McMansions

[lurky]

Quote:
Good luck. It is becoming so expensive to own land in NC that native North Carolinians can no longer afford to live here. There was a story in last week's paper about an 82-year-old man who bought his house for $28,000 in 1972. It has now be reassessed and valued at a little under 2 million dollars! Obviously, he's old, retired, on a fixed income, and can't afford to pay taxes on a 2 million dollar home, but he doesn't want to move.

That is so terrible!! We should not be allowing the system to do that to our elderly

 

[hencackle]

Regarding the plight of the 82 year-old man, sometimes I wonder if the local government, with the help of the people/businesses with deep pockets, look for ways to "persuade" a homeowner to move--working something like eminent domain.

There was a farm about 5 miles from me that had been in the family for 200 years and still operational. The land looked mighty good to some people that wanted to run a road through it and develop it. The farmer didn't want to sell. The land was "condemned" and taken from the farmer for far less than it was worth. It was so sad, especially because so many people wrote letters and such to try to help the farmer keep his land.

McMansions--that's a good term! I've been calling those houses "cookie cutter houses" and most of them have been hastily thrown together with shoddy workmanship and cheap quality materials. Most of the general contractors hire subcontractors that are not licensed or insured because they want to use the cheapest labor they can find. DH is a roofing contractor that is too expensive--meaning he carries General Liability, Workers Comp, and is licensed--and he has gotten quite a few calls to re-roof a home that is barely a few years old because the original roofer didn't install the shingles correctly. It takes time to do the detailing on a cut up roof as shown in Lurky's picture.

I have another term that I use for the kitchens in these McMansions--"take-out kitchens"--because even though the kitchens are large, with lots of counter space, the homeowners don't cook. Probably because they have to work several jobs to pay the mortgage.

My house is very small, on 1 acre and I dream of a bigger place with more land. Even if I had more $$ than I knew what to do with, I certainly wouldn't buy a McMansion!

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

If I find a farm in NC I am going to have a newly built log cabin home. Nothing says cozy like a log cabin house!

 

[nccountrygirl]

Quote:
That is so true, when we come to Tenn. we like to go to Cades Cove in Townsend Tenn. That is what the National Parks did to that community. If you don't know about Cades Cove, do some research on it, it will break your heart. There were about 600 families that were forced off their land because they wanted to put a national park on their land.

 

[V Chic Chick]

There's one of those a few roads away, but in a more rural location than us. It's right next to an orchard, which has sheep in, and with fields surrounding it. Yet it seems to have about twice as many bedrooms than any normal family could use, as well as several 4x4s that have never seen mud (I have a massive objection to city folk buying 4x4s if they don't go offroad). This house was only put up a few years ago - how they got planning permission I don't know.

At the other end of the scale, developers here keep putting up large numbers of apartments, because there is a larger profit margin. However, there is a limit to the number of flats that any one country can use, and we've reached it. What we really need is houses (affordable ones please - property prices are out of all proportion to wages) but you can't make so much profit out of them, so they don't get built.

The house that I live in is pretty average for the period - it's only about 70 years old, but it is in suburbia, 3 bedrooms, semi-detatched, with a long, thin garden.

My grandparents decided to retire from a two storey house to a four storey house

It's about 150 years old, and with a tiny garden, 5 toilets and 4 bedrooms. If it had been built in modern times (and not out of 30cm thick stone) then yes it would be a McMansion lol.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

The more complicated the roof line, the more expensive it is to finish, and the more likely to leak at the seams, especially with shoddy labor.

Even well-constructed houses around here are designed by fancy architects who define themselves by their complex rooflines, but after a few years, when the bad weather hits, it's problem after problem.

(We live in a tiny Cape Cod style house, like a box, a good sturdy, leakproof box!)

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Good luck. It is becoming so expensive to own land in NC that native North Carolinians can no longer afford to live here. There was a story in last week's paper about an 82-year-old man who bought his house for $28,000 in 1972. It has now be reassessed and valued at a little under 2 million dollars! Obviously, he's old, retired, on a fixed income, and can't afford to pay taxes on a 2 million dollar home, but he doesn't want to move.

They should look into tax breaks for the retired. In our state, they only get taxed something like 40% of the total worth per year and the amount paid can only increase 1% per year. In addition, they do not have to pay any levies on their property. The cut off in "income" here is 25k too. So that's not too bad to reach a few years after retirement.

 

[hollyclyff]

To me, to qualify as a McMansion, the house has to be pretty big, but the key is it has to be on a lot that is too small for it and be in a big subdivision where all the houses are basically just like it. If you took that same house and put it by itself on a decent size piece of land, it would just be a big house. Smaller houses with the same qualifications are what I consider "cookie cutters". That's just my interpretation.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Any house larger than 2500 sq ft on a lot of 5000 sq ft qualifies as a McMansion. I think it is the ratio of house size to lot size, but some are just huge ostentatious homes on big lots. I can't understand why someone would want to pay a fortune for a home, just so they can look in their neighbors windows. Crazy!!!!

 

[nccountrygirl]

And work themselves to death to pay for the big monstrousity. I imagine there utility bills are outrageous and they probably don't get to enjoy the fruits of their labor, so to speak.