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Sucks to be high maintenance I guess. It's a wonder people in NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, not to mention most of Western Europe survive on a daily basis.
It is your opinion that these houses are nice. I'm guessing big=nice=successful to you. Want to make sure everyone knows just how great you are. Whatever makes you happy. Personally, I don't value things. I don't need a big house because we don't spend a lot of time in it. We're outside. We're at hockey practice. We're out with friends. We're on our boat. Or our favorite thing, out traveling.
You don't have to like it but trends are moving towards smaller, more urban housing. Most people don't want mcmansions out in outer ring suburbs anymore. Why waste all your time commuting and paying for multiple vehicles, gas, insurance, and maintenance? I ride my bike to work most days and if I don't I can just hop on the bus. Some days I even work from home. Yes, in my 1,500 square foot house! So does my husband!
And don't flatter yourself, a lot of people could afford to build a house similar to these if they chose to. We simply don't need a monument to ourselves.
I see. You are one of those people who toss out terms like 'outer ring suburb', feel that substantial houses are just a penis measuring contest, and hate garages because cars are evil destroyers of civilization. Why didn't you just say that in the first place, instead of pretending it's the architecture you don't like?
Because it’s easy to throw out wildly inaccurate assumptions. I’ve lived in more downtowns and urban areas than you ever have hahaha so get real with that. I’ve lived in the nicest and hottest neighborhood of Downtown LA, South Park, right near LA Live where I could walk to games and movies and great restaurants and bars. I’ve lived in Portland in the Pearl District on the waterfront walking distance from some of the best breweries and restaurants in town and all of the city’s other amenities. I’ve even lived in downtown Long Beach, which was eclectic and fun. They ranged from 820 to 1,700 square feet. It’s fun when you’re young to live in trendy areas. And then you grow up and want some privacy and space and your own pool and your own hobby areas, with beautiful views of the city - no, not stuck in some far flung suburb but in gated luxury neighborhoods. See what I did there? I just made a generalization and insulted your maturity. Two can play that card.
You may indeed bike to work. But I walk to work. It’s about 10 feet away in my home office, so sorry to tell you I have you beat there. I don’t blame you for never being home though, if my home was that tiny I wouldn’t be home either. In fact that was a big reason I got tired of city living - it was great fun for many many years but eventually I didn’t want to have to leave the house constantly to enjoy myself.
I don’t know what a “McMansion” is to you but it’s clear you have some personal issues here that need working out. Apparently it’s only “cool” to live in a tiny box but if you have a home 3 times bigger (don’t flatter yourself, you couldn’t afford even close to what I can lol) then it’s a “McMansion.” No doubt if someone had a 10,000 or 20,000 sq foot mansion you’d just assume they only have it because they’re too dumb and unrefined to realize the superior benefits of biking to work in your trendy loft. LOL.
It’s funny “most people” don’t want luxury homes in gated communities. They sure sell out fast given nobody wants them and sure sell for a lot more than almost any downtown condo. Also you must be truly blessed with great tolerance, I eventually grew tired of being harassed by bums on the sidewalks downtown and having them pee all over the area. I’ll take my suburban luxury home, thanks though! You can have the bums.
I don’t value things, I value a quality life and my definition of what that is. It’s the freedom to watch a movie at 2 am when my GF is sleeping because my house isn’t teeny tiny and I won’t wake her up. It’s the freedom to have a home gym and again have it be closer than you biking to your gym. It’s the freedom to have my friend from out of town spend the night when he’s up and have a guest bedroom for him to stay in. Why don’t you focus on your lifestyle and allow for the fact that other people don’t want to be cramped into a box all of their lives.
As for monument to myself, nah, I’m a filmmaker, when I build a monument it’s moving images not a home. That’s just where I live.
PS: Victorian homes are the least popular in America actually, literally last ranked on a recent study just ahead of craftsman. “Traditional” homes look crappy because they are crappy. The construction materials are inferior. If you really want to build a nice home you use steel and concrete with lots of large windows. Most people buy what they can afford and most houses are by nature not impressive or special. That’s ok, they don’t all have to be, but you also don’t have to invent defense mechanisms for why you really wouldn’t want a mansion anyway. Yes, yes you would, you just can’t afford it and it depresses you to know or think you never could, so as a coping method you just say “nah I would never want that.” People do the same with all kinds of things in life. Dream bigger, it’s ok, it won’t hurt you.
Last edited by JonathanLB; 06-17-2018 at 09:36 AM..
Because it’s easy to throw out wildly inaccurate assumptions. I’ve lived in more downtowns and urban areas than you ever have hahaha so get real with that. I’ve lived in the nicest and hottest neighborhood of Downtown LA, South Park, right near LA Live where I could walk to games and movies and great restaurants and bars. I’ve lived in Portland in the Pearl District on the waterfront walking distance from some of the best breweries and restaurants in town and all of the city’s other amenities. I’ve even lived in downtown Long Beach, which was eclectic and fun. They ranged from 820 to 1,700 square feet. It’s fun when you’re young to live in trendy areas. And then you grow up and want some privacy and space and your own pool and your own hobby areas, with beautiful views of the city - no, not stuck in some far flung suburb but in gated luxury neighborhoods. See what I did there? I just made a generalization and insulted your maturity. Two can play that card.
You may indeed bike to work. But I walk to work. It’s about 10 feet away in my home office, so sorry to tell you I have you beat there. I don’t blame you for never being home though, if my home was that tiny I wouldn’t be home either. In fact that was a big reason I got tired of city living - it was great fun for many many years but eventually I didn’t want to have to leave the house constantly to enjoy myself.
I don’t know what a “McMansion” is to you but it’s clear you have some personal issues here that need working out. Apparently it’s only “cool” to live in a tiny box but if you have a home 3 times bigger (don’t flatter yourself, you couldn’t afford even close to what I can lol) then it’s a “McMansion.” No doubt if someone had a 10,000 or 20,000 sq foot mansion you’d just assume they only have it because they’re too dumb and unrefined to realize the superior benefits of biking to work in your trendy loft. LOL.
It’s funny “most people” don’t want luxury homes in gated communities. They sure sell out fast given nobody wants them and sure sell for a lot more than almost any downtown condo. Also you must be truly blessed with great tolerance, I eventually grew tired of being harassed by bums on the sidewalks downtown and having them pee all over the area. I’ll take my suburban luxury home, thanks though! You can have the bums.
I don’t value things, I value a quality life and my definition of what that is. It’s the freedom to watch a movie at 2 am when my GF is sleeping because my house isn’t teeny tiny and I won’t wake her up. It’s the freedom to have a home gym and again have it be closer than you biking to your gym. It’s the freedom to have my friend from out of town spend the night when he’s up and have a guest bedroom for him to stay in. Why don’t you focus on your lifestyle and allow for the fact that other people don’t want to be cramped into a box all of their lives.
As for monument to myself, nah, I’m a filmmaker, when I build a monument it’s moving images not a home. That’s just where I live.
PS: Victorian homes are the least popular in America actually, literally last ranked on a recent study just ahead of craftsman. “Traditional” homes look crappy because they are crappy. The construction materials are inferior. If you really want to build a nice home you use steel and concrete with lots of large windows. Most people buy what they can afford and most houses are by nature not impressive or special. That’s ok, they don’t all have to be, but you also don’t have to invent defense mechanisms for why you really wouldn’t want a mansion anyway. Yes, yes you would, you just can’t afford it and it depresses you to know or think you never could, so as a coping method you just say “nah I would never want that.” People do the same with all kinds of things in life. Dream bigger, it’s ok, it won’t hurt you.
Oh for goodness sake aren’t you too old to troll like this? Seriously haha
In my area, you drive past miles and miles of brand new subdivisions, and every one of them has traditional styled homes under construction. These aren’t all old people buying these houses. What I have noticed the past few years though is that red brick is out, and more earth tone browns and grays are in.
I grew up in an 8,000 square foot house to be fair, until we moved to a 20,000 square foot house when I was 14. There were 4 of us. I only mention this because who knows, maybe if I had grown up in a really noisy area (we had 2 acres then 40 at the next house) I would have just somehow been adapted to that.
Where exactly were these massive homes? Just wondering, because there aren't too many 20,000sf homes (let alone with 40 acres) in the world! I searched Realtor out of curiosity, and the closest to that size around here was like 13,000sf - and around $35,000,000. I also checked greater Los Angeles, and found maybe 4 in that size, ranging in price from $13M to nearly $200M. So either your family is in the upper ~0.001% financially, or come from an area where homes like that are more common and less expensive. I mean, a house that size would practically need its own zip code!
I grew up in what most people consider a large home, around 4500sf with 1/2 acre, in a fairly quiet suburban neighborhood. But I've lived in many noisy locations since moving out @ age 17 (24 years ago), and with roommates on and off, so you do learn to adapt.
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But I can’t sleep unless it’s quiet. I do run a fan for white noise and that’s fantastic but I also have Soundproof Windows which I highly recommend anywhere. It’s a second double-pane but much thicker and higher quality window that’s added inside of the frame of the existing window. So you effectively have a space that creates even more sound blocking between the two windows. They’re amazing I have to say. It stops almost all normal sounds.
I'm a renter so can't change anything, but if I owned a home I'd put in something like that - not only for noise reduction, but also to help maintain comfortable temperatures. My current place (a duplex) was built in the '60s, and has single-pane windows that barely even close all the way. So they're not great at blocking noise, plus it's really cold in winter and REALLY hot in summer. Blech.
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I have a fairly large Star Wars collection (props, art, signed photos) and a growing Vegas Golden Knights collection. It’s just stuff, but it’s fun. I don’t mind downsizing collections, made a lot of money on what I sold of my SW collection already. Also my aesthetic is very clean and very “sterile” ha ha so ultra modern, meaning I don’t really like to junk up a house with clutter. Even high end collectibles, unless they have a dedicated room. Knights stuff in the sports / gaming room makes sense. That’s why I’ll probably sell even more SW stuff, just takes too much room. Even if I like it.
I used to collect a lot of (small) stuff, but have been downsizing my possessions over the last few moves... it just got to the point where I was moving unpacked boxes from one place to the next, and didn't even really care about the contents anymore. Feels good to "purge" every once in a while, and as a renter who moves frequently, it makes my life easier overall. To each their own, though. Oh, and my brother would probably love to see your collection! He's a Star Wars fan, and also a hockey fan/player who recently moved to Las Vegas.
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