Darby Rural

What kind of home do you want?

An unfortunate consumer trend has taken over in the last few generations.  American home buyers have become more concerned about square foot per dollar than quality and livability.  McMansions have become an infestation on the modern neighborhood landscape.  Huge vaulted entryways, giant interconnected rooms and soaring ceilings mark houses that are great for entertaining and impressing friends while we convince our selves that we have arrived and are happy in our expensive cavernous institutions.  How often does the entertaining happen that it justifies building a home that is overlarge for living?  Does big and expensive really translate into happiness?
Do you remember visiting your grandparents when you were a child?  Much more often, the homes built in the early part of the 20th century were built with livability in mind.  You may remember the coziness of those homes.  They were marked by warmth, comfort and smaller spaces that fit people.  Do you really need a 500 square foot great room with 12’ ceilings when all your family and the furniture to accommodate them only takes up about 120 square feet?  What do you do with all the space waiting to entertain in when there are no guests?  The answer is you heat it, clean it, furnish it and decorate it while feeling like you are in someone else’s home. 
All the work going into these monstrous homes must be cheaply applied in order for contractors to be competitive.  American culture has forgotten about what is inside, we only want to know what it looks like.  We get ourselves pre-qualified with a bank.  We pick our plan, choose the colors and light fixtures and leave the rest up to whichever contractor can get us the most square footage for the least dollars in the shortest time.  This approach has resulted in hastily built homes using the cheapest materials and workmanship possible.  The result is very short lived quality and very little attention paid to customized livability.  You can see for yourself if you drive around in today’s neighborhoods.  What they look like now is much better than they will look in ten or fifteen years.  Cheap products and poor craftsmanship simply don’t last very well.
Consider what kind of home you want to live in.  What will be better for you and your family?  What will be better for the future of our neighborhoods and communities?  What do we want populating the construction industry:  fast and cheap or real craftsmen who take pride in applying their heart to their trade?  If it’s true that we get what we pay for, what are we paying for?  Will we like it when it finally gets delivered?  Are we just settling for what looks good now and intending to deal with the consequences in the future?  Hmm
Let’s wake up and pay attention right now.  Let’s be willing to pay for life the way we really want it.  Let’s stop believing the slick salesmen who tell us we can have what we want for less.  That principle has not been true since the first rotten apple was sold at the beginning of human suffering.  Maybe it’s time we learned the lesson.

Lester McCool