McMansion Hell

Awesome site. The site creator has a PhD in Snark, a keen eye for atrocious detail, and the guts to lambast the pride people take in the monstrosity of McMansions

LINK

ETA: the site navigation could use some tweaking, but having worked out how to move around, I've been sitting here cackling. What do the non-USA folks think of these horrors? It's embarrassing to be an American.

LINK

McMansions give new meaning to the phrase "Ugly Houses."


Where I grew up, builders and individuals have purchased homes for sale, because lots of homes were built after WW2, and have normal homes on large lots. The older house is torn down, and a giant McMansion is put up. In one instance, somebody (an outsider) purchased a house built around 1720, on its original lot of several acres (small farm), tore the house down, built up a massive McMansion of Las Vegas size, then immediately flipped it.

These are homes for the nouveau-riche, or Trumps. Both have no class and bad taste.

Holie Freaking Heck, "Ugly Houses" is a major understatement!
I had no idea that such wastes of construction material even exist in this form, while actual awesome historic mansions are being abandoned or worse, demolished. I mean as I saw, America has lots of seriously awesome manors from the 18th-19th centuries, and everytime I see such a house on the photos of urban explorers, being all messed up and broken, my heart is bleeding. For example I was seriously depressed when I heard that Mudhouse Mansion or the Webster Wagner Manor were demolished.
Why in the name of freaking fudge do these "modern day" rich crapheads not use all this money wasted on such a horrid modern mess, and save a real historic building instead?? By the looks of it, and my experience, the costs wouldn't be too much different. I don't understand that at all. What could have more character than an actual victorian manor that was built by a person who was not only some architect, but also a true artist?

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Freedom & Art & Music >>>>>>>>>> human spawn

"Music is immortal. People are not."
-William Anger, "King's Story" - Thief2 FM by Zontik

Ha! I totally forgot about this thread! I prefer homes with character. I also prefer a home that has a longer-than-eight-year lifespan, because it was built properly. Not slapped together fiber-board crap that's destined to fall apart in that amount of time.

My dream home would be some creepy, yet beautiful looking Victorian house that is restored exactly as the house was meant to be, from the inside and out. I'd have a little koi pond outside, as well as a memorial rose garden. I'd also like some creepy old oak or willow tree, just outside the front.

As it is, we are planting a memorial rose garden next year. We're going to plant a different rose for all the people and pets that we've loved and lost. Husband finished building the deck with the planter boxes this year, and it's all ready for planting next year.

We have some mcmansions that were built around here a few years ago, and they already appear stained and moldy from our wet weather conditions. They already look like they're ready to fall apart.

Yep, the quality of construction material, as well as planning, is low in every aspect nowadays, nothing's built to last since THAT would mean no extra money to be earned for the extensive short-term repairs.

Victorian places are my favorite too, as well as the fitting antique furniture, art, stained glass, garden, and oddities.
(I have so far taken my visual inspiration mainly from antique markets, the Soviet 1980ies Sherlock Holmes movies, as well as the original Thief game trilogy from 1998-2004, and its fan missions and mods - artistically most notable being the Rose Cottage fan mission, created by the author Saturnine, which shows incredible input of a classic wooden Victorian manor and tons & tons of interior design ideas)

A memorial garden is sure an amazing idea, I bet it would look even more stunning if combined with wrought iron ornaments and fitting stone sculptures.

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Freedom & Art & Music >>>>>>>>>> human spawn

"Music is immortal. People are not."
-William Anger, "King's Story" - Thief2 FM by Zontik

Quote
bastet-the-bass-cat
Holie Freaking Heck, "Ugly Houses" is a major understatement!
I had no idea that such wastes of construction material even exist in this form, while actual awesome historic mansions are being abandoned or worse, demolished. I mean as I saw, America has lots of seriously awesome manors from the 18th-19th centuries, and everytime I see such a house on the photos of urban explorers, being all messed up and broken, my heart is bleeding. For example I was seriously depressed when I heard that Mudhouse Mansion or the Webster Wagner Manor were demolished.
Why in the name of freaking fudge do these "modern day" rich crapheads not use all this money wasted on such a horrid modern mess, and save a real historic building instead?? By the looks of it, and my experience, the costs wouldn't be too much different. I don't understand that at all. What could have more character than an actual victorian manor that was built by a person who was not only some architect, but also a true artist?

Some of them do, we have a lot of grand historic homes in my area and only the rich can afford them. They are nicely preserved, but I am not sure if the younger generation will be interested in continuing this tradition. It really is a lot of work and expense to keep the homes maintained properly and also keeping them authentic.

I have a mid century home, and no one seems to be preserving them, they are updating with HGTV stuff, like mini-McMansions. I like the old wood look but everyone paints trim white. For a while we had a 110 year old home we could not afford to restore, and the people we sold it to did a good job of renovating it, although not fully historic as it is not a high end house, they kept some touches by keeping scroll trim and using appropriate period colors for the details. Most people buy those houses to flip and paint everything beige or gray.

I hate the modern trend of 'open space'. HGTV keeps showing people who tear out the walls between rooms, such as the kitchen and living room, turning everything into one 'great room'. I don't want to cook dinner in my living room, thank you very much.

I also hate the high ceilings. All I see is my money going to heat the ceiling while I shiver far, far, below.

I hate open concept homes. Why would I want a 2500sqft house to have the layout of an apartment? Open concept is there to make small spaces seem bigger and not so closed in. Unnecessary in these massive houses people buy. But even in my dream home that would not be so large, I don’t want my kitchen, dining room, and living room to be one huge room. I don’t want people gathering in the kitchen, especially while I’m cooking. GTFO and leave me to my zen.

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"Open space" is totally nonsense.
Especially if it involves a kitchen.
Say you fry food, or make indian dishes or anything like that, and then the whole appartment and all of the stuff in it will smell of food, spice or frying fat for days. There's nothing practical about it, and even the look is stupid.

High ceilings, while in some cases being impractical with the heating, are a different thing.
Many historic buildings (at least here in germany) have high ceilings, and they do have a special aesthetic, especially when stucco artwork is involved. High rooms give a comfortable feeling of not being crammed in, and I personally never experienced problems with heating them, despite german winters being quite sucky at times. The modern radiators that have been upgraded in my building, do have the ability to make the air circulate enough to reach 20°C, while being only on half-setting. I guess it depends on the specific house.

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Freedom & Art & Music >>>>>>>>>> human spawn

"Music is immortal. People are not."
-William Anger, "King's Story" - Thief2 FM by Zontik