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I wonder if there's an agreed-upon definition for McMansion.
I would say a large house that's out of scale with its lot and neighbors would be close. I would personally delineate tract-built home within this category. There are plenty of homes built in the last 10 years in Five Points for example that are much larger than their then-neighbors (in some blocks, most of which are now also larger homes). But the small house consume the entire side and front setbacks as well, so the bigger houses aren't out of scale to the lot.
A rich person that builds a very large custom house on a large lot ... now we're into semantics of the architecture. Which is fine, to the extent you use good technique/terms as the blogger does on her explanatory page. Is a Spanish-style house among Colonials a McMansion though? If you go back to the early 1900's, they co-existed peacefully. Are row after row of the "same" house (some HOA's require particular exterior finishes), are they McMansions? Is it a size requirement? 3,000 sqft? 4,000?
I wonder if there's an agreed-upon definition for McMansion.
I would say a large house that's out of scale with its lot and neighbors would be close. I would personally delineate tract-built home within this category. There are plenty of homes built in the last 10 years in Five Points for example that are much larger than their then-neighbors (in some blocks, most of which are now also larger homes). But the small house consume the entire side and front setbacks as well, so the bigger houses aren't out of scale to the lot.
A rich person that builds a very large custom house on a large lot ... now we're into semantics of the architecture. Which is fine, to the extent you use good technique/terms as the blogger does on her explanatory page. Is a Spanish-style house among Colonials a McMansion though? If you go back to the early 1900's, they co-existed peacefully. Are row after row of the "same" house (some HOA's require particular exterior finishes), are they McMansions? Is it a size requirement? 3,000 sqft? 4,000?
The McMansion 101 links explain it relatively well and make it much less "cheeky" than the linked page does.
The blogger doesn't just take pictures of houses she finds "ugly" and call them McMansions...she actually has quite a few measurable/tangible criteria. The "Mansion vs McMansion" page of her blog does a pretty good job at explaining the question of distinction.
One critical feature that I would add to differentiate between the two....McMansions..by virtue of "the Mc" part...are mass-produced by tract-builders. Custom-designed homes can in theory occasionally be tacky and use cheap materials (though that is usually not the case) .....but they aren't mass-produced.
The McMansion 101 links explain it relatively well and make it much less "cheeky" than the linked page does.
The blogger doesn't just take pictures of houses she finds "ugly" and call them McMansions...she actually has quite a few measurable/tangible criteria. The "Mansion vs McMansion" page of her blog does a pretty good job at explaining the question of distinction.
One critical feature that I would add to differentiate between the two....McMansions..by virtue of "the Mc" part...are mass-produced by tract-builders. Custom-designed homes can in theory occasionally be tacky and use cheap materials (though that is usually not the case) .....but they aren't mass-produced.
Sooooo....
McMansion Hell, along with revealing other obvious major character faults, mislabels houses as "mass-produced," when they are not?
Because, I’d imagine most of those homes on her Wake County page were custom builds.
As far a the term in use by the masses, it’s virtually meaningless at this point and may as well just be “house bigger than mine that I don’t like for whatever reason.”
I tried to make clear in the original post that this was meant as humor. Not everything will amuse everyone, and maybe this isn't for you; that's why we talk about different people having different senses of humor. The pearl-clutching seems a bit rich, given the oceans of truly awful "humor" that could be plucked from elsewhere on the internet.
Most of the snarky posts (and there are also plenty of non-snarky posts!) feature interiors as well as exteriors; that's why MLS listing photos are more useful than Street View photos.
As a comparison: years ago, I chanced across James Lileks' books, in which he makes fun of generation-old mass-market interior decorating, recipes, manuals, etc. For instance, here's a send-up of a book published in 1971, which means that the copyright is valid through 2066, and the responsible parties are likely still alive today. It's pretty much the same format: a copyrighted photo, accompanied by snark. Indeed, Lileks' snark is even sharper. What kind of bright-line legal distinction can be drawn between what Lileks has been doing for years, and what Wagner is doing?
(Not to inject politics into this, but it's worth noting that Lileks writes for the National Review.)
No, she doesn't. (To be an "architect" requires licences, a battery of exams, etc.) She's a student in acoustical design.
This was the one that really jumped out at me. One of my household chores was to clear all that #$&*! pine straw out of the gutters, so I get irrationally anxious at the sight of 11 different roof planes that each has its own little gutter.
Well, you are sort of right.
To PRACTICE as a professional architect one needs to meet those criteria.
Anyone can call themselves an "architect."
But, I accept the clear implication of your comment, that she is neither adequately qualified nor accomplished enough to tear into others gratuitously.
I didn't read all zillion pages - I generally like snark and her blog. I accept that may make me a questionable person. Honestly I thought her funniest comment was about the pine needles.
I really liked house #10, to be honest.
Agree that it's not cool for her to do this for houses that are on sale. I'd be upset if I were the seller.
It's interesting that this thread got so much traction here and so many concerned for the homeowners. I saw that the N&O posted their story about it on facebook and it got a few comments and they were pretty much along the lines of, "yeah that's funny, those are ugly houses."
I think it's actually MORE fair to have it be houses that are for sale. They are selling a product (the house). They have put it on the market and it's out there for folks to look at and evaluate. I would be more annoyed if somebody grabbed a photo of my house that is not for sale off Google streetview or Zillow and proceeded to give it the snark treatment, but these are photos that are put out there to sell the product. Fair game if you ask me. I mean, seriously, could they not even cut the grass in that one photo??
It's interesting that this thread got so much traction here and so many concerned for the homeowners. I saw that the N&O posted their story about it on facebook and it got a few comments and they were pretty much along the lines of, "yeah that's funny, those are ugly houses."
I think it's actually MORE fair to have it be houses that are for sale. They are selling a product (the house). They have put it on the market and it's out there for folks to look at and evaluate. I would be more annoyed if somebody grabbed a photo of my house that is not for sale off Google streetview or Zillow and proceeded to give it the snark treatment, but these are photos that are put out there to sell the product. Fair game if you ask me. I mean, seriously, could they not even cut the grass in that one photo??
There is an interesting foible in your position.
You say you would not like someone trashing your house when it is not on the market, but that it is OK to trash OTHER folks' houses when they are on the market so they can be hurt financially.
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