McMansion Hell: When Bigger Isn’t Better

Shannon Quinn - February 27, 2023

Photo: Credit: Reddit

McMansion is a term used to describe a type of large, ostentatious, and often poorly constructed suburban house that tries to look luxurious. These houses can range from 3,000 to 10,000 square feet and have over-the-top design elements like turrets, faux stone facades, and grand staircases. They are often built in large subdivisions, and unlike well-made grand houses of the past, they are made of poor quality materials and will wear down easily. The term is a combination of “McDonald’s” and “mansion.” Many people, including a construction project manager, reject these cookie-cutter houses in favor of historic architecture with more charm and character. The McMansion Hell subReddit has a collection of photos of these types of houses.

This Redditor Breaks Down Everything Wrong With This McMansion

As you can see from the photo, this person wrote text over top of the image to explain everything that’s wrong with this house. All of the windows are different sizes. There are also three different finishes used as the siding of the house. It’s all very strange. If you want to see more, you can check out the original Reddit post to see an entire image gallery of this mansion. This person picks apart every aspect of the home, even the interior decoration. Whoever built this house probably loves it. But in a lot of ways, this fits the definition of a McMansion to a tee.

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Skinniest House Ever

We don’t know what’s going on here. From the street, this house would look like a large mansion. But if you look at it from the side, you would see that it is actually an incredibly skinny house. It is practically a facade. One would assume that this might even be the set of a movie. But no, it’s a real house out there somewhere. I’m not sure how these people can live like that, but they must not have had a lot of money in their building budget. Part of me hopes that this really is a movie set, or some sort of joke. Because it’s truly so bad, it’s beyond comprehension.

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When You Forget to Include the Fridge

Here at Home Addict, we have bashed terrible DIY jobs before. But in this situation, it’s clear from the kitchen in the background that this was a brand new, professionally built home. When they were installing the counters in this new kitchen, they forgot to include space for the fridge in the home design. This forced the builders to put a fridge smack dab in the middle of the room. It looks ugly and ridiculous. If you owned this house, you should demand the builders fix the issue, even if it meant tearing the entire kitchen out. This is worthy of taking the construction company to court.

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Joel Osteen’s Horrendous McMansion

Many of you may have heard of Joel Osteen the preacher and televangelist of a gigantic megachurch. Part of the Gospel that preachers like Osteen subscribe to is the idea that Christians deserve a lot of abundance from God. So believe it or not, this is practicing what he preaches. Even though Jesus lived like a humble person, these Christians believe that you’re supposed to live an extravagant lifestyle. But this mansion in particular is horrifying. it is so big, it might as well be its own compound. It goes around in a u-shape, covering up the pool area in the center. Maybe he wanted this design so that he would have privacy. But the result is insane.

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A House For Car People

This house was clearly a custom build from someone who cared a lot about their cars. As you can see from the photo, this person decided to build an 18 car garage. But they kept their house to a very small and modest one bedroom one bath. In terms of building a valuable house as a real estate investment, this was a stupid move. There are very few people out there who are willing to live in a one-bedroom house. (Especially if they have a family.) And even fewer who have the massive car collection that would end up going in a garage like this. Good luck to these people trying to resell their house later.

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The Ugliest House Imaginable

There is just something off about this house. Maybe it’s the two tiny windows that don’t match anything else in the home design. Or maybe it’s the awkwardly long balcony that faces the street. But if you look at the Zillow listing, you’ll see that someone actually bought this house for just under 1 million dollars in the spring of 2022. This might be because the real estate market is incredibly inflated right now. But if you’re curious, check out the listing to see the entire home. Clearly, someone out there liked this house enough to pay almost a million dollars. But those of us on Reddit just see it as an ugly McMansion.

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This Million Dollar House Looks Like a Giant Trailer

Something about this house just screams “prefabricated trailer home”. In reality, this is a 10 bedroom mansion that is massive. But when you look at the photo gallery of the interior, it looks very plain. The kitchen is small, the decoration is very simple, and it truly does look like it could be in a trailer park if you were to take the photos out of the context of the listing. If you’re going to spend a lot of money on a huge house, we almost prefer the over the top luxury look of a McMansion compared to this. Designing a house like this makes no sense.

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46 Bedrooms, Only to Be Abandoned

This next house is absolutely insane. The home has a whopping 46 bedrooms. When you look at the side of the building, it seems to stretch on forever. The owners of the home had good intentions. They planned to turn their house into an assisted living facility, and even built the garage to be big enough to house ambulances. However, they simply did not have enough money to finish the project. Business Insider did an article about this house, and they included photos of the interior of the home. All of it is unfinished. And the building is so big, you would probably need a million dollars just to finish it.

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The Garage Mahal

Here is yet another house where the owner prioritized having a lot of garage space for their cars. This time though, they have three garage doors next to one another with three different peaked roofs over top. We think the mansion looks very pretty. But as someone pointed out in the comments, the photograph makes it look like it is settled somewhere in a beautiful area where they have a great view of the mountains. But in reality, they’re in a suburban neighborhood, and their view is of the neighbor across the street. So this very much qualifies as a McMansion, because they’re going so over the top just to live in a normal neighborhood.

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A Fake Castle That Looks Like Corrugated Metal

Thanks, we hate it. This reminds me of the Podunk Castle that we featured in another list here on Home Addict called Ridiculous Photos of Houses That Make Us Shake Our Head In Disappointment. Someone decided to build a brand new house that looks like a castle. But instead of basing it on historic castles from Europe, they put their own spin on it. They decided to make a very strange, almost metallic looking fake castle in the United states. It looks so strange and ugly. who would never want to own this house? And forget about selling it without some major fixes.

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The Kardashian Hellscape

If you have ever seen the TV show Keeping up With the Kardashians, or their new show simply called The Kardashians, then you already know that the sisters have beautiful homes. In fact, I’m in love with Kendall Jenner’s house that she showcased for Architectural Digest’s YouTube channel. Many people would love to have a house like that someday. However, it turns out that the house they film in is not necessarily the house they live in. The sisters have a large real estate portfolio, and that includes this new estate that they are building in the photo above. It’s massive, and it certainly qualifies as a McMansion.

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These Suburban McMansions Have Zero Privacy

This is a bird’s eye view of a suburban neighborhood somewhere in Texas. As you can see from the photos, these are large mansions that probably cost a lot of money to build. However, they are built so close together, that these people must not have any privacy at all. You can even imagine that if your neighbors were having a fight next door, you could probably hear them. This definitely qualifies as a McMansion scenario, because it has the illusion of living in luxury. But the reality is that you might as well be living in an apartment or condo.

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This McMansion Looks Like it Has Leprosy

You can tell what this builder was trying to accomplish here, but they failed miserably. In European castles, you can see the stones peeking through underneath the lime render that once covered the entire castle. It has a lot of charm, and it shows the age of the building. So if you see a castle that is nothing but stone, it means that the render has all fallen off over time. But whoever built this house decided to replicate that crumbling render look by pasting faux stones all over their house. The result makes it look like it has some kind of disease. And to make matters worse, they never actually finished building this house. So they spent a tremendous amount of money on unnecessary decoration on the exterior and used up their entire budget by doing so.

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The Control Tower

On one hand, we sort of like this house. At least, we would like it more if there was not a gigantic tower in the center of the building. It really looks like a control tower from an airport, or even a guard tower in a prison. You would not want to be reminded of prison every time you came home. Our hope Is that this person who owns the house lives in a really beautiful area. So maybe they wanted a very tall tower so that they could get a good view. But if it turns out that the house was built in a suburban neighborhood, it would truly be ridiculous and a huge waste of money.

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A Crooked House

This house looks like the Builder bought a bunch of random windows and tried to make sure that it would all fit no matter what. Doesn’t matter if the largest window has to sit on an angle. They need to get all these windows in. The result is that the house looks very crooked and sort of lopsided. Maybe they get a lot of beautiful natural light because of all the windows, but it truly looks strange. Since this house is smaller, we hesitate to even qualify it as a McMansion. However, it looks like it was custom built by someone who had a lot of money. So the fact that they decided to design it this way shows that they probably thought it looked fancy at the time, but they actually had bad taste. It deserves to be on this list by default.

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When the Mansion Looks Like a Motel

We don’t know what this person was thinking when they designed this mansion. The overhang above the driveway looks like something from a budget motel. In fact, those carport overhangs are usually only seen exclusively in hotels and event venues. Sure, you get the benefit of stepping out of your car and not getting rained on. But the siding and the architectural style of the house also makes it look like a motel as well. On the original Reddit post, you can see an entire image gallery of the interior of this house. Once you see it, things only get more confusing. They have an indoor swing bench that you would usually see on someone’s front porch. Then they have overly fancy ceilings, but mattresses straight up on the floor and one of the bedrooms. It is both trashy and fancy at the same time.

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This Gray Monstrosity Must Have Cost a Fortune

Someone out there wanted a house that looked like a castle. Or, better yet, a fortress. Everything from the color to the design of the turret really gives it a military vibe. And it must have cost a small fortune to build this from the ground up. But in reality, it kind of looks like a toy that a little boy would want to buy from the store. His toy soldiers would fit in quite well. Someone in the comments who saw the original listing and lived in the area pointed out the fact that this house is located just two streets away from a major interstate. The highway is so close to their house, they could probably see it from their back windows. Why spend so much money on such a huge house in a really terrible location?

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Maybe They Ran Out of Windows

The owner of this house must hate sunlight. When you see it from the front, everything looks decently normal. But once you see the house from the side, you can see that there are absolutely no windows on the side of the house. And the garage doors are on the side, which is also sort of awkward. You can tell that the land the house was built on is not even, which is why it was probably built on top of this large pedestal. It’s just very strange, and very ugly. But it must have cost a small fortune to build this McMansion.

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A Replica of the Oval Office

On the original Reddit post, there is an image gallery showing photos of this entire house. At first glance, it doesn’t look too bad. Sure, some of the rooms have very tacky and over the top shows of luxury with bad taste. But it’s not as bad as some of the others on this list. That is, until you get to the last photo. It shows that this person created a replica of the Oval Office in the White House. We guess this person had the dream of growing up to become the President of the United States, but they became a millionaire instead. Why else would they be obsessed enough to create a replica of the Oval Office? It also makes it incredibly hard to sell to the next person, because there are so few people out there who would want a room like this in their house.

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This Will Make Your Eyes Hurt

Who designed this? The roof line is completely crazy. There are peaks absolutely everywhere, to the point where the roof looks sharp to the touch. In a way, the house looks kind of cool. And I’m sure the owners are actually proud of their home. But, just like all of the other houses on this list, this was made by someone with a lot of money and an eccentric taste in real estate. One of the top comments said, “You know what, its mini size makes me see it as a delightfully pieced together witches cottage. Plunk it down in the woods and I’m all in.”

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The Copy/Paste McMansion

What in the world was this architect thinking? There are so many questions. One of the top comments on Reddit hits the nail on the head by saying, “Hey man, you remember in the ’90s when you would drag a JPEG across the screen? Can you make a house do that? Perfect!” Another joked that the house just won a game of solitaire. Seriously, what were they thinking? There is no rhyme or reason for having multiple peaks to the front of this house. It doesn’t make the house any more attractive by doing so. This is just a waste of money, and might turn off any future potential buyers.

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Wait For It…

When you first see this bathroom, it looks over the top luxurious. That is, until you see the upper left hand corner. There is a security camera pointing directly at the toilet. Why on Earth would anyone do this? But if you continue through the image gallery that was posted on Reddit, the outside of the house looks very normal. You would never imagine that they had a bathroom that looks like this. The design is very strange, because there are some rooms in the house that are luxurious, and look like they belong in a Las Vegas hotel. But then there are other rooms that are very normal and outdated, since all of this was probably installed sometime in the 1980s. And when you see the house from a bird’s eye view, it looks like your typical farmhouse somewhere in the countryside. It’s just very weird overall.

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The Builder Lost Millions on This

This home is located in Loganville, Georgia. It was specially built at 19,000 square feet. When it first went up for sale, it was initially listed by the builder for $2.6 million. But when no one bought it, this was foreclosed on and sold for just $374,900. According to people in the comments, this house actually blends in with other mansions on the same street. It must be a neighborhood full of eccentric millionaires. But this is a perfect example of someone who dumped way too much money into a very unique design, when they actually could not afford it. And to make matters worse, they made such an unappealing mansion, that no one wanted to buy it from them at the asking price. So they had no choice but to put it into foreclosure and lose millions of dollars.

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What Is This Roofline?

Here is yet another house where the roof line makes absolutely no sense. Instead of looking like a witches cottage, this one looks more like a vampire’s mansion. It almost belongs in our other list called Evil Buildings. But whoever made this house probably ran out of money in the process, because a lot of the windows are boarded up. It’s always sad to see something like this. But it’s a good lesson for everyone to know that even if you get a really good job or come into some money, it’s better to live within your means. If you go over the top with building a custom house, something like this can happen.

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Layers Like an Onion

This is yet another house that has multiple peaks in the front of the home. It also looks like you took a picture of a house and dragged it across the screen on a ’90s computer. Or, you can think of it as having a lot of layers, like an onion. The Reddit post includes an entire image gallery of pictures of this property. So you can see a photo of the back of the house, which is filled almost entirely with windows. The back of the house is more likable than the front.. But it still looks very strange, and still fits into the category of McMansion. Someone had a lot of money when they built this house, but they didn’t exactly give it the old world charm that it may have had if they had a better architect.

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The Duggar Estate

This mansion looks more like a horse stable, and that might be intentional. The Duggar family became famous when they were featured on the TLC reality television show called “19 Kids and Counting“. It documented the lives of parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 19 kids – nine girls and ten boys. The TV show ran for seven years from 2008 until it was canceled in 2015. Their fame helped the parents earn enough money to buy this mansion. But recently, the family has come under fire due to several controversies. To find out more, watch this YouTube documentary called The Depraved World of the Duggars.

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Mega Shutters

Like the caption on the photo says, these are some mega shutters that are totally oversized. They are so big, they don’t match the size of the windows at all. I’m not sure what they were thinking. Someone in the comment section said that if these shutters actually closed, it might be worth having if it would protect you from a hurricane or a tornado. But the truth is that they probably did this as a purely aesthetic choice. It looks completely awkward, and it probably cost a lot of money. I’m not sure what they were thinking, but we will never know.

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Did This House Used to be a Pizza Hut?

Serious question here. Was this house once a Pizza Hut? There are a lot of Pizza Huts Across the United States that have shut down as the company is struggling to survive. Or, they simply moved to smaller locations where the rent is cheaper than having these large restaurants with the specially shaped roof. But why on Earth would anyone decide to build a house like this? Pizza Hut has been around for a long time now, and this house does not look very old. Maybe this person worked for the company, or maybe they saw it in a design magazine and did not connect the dots.

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A Texas Mansion That Looks More Like a Bank

As you can see from the captions written on the photo above, there is a lot going on here to unpack. First of all, they have these weird modern turrets installed on either side of the house. There are window frame holes on the top tower, but no actual Windows to let in natural light. The shape of this building truly does look like a bank. I’m not sure if this really gives the vibe of being a warm welcoming home. It feels rather cold, and sort of looks like it belongs in the military. And, as the redditor pointed out in their captions, the building is not actually even on both sides. Someone made a huge mistake, and it seems no one noticed with enough time to fix the problem. This is why you should always measure.

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This House Looks Like the Jurassic Park Visitor’s Center

When you first see this photo, you would be forgiven for assuming that it was some sort of office or business building. But, no. This is a private house that someone built for their family to live in. The living room is huge, and includes a mountain that is also an indoor koi pond. If you look at the original Reddit post, there is an entire image gallery giving you photos from multiple angles of this property. The indoor Pond was probably a huge pain to clean. And, as someone pointed out in the comments, this kind of looks like the visitor center from Jurassic Park. It doesn’t make sense as a home, but maybe the next buyer will turn it into some sort of business.

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The Faux Antebellum McMansion

In case you didn’t know, the term Antebellum refers to a time period in the American South before the Civil war. Antebellum mansions are beautiful, because the men who built them were profiting off of their businesses that were unethical to say the least. Many of these mansions were situated on plantations that were farmed by African American slaves. However, even though they have a dark history, a lot of people still love the architecture of Antebellum mansions. So this person decided to make a modern version of that. But they completely missed the mark when it comes to these double staircases coming down to the pool. Usually, this feature is reserved for an entryway. But someone decided to waste a lot of money by having a spiral staircase down to the pool, as if it was necessary.

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The Twin Peaks Bathroom

From the outside, this mansion in Bozeman, Montana actually looks beautiful. It is situated somewhere in the mountains, and it has a lot of privacy and beautiful views. However, as you start to scroll through the photos of the interior, you might be shocked to stumble upon this red bathroom. It really reminds me of the trippy ’90s TV series called “Twin Peaks“. That show was weird and surrealist on purpose. But whoever made this house thought that this bathroom screamed luxury. According to someone in the comments, this house is a variation of the very popular “Masco House” design by Scholz Homes. The original and its variations were the most popular off the shelf luxury home plans of the 90s. There are thousands of identical mansions like this out there.

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Insider Info on the McMansion Life

The text on this photo gives us some inside information about what goes on inside a McMansion. “For my job, I spend most of my time in these fake nice, cheap plywood house neighborhoods. They’re all the same. The right garage door most likely has the husband’s F250 and the wife’s Jeep. And the smaller garage door always has a super nice old muscle car. That’s just how they’ve been programmed.” Someone came to the homeowner’s defense in the comments, saying that the owner could have motorcycles, or maybe a beer fridge in the garage. There may be slight variations, but it’s still pretty accurate.

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These Cheapskates Live in a McMansion, But Gave a $0 Tip

This photo was originally posted on a Doordash driver subReddit by someone who delivered food to this house. They said that this person gave them a $0 tip. And they took a photo of the house just to emphasize that they must have a lot of money, but they are selfish when it comes to tipping minimum wage workers. Here in the United States, there is a big culture around tipping service workers, because they make such little money. And if you don’t tip, it’s considered rude. Someone took this photo and reposted it on the McMansion Hell subReddit. Maybe this person spent all their money building an ostentatious house to the point where they don’t have enough left over to give a tip to their Doordash driver.

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The Fortress

Something that’s common among McMansions is that they decide to use two different types of siding for the exterior of the house. In this case, they have a lot of faux stone plaster to the front of the house. But on the sides, you can see that they have regular vinyl siding. The stone extends on the bottom of the house, but maybe they ran out of money before they could finish siding the whole house. It looks like they want to have a strong fortress type of vibe going on. But once you look at it from the side, it looks like a Podunk castle. You can tell that they wanted their house to look expensive, and maybe they accomplished it. But it still looks very strange.

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Is This a House, or a Theater?

Last but not least is this strange, creepy house on the top of a mountain. At first glance, it’s hard to wrap your mind around. Is it someone’s private home, a business, or a theater? But when you look through the image gallery on Reddit, you will notice that this actually does have a living room and a kitchen space like a normal home. But the owner of the house decided to build an entire theater inside. Someone in the comments said that this was once owned by someone who was trying to start their own church. Basically, this is the former location of a cult. But now they are trying to sell this as a private house. Good luck with that. This place would need to be exorcised of its demons, first.

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