Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/13/italy-by-epcot.html
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Great to see that she’s still doing brilliantly funny work!
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I do think most of the commentary and items she does are funny…more snark rarely hurts in my book.
However, I will caveat that if many of her interior photos are coming from realty listings…much of that may not be the actual decor of those dwelling in the homes as Realtors often stage the interiors, even going so far as to swap out every thing in the room entirely just for photo shoots. Secondly, in some of these McMansion cases…the owners may not have had any say in the exterior design of the homes. They may have bought them already built like that, and the average person buying a house doesn’t know what is or isn’t bad architectural design…hell do any of us know whats what if we didn’t have Kate here pointing it out to us?
Look…making fun of this particular group of elitist assholes is fair game, I am not saying we can’t do a bit of “kick em while they’re down” because let’s be honest…they are never really down. I just question if this is the stone we should be throwing…I guess we can have both and all.
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Just to be clear: the cursed horse/casually placed ukelele picture is allegedly William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman’s pad.
The place with the bike garage and lawn drainage problems (or is that meant to be a pond?) is Lori Loughlin and Massimo Giannulli’s
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Thank you!
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Why? I found the five minutes I spent on that well spent.
You don’t seem to have fully worked out your critique of this critique. Might the issue actually be that you too live in a less than entirely tasteful McMansion?
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I don’t get that thin vertical window in the house in the bottom picture. Is that an arrow slit to shoot upon any angry commoners?
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No, I’m pretty sure that’s there to provide a little sliver of light to whomever they have locked up in their dungeon.
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"who’s belief in meritocracy was so strong that he was willing to cheat to get the children of the wealthy the positions that poorer children had earned. "
This is the part that infuriates me over this whole thing. Just confirms how much of a huge shithead this guy and his associates really are.
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So you’re saying… fake news?
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The exterior isn’t to my taste, but the library – horse painting notwithstanding – is lovely.
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Also, if that is the Huffman/Macy house, I’m sure the ukulele is actually used as he is a known ukulele player and advocate. Would that he were known more for that, than for this criminal absurdity.
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I think you know me better than that to know the answer is no. 3 bed 1 bath dinky ranch that needs new siding, a new roof, new landscaping.
We at least re modeled the kitchen a few years back, because as a cook I needed a more functional space.
I am merely conflicted with poking fun of someone on a topic that they may have not had control over. Kind of like making fun of the kids in family/school photos when it was clearly the parents who made the decision as to what they were wearing and such.
@Boundegar How about “Half Truth” News?
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Stop tearing down the 1%, it’s just not fair, but it is funny.
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They are. That’s part of the critique. These are staggeringly rich people, buying and trying to sell houses. This is either what people actually have in their homes (unlikely) or what realtors think appeal to such people.
But the interior decor snark is not the point (or at least wasn’t always).
This is, although the education message seems to have got lost a bit since the early days. For some reason the interior design snark seems to get more reposts.
This is more like it:
Again, these are rich people who bought expensive homes. This is what such people were presented with as “luxury” and they bought it.
People in the industry from architects to builders - people who should have known better - designed and built these monstrosities and sold them to people who either didn’t know better or in some cases (probably influenced by the already existing monstrosities) told them “Put another couple of columns over there - oh and I want the bathroom moving over here, and a pantry off the second kitchen. What do you mean there isn’t room for one - just do it. I’m paying you to figure this stuff out.”
And no doubt he always leans it up against a handy pile of hardback books. 
I think we can chalk that up as the modern equivalent of renaissance bigwigs being painted with a laurel wreath to indicate they were poets rather than that they routinely wandered about wearing topiary as a hat.
It’s presumably from some “see how the rich and famous live” piece and thus meticulously staged to showcase the owners’ interests.
Different houses.
But really? When do I get to sit across from Klaus Maria Brandauer to play Domination?
There’s a bit of a Bond villain polite interrogation room scene vibe to it, wouldn’t you say? Kind of aggressive placement of the “comfy chairs”?
And those bookshelves are … inefficient is about all I can say. In a proper library those wooden bits at the end of each shelf hinge so you can actually get at the books at the end.
The coffered ceiling also looks odd to me but I see they are a thing in the US, so ok.
On that note, @anon61833566 I’d say she’s more aiming at this kind of thing:
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They must be parvenu vulgarians if they had to openly buy their way in. Among the true entitled, things are done more discretely.
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To be fair, they aren’t being assigned these houses by some third party. This ain’t Gattaca.
These folks are buying, selling, and living in these eyesores, they aren’t bystanders caught up in something beyond their control. At some point, whether it’s by participating in the design or just buying it from someone else, each of these folks made the conscious decision “yup, that’s the house I want to spend a shit-ton of money on.”
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obligatory “no duh”. But that is not a thing that is specific to 1%ers versus the rest of us. Home buyers generally speaking regardless of price range…buy based on location. Are you a home owner? Do you know what is perfectly good architectural design vs bad? Did you notice all the flaws in your home before purchasing, and if so did you NOT buy a house based on said flaws or buy it thinking you didn’t consider it important or figured you’d change it later?
My point is…as we are well aware, being rich does not equate to being smart. It is also true that being rich doesn’t mean you stop doing the same thing most people do when it comes to buying a house: you buy based on location, because it’s the one thing you can’t change.
Additionally…sure a lot of these homes have stupid windows and columns and pillars and crap…just willing to bet they don’t give a flying shit about it. And most people wouldn’t. In fact…if not for her blog pointing out a lot of the stupid…most of us wouldn’t know or care either! And let’s be honest…her blog is pointing out ONLY the stupid/bad…not whatever might be good or potentially great about them.
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But McMansion Hell is not making fun of middle class people who are doing the best they can based on their resources, it is making fun of people with bad or no taste spending exorbitant amounts of money to give the impression that they have good taste, and failing notably in the process.
Also, for me, someone who knows enough about architecture to fill a teacup, her annotations are really interesting in the way they explain why something doesn’t look right.
Except that’s the point–the owners and designers of these McMansions care desperately about the appearance of luxury and sophistication. It’s their failure to execute that is the entertaining part. It’s not unlike being fascinated/horrified by the efforts boorish people make to buy class in things like Queen of Versailles or this: https://goo.gl/tBoK8y
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No doubt the rack is in the second kitchen.
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