McMansions (roof, heat, insulated, ceiling)

[tcs1366]

>>To me, a McMansion is when someone buys a perfectly nice, existing home, tears it down, and builds a monstrosity in it's place.

Exactly!! this is what is happening to my lil village, that used to be very quaint with nice lil brick bungalows or ranches. [though we do have our historical district with the larger farm house type homes]

many of the lots on my side of town are narrow lots, 50X187-ish [that is what my lot size was when i moved. some are 90-100' wide.

I've seen the wider lots, [possibly a double lot at 100 wide] literally subdivided and 2 huge homes stuck on them.

THe village isn't going to stop it because they want the tax dollars. Why would they when the older, smaller home only brings in say 5-6grand in taxes when they can get 16grand twice for a subdivided lot. It's madness.

and the builders do it because they can.

They'll drop a good 275k - 320k on a tear down. what does it cost to 'haul it away' ? another good 30k ?? [just guessing here] so now they currently have roughly 300-350k into a piece of property .... so they build a huge monstrosity to make a profit.

About 3-4 yrs ago, the 'tear downs' were listed around 650k, then 2 yrs later they'd be 850-920k, and not selling.

but -- we do have quite a few that are sitting vacant now because the housing industry is in the toilet here.

One home was just over a million when it was completed well over 18 months ago ... and last I checked, it's back on the market for around 910k .... and with a 2 car garage!! Personally - i wont even look at a house with a 2 car garage.

If i've got that kind of cash, i'd have some acreage, and not stuck on a city block.

but -- there are folks who want the larger home with no yard - either they don't want to deal with it, or don't have time to deal with a yard. to each his own.

there is one a few houses away from where i used to live... i will have to take a photo of it .... it's a huge one [when i called last year for a friend, it was 870k, they told me offer pending ... here is it a year later and still vacant. It has a run down rental literally 5' out it's back door. how sad.

[house shopping]

I cant tell you how awsome it is to hear that many folks are getting smarter about the way they wish to see future development. nothing better than building better quality than just builing larger.

the day will come where we knock down to build smaller and better rather than larger.

[RDSLOTS]

OK, as we ride around, hubby and I have looked at houses trying to determine what constitutes McMansion or not. How would you define the homes in Regency, say around the *ahem* Avenue of the Estates? or some of the homes in MacGregor Downs? I just see these as beautiful, larger homes -- especially the ones in Regency. They sit back from the road, and are on nice, large lots. MacGregor strikes me as the same, just an older neighborhood. These appear to be homes of the more-affluent, as opposed to what I interpret as the tacky in-you-face sort of thing I think is what defines McMansion. Or am I missing something?

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by Gurl

What gets me is house poorly some of these McMansions are built - something pointed out in the article.

During the Parade of Homes, I was really eager to see houses in the $800k+ range, and was really shocked at the number of corners that were cut. Just little things here and there, but WAY too many of them.

And it's a trend I noticed, even as I looked at pricier and pricier homes.

Even in Maida Vale, I was surprised to see some of the corners that had been cut.

It was almost as if some builders thought, "Just make it big, put granite in the kitchen, and the buyers won't notice the rest."

with some of the parade homes, you did notice some corners cut. The builders that did the homes where they were cut are new to the parade, you have a very very limited time to be able to do the house. For example, the plans are given two weeks for design submital. Normal homes built for non parade go though at least 6 months of design and change times before submital. These homes are given the amount of time to build that most spec homes (trac homes build hundreds of times) are given.

[SpeedyAZ]

I guess to me it doesn't matter if one lives in a McMansion or not, I have no problem with them. Yes they're big and disproportional to the lot but some people need or want the extra space. If it's just a couple who live in the house then I can see where it may be a bit of an excess but I guess they're the ones who are paying to heat/cool it, not me.

I'm single and live in a 2700 sq ft home but I enjoy the extra room. I have my own seperate office, game room, living room, lounge, and "junk" room. Some may say it's too much but my name is on the mortgage, not theirs.

[Greatday]

In some areas of the country, land costs have risen so much yet people want the square footage - so, the only way to go is up.

We recently saw a really nice home on about a 10,000 sq ft lot - and the house was over 5,000 sq feet - 3 stories plus a home theatre room below ground. They had an elevator designed and installed (this is becoming really popular) -

I don't have any problem with how large someone wants their home -

[Tesaje]

Quality is a matter of the builder. In the new houses that went up in my neighborhood, different builders produced dramatically different quality for similar looking and size houses. They were all nominally "custom." The primary builder cut all kinds of corners. You could easily put your fist thru the walls. I often saw such things as king studs that didn't contact the header so they provided no support, and very cheesy and sloppy workmanship was the norm. The tyvek wrapping on the exterior stood for 6 months to a year exposed to the elements when it is clearly written right on the product to not let it be exposed to the sun or weather. There were a lot of rips in the stuff by the time they finally got around to putting on the siding. Insulation was poorly done with lots of air holes and practically nothing around the windows and doors and on and on. Now 2 years later, homeowners have peeling paint on the trim. All these houses are supposedly inspected. Yet, right next door, a different builder did much better work in every category. Until they were locked up, I liked to look at how they were going up. I don't know what the price differences were, but I do know I would never hire the primary builder.

[gentlearts]

As others have sort of said, it's basically a house that is cheaply made; pretensious, big and gaudy on a postage stamp lot. They were going for impressiveness over quality.

[GLS]

Originally Posted by sundaze

........ What point would you consider the dividing line between a McMansion and a regular home?

My neighbor has a rather large, ostentatious house which is obviously a "McMansion". My house which is slightly bigger, and I might add tastefully appointed, is a "regular home".

Originally Posted by dansdrive

Top 5 questions; order is irrelevant:

1. Do I want a bird bath on the outside or a whirl pool tub on the inside?
2. Do I want a rock garden outdoors or granite counter tops on the indoors?.........

This thread is becoming too confusing..........I have installed a whirlpool birdbath with granite perches. Does this qualify as a "McMansion expansion" or an "Audabon Abode" commode?

Originally Posted by house shopping

I cant tell you how awsome it is to hear that many folks are getting smarter about the way they wish to see future development..........

Nice sentiment, but the posts on this thread challenge the veracity of your assumption. Some people lust after "McMansions", some prefer matchboxes on handkerchief lawns, and others would mandate a return to "McYurts". Give it a break. Live in your own house and quit whining about your neighbor. If a guy is more than two standard deviations outside the norm and he's happy with his "McMansion" give him a break.

[Gurl]

Originally Posted by Tesaje

Aside from all the personal taste issues, the effect on all of us is that of waste and chewing up all the open space. The environmental issues affect everyone.

Personally, I'd much rather have a well built and well designed house than a big one.

I TOTALLY agree. In the past few years I've finally started looking at what I consume - just for the sake of consuming.

The concept of 'big for the sake of big' is simply wasteful in terms of resources. Of course everyone's definition of big is relative, so initially, we all have to ask ourselves how much [house/whatever] we really need.