Small House in McMansionized District (Dallas, Mercedes: lease, manor house, buyers)

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by MckinneyOwnr

LOL

Put down that silver spoon and step away from the gold plated keyboard...

I used "cheap" to refer to the quality of construction, not the actual price. Should have said "low quality boxy tract" homes as to not confuse you....

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

I used "cheap" to refer to the quality of construction, not the actual price. Should have said "low quality boxy tract" homes as to not confuse you....

Just so I don't confuse YOU...

You really shouldn't have said anything. $600-900k is a "low quality boxy tract home" to you. Perhaps I should have said gold or platinum spoon.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by MckinneyOwnr

Just so I don't confuse YOU...

You really shouldn't have said anything. $600-900k is a "low quality boxy tract home" to you. Perhaps I should have said gold or platinum spoon.

There's little difference in quality between $600k new construction in the M Streets and $200-250k new construction in Forney, Little Elm, or Providence. The price difference is due to much higher land values in the East Dallas @ $400k++ vs $50k in the outer burbs.

[HP48G]

Originally Posted by turf3

I call a McMansion something that falls into the following:

- Much larger than historically found in the area. Where the area started out with 1200 sq. ft. 2 bedroom houses on 7500 sq. ft. lots built in the late 30s, a 3000-4000 sq. ft. house is a McMansion. Where they started out with 2500 sq. ft. 4 BR houses on quarter acre lots built in the late 50s, the McMansions are probably 5000+ sq. ft.

- Occupies a large fraction of a small city lot. Extra McMansion points if the backyard is less than 20 ft. deep. Extra extra points if the house is referred to as an "estate" with a 1/4 ac. or smaller lot (an "estate" means you have tenant farmers).

- Architecturally without distinction; designed to conform to someone's idea of what a "villa"; "mansion"; "estate"; "lugzhury home"; or similar, looks like. Usually the exterior design is a hodgepodge of "features" (turrets; multiple rooflines intended to look like an old house that's been added to over the ages (but they don't)); multiple exterior veneers that are "applied" to the surfaces (you can see shingles, stone (preferably "manufactured stone"), brick, and el-cheapo hardboard siding all on a single house); giant two story entryways, sometimes with Tara-esque pillars made of lumberyard 4 x 4s supporting a featherweight porch roof-let; imitation "Palladian" windows everywhere; three/four car garages, preferably with the garage doors maximally visible from the street so everyone can see that you have a 3 car garage).

- Interiors usually feature lots of "open areas" and weird non-square rooms intended to "create drama", plus a multiplicity of "media rooms", "playrooms", "great rooms", etc. - added McMansion points if the construction is of the cheapest-nastiest version except for the obligatory "hand scraped" hardwood floors (which, however, are usually glued right down to the concrete slab). Of course the exterior design is intended to ape what people think "rich folks' " houses look like, but the "open floor plan" is really so Mom can keep an eye on the kiddos at all times while cooking and cleaning up, whereas the real "rich folks" whose houses are supposedly being copied, have nannies and maids; Rich Mom and Rich Dad don't cook or clean.

- Generally set down in the midst of the cheapest possible landscaping, with a few clumps of "builder grade" shrubs and a couple of stick-like trees to replace the mature pecans/oaks/cedar elms/etc. that were bulldozed at the beginning of construction.

- Extra McMansion points if the type of computer wiring is one of the main points advertised on the builder's flyer.

so where should average people live? the housing type you've described with so much disdain is the overwhelming majority of the housing built all around DWF or any other generic suburb in the US. That's whats available in the market. Not everyone can live in a true custom villa in the Park Cities or a Midcentury ranch in Lakewood. your hated mcMansion is the default housing in most places.

Also, your comment that open floor plans exist because they're a copy of a rich folks house is not accurate. Open floor concepts in different forms have been around in middle and low income neighborhoods for decades since the 50s and even earlier. If anything, mansions have many rooms and closed kitchens to keep the staff away from sight.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

I may use a broader definition of McMansion. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's definition of obscenity/ porn, "I know it when I see it."

Ha! That was funny.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Yeah. Not really a problem in Melshire Estates.

Melshire Estates original ranches are large and beautiful. It's amazing to me that they are coming down but I guess it's the lots and location. The lots are big, wooded. The location is prime. The original homes, at least most I've seen, are not in disrepair. I grew up about a half mile from there and my childhood neighborhood just had it's first teardown. Same sort of neighborhood as Melshire, good sized lots and ranches.

[rantanamo]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

There's little difference in quality between $600k new construction in the M Streets and $200-250k new construction in Forney, Little Elm, or Providence. The price difference is due to much higher land values in the East Dallas @ $400k++ vs $50k in the outer burbs.

I actually know a builder that builds in East Dallas, and what he builds is definitely not what you get for $250k anywhere.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by HP48G

Also, your comment that open floor plans exist because they're a copy of a rich folks house is not accurate.

Please review. I was saying exactly the opposite; that "Mom keeping an eye on the children while cooking and cleaning" is the antithesis of the actual mansions that the McMansions try so very hard to emulate externally.

It's a weird concept to me, actually, that people want the whole first floor of their house to be a big open barn-like space where no one can ever get away from the noise and activity of everyone else. And if you don't keep an immaculate kitchen, you are looking at dirty dishes from every other part of the house.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by HP48G

That's whats available in the market.

So what's available in the market is by definition the best possible choice? I don't accept that. I think what's available in the market is a combination of what can be put up in the absolute cheapest/fastest way, while lending itself to the combination of mendacity and cynicism that characterizes most modern marketeering. It's a lot harder to advertise a house that is small, honest, and built with moderately high grade - but not the most expensive - materials and construction methods. Much easier to advertise how many square feet, and look at the fancy granite countertops and the two-story entrance "galleria".

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by TXNGL

Melshire Estates original ranches are large and beautiful. It's amazing to me that they are coming down but I guess it's the lots and location. The lots are big, wooded. The location is prime. The original homes, at least most I've seen, are not in disrepair. I grew up about a half mile from there and my childhood neighborhood just had it's first teardown. Same sort of neighborhood as Melshire, good sized lots and ranches.

It's sad, isn't it? It's a beautiful neighborhood, or was before people started putting these ridiculous gigantic houses up there. My childhood neighborhood is basically completely gone; I don't even recognize what street I'm on now when I drive down there because most of the originals are long gone.