Death of the McMansion? (New York, Hempstead: mortgage, homes, buyer)

[S.I.B.]

Originally Posted by totallyfrazzled

I have to admit, I've never before heard the word "romanticized" in connection with Levittown

but returning vets could buy a house for 39 cents down and only 2 dollars a month! Every house came with a brand new washer and fridge! Billy Joel grew up in Levitt House! lol...

I think the reason it gets positive press (except for the whole exclusion of minorities thing) is that many of the first residents came there from not so nice parts of Brooklyn, Queens, ect....so these little capes were virtual palaces to them.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by Crookhaven

Oh...and beware the fucco
http://www.city-data.com/forum/long-...hat-fucco.html

crooks

I didn't use the term as I first heard it from a certain clam. Credit where credit is due! Fucco is the perfect term. Not only is the house Fucco'd, but the colonial turned fucco palazzo fuccos up the look of the neighborhood!

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

I didn't use the term as I first heard it from a certain clam. Credit where credit is due! Fucco is the perfect term. Not only is the house Fucco'd, but the colonial turned fucco palazzo fuccos up the look of the neighborhood!

LMFnAO!


Crooks

[Latina7]

Death of the McMasion? Not in New Jersey! I came across the biggest one of all in Woods Lane, Colonia, Woodbridge Township, recently. I was told the bride recieved it as a marriage present from her father.

You can put all the people in a NYC block there, and still have room left over.................And considering New Jersey's high- property tax- rate, that house can easily get a 30K bill per year, unless her uncle works in the TAX ASSESSOR'S OFFICE.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by Chrisk327

Take out the ornate part and your describing everywhere on LI. Homes on top of each other, most almost idential whether it be in levittstyle, general capes, or terra-wonders.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of those huge wonders with double entryways, but when you start talking about fake stone, vinyl siding and stainless steel apliances it seems that the pot is calling the kettle black, maybe not you per se, but LI.

Look anywhere and pretty much all but the really high end is clad in vinyl, has a builder grade everything with some crown put up by someone who did some side work. The McMansions may not be the nicest of styles, but I wouldn't say there is much on LI that is worth saving or pointing to as the "right" way to do it.

Perhaps certain areas of LI are described (sans ornate) more so than others. I came to my neck of the woods by way of Levittown and Massapequa -- two areas which can certainly be clumped into the list of egregious home 'improvements'. As a child growing up, it was wonderful to live in neighborhoods that were chock full of other kiddies. As an adult it was horrific to live in neighborhoods where -- this is true -- if you sneezed in your bedroom on a summer night, your neighbor across the way would sing out, "God bless you!"

There are still many things left on LI to be preserved, but their numbers dwindle with each passing year as some moron attempts to Massapequafy a 150 year-old farmhouse. I met one such bonehead at a party 2 weeks ago. She had her farmhouse stripped clean of all mouldings, trims, doors, windows, etc. Good bye wide floor boards! Good bye cedar shake, hello vinyl! Hello vinyl clad replacement windows! I have no issues with people wanting to update what's old and drafty, what's missing pieces, etc., but when you buy a home which has stood sentinel over one's community for 150 years, you respect and cherish her. You become a steward of your community's past. Doing the 'right' thing periodwise using new green materials is best and when mixed with salvaged building materials (I love scouring architecural salvage yards) you have green and recycling. A win win!

You have many communities on LI which have great older homes which have been held in high regard by their owners. Suffolk County alone -- Huntington east to Mount Sinai north of 25A there are many older homes. Why do tourists visit these areas as opposed to Massapequa? Massapequa has the mall, and mile after mile of post WWII development housing. OK, All American is a HUGE draw....

Not much here worth saving? Bah, humbug! With that line of thought, the bulldozers will run roughshod over many beautiful homes. Interestingly enough, houses were moved more frequently in the horse and carriage days than they are now. People had something that worked, that they worked hard to create and they would rather move it than waste money and energy building anew.

The house I almost bought (200 years-old in need of major work) had been moved twice before coming to rest 60+ years ago where it currently stands.

Our society has become increasingly more self-absorbed and there is a pervasive sense of entitlement amongst younger generations. Whereas our parents were more likely to have worked hard for what they had, saved to get what they needed, we now have this "charge it I need it I have to out Jones the Joneses" mentality. Let's not forget the Bic Lighter syndrome, too. If it no longer pleases them -- it's gone.

The McMansion is merely a part of that syndrome. As a kid, people I knew who had money (living in the $$ north shore Nassau neighborhoods) lived in nicely appointed, good-sized homes of solid construction. They had fabulously large, lush lawns, built in pools, multi car garages, and in ground sprinklers. They were by no means McMansions. My mother's wealthiest friend (millionaire in the 1970's) lived in a house that the current crop of McMansion dwellers would consider 'small' -- it's about 2,800 sq ft of 1960's ranch. Uber wealthy friends lived in real mansions in places like Mill Neck. Mansions that made my parent's Massapequa tract home look like a dollhouse.

There's a reason they're called McMansions. A Big Mac can't compare to a filet mignon.

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Perhaps certain areas of LI are described (sans ornate) more so than others. I came to my neck of the woods by way of Levittown and Massapequa -- two areas which can certainly be clumped into the list of egregious home 'improvements'. As a child growing up, it was wonderful to live in neighborhoods that were chock full of other kiddies. As an adult it was horrific to live in neighborhoods where -- this is true -- if you sneezed in your bedroom on a summer night, your neighbor across the way would sing out, "God bless you!"

There are still many things left on LI to be preserved, but their numbers dwindle with each passing year as some moron attempts to Massapequafy a 150 year-old farmhouse. I met one such bonehead at a party 2 weeks ago. She had her farmhouse stripped clean of all mouldings, trims, doors, windows, etc. Good bye wide floor boards! Good bye cedar shake, hello vinyl! Hello vinyl clad replacement windows! I have no issues with people wanting to update what's old and drafty, what's missing pieces, etc., but when you buy a home which has stood sentinel over one's community for 150 years, you respect and cherish her. You become a steward of your community's past. Doing the 'right' thing periodwise using new green materials is best and when mixed with salvaged building materials (I love scouring architecural salvage yards) you have green and recycling. A win win!

You have many communities on LI which have great older homes which have been held in high regard by their owners. Suffolk County alone -- Huntington east to Mount Sinai north of 25A there are many older homes. Why do tourists visit these areas as opposed to Massapequa? Massapequa has the mall, and mile after mile of post WWII development housing. OK, All American is a HUGE draw....

Not much here worth saving? Bah, humbug! With that line of thought, the bulldozers will run roughshod over many beautiful homes. Interestingly enough, houses were moved more frequently in the horse and carriage days than they are now. People had something that worked, that they worked hard to create and they would rather move it than waste money and energy building anew.

The house I almost bought (200 years-old in need of major work) had been moved twice before coming to rest 60+ years ago where it currently stands.

Our society has become increasingly more self-absorbed and there is a pervasive sense of entitlement amongst younger generations. Whereas our parents were more likely to have worked hard for what they had, saved to get what they needed, we now have this "charge it I need it I have to out Jones the Joneses" mentality. Let's not forget the Bic Lighter syndrome, too. If it no longer pleases them -- it's gone.

The McMansion is merely a part of that syndrome. As a kid, people I knew who had money (living in the $$ north shore Nassau neighborhoods) lived in nicely appointed, good-sized homes of solid construction. They had fabulously large, lush lawns, built in pools, multi car garages, and in ground sprinklers. They were by no means McMansions. My mother's wealthiest friend (millionaire in the 1970's) lived in a house that the current crop of McMansion dwellers would consider 'small' -- it's about 2,800 sq ft of 1960's ranch. Uber wealthy friends lived in real mansions in places like Mill Neck. Mansions that made my parent's Massapequa tract home look like a dollhouse.

There's a reason they're called McMansions. A Big Mac can't compare to a filet mignon.

Great post!!

[OhBeeHave]

Thanks

[DITC]

The rest of the country all these years has been loving their mcmansions and cheesy developments with street names like winding blue brook drive and rolling hill way. They moved to the hills to live the 2.2 kid chevy suburban all-american life and thought the people in the established communities with the older style homes were the suckers.

Gas goes up and gentrification becomes hip and these trend followers find themselves wishing they lived in communities with a main street type grid system and no gated communities, so they can keep it green by using their two feet and go to the coffee shop downtown to sip on a $5 latte.

Its 2009 and they finally got the memo that their 5000sf stucco monstrosities with the empty streets due to kids trapped inside playing xbox is pure boredom. Probably too clueless to realize that the european system of clustered villages/cities surrounded by extensive farmland and connected by trains has been a success for a long time. As a result, all these mcmansion dwellers are playing catch up and proposing 21st century psuedo downtowns all over the country, such as Reston VA.

RIP McMansion, you will not be missed.

[totallyfrazzled]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

As an adult it was horrific to live in neighborhoods where -- this is true -- if you sneezed in your bedroom on a summer night, your neighbor across the way would sing out, 'God bless you!

You have many communities on LI which have great older homes which have been held in high regard by their owners. ..... Massapequa has the mall, and mile after mile of post WWII development housing.

As a kid, people I knew who had money (living in the $$ north shore Nassau neighborhoods) lived in nicely appointed, good-sized homes of solid construction. They had fabulously large, lush lawns, built in pools, multi car garages, and in ground sprinklers. They were by no means McMansions. ..... Uber wealthy friends lived in real mansions in places like Mill Neck.

There's a reason they're called McMansions. A Big Mac can't compare to a filet mignon.

I agree with all of your post but these points in particular! Fantastic!

As an adult, I've found that 1/2 acre is the minimum lot that I can tolerate as far as being close to neighbors. Even then, there better be a 6 ft tall solid fence and/or a dense row of evergreens ALL along the side and back property lines. I don't want to see or hear my neighbors, and vice versa.

I'm not denigrating cookycutter tract housing, just saying that having been there/done that, I'd have to be desperate for a roof over my head to choose to live in one again. It just doesn't fit with me personally.

Like OhBeeHave, when I grew up the word "mansion" meant a real mansion. Something out of The Great Gatsby, nestled at the end of a long driveway fronted by gates and/or pillars. Anything else was just called "a REALLY big house!" .

To me, a McMansion is nothing more than a knockoff of those old classic true-mansion homes. Copy the lines and features, downsize it, plop it onto the smallest code-acceptable lot, and price it so that it's in the realm of acquisition for those who are not (as the real mansion owners were) multimillionaires. It's the architectural version of the knockoff Louis Vuitton handbag or fake Rolex watch.

[Chrisk327]

So its against the rules to borrow lines from mansions? Us proletariat are supposed to stick with the cape and saltbox colonial?

There may be houses on LI worth saving. However the vast majority are not. You bring up Huntington, but gloss over that most of Bellmore, Wantagh, Massapequa east meadow Levitown, Hicksville and plenty others were all high density cookie cutter development. I say down with the crappy hollow core doored houses with no personality.

On the other hand there is something to be said for romanticizing Levittown, that was when a decent relatively new house was affordable to us snobby stuck up kids. Now we need two incomes earning close to 6 figures to buy one that the original owner has lived in for 40 years and hasn’t updated.