Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

McMansion Hell

mcmansionhell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 80 posts

Re: McMansion Hell

#51

Post by denton-scratch »

markisus wrote: post #46
balaga01 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or is there some inherent ugliness that comes with affordable and popular things? I would question both of these adjectives, where I live, "affordable" is sub-400'000 USD and "popular" is a 3-bedroom terraced house. I would use expensive and extravagant instead.

I realize that calling any type of mansion affordable seems out of touch. I was commenting on the relative expense of some of these design components. The prefix “Mc” evokes McDonald’s. The post pokes fun at a statue of a maid, because the owners could not afford to hire true maids. From the site, I assume that a McMansion is like a mansion, but made with cheaper components and without the taste and class that comes…

An "elite" upbringing doesn't confer taste and class.

Re: McMansion Hell

#52

Post by ompogUe »

We live in a Queen Anne era house, 120 yrs old.

Same idea of quirky mish-mash of styles, but they had less styles to choose from back then

Re: McMansion Hell

#53

Post by JohnFen »

ghaff wrote: post #49
martythemaniak wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the aesthetics of large houses on small lots is bad, but it is more practical, which is why they get built and snapped up. Land is expensive, and whether in Florida where it's hot, or in Canada where it's cold, you get far more use out of enclosed climate-controlled space than a yard which gets occasional use. And with a detached house you don't have condo fees, have less noise, etc.

I have a friend who lives in an older suburban neighborhood next to a McMansion development and she says basically the only people you ever see outside are the landscapers cutting the lawn etc. So, if you want a large house in a high cost of living area, there's a certain practicality in not paying for a couple acres of land just to be a bit better screened from your neighbors. The style is sort of an aesthetic disas…

Whenever I see houses cheek-to-jowl like that, I wonder "why not just get an apartment or condo?" Those houses seem to have most of the disadvantages of apartment/condo living without the advantages.

Re: McMansion Hell

#54

Post by rsynnott »

alkonaut wrote: post #25

Who builds these things and why is BOTH the architecture and workmanship so shoddy? Who opted for this instead of making a well-architected and well built home 2/3rds the size (All you save in fake columns and moldings probably gets you some area back). Where I live, a new home is always built by the first owner. That is, the first owner together with the architect creates the home including every plan, every materia…

So I think there are a few issues. First off, this sort of approach _is_ cheaper than using an architect. So if for some reason you really want a 6000sqft house this is absolutely the budget option (of course, you then end up with massive rooms that make little sense; also a lot of examples of those on the site).

But also, some people just want what they want, no matter how absurd it might look to, well, basically everyone.

> Is that what happened here, or is it some sort of "developer" that has tried to make a disneyland looking thing to match what they already sold a buyer with sketches in a catalog?

No architect was involved in most of these.

Re: McMansion Hell

#55

Post by m3kw9 »

Money aside, coming from a card board box this would be nice, but coming from a normal house and going into this would be nice but every morning/entry back you would greet yourself first thing with “WTF”, or “need to find a different home and sell this”

Re: McMansion Hell

#56

Post by ghaff »

LanceH wrote: post #26
ragebol wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For when you have money but no taste. Or modesty perhaps

What I hate is that it seems to be a dichotomy. Small house, simple style. But as soon as it gets to a certain size, you have to put in stupid things like the grand entrance with a showpiece staircase. Other things have to happen, apparently. The vaulted 20 foot ceilings above the living room. I now have the choice in the winter to heat the upstairs to 80 or keep the living room at 60. Of course, you'll need an osten…

There certainly are large house designs that are, to me, aesthetically pleasing. They tend to be simpler and more classic. I see quite a few up in coastal Maine. It probably helps when you have a view from the house which tends to focus the design on features that take advantage of that.

Re: McMansion Hell

#57

Post by JohnFen »

martythemaniak wrote: post #7

Great blog, I did learn quite a bit from it and also the book she recommends - A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia McAlester. We usually refer to any newish suburban house as a McMansion, but that's wrong. Cookie-cutter maybe, but not McMansion. The defining feature of McMansions is "more is more" mindset, a very large house with a thoughtless mishmash of styles, features, textures, colours, and shapes. Most…

I think of a McMansion as an "expensive cheap house". I suspect they are mostly owned by people who aren't truly wealthy but are trying to convince themselves that they are.

Re: McMansion Hell

#58

Post by rsynnott »

LanceH wrote: post #26
ragebol wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For when you have money but no taste. Or modesty perhaps

What I hate is that it seems to be a dichotomy. Small house, simple style. But as soon as it gets to a certain size, you have to put in stupid things like the grand entrance with a showpiece staircase. Other things have to happen, apparently. The vaulted 20 foot ceilings above the living room. I now have the choice in the winter to heat the upstairs to 80 or keep the living room at 60. Of course, you'll need an osten…

> But as soon as it gets to a certain size, you have to put in stupid things like the grand entrance with a showpiece staircase.

I mean, you don't, but people tend to.

Though, also, the "certain size" here is generally a minimum of about 6000sqft. This is too large to be a practical house, so you end up with either unreasonably large rooms (uncomfortable, undesirable), completely superfluous rooms (probably the least-worst option) or massive grand entrances and other not-quite-room features (most common approach).

Of course, the sensible thing would be to build a smaller house, but that doesn't appear to work for the people who like these.

Re: McMansion Hell

#59

Post by m3kw9 »

campground wrote: post #22

I'm convinced that wealth and taste are perfectly orthogonal.

Or they could have just hired a competent architect who would quit as soon as the owner make them design something like this, but then you’d still end up with this
Post reply on HN