Aside from being a useful website to find your next home, Zillow also allows us to take a sneak peek inside desirable, interesting, or baffling properties.
It was a case of the last one for this Redditor, who shared a selection of images from a "McMansion" in Duluth, Georgia, which they found while searching for homes in their childhood neighborhood.
A McMansion refers to "large, cheaply built, suburban homes with design flaws and a lack of architectural integrity," according to the r/McMansionHell Reddit community.
Among the confusion and grievances expressed by many commenters were the "sterile" feel of the home, unnecessarily large living spaces, and unusual design choices.
"Excellent work, this is the true meaning of McMansion," one user said. "Very disturbing stuff."
"Ostentatious," was another commenter's assessment.
The property, which was on the market for nearly $3 million, might be appealing to its former owner and others, but it is a notable example of waste. Even if you had a family large enough to make use of the six bedrooms and seven full bathrooms, many of those rooms seem to be needlessly large.
The property will require a vast amount of power to heat, cool, illuminate, and maintain, which will not only be expensive but will also be a drain on resources. Since the majority of grid-provided power still comes from dirty energy sources, keeping those spaces comfortable will come with a high pollution toll.
What's more, it surely produced a lot of planet-warming gases during the construction phase. According to the U.N. Environment Programme, an average of 40 kilograms of carbon dioxide was produced per every square meter of new construction projects in 2021. With Zillow listing the property as comprising 9,060 square feet, that's an estimated 362,400 kilograms of CO2 for one house alone — and it's likely much higher since it was constructed in 1998.
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That's not even to mention the belongings that would fill the house. Having so much space encourages overconsumption, which is why more and more people are looking to declutter and even embrace tiny-house living.
While design and interior decoration is a personal choice for every homeowner, it's wise to think about what those decisions mean for the health of our planet. While the look of this property can be debated, it's hard to argue its disproportionately large impact in terms of polluting output from the very start of its existence.
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