Where does the McMansion end and a true Mansion begin? (Houston: sales, condo)

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by BLDSoon

Goodness...just...WHY?

Where in the world is Hickory Creek anyway? If it was someplace worth traveling to it might make for a nice boutique hotel. One you rent for events.

But as a home???

It's just north of Highland Village, on the other side of Lake Lewisville.

That's really why this house has struggled to sell at multiple price points... it's the only home like it around. If this home had been built in UP/HP, they'd have no trouble finding buyers.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

I think that it's about POSTURE. It's about a certain formality, and a certain layout of the spaces. A mansion, like a palace (or a true limousine) is configured to the needs and aspirations of a certain kind of person.

...A true mansion is a residence, in a formal style, designed to support a conventionally proper lifestyle, for Upper Class [or Upper Middle Class[ persons.

I would say upper, but not upper middle.

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

...A McMansion is an oversized house of pretentious bearing, built for classless persons. It will have a huge kitchen, which flows into a huge flop-out area, for "being casual". The dining room will be undersized, because it's really just a fantasy space. The kitchen will be "eat-in", with a counter for undignified eating while seated on stools.

A true mansion will have a kitchen designed for use by servants and/or caterers (even if used exclusively by family members). The kitchen/laundry/sewing room/wine room/utility rooms/pantries will be segregated from rooms used for entertaining and for family dining. The dining room will be relatively large, and intended for actual use.

And then, there are issues of QUALITY...


...[/b]As for size, I've seen true mansions not much larger than three thousand square feet. And I've seen McMansions exceeding thirty thousand square feet. So size, really, is the least relevant factor.

I think this person has nailed it, I really couldn't have said it better.

I would also say, except for houses built in the city (what used to be called "town houses" before that term was appropriated for what used to be called "row houses", "tenements", or "semi-detached"), the true mansion probably is not visible from the road, whereas the McMansion exterior is specifically designed to be seen from the street (and hopefully to impress others with what "rich people's" houses look like).

[TheOverdog]

LOL at Grey Gardens, which is a documentary about a loony mother and daughter who live together in East Hamptons in what could be called the precursor to Hoarders, which is a self-help show about people who never clean up after themselves. The only reason to watch is to be grossed out, saddened, and to think that even though you have never dusted your light fixtures you're no where near as bad as them.


The only reason anyone would call the home featured in 'Grey Gardens' a 'mansion' is because it's in the Hamptons.

You can watch 'Grey Gardens' yourself on Youtube if you want a laugh at mental illness. And though they are declared 'former upper class (mostly because they live in the Hamptons) ' they don't live any differently than any other person ever featured on Hoarders - nobody on the show ever has a steady job. They filmed a few episoded in the DFW area if you like to play 'where is that?' for TV locations.

A true mansion will have a kitchen designed for use by servants and/or caterers (even if used exclusively by family members).

This makes no sense. A kitchen in the day of servants was a closed-off industrial-ish affair, that had separate, rickety entrances for the staff. Not that different from all kitchens in the old days, even in regular homes. I have opinions as to why - mostly sexism & air conditioning. It only makes sense that kitchens (and laundry rooms) have become more fancy as every room in the house has, mostly because wealth pales to mass-produced materials costs today, and because of female input into home design.

[happycrow]

#TheOverdog - cooking as an activity gets a lot more respect than it used to as well.

I used to call them "Tract mansions," because at their core, they're basically just regular old houses but built way too large and with expensive "accent bits" thrown in to give a pretension to being something grander than it is. The description of the McMansion GrandviewGloria gave is great, except that it neglects for $10k marble column and fountain centerpiece and the curving stairs not quite hiding the cheap indoor/outdoor carpeting for an upstairs with no more bedroom space than a typical 60s tract house has (and less usable space than any decently-made Colonial has).

Well done, the description she gives for casual/undignified kitchen/flop-space is actually very functional and there's not a thing wrong with that design in its own right. But when you add the pretentious bits to it, well, it gets rather silly, quickly.

[UnfairPark]

To be fair, both mansion and McMansion, are ways to show off wealth for pretentious folks with different budget limits.

Authentic folks build homes to live, not to impress. They may built on few hundred sf or several thousand sf to meet their family's needs but it's going to be focused on living not wowing others.

[MustermannBB]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

To be fair, both mansion and McMansion, are ways to show off wealth for pretentious folks with different budget limits.

Authentic folks build homes to live, not to impress. They may built on few hundred sf or several thousand sf to meet their family's needs but it's going to be focused on living not wowing others.

Good point.... to a degree.
But one could then argue, that every mansion is essentially a McMansion, since I doubt any of them were build with the needs of their family in mind.

[stephwin]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

To be fair, both mansion and McMansion, are ways to show off wealth for pretentious folks with different budget limits.

Authentic folks build homes to live, not to impress. They may built on few hundred sf or several thousand sf to meet their family's needs but it's going to be focused on living not wowing others.

Meh, I own a mcmansion based on most of the definitions listed here. I didn't build it, though. To be fair we use the vast majority of the rooms. Actually, our least used room is probably our formal dining room. We haven't used it in over a year.

We also got a killer deal on it in 2009.

[VZilyV]

Originally Posted by stephwin

Meh, I own a mcmansion based on most of the definitions listed here. I didn't build it, though. To be fair we use the vast majority of the rooms. Actually, our least used room is probably our formal dining room. We haven't used it in over a year.

We also got a killer deal on it in 2009.

Absolutely nothing wrong with owning (or building) one. I'd say the only time that it would be considered wrong...would be if you went around claiming you lived in a mansion. Which I'm pretty sure, even those that DO live in actual mansions...don't say.

If you love your home and it works for you...**** the haters

[turf3]

Maybe the presence or absence of servants' quarters is another indicator?

[HP48G]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

This makes no sense. A kitchen in the day of servants was a closed-off industrial-ish affair, that had separate, rickety entrances for the staff. Not that different from all kitchens in the old days, even in regular homes. I have opinions as to why - mostly sexism & air conditioning. It only makes sense that kitchens (and laundry rooms) have become more fancy as every room in the house has, mostly because wealth pales to mass-produced materials costs today, and because of female input into home design.

I agree. The previous poster is saying that somehow a true Mansion must have the layouts for the way people lived in the 18,19th- early 20th century otherwise it's "undignified" or other nonsense. Of course back then food procurement, storage, preparation and cooking were much messier affairs, so kitchens were closed affairs with lots of hard intensive work for those involved.

Refrigeration, and appliances evolved, the supermarket was invented and cooking became associated with successful lifestyle.This allowed kitchens to evolve to where we are today. Now almost all designs, from the eccentric baroque mega mansion to the derided tract houses in Plano, consider the kitchens as a key part of the house to be on display for guests and cooking as part of the entertainment.