Posted on 08/21/2004 12:27:52 PM PDT by lowbridge
For many Americans, bigger is better when it comes to their homes. The facts speak for themselves: According to the Census Bureau, the average home size has swelled 40 percent since the early 70's.
According to National Association of Homebuilders, 19 percent of homes built in 2003 were 3,000 square feet or more. But the appetite for larger and larger homes has run afoul of some. Namely those who've watched super-sized structures crop up next door.
How can you fight "McMansion" expansion where you live? Here are today's 5 Tips.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I live in the People's Republic of Boulder County in Colorado. The Libs in this area have made a science out of violating people's property rights using tactics such as those listed in this article. If you let this sort of mentality get a foothold in your community you are headed down a path of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) and will have hordes of IGMEELs (I Got Mine, Everybody Else Leave). This will not only steal people's legitimate property rights, but will tear neighborhoods apart by pitting neighbors against neighbor. I know. I have seen it in spades! Lastly, your community will become an "elite" area where average folks cannot afford to live and your children will have to leave when they grow up. Minorities will be driven out by economics and "trust babies" who have no idea how to work for a living will take over.
If you care about these kinds of issues, you might consider attending the National Property Rights Conference that will be in Sandusky, OH on Sep 10-12. If folks like Freepers don't help defend property rights against the Libs, we are in big trouble!
There are doctors, hospitals and highways all across the USA. Travel some--NOT JUST TO CLUB MED-- and you might be amazed at what you would like alot more in the future.
Yeah- BUT you are 2 tractors up on me. 5 acres and no tractors. Only 6 horses- Oh- they are registered Arabians, so maybe they are worth more than 2 tractors? :) :)
I wasn't talking about me. My parents. The housing market was depressed when they bought their current house and really, for their needs it's perfect. It was kind of crowded when we were kids, but it served and they are going to get about 1000% return when they eventually sell. The people moving in that neighborhood generally stay for about 5 years and leave when it's time for their kids to go to school. And that subdivision has some of the strictest by-laws you can imagine.
OOOPs I meant 16 to a DWELLING sorry
No room for and not zoned for horses. I drive further to services, but I have peace and quiet with soft snorts to hear as twilight falls. I give up some things, but I get alot in return.
I watch behemoths rise in the resort lakeside developments not too far from my own rural area. I've concluded that it is very difficult to make a house over 7000sq ft attractive. Houses this big look like overweight people look--swollen and ungraceful. Bloating walls out to the edges of lots that cannot be large enough to contain it. Houses this big need more than an acre, and really more than two.
And the obvious efforts to attract attn are vulgar and ugly as well--like one house I've seen on the promentory of a water lot, painted bright white. Your eye must fasten on that structure rather than the water around it--but the locals have taken to calling it "Alcatraz." It does have rather the look of an enormous correctional facility.
Here's the deal with California; People are paying a lot more than what the houses and land are worth- all over California, from Bakersfield to Mt. Shasta... land is not worth what people are paying- I grew up on a large bit of land and know the area well.... there is prettier land, cleaner air, and better jobs away from the Sierra Nevada foot hills.. And yet they are buying..... it is not worth it, that is the point, the land is not worth 1/2 of what they are paying.
Add a homeowners asso. and you have a real nightmare. Soon they will tell you to take your flag down.
We look at all the new models in all the new neighborhoods. With just 3 of us, we don't really need a 5 br house or 3500 square feet or a big mortgage. We always breath a little easier when we come home to our heavily wooded neighborhood of modest, older homes.
Hey, to each his own. And yes, sometimes I envy the big rooms, closets, gourmet kitchens, garden tubs, and screened in porches. But thank God we live in a free country where a McMansion is only a decision and signature away if we want it.
I am placated now. No ferrier bills for the tractors. ; )
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1196041/posts
I've got a riding vacuum cleaner for sale if you're interested.
I'm in the construction business and have recently been involved in three projects for homes over 20,000 square feet. All I can think about, with respect to these houses, is how do they keep them cleaned. Hence the riding vacuum cleaner remark.
By the way, two of the homes were build for two local, yet notorious trial lawyers, both of which have sued me unsuccessfully. John Edwards, kiss my, ahem. Excuse me, frog in my throat.
One of the benefits of living in a large underground house, is the absence of as much dirt and dust as we used to have in 3000 sq ft above ground... The roof is made from pre=stressed concrete with a sealer on both sides...
The great room is cleaned when we have guests coming, and the kitchen and our master suite are our main living spaces, other than my pond house/smoking room! ... easy to care for!
Sure. I own a house in a historical neighborhood. (It's a rental). It's needed painting for 2 years. But we can't manage to agree on the color. I was lucky enough to find a guy who could restore the windows, because there was no chance we could ever have agreed on replacements. Etc.
If I didn't have a tenant who really wanted to live there and does most of the work with the historical society, I wouldn't have time to keep it.
On the other hand, the value of that house is escalating wildly. A lot of people like living in old houses where mansioning is prohibited.
Actually, it sounds glorious. I love space. Our home is 5500 sq. ft. (all above ground) and with a husband and two teenagers, I often feel cramped. We virtually bought the house for a song as it was on the market for two years and the buyer was ready to sell. If someone would come along and offer us the value our homeowner's insurance requires us to carry coverage on, I'd sell it in a heartbeat. My husband wants a home in the center of a couple of hundred acres of his own deer hunting preserve. That's my goal.
That's happening everwhere anyone wants to live...
So don't buy a house where there are covenants and zoning.
Instead, buy in a neighborhood where anything goes.
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