining and hate for them.

I'm from Main Line Philadelphia and certainly have an appreciation for large estates privately commissioned and built with quality materials. Nothing against a proper mansion, but those are rarely built in this country anymore and certainly not in Washington. Unless we are talking Wesley Heights, what you are referring to as a "mansion" is cheap dry wall over wood frame covered with brick facade ( 1/2 of a brick placed to look like a brick over cinder blcok or some other cheep garbage). "stone overlay over cinder block" . It looks and feels dead and is absolutely hideous. Developers throw this garbage up and try to maximally extract as much capital out of the land. In 25 years its full of mold and half falling down…..but heck, the " developer" has made a quick buck.

So, to restate, no one is against a beautiful home, but they aren't being built.

Anonymous wrote:Don't hate newer, as long as they're well designed
Don't hate larger, as long as they fit the lot.

We live in an area that has seen a lot of tear downs recently. Some are lovely - well designed and fit the lots. We've been fortunate to have a couple in our immediate neighborhood (not surprisingly, built by someone who lives in the area and knows the neighborhood).

Others are hot messes - generic looking, or weird designs so that a 4000sf home can fit onto a sub-divided and narrow lot. They're just unattractive. Too many of these look like the builder is in it for the flip/quick profit, rather than building a nice home. I don't understand why anyone would then pay $1-2million or more for one of these homes.

We have one of the smaller, older homes that receive a lot of criticism on this and other threads. We bought it because of the location, its floor plan, and the fact that it was turnkey - we haven't had to do anything major since we've moved in, and our inspector mentioned how well-built it was. That said, a new home has appeal, and our older home isn't historic or necessarily worth "saving." But once I started looking into teardown/new build options, there doesn't seem to be much that fits my criteria. Ideal would be less than 3000sf, and more modern. Just the size alone seems to preclude most builders. And good design (modern or otherwise), what a PP called "bespoke architecture", just doesn't seem to happen around here (with the possible exception of Hugh Newell Jacobsen.)

Anonymous wrote:NP to the mold topic - anecdotally, "everyone" (3 families) I know with new houses have had unexpected mold problems, due to shoddy plumbing work. There were otherwise high- end homes too. I don't know how many friends with older houses have had mold problems. Possibly, old houses are constantly being repaired so no one thinks twice of a budding (but fixed) mold problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old home lover here. I do think construction has improved, and one could in principle build a better built home now than in the past. The problem is that a great number of builders now don't use the available technology but instead rely on the cheapest possible way to mass produce homes of inferior craftsmanship than yesteryear.

Which is why a house built in 1975 isn't going to last as long as the one built in 1880. The walls in our rowhouse let in no sound and you can't punch a hole in the wall.

Not much resembling Notre Dame, Sagrada Familia, St Basils, etc.

The majority of new home builders use crap materials and put these things up in a few months time.

The capability to build more efficient homes is there--just not frequently utilized.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like McMansions -- cookie cutter homes made with the cheapest possible parts. They're just not "charming." That doesn't mean I am a part of the "movement"..it's just my preference. I like smaller homes where I can actually see my family on a regular basis instead of them being on the other side of 6000 sq ft (example). Also, I don't want to heat/cool a big house. Again, just a preference.

Hahaha...this is funny. My first house was one of about 8 models in my 1960's neighborhood. When I sold the house, literally two of the listed comps were the exact same model of home with different design choices (and my house was different because the one car garage had been converted to another bedroom and a family room addition had been added onto the back making mine have more square footage than those comps). As for cheapest possible parts, when we built our current McMansion, I hired a general contractor recommended by my insurance company (who I trusted because he had done a good job on my insurance claim in the old house several years earlier) to come in and do two walk-throughs during construction, one for pre-drywall and one for final walk-through. He has worked in MD for over 25 years and knows the construction codes very thoroughly. During pre-drywall walk-through he commented how solidly built the construction was, pointed out several places where the builder had exceeded code requirements for the state and/or county where I live and several places where the builder had gone the extra mile to do something better than the minimum required. We were quite pleased and have been quite pleased for the last 7 years. This house has given us far fewer issues than several of my friends who have classic pre WWII "charming" homes with charming 80 year old problems and huge $$$ repair/renovation/replacement costs.

And despite our nearly 4000 sf, my family of four spends the majority of our time together. What we like about the extra space is not individual space, but a purpose for every place and not having to put everything related to one task/job/project/pasttime to work on another. We don't have an office and guest room doing double duty. The kids playroom and the family room are separate places. I don't have to find "creative storage" to hide kids' toys. I don't have to find ways to use the space 6 feet above my head because I don't have room to store anything else. And I no longer have to do my laundry in the kitchen.

Anonymous wrote:I think people in DC tend to be better educated and more worldly, and thus are able to either "make do" with 2,000 SF (or less sometimes) to be in a good, urban, walkable environment, or see their dream home as something large but not strangling. Like 4,000 SF, not 10,000. And being better educated, they value design and aesthetic over opulence.

Of course, there are the outliers who are very wealthy and want the 10,000 SF frontgate design home. Different strokes for difft folks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why people hate them so much to the point it becomes some religious or political movement.

I wonder if housing was cheaper around here that there would be less complaining and hate for them.

I'm from Main Line Philadelphia and certainly have an appreciation for large estates privately commissioned and built with quality materials. Nothing against a proper mansion, but those are rarely built in this country anymore and certainly not in Washington. Unless we are talking Wesley Heights, what you are referring to as a "mansion" is cheap dry wall over wood frame covered with brick facade ( 1/2 of a brick placed to look like a brick over cinder blcok or some other cheep garbage). "stone overlay over cinder block" . It looks and feels dead and is absolutely hideous. Developers throw this garbage up and try to maximally extract as much capital out of the land. In 25 years its full of mold and half falling down…..but heck, the " developer" has made a quick buck.

So, to restate, no one is against a beautiful home, but they aren't being built.

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why people hate them so much to the point it becomes some religious or political movement.

I wonder if housing was cheaper around here that there would be less complaining and hate for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like McMansions -- cookie cutter homes made with the cheapest possible parts. They're just not "charming." That doesn't mean I am a part of the "movement"..it's just my preference. I like smaller homes where I can actually see my family on a regular basis instead of them being on the other side of 6000 sq ft (example). Also, I don't want to heat/cool a big house. Again, just a preference.

Hahaha...this is funny. My first house was one of about 8 models in my 1960's neighborhood. When I sold the house, literally two of the listed comps were the exact same model of home with different design choices (and my house was different because the one car garage had been converted to another bedroom and a family room addition had been added onto the back making mine have more square footage than those comps). As for cheapest possible parts, when we built our current McMansion, I hired a general contractor recommended by my insurance company (who I trusted because he had done a good job on my insurance claim in the old house several years earlier) to come in and do two walk-throughs during construction, one for pre-drywall and one for final walk-through. He has worked in MD for over 25 years and knows the construction codes very thoroughly. During pre-drywall walk-through he commented how solidly built the construction was, pointed out several places where the builder had exceeded code requirements for the state and/or county where I live and several places where the builder had gone the extra mile to do something better than the minimum required. We were quite pleased and have been quite pleased for the last 7 years. This house has given us far fewer issues than several of my friends who have classic pre WWII "charming" homes with charming 80 year old problems and huge $$$ repair/renovation/replacement costs.

And despite our nearly 4000 sf, my family of four spends the majority of our time together. What we like about the extra space is not individual space, but a purpose for every place and not having to put everything related to one task/job/project/pasttime to work on another. We don't have an office and guest room doing double duty. The kids playroom and the family room are separate places. I don't have to find "creative storage" to hide kids' toys. I don't have to find ways to use the space 6 feet above my head because I don't have room to store anything else. And I no longer have to do my laundry in the kitchen.