Last week someone asked what constituted a Mc Mansion.. Have a look

They don't call themselves Mcmansions, but Good Grief !! These are the epitome of Mc Mansion..

This gem is characterized as :Typical Florida Traditional..




others at :

http://www.dreamhomedesignusa.com/

the air conditioning bills are during the summers. Probably as much as my mortgage.

It's a street full of houses that look pretty much like the one in your post, on a really busy main drag in San Jose (one of the worst, actually...I hate driving on it any time of day).

Each "home" has a lawn the size of a postage stamp. They're all lined up and squeezed together and the folks have a breathtaking view of...the expressway.

condos and townhouses nearby.

Mc Mansions are the equivalent peeling out in your Camaro.

Florida and I go WAAAAY back.. the "traditional" Florida house of MY memory is a ONE story, stucco/concrete/tile...flat roof or very small pitch...well nestled into thick foilage....Louvered windows throughout, and tiled inside and out for easy squeegee..

Those homes make it through the storms, and do not end up scattered over 6 counties:)

being built. Right on the Gulf.

and workmanship. I've heard stories about the facades peeling off in a good windstorm. These are the sort of homes that are going to "pop the housing bubble". They're over-priced and if the owners ever had to sell them a building inspector probably would have a lot of issues with them. Added to the fact that they'd only bring a fraction of the asking price and you've got a recipe for disaster. The families that bought these turkeys better hope one of them doesn't lose their job.

I saw the reality.

That is such a perfect way to put it! :applause:

When I first started noticing how shitty those things are. Paper-thin walls. Paper-thin everything. Questionable plumbing. And don't even get me started on how unsafe it is to live in a house built with such well, non-existant skill.

Don't get me wrong, lots of day laborers are probably very efficient carpenters, but when someone is expected to pay SO damned much for a house, you would expect quality.

Lot sof folks out here are fighting mega-lawsuits over shoddy work, and of course the builders just declare bankruptcy, and start again with a new name and new partners.. The people suing are left holding the bag with additional legal fees and probably end up doing the repairs themselves....we're talking NEW homes..BIG BUCKS homes.. with crooked walls, mold, leaky roofs..etc

can leave a homeowner exposed to. Yes, I understand, older homes can also put you at risk, but a house that is as shoddily crafted as your average McMansion is--I refused to shower in one once.

will buy any crap, as long as it looks good when you drive by.


New money.... Blah!!!! Check book and no class.

And most of the houses are well over 50 years old.

Not having the houses spread ridiculously far apart means much of the time we can walk (*gasp*) when we go shopping or to the library or whatever. It allows for a robust public transportation system and means the car gets left home pretty frequently for most folks.

Makes more sense than bitching about gas prices and having 2 acres of lawn to mow every week, if you ask me.

I deserve a huge manse - the more natural resources it takes to build it the better. I need all that room to not only impress and entertain my magnificent friends but I need tons of room for my magnificent crap!

When I think about home designs I must look to the world's cathedrals for guidance. My magnificence must be honored appropriately!

I love ME!!

no doubt to make the rest of us look around our own houses and say./."What a DUMP"..(cue bette Davis)




http://www.dreamhomedesignusa.com/case_study.htm

now you're talking. It's almost like every room is a celebration of the miracle that is me - especially that bathroom.

When I move in I will invite MTV Cribs and HGTV - just to rub it in a little. Of course there wil be some remodeling off the bat - I bet there are no cat doors.

and Cat Assistants :rofl:

Mais oui!!! :puke:

Professional architects actually spent time coming up with this swill? This was the BEST they could do with proper application of time and thought? :puke: , :puke: , and :puke: again!

Or insecurity over things of another nature.

more like "i think i am nothing...but if i live in a house this huge and expensive, other people wont see it...that i am nothing"...no one will know but me.

embarassed to live in it.

But I could probably talk myself into it somehow.

I'm weak-willed that way. How about if I took in a couple of orphans or something?

and McLame.

If I ever have the money to have my own home, this is the kind of thing I plan on.
http://www.tinyhomes.com

:rofl:

...for my retirement up north. :)

But the people never explain WHY the sq. footage is more -- seems most of the small-house vendors are overpricing for a niche market. I would think it would be smarter for you to go to a regular homebuilder and try to talk them into building a small house, or buying the plans and contracting locally.

I love the idea of about 3-4 of those and 3-4 yurts set up on about a 20-acre property for a small commune of 2-3 families to raise organic vegetables, chicken and sheep. I'm trying to make it happen, down the road.

A lot of the small home vendors are overpricing. Of course, there are lots of businesses selling small home plans too.

I like your idea too of the small rural pod of homes. Even if it wasn't a commune I think it could work out, perhaps as a sort of co-op. What would you do if down the road one of the families turned Repub... er... I mean... became problematic?

I'm more urban minded than you are (despite living in a village of less than 800 people) and have thought about trying to procure an old building in one of our deteriorating upstate NY cities and turning it into low income housing. I'm beginning to think it's possible as suburban flight and the economy have hit our urban areas hard in the past few years. For instance, in 2002 there were about 840 abandoned buildings in the city of Albany, NY. Now most of these are in irrecoverable condition and should be bulldozed and almost all are in very high crime areas. However more than a few of them are in pretty good condition (as well as being landmark buildings) and would be suitable for turning into apartments for small families. I have to wonder if the system can't be worked to make this happen.

But that's probably just a fantasy...

They're perfect.

I especially like the expanded radius home.

i like the concentric design. it looks like a flying saucer. or a couple smaller yurts connected together.

I like the concept, but I favor modernist design. The gingerbread and gables on the tiny houses to me parses as "kid's play house". Now, I know the modernist ones look like a cross between a shipping container and a Chinese takeout box, but personally I kind of like that :-)

http://www.modulardwellings.com/flash_content.html
http://www.weehouses.com/entry_content.html

I'm with you on the gingerbread house thing though.

You should check out the YurtWorks link that kineta posted?
http://www.yurtworks.com

Those seem to be a nice blend between modernist and traditional design to me though I like those styrofoam dome things too.

This baby goes for 750,000 buckaroonies with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.

On Edit: SoCal... I am thinking what you have linked to are real mansions. What I call Mcmansions here in NC are the Mansion wannabes.... They can extend their mortgage up to just under 1 million and get the shit I have posted.

Southern exposure, near a river, tucked against a hillside on 6 acres in rurual Washington (12 miles from the nearest little town, 6 miles from the nearest store). We love it here.

We hope to start building in the next couple of weeks.

I'm swinging my own hammer, so I didn't want anything too big. 1900sf is big enough for our family.

the location sounds great too :)

and Leave It To Beaver ?

:)

But thought better of it.

:)

side and the garage in the back. The location sounds ideal.

so the garage has to be up front. But wrapping the covered porch around the side may happen some day.

One concession to luxury - we hope to eventually make a trail to the top of the hill and put a gazebo with a hot tub up there. :)

one car can be enough:)

That's probably why it suprised me.

And, of course, there isn't nearly enough public transportation.

two cars face each other instead of side by side:shrug:

Of course, I have a 36 x 36 workshop on the property already :)

:evilgrin:.. what DO you guys do out there anyway??

O8)

that. I definitely know a McMansion when I see one, LOL! I have 2 of them twice weekly each, one 3 times a week, & another (slightly smaller) once a week.

Need a scooter just to get around 'em!

Now where is that heating pad!
:rofl:

the coming years? They will go the way of the "Gilded Age" Mansions. Too expensive to keep up...all that insurance and the heating, cooling and upkeep of the grounds.

Maybe they will turn them into Luxury Assisted Livings for the Boomers when they start to "downsize." How many rooms can you fit an "Assisted Boomer" in and hire a cook to serve the gourmet "family style meals" from the Gourmet Kitchen complete with "granite counter tops" (suitable for enbalming and autopsies" along with "Stainless Steel Sink, Appliances and the "Tile Floors" suitable for hosing the blood.

I have to appraise these (mostly foreclosures) on a daily basis, and it's tiresome. :hi:

my point has been made. Do they hold their value at all? I would think not, but with the housing market the way it's been..... :shrug:

This is a home that a relative of mine (stupidly) bought last year for $350,000...which is a big chunk of change in real estate here in SE MI, and in this particular area...Grosse Pointe/Birmingham wannabes. It's a new sub, exactly like every other new sub being built in an area that doesn't have the infrastructure (i.e. schools, shopping, recreational, roads) to handle the amount of new construction. There are, on any given day, at least 100 new constructions (like the one posted in my other thread) for sale just like it. Sadly, the house next door is the same size, same builder, same neighborhood, same year built and has been on the market for 1 plus years. It has dropped from $360,000 to 298,000 (kind of a steal if you're in the market for it) in that time period, because the builder needs out of it. What does this mean for my hourly wage, bit off more than I can chew, keeping up with the Joneses, work for an almost defunct automotive co. relative? One, he cannot refinance it because, as an appraiser, I can't find any comps to support more than $310,000 max and two, when the house next door sells, it puts a value of $298,000 on my relative's house that can't be denied because it's the closest comparable sale...So, based on this, my relative has a -$52,000 invested in his house. Even with inflation over the next ten years he won't get what he paid for it...and with the interest only financing he (and thousands of other suckers) were talked into, he'll put at least a million into paying it off. Kind of sad on a $25/an hour wage, eh?

Can you tell how much I hate this new phenomenon? As an appraiser, and a human being?

That's just spending money you really don't have.

Sid

and are hoping to re-sell in a few years before they have to refi to a more "permanent" loan.. (Most of those loans have short lives)..

As long as the market keeps inflating, they can "get back" what "rent" they paid, but little more, and they get on the treadmill again..

but so many people just fall for it...they get lured into the spacious homes and then they find themselves imprisoned in them due to the debt.

is all about keeping up appearances with her sister. I warned them off, but I don't know what I'm talking about...having a license and all. I did my best. I also put a signed, dated appraisal in my desk the day after they asked me to check it out...so if they ever try to blame me for not warning them, I'm covered.

sheets for curtains.. These people are "redecorationg" for years..

A shabby 2nd hand couch just won't cut it in the marble-floored palace..and some of these folks have a couple of huge carpayments as well:(

They limp along for a a few years, and hopefully sell the place for more than they "paid"....then they rent for a while and rescue their credit score, and then they start all over again

:shrug:

that they can afford this month's house payment :evilgrin:

:hi: Roni :hi:

What's a McMansion? According to the Word Spy, the word McMansion has evolved from meaning "a large cookie-cutter house" to "a large opulent house, especially a new house that has a size and style that doesn’t fit in with the surrounding houses."

My definition: A large, ostentatious house on a lot two sizes two small, with a mish-mosh of design features linking it to no particular architectural style, design school, period, or indeed, taste.

Nearly all of them are ugly, verging on hideous. Nearly all of them are cheek-by-jowl packed against each other with views of no particular note, except of each other.

And you couldn't PAY me to live in any of them.

Hell, in ANY State. For energy efficiency and durability they can't be beaten.

Got a link for more pics of houses like that? Strange.

Cool, but...strange.

It does look like nothing could damage those.

:evilgrin:

I was prepared to hate it. I was surprised that it was a lovely town planned in a sensible way. I think I would enjoy living there if I could afford it.

It's not a McMansion by any stretch. That house ("modified" for Virginia buyers, of course) would be built on a 1/3-1/2 acre lot, with hundreds of similar ones all around it. It would sell for around 700K or so.

McMansions need around 10,000 s.f (minimum), need to have ridiculous rooms that no one goes into (like "meditation rooms" - I kid you not), need 4 car garages (or 3 car plus storage to keep the big Kubota tractor that one must have in case it snows, or in case well, I don't know), need negative edge swimming pools with rocks to "simulate" nature, and have to be on very small lots.

Oh yes, if you can make the house go "vertical" that helps too. :)

cookie cutter, 3000+ sq.ft., fake "custom" kitchens, baths etc., on a 80x120 or less lot with 3 or 4 models to choose from. what you have described is more or less a true mansion.

a full-on mansion to me. It does somewhat lack the cookie-cutter appearance of the typical McMansion. I think all of them have to have two-story foyers--seems to be a rule or something.

but, I picture the occupants to be Drysdales.

in Oak Park, CA - just north of the San Fernando Valley. Note the price tag. The homes in this tract sold new in the 600K range 3 to 5 years ago.

http://realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=9&locallnk=yes&frm=byzip&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=1000000&mxprice=99999999&js=off&pgnum=1&fid=so&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=91377&typ=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5%2C+6&poe=realtor&zp=91377&sbint=&vtsort=&sid=059F464AD721C&snumxlid=1052831477&lnksrc=00002

That house you posted in CA would cost about half of that asking price here in NC.

Over 6,000 Sq. Ft. starts to get into mansion category.

This is smallish one. They make them much bigger with three stories. Really crappy building. Tornados explode these things....recent tornados and straight line winds near Madison showed ranch homes with little or no damage but these big behemouths with all the surface area on the roof with it's steep peaks and gables were totally destroyed once the roof was torn off.

Any Wisconsinite with 1/2 a brain would thing twice before buying a 3 story home that is built with contemporary stick building techniques.

http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=9&locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=325000&mxprice=550000&js=off&fid=so&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=935&typ=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5%2C+6&poe=realtor&ct=Waukesha&st=WI&sid=05A00E69A5A6C&sbint=1&sblo=0&snumxlid=1051200693&lnksrc=00001

http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=16&locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=325000&mxprice=550000&fid=so&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=935&typ=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5%2C+6&poe=realtor&ct=Waukesha&st=WI&sid=05A00E69A5A6C&sbint=1&sblo=0&lnksrc=00049

That would be the radically different houses six feet to each side of it. One will be dark red brick with tan flagstone, and the other one will be painted purple and green, and will have a pea gravel drive.

"McMansion" is a slang architectural term which first came into use in the United States during the 1980s. It is a pejorative description of a particular style of housing that is—as its name suggests—both large like a mansion and as culturally ubiquitous as McDonald's fast food restaurants. In addition to ubiquity, almost every reason to poke fun at McDonald's has been applied metaphorically to this style of housing. Some of the characterizations include: misapplication of -- or total disconnection from -- traditional local or regional style; sometimes cheap and mass-produced construction quality; negative impacts on nature and community; a tendency to look the same despite their superficially unique features.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcmansion

They're the real thing.

Here's a REAL McMansion:

They wouldn't even want to talk to you if you couldn't come up with $10,000,000. That's the absolute minimum anything they're putting together will cost.

I call them McCastles because they're for people who have way more money than understanding and love of architecture.

You've got $10m to plunk down on a luxury home. Are you going to go to an architect that's making $10m cookie cutter mansions based on reproductions of buildings of bygone times, or are you going to go find an architect to design you a building that's top-of-the-line in its own time?

Another thing: the buildings of the era these people are reproducing are different from their modern cousins in one tremendously huge way: the human element. Those old mansions/castles/chateaus were built by calling in master craftsmen and artisans from all over. They have flaws, but that's part of what makes them art. The McCastles' use of machine-made details lends a certain sterility to them. In that regard, yes, they are cutting corners.

Hence: McCastle.

them and yet who are dying to keep up with the Joneses. Hence the appearance overnight of the ubiquitous "interest only" otherwise known as "Sell your Soul" loan. :hi:

:hi: back.

This one fits though:
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=33&locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=400000&mxprice=800000&js=off&pgnum=4&fid=so&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=4673&typ=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5%2C+6&poe=realtor&ct=Apex&st=NC&sbint=2&presort=sbint&sid=059F4AA0D05BC&snumxlid=1050964640&lnksrc=00001

:hi:

In northern Virginia where I live a 3000 s.f. home is a starter house.

Honest - that is how they are marketed.

McMansions truly are the 8-10K s.f. houses on the small lots.

Ain't life weird?? :)

your last name is Ford or something. ;) Most McMansion are geared towards a set that cannot afford them, but are lured into them with the promise of a ridiculously low, interest only payment that will bite them in the behind in 5-7 years.

A 3000 sq ft house would be around $800k in Northern VA. My wife and I just bought our first home in Alexandria (in the city, not Fairfax Cty.) and it is 1600 sq ft, for $454K. Unless you live in Potomac or Great Falls, 3000 sq ft houses are not starter homes.

Here in the Fairfax area and west attached town homes are usually the first "home" purchase anyone makes, and they are around 400K or so. After that, when a couple moves into their first real home - on its own lot - they are marketed as "your first real home!) and are considered starters. SInce they are built in about an hour and a half, the 3000 s.f. base models cost around 550-600K. On a clear day, not only can you hear Interstate 66, you can see it. :)

Note; I am talking about new construction here - older homes in areas like Alexandria, Arlington, etc. of smaller s.f. are somewhat grandfathered into this whole discussion.

BTW, we just downsized to a home on 5 acres, in anticipation of moving back to New England soon. The house needed work, and we thought we got a VERY good deal for a little under 700K. When we re-sell it, I can almost guaranteer it will be to a family that is looking for either a) their first real house or b) is making their first "step up' re: buying a house.

McMansions here start at about 4500 sqft.

The typical description nationwide (among appraisers of real estate) is 3000+ s.f. That's all I'm saying...FWIW, anything over 3000s.f. in appraisal land is labeled as "excessive square footage" i.e. super adequate...no matter where you live. :hi:

over 3000 sq. ft. and exactly the same as its neighbors although attempts to label it as custom by the builder are made...lamely.

I work with these daily. It's sad to do so many foreclosures in a month.

McMansions are usually between 100-200K. They are bought by, I'm not rich but if I get a McMansion like this and 2 SUV's people will think I have money.

That's why I bought a 30 year old house with some actual "style", large lot, and all of my neighbor's homes are, guess what, different!

(On edit, you can always tell a McMansion because they are almost always located on zero-lot-lines. the Mc is for McDonalds, cheap and the same every time :) )

is a good use of a scarce resource, land. Of course, these are ugly, and almost always built in a development with no real infrastructure, which requires a car trip to get even a simple quart of milk.

Building houses on 1 acre lots adds to sprawl, disconnected communities, and oil use.

2800+ sq. ft., garage is a seperate structure, blah, blah, blah.

That seems to be a common element in the design of these things.

that particular model is considered "small". jeezus...:eyes:

:eyes:

the odd thing is this.. If you could qualify for a loan for those monsters, you would probably be well off enough to pay cash for one, and why would you buy a tract McMansion?

How much acreage does it have?

I would LOVE to own a house like that.

Am I supposed to hate that house or something?

:shrug:

Buying a McMansion that is mere feet from the neighbors house is NO different than living in a no frills housing tract.

Spending half a million plus on a house should give you some land, privacy and most of all be UNIQUE! Not a home that is a giant cookie cutter replica of the house across the street! UGH!

Little Boxes
by Malvina Reynolds, sung by Pete Seeger 1962

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same,
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.


And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there's doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.


And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.


And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same,
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.


Words and music by Malvina Reynolds.
Copyright 1962, Schroder Music Company

A WHOLE LOTTA EXPENSIVE UGLY. Sorta like our Congresscritter. Plus, if your window's open, ya can hit the neighbors house w/ a kleenex.

One of these days I will have something like this.

It's not a McMansion, it's the real deal though. Same Architect as the OP rendering.

At this point its better than seeing another ranch house down here or one of these...

They remind me of the tail fins on 1950s cars.

would be a..... expensive.

are all those ont he same house or are they photoshopped together?

Our daughter married a Brit and is looking for a house they can afford in Yorkshire. For the equivalent of $276,00 they could buy a 435-square foot terrace house with no yard. They looked at one and the living/dining combination was 10' x 12', second bedroom 7' x 8'. She says the best they can do is pretend it's 1920 and be thankful they have an indoor bathroom.

I wanted to be in the city and not in the burbs, so I bit the bullet and paid $130K for a 450 square foot studio. It's a 1929 building, and I've got it furnished as close to the period as I could do on a reasonable budget. This makes a big difference - my sofa and club chair are about half the size of what's being sold at most furniture stores, for example. This leaves enough room for an antique convertible sofa with arms that fold down, so I don't have to have a bed in the living room. The dining table in the kitchen isn't vintage, but it's the right size for a period dinette. My exceptions are a small television/dvd combo (I think the screen is 15"), a computer, and a refrigerator.

The "pretend like it's 1920" part actually works well. Stay within the period of the building, and you can live in it as comfortably as the folks who lived there when it was new. Trying to cram a giant overstuffed couch, a banquet table, and a home theater entertainment altar into a tiny old house will just make it too crowded. Besides, it looks cool, and seems as if it was all done for the sake of style :-)

I grew up in a house that was at most 600 square feet. There were five of us living in four rooms + bathroom, and we had no idea we were drprived. My daughter grew up in a house that was 1800 square feet, and can't imagine how she can fit four people (two adults, two toddlers) into 450 sf. My American granddaughters, OTOH, live in a McPalace (over 6000 sq) during the half the time they are with their father.

"McMansion" http://images.google.com/images?q=McMansion&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

a white married couple with 2.5 perfect white children and a golden retreiver in front?

But, that's just from looking at this generic drawing. Who knows how much quailty and time goes into it, or how mass-produced it is.

that our civilization has fallen?

and some days it makes me sick. :hi:

We're on both ends of the equation! :hi:

McMansions in Lansing, NY. Right outside Ithaca. Of all the places!!!!

as are all the ones i can see on that site.



however this is what mcmansions look like in Atlanta:

These things, a true scourge on the landscape, kinda symbolize the growing shiny hollowness of the culture at large...

to pull back in check.

afford a house that size, doesn't need/deserve a tax cut!

Modern families with a few kids and a 5K sq.ft. house is not all that necessary.. But then if people wnat their home to be a "statement" and they think they can afford it, I guess that's why.

When the economy really tanks, they can turn them into boarding houses (which is what happened to many a victorian 8 bedroom house during the depression :)