McMansions - why so bad? (floors, appliance, cost, compare)
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Well built houses "of the McMansion persuasion" are not at issue in terms of durability. It is those that were built fast, cheap, and with less rigorously tested methods that I worry about. PedroMartinez, that home is lovely and looks like it will last a good long time. As long as the lot size is decent, I would be proud to live there myself!
This is an issue that definitely I consider when looking at houses. I would guess I have higher standards than 99% of home buyers because I'm not a house fan, in all honesty.
If money were no object, and when I eventually want my dream house probably when I'm more like 45 or 50 (haha), I know exactly how it's getting built and it's going to look nothing like the unoriginal ideas from most of these builders. I want a concrete home, steel reinforced if necessary, absolutely no wood except on the floors. I hate wood, it warps, it's lousy quality, and there's no good reason to use it in homes in most parts of the country. It's cheaper, but even then, it's not that much cheaper. I would argue it's much more expensive long-term because it's crappy as hell. I would build my house to look like an ultra-modern condo building with huge floor to ceiling windows overlooking the nearby river, and it would have perfect insulation and energy efficiency throughout. You would never see a bug. You would never hear a neighbor.
I would rather have a 6,000 square foot incredibly well made home than a 12,000 square foot slammed together pile of crap. And let's be honest, we all know at least some construction workers, they slap these things together with very little care.
My dad's house -- ironically - is an example of why I'd never built a house out of wood. It's 20,000 square feet, a true mansion, and gorgeous finishes throughout, by all means one of the grandest houses you could imagine, except that if you close the front door (which weighs 600 pounds), it literally rattled my bedroom on the other side of the house. That's unacceptable and why no house should be framed out of wood. That would never happen if you built it out of concrete, and if you really love the ugly wooden look, you could put ugly wood on the outside. Ick.
I owned a home that was concrete block and concrete under stucco and it suffered earth quake damage during the Loma Prieta earthquake... non wood framed residential construction poses additional problems here in earthquake country...
I think of McMansions as in-fill houses built lot line to lot line in historic areas that fail to honor the overall character of the original neighborhood. Some of them are extremely nice; they just don't fit. They tend to pop up in gentrified areas and are the source of a lot of community conflict. It would seem, though, that my definition of McMansion is out of sync with general perception.
I think of McMansions as in-fill houses built lot line to lot line in historic areas that fail to...
That's how they started.
Quote:
It would seem, though, that my definition of McMansion is out of sync with general perception.
Nope. But over the 30 years since that "style' (or lack of) has been embraced by developers.
That's how you end up with those cul de sacs of the dead where no one is seen outside except the gardeners.
My own house... A McMansion. The previous owners bought it brand new, and it was clearly more home than they could afford, so they didn't get ANY options. It was about the most plain Jane house you could buy, but it's huge. We had to go in after we bought it and upgrade everything.
I don't quite understand why people on this thread (not you) look down on buying the biggest house you can afford with cheap finishings. Finishings can be ugraded and changed. It is much more expensive and difficult to add size.
When we moved to FL we bought a pretty large cookie-cutter house in a gated subdivision. We wanted a lot of space. The upgrades that the builder offered were more expensive and not as nice as what we could add later. So we had the house built with minimal upgrades (just floors). The builder wanted $6K to have the house painted a color other than white. And for $6K the entire house had to be painted the same non white color. Who would do that? We bought the house painted hospital white and paid someone $3K to paint the house the colors that we wanted.
Of course when we moved in the house was a giant, plain, builder grade box. However, we upgraded things (added a pool, redid the kitchen and bathrooms) over the years that we lived there. We were pretty careful to pay cash for things that we wanted but that didn't add value (pool) and we financed improvements that would add to the value of the house.
The people who bought your home may have been planning to do the same thing we did but ran out of money. IMO it is better to buy the size/layout home you need/want and to worry about finishings later.
A builder friend has always done well on his spec homes...
His friends are critical because he builds big boxes that vary little... buyers buy because they get the most square footage for the money... his finishes are simple... nothing high end to raise the prices...
I don't quite understand why people on this thread (not you) look down on buying the biggest house you can afford with cheap finishings.
How would you feel about a woman (or man) who wore heaps and heaps of what was obviously costume jewelry? Rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets. Absolutely loaded down with obviously fake gold and diamonds. It just make you want to roll your eyes in dismissal. That's how people view the McMansion. There's such a contrast between trying to be showy and clearly inferior materials. It's not even about interior finishes. Nobody but the owner sees those. It's about the godawful exteriors.
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