McMansion Hell

[Maple Syrup Actual]

One of my sisters sent me this link a couple of years ago. It's fucking hilarious if you share the McMansion allergy.

I admit that I live in a house that is... lacking in architectural vision, myself. It was a little square box built in 1908 for a worker in the coal mine that used to be here, and then later owners added to it and now it's a 3 storey, 2500 square foot rectangle off the back of the original house. So it's not like my aesthetic sense prevented me from buying a home that wasn't the product of grand, unified design.

But still, those things are monstrosities. The busy rooflines, excessive columns, and appalling entrances just slay me.

[BehindBlueI's]

Maybe because I'm in the building business, I take a different view relative to codes, etc. than other often do.

I'm fine with building codes, permits, and even enforcement (to a point), particularly when it pertains to concealed issues that could affect life safety.

Sure, and here that varies pretty dramatically county to county. No, I just meant I was surprised that the interior and expected use of a room affected the property taxes.

[Lex Luthier]

One of my sisters sent me this link a couple of years ago. It's fucking hilarious if you share the McMansion allergy.

I admit that I live in a house that is... lacking in architectural vision, myself. It was a little square box built in 1908 for a worker in the coal mine that used to be here, and then later owners added to it and now it's a 3 storey, 2500 square foot rectangle off the back of the original house. So it's not like my aesthetic sense prevented me from buying a home that wasn't the product of grand, unified design.

But still, those things are monstrosities. The busy rooflines, excessive columns, and appalling entrances just slay me.

I had a (then-celebrated) History Of Architecture professor explain that concept as "arbitrary architecture"; he pointed out that among folks who loved houses aesthetically for their "honest folk quality", it often was preferential, and this was so in nearly every society.
We all seem to love houses that have been added onto over the many generations, as long as they are not ramshackle.

Thinking about building codes and such, I'm reminded of the 5-7 meter houses in Amsterdam built to avoid taxation on width, and all the four-story houses I saw in Northern Vietnam that had an unfinished top floor, so as to avoid square footage roofline taxes. It's apparently a thing in Greece, too.

[4RNR]

I had a (then-celebrated) History Of Architecture professor explain that concept as "arbitrary architecture"; he pointed out that among folks who loved houses aesthetically for their "honest folk quality", it often was preferential, and this was so in nearly every society.
We all seem to love houses that have been added onto over the many generations, as long as they are not ramshackle.

Thinking about building codes and such, I'm reminded of the 5-7 meter houses in Amsterdam built to avoid taxation on width, and all the four-story houses I saw in Northern Vietnam that had an unfinished top floor, so as to avoid square footage roofline taxes. It's apparently a thing in Greece, too.

And in Brazil. Or at least it was. Remember listening on the radio, maybe 15 years ago, how many would not finish one side of the house, usually the back, because taxes were charged on finished dwellings.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I had a (then-celebrated) History Of Architecture professor explain that concept as "arbitrary architecture"; he pointed out that among folks who loved houses aesthetically for their "honest folk quality", it often was preferential, and this was so in nearly every society.
We all seem to love houses that have been added onto over the many generations, as long as they are not ramshackle.

Thinking about building codes and such, I'm reminded of the 5-7 meter houses in Amsterdam built to avoid taxation on width, and all the four-story houses I saw in Northern Vietnam that had an unfinished top floor, so as to avoid square footage roofline taxes. It's apparently a thing in Greece, too.

Well, I think this execution would strain the limits of the appeal of the concept - but I have to admit that it's relatively functional. I hate the conflicting rooflines, though. And the vinyl siding, even though it's very low maintenance. But it had a lot of space and there were a bunch of reasons the location really worked for us. An old pic from google car probably illustrates its aesthetic struggles:



I have this idea that one day I'll alter the roofline of both sections to turn it into a sort of offset butterfly.



Then I could add a floor to the original house, and turn the whole thing into maybe a bit cleaner shape. Plus, if the rear section had a shed roof, I think I could do a flat relief in the centre that would be invisible from anywhere the street, but allow for an enormous rooftop patio. And since we have a nice view, I'd like that.

Anyway not to turn this into MSA's house of regrets and vanity, but I'm avoiding doing actual work tasks here and need to fill my time somehow.

[Darth_Uno]

Well, I build McMansions for a living. I often joke (not to my customers) that I'm not paid to like it, just to build it. While I also joke that Pinterest is my arch-nemesis, it has resulted in better looking homes and some really cool features.

If we could go and build a whole development of 1100-1300 ft² homes, build with our upgraded products and level of quality, and stay at a price point people can actually afford, you'd sell them faster than you can build them. Problem is there's nowhere you can even build like that, with all the restrictions every new development has.

You'd make less per home, but blasting those out (and still keeping up our level of quality) would still be a heck of a lot easier than managing the 3000 ft² customs we do.

[TGS]

Question:

How many of the people here criticizing mcmansions can afford them?

I grew up in a family that was heavily critical of mcmansions and housing developments. What I didn't really grasp until I became an adult was how poor we were and couldn't afford anything better than "a house with character", which IMO is just feel-good code for a piece of shit. Pride of the poor, all that bullshit......it was just my mom trying to make herself feel better. I've noticed this with a lot of people complaining about mcmansions, same as people who fly economy and badmouth those in business as if they're some sort of elitist monster, or the same with people who drive nice cars.

I've never lived in a mcmansion. Don't really have an interest in getting one. Can't afford one, and it would be an excessive amount of space. Currently live in a townhouse, will soon be moving into another townhouse or a condo.......all cookie-cutter, "corporate" style housing. Don't really think they're great looking houses, but I don't really get the animosity towards them or the people that buy them, either, and it always seems to come from people who can't afford that lifestyle.

So, I'm not writing this in an accusatory manner....I'm genuinely asking. It's not like I'm trying to defend a purchase I made; I don't own a mcmansion, and have no plans to.

[Joe in PNG]

One could make the point that the McMansion is a long running rebellion against the Mies box style so beloved of the modern architects.

Having said that, there is a point where people buy extra large houses as a from of conspicuous consumption. I've worked in some of the premier houses in the Villages where the master bedroom would make for a fairly decent house on it's own- and it's a deed restricted 55+ community.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Question:

How many of the people here criticizing mcmansions can afford them?

I grew up in a family that was heavily critical of mcmansions and housing developments. What I didn't really grasp until I became an adult was how poor we were and couldn't afford anything better than "a house with character", which IMO is just feel-good code for a piece of shit. Pride of the poor, all that bullshit......it was just my mom trying to make herself feel better. I've noticed this with a lot of people complaining about mcmansions, same as people who fly economy and badmouth those in business as if they're some sort of elitist monster, or the same with people who drive nice cars.

I've never lived in a mcmansion. Don't really have an interest in getting one. Can't afford one, and it would be an excessive amount of space. Currently live in a townhouse, will soon be moving into another townhouse or a condo.......all cookie-cutter, "corporate" style housing. Don't really think they're great looking houses, but I don't really get the animosity towards them or the people that buy them, either, and it always seems to come from people who can't afford that lifestyle.

So, I'm not writing this in an accusatory manner....I'm genuinely asking. It's not like I'm trying to defend a purchase I made; I don't own a mcmansion, and have no plans to.

I definitely couldn't afford one here. They don't really build them here, though. But just from the average lot size I see them on, here, you could reasonably expect to have to pay something like five million dollars for one, which is totally out of my league. In a lot of states they seem more like one million dollar houses which is about normal around here. That plain white box is rapidly approaching that kind of coin, believe it or not. But I do empathize with the exact sentiment you describe - yours I mean, not you're mom's. My parents were exactly like that. Very detailed lists of everything wrong with all the stuff they couldn't afford, and everything wrong with everyone who could.

BUT: there is still something very tacky about that building style. I don't feel the same about someone who buys an interesting home for the same amount of money. I knew a guy in Vancouver who bought a Bing Thom house and paid a lot more for that than 99% of these things would cost and I didn't come up with a list of flaws. It was a spectacular home. Was I jealous? I guess maybe a little, in the sense that I'd love to have the kind of wealth necessary to justify buying a house for six or eight or ten million dollars. But I wasn't upset about it or anything.

If the same guy had bought a really cheesy mega McMansion for the same money, I'd definitely have shaken my head and thought it was pretty tacky. So for me, definitely not about the money, but about what your taste says about you. I could have bought a McSuburban instead of that white box, in a pretty new neighbourhood, for the same money. We looked at a few, and hated them. Everything about them screamed "live, laugh, love" and I couldn't stand it and neither could my wife. We moved to an old neighbourhood, which was proportionally more expensive because of its location, and spent the same for the old box.

[HeavyDuty]

Am I like the only guy who sees that and thinks rainwater management is gonna be a bitch? Gorgeous, though.