For months now, driving in or out of my little street, like my neighbors, I’m forced to navigate bulldozers and cement mixers, flatbed trucks and roofer’s pickups. Assorted other vehicles line the narrow road – the typical array for ongoing construction.
This is residential construction, mind you. And it’s the newest “big” house.
The Bigger the Badder
This particular “Big” House is a McMansion at its worst – an obscenity of an enormous residence that dwarfs everything in the vicinity.
I am reminded of the old films I love so much – black and white masterpieces, cult capers or soapy melodramas, even gangster flicks with Bogie and Edward G. Robinson. In those days, the Big House meant the penitentiary.
Has the nonstop desire for big, bigger, biggest become a sort of prison?
We live in a country that worships more – the bigger the better – isn’t that our American altar? And who doesn’t love to say that size matters? We joke about it when it comes to men (sorry guys). We super-size everything – from fast food to gourmet. And popular culture encourages us to go for grand – bright bling, bodacious breasts, bountiful bank accounts (now deflated for millions despite our monster houses on crowded tracts where modest homes once stood).
Whatever happened to small is beautiful?
Right. Another time. Another place. Another generation.
Home, Cozy Home
I live in an area that was originally developed in the 1930s, best I can tell. Bungalows and cottages were the norm, ranging from about 1100 square feet to something more expansive, around 2,000 square feet at the “wealthy” end of the neighborhood.
Over the years, remodeling has been creatively executed, generally without destroying the charm and integrity of the homes. The location is excellent, and residents have built second stories, or additions stretching into small back yards. Anything from 1800 to 3,000 square feet is now more common.
Last year, two lovely adjoining homes on my street were purchased and then razed. A neighbor informed me that the buyer intended to put up a single home on the combined property – but “not to worry” – they had kids and wanted a large grassy play area. They said they wouldn’t build an outrageous and inappropriate home.
Cue the violins. Offer a shrink – or a drink – to the absurdly gullible.
Starvation of Spirit
What is actually in process?
A gigantic residence that I estimate to be five or six times the size of those flanking each side, and across the street. Money, obviously, was no object.
This mammoth structure removed at least a dozen towering hardwoods. Its three and a half story design (with three car garage) makes a mockery of the cottages nearby with one or two stories and no garage at all. This isn’t a showy neighborhood, or one where there are any other exhibitions of this sort of disregard for the history and character of the area.
Yet I don’t understand how the owners managed to secure their permit exceptions. I don’t understand how they bypassed a public hearing (or slipped their plans through the cracks). I don’t understand the mentality of ruining a neighborhood – much less the rationale for a multimillion dollar home on a small street that cannot financially support it.
It seems like the ultimate example of entitlement.
Naturally, I worry about my property taxes – which have risen year after year since purchasing my tiny place. But my concerns run deeper. We continue to expand our square footage and create prisons filled with “stuff.” I worry about our failure to thrive as a nation, our starvation of spirit, of core values, of basic decency.
Community
We all know there’s no place like home. We want to create inviting spaces – and sometimes, impressive ones – and call them home. These are the rooms in which we make our memories as we raise our children, watch them grow, laugh around the dinner table, hosting friends and family.
Extended family. Neighbors. Community.
Have we shelved our integrity? Stowed our common sense?
I love a gorgeous home as much as the next person, and I make no assumptions about whomever will live in the Big House. But where they have seemingly gained – whatever it is they are seeking – everyone else on the street has lost.
“Yet I don’t understand how the owners managed to secure their permit exceptions.” It’s called money and influence (it’s a redundancy to say them both).
I do realize that, but… usually community organizations get wind of this sort of thing, and prevent it. Obviously, not this time.
And they got away with it by convincing whomever that this would raise values – yet again, the need for more.
I remember when this phenomenon first hit the neighborhood where I grew up. Adjoining lots were purchased, the comfortable, but modest colonials that occupied them were leveled, and giant, Italianate McMansions were built in their place.
What always puzzled me was what was going through the minds of the new occupants: didn’t they feel odd being the suburban equivalent of Gulliver in Lilliput?
Once upon a time, people spent time outside, on their front porches and in their yards. Once upon a time, children shared rooms. Once upon a time, the office was somewhere else, as was the library. And even a single car was a luxury.
I am guilty of excessive book buying, of filling my (small by modern standards, and not big in the 1950s when it was built) with too much. But the absurdity of houses so monstrously big, dwarfing their neighbors, leaving no green space around, infuriates me.
There’s irony in what you say here, Kate. These big houses – many with large front porches – and you don’t see people sitting outside in them!
I also remember sharing a room as a child, and my own children shared a room for many years. Nothing wrong with it! In fact, I think it can often bring kids closer to their siblings.
Just think of the taxes they are paying, the services they require (lawn, maid, painters, etc.), and purchases they make in your community. Sometimes that helps… a little bit.
Um… Nope. Not helping. (But thanks for trying!) I am grateful I’m not the 1200 square foot home sitting next to this 6,000 square foot obscenity!
Obscene, that’s exactly what it is. Clearly, they have to compensate for something else in their lives. I doubt they are happy since lives filled with mass quantities of triviality rarely are. And now, no one else on the street is happy either.
I always wonder why people choose to build these huge houses when the properties around them are noticeably smaller.
Good luck with these new neighbors. 🙂
I live in a neighborhood where houses rarely sell for under $1,000,000, and that would be your 1930s bungalow which would be ripped out and a McMansion installed which reaches from corner-of-lot to corner-of-lot. We live in a condo. It used to worry me that my sons were going to become victims of house-proud prejudice, and that they would come to resent our humble little abode because everyone else had a bedroom the size of our living room all to themselves and plenty of room for parties.
It’s been the contrary, however. My eldest, when he visited one of his friends for a party, got lost going to the bathroom and ended up in the garage. He came home shaking his head. “They never see each other in that house! Everybody’s off in some other part of it, and they’ve got rooms they never go into!”
I’ve longed for a house, mostly for want of a porch and a few extra closets. But now I’m grateful for my little pre-housing-bubble condo mortgage and the pool down the hall that I don’t ever have to clean. My boys share a room that they can’t keep clean, and, honestly? They don’t like to sleep in a room alone. Our living room is a living room; we’re there, talking, playing, watching tv, listening to music, on the computer, all together, with friends and neighbors. It’s not a showcase, maybe, but it’s a home. That’s all I need.
It’s not a showcase… it’s a home.
I’m with you on this one, Madelia. Thank you for such a thoughtful comment.
PS— the condo building next door to us? Starting price for a unit is $900,000. And they don’t have a pool… but they get to look at ours all summer!
Crazy. Really crazy. The “American Dream” of home ownership hasn’t exactly turned out the way many of us thought, has it.
I wonder what is fueling this big house on the block mentality. It always makes me think, “Aren’t they setting themselves up to be targeted by criminals?” Just don’t know why one would want to call that kind of attention to themselves…