Just wanted to piss and moan about the trend in my town to “tear down” houses and replace them with big looming monstrosities. It kinda reminds me of the SUV craze.
Part of the problem is that these houses don’t seem designed to “blend in” with the surrounding land, neighborhood, etc. Rather, they seem intended to look large and imposing.
(Yeah yeah, I know that some families NEED to have 5 bedrooms, a three-car garage; people should be able to live in as big a house as they want and can afford, etc. And of course I don’t mind that people are adding to the tax base.)
My hometown has had an ongoing rage for these houses for the past few years. They all resemble one another-red brick, two story, with tiny front and back yards and a pathetic pine tree dwarfed by the house itself. I used to rely on my friend’s basketball team sign to distinguish her house from her neighbors.
A line in Vonnegut’s Player Piano describes a neighborhood as dream houses for families with apparently identical dreams.
Well if they’re large then it might be difficult to make them look small. I don’t find it to be a big deal if the houses don’t blend into the neighborhood. If people had cared about that they would have set up neighborhood associations when construction of the original homes began.
As for blending in with the land. Well, I’ve not seen many houses that actually did this. Even way out in the boonies houses still look like houses.
I’m sure a lot of them just want a big house nevermind actually needing it. And pardon me if I say this but this doesn’t really sound like much of a rant for the pit. When my wife and I build a house we’ll probably attempt to build a pretty big one. 4-5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and plenty of square footage.
luc, keep excercising those eyeballs because I see a long life of eye rolling in your future.
I’ve heard an interesting term for these houses, “McMansions”. Cute and to the point. Yeah, they’re kind of lame, but they’re not hurting you, unless they’re making you jealous. When the real estate rapture comes, and all of the huge, lame houses begin to descend in value, your (presumably authentic in all ways) house will be worth more.
Heh heh, that is a good name for them. They built a whole bunch of those McMansions in Plano, Texas in recent years. I have to admit I don’t find them all that attractive and I really don’t like the way they look on the inside. The ones I’ve seen have to much wasted space in the interior. I don’t need an 18+ foot ceiling in the living room and dining room. Plus I don’t like the way most of their interiors are laid out.
I think that’s what most people call them. I think the ugliest thing is a new development of McMansions. They look like someone droped a dozen one-gallon milk cartons onto a pool table and they all landed right side up. After a couple of years they look ok though. Once all the landscaping grows in and the residents customize them a little. Remember that most of those ‘authentic’ neghborhoods have had 30 years or more to build character.
Well, I’m not a big fan of McMansions in the middle of old neighborhoods either. People where I used to live did this all the time–they’d buy a cute little 20’s house in a nice neighborhood, tear it down, and build out to the edge of the property. The stunned neighbors, who loved their beautiful area with character, etc., would now have a large box on one side, casting permanent shade on their yards. You could look right into the new bathroom windows from your house, and felt like your privacy was gone, since you could no longer do whatever you wanted in your own yard. There was no legal recourse at any time during the process, and neighbors were pretty helpless. --I think the city did eventually pass laws, but by then the invasion was pretty complete.
McMansions are fine, as long as they’re built on large enough pieces of land. Building new ones is OK by me (the environmental impact is on your own head!), but springing them on unsuspecting neighbors who did not bargain for this when they bought a house in a cute old area is not cool.
What genie said. Here in extreme NE NJ, a few towns have passed laws that a house can’t take up more than 25% of a property, in an attempt to keep people from building out to the edge of their property. Hasn’t happened in my town yet, but they did ask our opinion on this in a questionairre about possible future referendum proposals, and I backed it.
In Texas a huge house will just blend right in. In northern NJ (the south, being less built up, is a different case), it’ll look stupid. Unless you’re living in a really upscale town with one-acre zoning.
Point being that it depends where you live and what the average size of a lot is. A big house should be on a big lot. Only a person with no sense of what’s appropriate would attempt to put a big house on an average suburban lot, which runs between about an eighth to about a quarter of an acre.
I kind of sympathize with lucwarm here. We just bought a house back in February. All the houses were built in the early 50’s, large lots, mature trees, single story or 1 1/2 stories. Very neighbourly.
Except for one house. Recently done (within last 5 years I’d say). Large, 3 story, edge to edge to the property line, towers over the houses beside it. Different type of brick, no trees left (out front anyways). Doesn’t fit in, ruins the flow of the street. These are purely asthetical complaints mind you. The house doesn’t violate any building code AFAIK. The lawn is well kept. They don’t hold wild orgies at 10am on Sundays and they don’t store nuclear waste in the back yard.
Maybe the original house on the lot burned to the ground, and they figured, What the Hell! Let’s go big! Insurance will cover it!
Maybe they had quintuplets, and all of a sudden outgrew the 1400 sq ft the original house had.
All valid reasons. But damnit! It doesn’t fit in!
Other people on the street have added on to their house by either adding a second story to a bungalow (out eventual plan), or building off the back of the house. Either way, you can maintain the architectual flow of the original house while getting the space that you need.
But in the end, it is the owner’s right to do whatever the hell they please. Must make giving directions easy. “Just turn right onto the street and look for the house that doesn’t belong.”
Should probably be upset at the municipal planning board that issued the building permit.
I thought the second rule of housing, behind location location location, was “Don’t own the most expensive home in the neighborhood.” My development, which is less that 2 years old, started out with under $115K homes. Someone bought one of the last lots and put up a house that is one of the largest on the street, plus a big deck, plus a pool. I think the closing price was $138K. I pity those folks if they have to sell in the next couple of years. No skin off my nose, but I still don’t get it.
He,he. That’s exactly what my BIL said when he heard we were looking for a house w/cathedral ceilings. Then he ended up getting one. When the bulbs go out it just get’s darker at his place, I guess.
To the OP: Yeah, it’s too bad when a house sticks out like that - it’s much nicer when they’re all the same, like those new developements we see out in our suburbs - one exactly like th next.
The great thing about capitalism is that whenever anyone with money has a problem, someone will come up with a solution to sell to them. Weep no more for the McMansionites.