And to contrast that, I've been friends with someone who made significantly more money than I do (or likely ever will), and while their house was in a nice, upscale neighbourhood and was somewhat bigger than mine, overall it was a pretty normal suburban design.
What they had was taste, and good priorities.
Rather than put money into lots of space, or showy exterior features, they put it into the kitchen, and the bathroom. I was lucky enough to be able to stay at their house a few times (visiting the area for reenacting purposes—that's how I met them), and use their absolutely palatial shower. They are also foodies, and love to cook good food and cook it well, so they made their kitchen both beautiful and functional. (They also make stained glass as a hobby; I have no idea how expensive that is, nor how it would compare to buying a similar piece, but they had installed some of their work in their own windows, which added to the class of the place.)
I believe the difference between someone with a McMansion and people who own houses like that one is a sense of security in their own position in the world. McMansions are entirely about conspicuous consumption—about showing off your wealth, so that you can brag about it and rub the noses of lesser beings in it.
Upper-middle-class sensibilities and attitudes, rather than middle.
> They also make stained glass as a hobby; I have no idea how expensive that is, nor how it would compare to buying a similar piece, but they had installed some of their work in their own windows, which added to the class of the place.
Pretty accessible, actually. My wife does it off-and-on and is always shocked at how much people charge for not-especially-well-made pieces at e.g. art fairs. The equipment and materials are cheap, as hobbies go. Buying decent finished stained glass pieces is expensive—but getting decent at making it's not all that hard and doesn't take too long, and the materials are cheap. It's one of those "very cheap if you DIY and count the hours as fun hobby-time, pretty expensive if you don't" things. It's especially easy if you just use pre-made templates rather than designing your own, and there are tons of those cheap or free online (and nobody who doesn't do stained glass will think anything of it).
I think she only made a half-dozen pieces or so before she was roughly matching the quality of stuff we'd see at art fairs and such. Maybe 30ish hours to reach that level. Very-good tools might run you as much as $1,000 total, but you can get started for more like $150-200 (shop used for the grinder, especially). Glass is glass, it's not really that expensive when you're just buying sheets of it.
The biggest pain with it is materials storage and little glass bits getting on the ground in the work area (and sometimes tracked outside of it...) making it kinda hazardous. :-/
> Upper-middle-class sensibilities and attitudes, rather than middle.
Not really.
It's not a "middle-class sensibility or attitude" to like mashed-together architectural styles, or rooms three times larger than the furniture you've got to fill it, or a cluster of rooflets overlapping in apparently random ways.
Aesthetics certainly have cultural elements to them, but those aesthetic choices really only appeal to the subset of people who...own or aspire to McMansions.
I've never been anything but middle-class myself, nor has nearly anyone I knew, and I've never personally known anyone to perceive McMansions as something good.
What they had was taste, and good priorities.
Rather than put money into lots of space, or showy exterior features, they put it into the kitchen, and the bathroom. I was lucky enough to be able to stay at their house a few times (visiting the area for reenacting purposes—that's how I met them), and use their absolutely palatial shower. They are also foodies, and love to cook good food and cook it well, so they made their kitchen both beautiful and functional. (They also make stained glass as a hobby; I have no idea how expensive that is, nor how it would compare to buying a similar piece, but they had installed some of their work in their own windows, which added to the class of the place.)
I believe the difference between someone with a McMansion and people who own houses like that one is a sense of security in their own position in the world. McMansions are entirely about conspicuous consumption—about showing off your wealth, so that you can brag about it and rub the noses of lesser beings in it.