Onlooker shares aerial photo of 'hideous' castle-like home in neighborhood: 'What a monstrosity'

As children, many of us spent hours dreaming about growing up to be royalty, living in a castle, or being waited on hand and foot.

A Reddit post has demonstrated that at least part of that life is possible, but the reality of it may be closer to a nightmare than a dream come true.

The post, from the popular r/McMansionHell subreddit, shows a castle-like home in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. The home is massive enough that it's the only house visible in an aerial photo, and so over-the-top that the post describes it as "hideous."

"What a monstrosity," one commenter wrote.

Other than the sheer size of the home and the lack of any other properties nearby, what stands out the most is the lack of landscaping.

On either side of the front entrance sit two small grass lawns. Behind the house is a circular swimming pool. But other than that, the house is surrounded entirely by a massive paved white surface with reddish accents, making it look like it sits in the middle of a mall's parking lot. Or a moat of dried concrete, if you will.

No trees. No plants.

"I think there's a house in that driveway," one commenter joked.

While it's easy to crack jokes about these types of "McMansions," it's also fair to point out that these homes usually take significant resources to build. They also require loads of energy to properly light, heat, and cool their vast square footage, typically with a low ratio of resources to people living there. In this case, it doesn't even have any trees or plants to offset any of that carbon pollution.

An energy-efficient tiny home this is not. If anything, with its large roof and Texas location, a house like this should be a prime candidate for solar panels.

For anyone looking to reduce their home's carbon footprint and lower their monthly energy bills, solar panels are a fantastic option. EnergySage offers free tools that make it easy to see what options are available near you, and to receive installation estimates from local, verified installers.

In fact, EnergySage estimated that the average homeowner can save up to $10,000 by using its tools and comparing quotes.

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That's not even accounting for the money that will be saved on future energy bills by avoiding grid-provided power — which is still heavily reliant on dirty fuels.

In comparison, commenters on the Reddit thread were alarmed by the likely high energy bills of this Texas castle.

"Can you imagine the cooling costs?" one commenter asked. "It's the epitome of 'more money than sense.'"

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