McMansions Gone Wild...

I went for a long walk through the neighborhood yesterday, and could not help but notice how many "McMansions" are being built around here these days.  It strikes me that there must be a lot of people with a lot of money, and what I want to know is: 1} Just how did they get it? and 2} Where did I go wrong? Obviously, it is way too late for me to worry about that now, and in any case, what would I do with all that space?  One of my favorite McMansions is currently being built on the east side of Denver's Washington Park, as seen in the photograph on the left.  I could just see myself up there on the third floor, sipping a beer and watching the sun set over both Washington Park and the mountains to the west, waiting for my servants to announce that dinner is served.  At last! Part of America's fabled one percent!

The photograph on the right show what the view will be like from that houses's huge floor to ceiling windows, and when the clouds clear off, I am sure they will also have some great mountain views.  As I mentioned several times before on this blog, my then wife Lisa and I once contemplated buying a very modest looking house on the east side of Washington Park with this very same view.  The place was for sale at a price of $279,000, something which I could afford today but not back in 1983.  Probably for the best, since we got divorced not too long afterwards and I could not have made the payments by myself.  But happily, I am still within walking distance of Washington Park and can enjoy the views without the expense.  Definitely a win-win situation.

I decided to walk east of the park to Old South Gaylord Street, and along the way happened upon the house in the photograph on the left, fenced off and about to be bulldozed to make way for still another McMansion.  I have noticed that corner lots are most popular for these new homes, with the most amount of land to insure the house will be appropriately huge.  After all, who could possibly live in the measly house seen in this photo?  I myself would never even think of letting my servants see this place.