Bye-Bye to the McMansion....
Growing up, I loved our home. We were on two acres and had a red brick four bedroom home. The living room was a favorite because I loved playing the grand piano. We all loved spending time in the kitchen. Cooking, eating, visiting... we're Louisianians! My mother North Carolinian. It's in our blood, gather and eat.
As an adult, I have always said to my Boulder Mountain Man, I do not want a home the size where I don't know where everyone is. Or at least, where we can get lost! Seriously! I love a good size home like the one I grew up in but I love even more the people in it - family!
And I never thought the McMansion's were real fellowship friendly. In fact, for the second year in a row, Americans are agreeing on the shrinking McMansion.
Now, it seems lots of Americans agree. When Boulder Mt. Man was in college and I was home with our twin sons. I loved spending every second raising our children. My peers were all working double income jobs as if the 80s had just hit the small southern town with a large population of DINKS. So I was ahead of the curve. Back then, I used to explain to my girlfriends that when Mt. Man graduated and we moved on, I wanted to "live" in our house! Not just purchase a mega-home only to be gone twelve hours a day to pay for it.
Seriously, do you feel the same way? Now, it seems a lot of us feel that way. Let's don't debate is America coming to that regardless of the home. Sometimes its' the choices we make. What is your choice on this - the McMansion? "Do you know where you children are!" You can usually hear mine! :) Or see the flash of lightning blitz by!
Warmly, Carolina Mama
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5 comments:
I think it's all about living within your means and what kind of square footage you need to meet your lifestyle. I personally think that home is beautiful!!!! God Bless you if you can afford it!
Karen
Totally agree! Hate the McMansion and want to be close to my family. The bigger the house, the more stuff you have to buy to fill it up, the more you have to clean it (or pay someone to clean it for you) and you'll probably only be satisfied with the size until The Jones family buys a bigger one in the new subdivision down the road and you'll just have to have that extra 1,000 square feet. We live in a 1,800 square foot home and it's perfect for us! I love being creative with the space we have and I don't feel pressure to keep up with anyone because I just honestly don't want that!
It's not the house that makes a home, its the people inside. Great post!
Agreed. The bigger the house, the more square footage needing to be cleaned. ICK.
Gotta tell you, ladies: bigger isn't necessarily harder to clean. Having moved from a tiny (<1200 sf) house into a house that probably meets most definitions for a mcmansion (4000sf but definitely not shoddy construction), I am thrilled to have room for my family to spread out, and it's actually easier to keep clean. In my old house, the dirt had nowhere to hide, and had to be dealt with immediately. Now, I realize my bigger house definitely stays tidier looking, and it's really not so much of a burden to clean. As where a smaller house might require entire cleaning every week, with touch-ups at least twice between, a bigger house doesn't all need to be cleaned weekly. High traffic areas still need frequent cleaning, but since my new home is constructed with convenient, modern materials (compared to my old mid-century contemporary), even the cleaning is easier. And now that we have a spacious, airy kitchen, we eat more meals together.
My new home costs about as much to heat and cool as the old one, because it is much better constructed and insulated, and uses much more efficient gas heat instead of the old electric baseboards that used to warm us. The notion that older houses were better built is just laughable...just like houses today, some are well built, and others are junk. But bringing an old house up to modern standards of space and efficiency isn't worth it, which is why so many people prefer to tear down or just move away. (My husband and I always used to joke about how we lived in somebody's future tear-down!)
So let's not turn smaller-is-better into a new smug eco mantra.
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