• Home Home

Photos of 'wretched' mansion with strange design spark backlash: 'I'd pay money not to have to move there'

"This is the poster child of a McMansion."

"This is the poster child of a McMansion."

Photo Credit: Reddit

An astronomically huge house in Ontario is selling for $6.4 million, and Redditors aren't happy about it. 

Photos shared in the subreddit r/McMansionHell — where users vent about "large, cheaply built, suburban homes with design flaws and a lack of architectural integrity" — show the 

turreted, towering, "completely wretched" mansion.

"This is the poster child of a McMansion."
Photo Credit: Reddit
"This is the poster child of a McMansion."
Photo Credit: Reddit

One commenter described the exterior color as "greige," and the land has little to no landscaping aside from an enormous lawn. Inside, it has strange attributes, like a mysterious pillar in a random corner.

Commenters had a field day making jokes and questioning the house's design choices. What's worse, huge houses like this — which are often seen as gaudy displays of wealth — can be extremely expensive to maintain and inefficient. 

It's hard to heat or cool such large spaces, especially when the ceilings are high. This means HVAC units will need to work overtime, likely burning an excessive amount of dirty fuels to keep one single building comfortable. 

FROM OUR PARTNER

Find the best HVAC solution to heat and cool your home more efficiently

Mitsubishi Electric’s efficient heating and cooling HVAC solutions can help you stay comfortable no matter the weather or region. You can even regulate temperatures in each room with individually controlled all-electric heat pump systems.

With an energy-efficient, all-climate system from Mitsubishi, you can reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool your home, receive up to $2,000 in tax credits, and get peace of mind knowing you’re choosing rigorously tested, high-quality products.

Meanwhile, lawn maintenance can use up vast amounts of water to keep the space looking green and lush, putting an unnecessary strain on an increasingly vital resource. 

On top of that, they're often made of less-than-durable materials — and a vast quantity of them.

Of course, there are ways to offset these issues if someone absolutely wants to reside in such a place. Planting native lawns instead of traditional ones provides a home for pollinators like bees and butterflies and uses much less water. 

Solar panels would offset some of the energy expenditure of heating and cooling. The company EnergySage could help outfit one of these behemoth buildings by vetting local installers and saving a McMansion owner up to $10,000. Using EnergySage to choose the right solar panel installer could bring energy costs down to or near $0.

Do you worry about the quality of the air inside your home?

Yes — often 😬

Yes — but only sometimes 😕

Only when it's bad outside 😮‍💨

No — I never do 😌

Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

These are ways to make a McMansion more efficient and Earth-friendly, but they won't guarantee your neighbors will love the look of the house. Commenters on this Reddit post commiserated about their distaste, and they did not hold back.

"This is the poster child of a McMansion to me," one joked.

"I think the two little plastic chairs next to the garage house illustrates the limitless potential for outdoor entertaining," another commented sarcastically.

Another quipped, "I'd pay money not to have to move there."

Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more and waste less, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

Cool Divider