Monday, July 23, 2007

Halting the McMansions

Boulder, CO, may have come up with a solution to the gross problem of McMansions:

"Homeowners willing to sign away their option to someday add additions to their houses would receive a one-time payment as well as lower yearly tax assessments on their homes. The forfeited enlargement rights would then be available for purchase through a specially established market. Residents planning to build or expand homes larger than the recommended thresholds — 7,000 square feet on the plains, 5,000 square feet in the mountains — would be required to purchase additional development rights at prices determined by the market, which might be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per property."

5,000 square feet! What would you do with 5,000 square feet. Right now The Poor Man and I live in a townhouse that is just under 1,000 square feet. I would love a kitchen and living room that are twice the size we have now, a master suite where our bedroom is about 1.5 times our current bedroom and a walk-in closet, and another bedroom and bathroom. So that would be 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms total. I expect that would be about 2,000 - 2,500 square feet. What would I do with 5,000 square feet of living space?? Even if we had 5 bedrooms (an office for the husband and a craft room for me), that would still not add up to 5,000 square feet. How do you keep everything clean and cool/warm?

3 comments:

Pablo said...

A big hallway to play hallway soccer.

Cleaty said...

Now that's an idea! When I was in high school I used to think that a good measure of "success" would be whether or not I could fit a soccer field in my backyard. In this real estate market, I can either live in the city and have lots of friends, but no soccer field, or I can live in the stix with a regulation sized soccer field but no friends to come over to play with me. It's a catch-22.

Pablo said...

I'm sure David Beckham thought of that when he bought his $22 millon mansion. Now he has to play soccer with Tom Cruise.

And on that note, please tell me you're not going nuts over Becks.