M Is for Mama 2: Quiverfull/Pinterest

[danvillebelle]

5 hours ago, EowynW said:

I live in a mid 1950s house. My area has a lot of old sturdy houses. 

My neighborhood has a lot of 50's and early 60's ranches that are the bomb.  

Also, a bit of East Texas history for those elsewhere - when the oil boom happened here in the 30's and after, a lot of new money went to tearing down old houses and buildings and building new.  Houses built before 1940 are pretty rare in general.

[Off the Rails]

15 hours ago, danvillebelle said:

My neighborhood has a lot of 50's and early 60's ranches that are the bomb.  

Also, a bit of East Texas history for those elsewhere - when the oil boom happened here in the 30's and after, a lot of new money went to tearing down old houses and buildings and building new.  Houses built before 1940 are pretty rare in general.

Oh that's super interesting history about why there aren't old houses there! When we were half heartedly house hunting/getting ideas about east Texas, I thought it was so strange they were all newer homes. 

And thank you for not being offended by my question! I sincerely didn't mean it to sound snobby or like I was looking down on Texas homes. 

[luv2laugh]

There are also many large homes in Texas that are built to last and sturdy, however, they’re well over $800k. 

If you’re going to build an oversized compound, don’t use cheap materials that resemble a tin foil house that no future owner will have any reason to invest in.

What about cheap materials used for a house in a warm state? Actually, it’s a better investment as many of your potential buyers will be seeking it out as a starter home or a home to live in for a shorter amount of time than investing in a huge one where they expect it to be made to last and expect it to be an investment.

The goal is to one day always be to sell your house for higher “resale value” rather than at a loss.

Braggie only cares about having a “makeshift” abode to pretend on the blog that she’s like some sort of a rich trophy wife to an investment banker living in Greenwich, CT.

[bea]

That is interesting - I’m in Chicago, where everything new was required to be brick (for firebreak purposes) for about 100 years. In the 90s and early 200s, a lot of smaller houses got knocked down, but we’re on little city lots, you can’t have THAT much house. Unless you’re building a house that extends out to the property line on every side, which is not all that common. I am really interested in McMansion Hell and have learned way too much from it (lawyer foyer!).
There’s plenty of “whimsical and eclectic™” decorating around here, but not like the wallpapered-microwave antique-rug-in-kitchen type. Or maybe I don’t know the right kind of people. If you’re living in that kind of house here, you’ve got enough money that you hired a decorator and your furniture is custom.
And you’re too rich to bother with social media.

[ladyaudley]

And then we have Britain, where old means *OLD* - the first house we bought was from the 1920s and that's really not that old. All the flats I rented before that bar one were from the 1870s-1890s; it's really nice because you have these enormously high ceilings, but there's always the galley room (long and narrow), usually either the bathroom or the kitchen, and the plumbing is questionable. Sadly most new housing stock built in Britain since then is pretty shoddy, particularly stuff from the 90s onwards. Cheap and cheerful, badly insulated and quickly mouldy  

[JermajestyDuggar]

We live in an old house with old windows and insulation that isn’t as good as today’s insulation. One day we will replace the windows I suppose. And maybe get some new insulation for the second floor. I think it’s worse than the first floor. 

[luv2laugh]

17 hours ago, luv2laugh said:

What about cheap materials used for a SMALL house in a warm state? Actually, it’s a better investment as many of your potential buyers will be seeking it out as a starter home or a home to live in for a shorter amount of time than investing in a huge one where they expect it to be made to last and expect it to be an investment.

The goal is to one day always be to sell your house for higher “resale value” rather than at a loss.

Braggie only cares about having a “makeshift” abode to pretend on the blog that she’s like some sort of a rich trophy wife to an investment banker living in Greenwich, CT.

I meant to say cheap materials for a SMALL house in a warm state is a better investment than in a large one. I forgot to include “small”.

[Melissa1977]

18 minutes ago, luv2laugh said:

I meant to say cheap materials for a SMALL house in a warm state is a better investment than in a large one. I forgot to include “small”.

As I told before, if you plan to have eleventy kids, I think it's wise to build the biggest house the better. Even with dirty cheap materials in a rural area. Look at Shupes house, or even Zsu's: nice houses at the beginning, the typical buildings at their towns, but turned to be an absolute nightmare due to the lack of room for the blessings.

It's not only about where to put 10 or more beds. It's about having place to sit to dinner together, to cook that dinner, to storage food and clothes and toys and school supplies, cars and bikes for more than 10 people. Several toilets. A family room with enough sofas so everybody can sit to watch a film. A medium (or big) outdoor space where kids can run and play. To live comfortably you almost need a hotel!

A quiverful family is not a family *with more kids than average*, it's a different game. 

Braggie makes a lot of bad decisions. But trying to have plenty of room at home is not one of them.

[SuperNova]

22 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

...if you plan to have eleventy kids, I think it's wise to build the biggest house the better. Even with dirty cheap materials in a rural area.

Wisdom isn't exactly a fundamentalist trait. It's not wise to have more children than you can safely house.  Building a giant crappy death trap just so the kids can all sit in the same room and watch a movie seems like a bad idea as well. All the space in the world won't make any difference when your "blessings" die in a fire because the house burns like kindling and their bedrooms don't have a safe exit.

If anyone feels like ripping their eyeballs out, Abbie has a blog post up. It's a belated Christmas humble brag...I mean tour. We're treated to many different angles of the same room! And the cost of everything! She saved more than you! And in case you forgot after the first 8 times she bragged about it, her island is 12 feet! 

[danvillebelle]

That would be a gorgeous tree...if it weren't half-covered by burlap ribbon.

The only words I think of when I see her interior are:  cluttered, cavernous BARN.  I could never feel at home in such a huge interior space.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’m genuinely surprised Braggie hasn’t jumped on the Marie Kondo train yet. That way she could brag how selfless and giving she is because she’s getting rid of a bunch of her crap. Or if she has some sort of sale, she could listen to all the people talk about how much they love her stuff and want to buy it.

[BachelorToTheRapture]

On 1/10/2019 at 4:28 PM, Off the Rails said:

If I'm wrong, please school me! Just sharing what I was told and curious to know if it's at all accurate. (It was also my impression from when we considered getting away from the cold and moving to Texas). 

I'm from northern Minnesota and have friends from here who lived down in Texas for several years. They said houses in Texas were built much cheaper than in MN. Just because people building there don't have to build them to insulate against -20 degree weather. They also said the houses seemed "disposable". The area in MN they were house hunting in, they found a house built in the 1940s and were happy to have found such a "new" home. In Texas, their experience was lots of houses from the 1960s and newer. They didn't think they were built to last. 

Also, we've built our own house, remodeled a couple dumps, and are building again. We've done this in 3 different counties. Every one has different building codes, but what is legally considered a bedroom and fire codes are pretty standard everywhere I believe. 

I've noticed that people in MN are more likely to have basements or a level that's partially underground. I found out that this is because the ground is softer here (more clay there) so houses need a deeper foundation to be stable. It's actually tragic because more basements there (tornados) could save lives. 

[danvillebelle]

46 minutes ago, BachelorToTheRapture said:

It's actually tragic because more basements there (tornados) could save lives. 

Yeah, our soil here is basically sand with some red clay thrown in.  No basements.  Some people do buy those underground tornado shelters, though - basically a pod set/half-buried in the ground.

[EowynW]

50 minutes ago, BachelorToTheRapture said:

I've noticed that people in MN are more likely to have basements or a level that's partially underground. I found out that this is because the ground is softer here (more clay there) so houses need a deeper foundation to be stable. It's actually tragic because more basements there (tornados) could save lives. 

In my part of east Texas the water table is too high to install a basement. 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

7 hours ago, EowynW said:

In my part of east Texas the water table is too high to install a basement. 

That's the main reason for not having a basement here, too. In the higher elevation parts of town, basements are just fine. But down closer to the river, a basement is never going to work. When I was a kid, I thought basements and attics only existed in books, because no one I knew had either.

[TuringMachine]

I'm confused, does Honor not sleep here? 

 

[ophelia]

Her love for these rugs really starts to get annoying. Does it ever end? And how can she afford to spend all that time rearranging the rooms in her McMansion to take pictures with all these rugs? I don't know why I even care since it is Braggie and damn she is a piece of work.

[luv2laugh]

On 1/13/2019 at 1:10 PM, SuperNova said:

Wisdom isn't exactly a fundamentalist trait. It's not wise to have more children than you can safely house.  Building a giant crappy death trap just so the kids can all sit in the same room and watch a movie seems like a bad idea as well. All the space in the world won't make any difference when your "blessings" die in a fire because the house burns like kindling and their bedrooms don't have a safe exit.

Exactly. It’s not safe as well as not financially wise. People should contemplate both before building/buying a house.

It would have been a smarter decision for Braggie to live in a home that has resale value but she’d rather live in Bullard in her paper house because of ALL the amenities that she brags it has. 

Quality over quantity... She doesn’t understand that...

18 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’m genuinely surprised Braggie hasn’t jumped on the Marie Kondo train yet. That way she could brag how selfless and giving she is because she’s getting rid of a bunch of her crap. Or if she has some sort of sale, she could listen to all the people talk about how much they love her stuff and want to buy it.

She’s probably a hoarder...

47 minutes ago, ophelia said:

Her love for these rugs really starts to get annoying. Does it ever end? And how can she afford to spend all that time rearranging the rooms in her McMansion to take pictures with all these rugs? I don't know why I even care since it is Braggie and damn she is a piece of work.

Clearly, she hunted this woman down and asked for discounts for featuring them on Instagram. 

She has the time to rearrange the furniture because she’s NOT the parent... between the three oldest, her mother, and at-Home working (occasional traveling) husband, she doesn’t get much parenting time in. Also, she’s a disciplinarian like the Pearls and the children know not to ever bother her with being “bored” otherwise, she says she hands them more chores.

She’s admitted to being unsympathetic to her children, a non-crier, and not the nurturing type which makes me believe that having children is a vanity project for her. It’s  all about getting attention, her ego, and the status of being a Christian quiverfull wife.

[Marly]

1 hour ago, ophelia said:

Her love for these rugs really starts to get annoying. Does it ever end? And how can she afford to spend all that time rearranging the rooms in her McMansion to take pictures with all these rugs? I don't know why I even care since it is Braggie and damn she is a piece of work.

I went to the rug-store instagram, and a lot of Abby's pictures of her rugs are featured there. And apparently Abby even has a rug in her bathroom. An actual nice looking rug. This might be a bit BEC, but why would you put that in a bathroom? I have never before seen or heard about putting good rugs in a bathroom. I understand bathmats, especially the fluffy ones because they keep your feet nice and warm, and because they are specifically made for use in the bathroom. But putting an actual rug in a bathroom seems kind of weird to me. How does she keep it clean and dry in there? Or is it located in a spare bathroom that is never used? 
 

[JermajestyDuggar]

3 hours ago, Marly said:

I went to the rug-store instagram, and a lot of Abby's pictures of her rugs are featured there. And apparently Abby even has a rug in her bathroom. An actual nice looking rug. This might be a bit BEC, but why would you put that in a bathroom? I have never before seen or heard about putting good rugs in a bathroom. I understand bathmats, especially the fluffy ones because they keep your feet nice and warm, and because they are specifically made for use in the bathroom. But putting an actual rug in a bathroom seems kind of weird to me. How does she keep it clean and dry in there? Or is it located in a spare bathroom that is never used? 
 

She put one right in front of the kitchen sink and dishwashers, one in the bathroom, and one in the baby’s room where it would catch lots of barf. She’s an idiot. 

[SuperNova]

10 hours ago, Marly said:

This might be a bit BEC, but why would you put that in a bathroom? I have never before seen or heard about putting good rugs in a bathroom. I understand bathmats, especially the fluffy ones because they keep your feet nice and warm, and because they are specifically made for use in the bathroom. But putting an actual rug in a bathroom seems kind of weird to me. 

It is weird. Our house was built in 1948 and has the original big, cold, tile bathroom with no under-floor insulation. We couldn't find a bathroom rug big enough and had to buy a regular one. It's been a year and I still find it odd. Wouldn't a new build have insulation or heated floors or some such? 

[nastyhobbitses]

On 1/16/2019 at 8:53 AM, luv2laugh said:

She’s admitted to being unsympathetic to her children, a non-crier, and not the nurturing type which makes me believe that having children is a vanity project for her. It’s  all about getting attention, her ego, and the status of being a Christian quiverfull wife.

I don't think there's a ton wrong with not being a crier, but I do think that she sees her kids as an extension of herself and as they grow older, she will not cope very well with the reality of her children being individuals separate and distinct from her.

[CatholicLite]

On 1/16/2019 at 1:29 AM, Marly said:

I went to the rug-store instagram, and a lot of Abby's pictures of her rugs are featured there. And apparently Abby even has a rug in her bathroom. An actual nice looking rug. This might be a bit BEC, but why would you put that in a bathroom? I have never before seen or heard about putting good rugs in a bathroom. I understand bathmats, especially the fluffy ones because they keep your feet nice and warm, and because they are specifically made for use in the bathroom. But putting an actual rug in a bathroom seems kind of weird to me. How does she keep it clean and dry in there? Or is it located in a spare bathroom that is never used? 
 

Oh no. God no. A rug in a bathroom? With seven kids? A recipe for disaster. Maybe it's just me, but even as a full-grown human being, my bathroom floor (and bathroom in general) is a goddamn mess, and my bathroom mats get an abnormal amount of toothpaste and dirt on them. With kids, I'm sure it would be much more of a disaster. So yeah, no, why on earth would you ruin a perfectly-good, probably expensive carpet by putting it in the bathroom? It boggles the mind. Maybe she just put it out for an instagram pic, but still. Not a smart move.

[milkteeth]

On 1/15/2019 at 6:24 AM, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’m genuinely surprised Braggie hasn’t jumped on the Marie Kondo train yet. That way she could brag how selfless and giving she is because she’s getting rid of a bunch of her crap. Or if she has some sort of sale, she could listen to all the people talk about how much they love her stuff and want to buy it.

 

I'm sure that if Braggie watched Marie Kondo's show or read anything about her she would claim that it's pagan idol worship since Marie takes the time to introduce herself to the house and thank it. Of course, the real reason she'd be rejecting it is so that she doesn't have to get rid of any of her crap. I mean, does anything in Braggie's life spark joy? 

[JermajestyDuggar]

8 hours ago, CatholicLite said:

Oh no. God no. A rug in a bathroom? With seven kids? A recipe for disaster. Maybe it's just me, but even as a full-grown human being, my bathroom floor (and bathroom in general) is a goddamn mess, and my bathroom mats get an abnormal amount of toothpaste and dirt on them. With kids, I'm sure it would be much more of a disaster. So yeah, no, why on earth would you ruin a perfectly-good, probably expensive carpet by putting it in the bathroom? It boggles the mind. Maybe she just put it out for an instagram pic, but still. Not a smart move.

I swear I’ve replaced the main bathroom mat so many times. I have to wash it a lot due to little boy pee and constant dirt. You can only wash a bathroom mat so many times before it starts to fall apart. How is she going to clean these fancy rugs?