M Is For Mama 8: She Really Is Awful

[mango_fandango]

3 vacations in 2.5 months is crazy in itself, never mind in the midst of COVID. I can’t even imagine wrangling ten children to go on one holiday, let alone three in such quick succession! Abbie is batshit crazy. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

31 minutes ago, mango_fandango said:

3 vacations in 2.5 months is crazy in itself, never mind in the midst of COVID. I can’t even imagine wrangling ten children to go on one holiday, let alone three in such quick succession! Abbie is batshit crazy. 

When she goes on vacation, Shaun is always with them. Much of the time when she’s home with all the kids, Shaun is gone. Maybe this is her way to force her husband to parent. Plus she has Ezra, Simon, and Della to help. It's actually not as crazy as it sounds when you realize there are 5 individuals to do a lot of the work. 

[SassyPants]

52 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

When she goes on vacation, Shaun is always with them. Much of the time when she’s home with all the kids, Shaun is gone. Maybe this is her way to force her husband to parent. Plus she has Ezra, Simon, and Della to help. It's actually not as crazy as it sounds when you realize there are 5 individuals to do a lot of the work. 

And at least once a year her parents travel with them, especially when they take all the kids, or when they travel farther from home.

[JermajestyDuggar]

19 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

And at least once a year her parents travel with them, especially when they take all the kids, or when they travel farther from home.

It’s probably a lot easier on her to travel because she has extra help and she isn’t expected to cook or clean. 

[bea]

Abbie, if someone has a mortgage, they’re not debt free BY DEFINITION.

[SuperNova]

I needed a small break from Abbie after reading her Trump humping post but I'm ready to dive back into the shitshow. She doesn't have anything new to brag about but instead of talking about something interesting, Abbie decides to cover old ground and make yet another post about her custom built McMansion. She says it's because she has so many new readers who haven't heard her brag about her house yet.

Her house looks exactly what I would expect a house to look like when there's no architect involved. There are no less than 7 different kinds of windows, some interesting rooflines, and a porch with an extra piece of porch sticking out. The porch pillars end in raised planter boxes and if you've ever seen them up close, there's a large gap at the bottom before the planter box.  Said porch has a metal (?) roofing material that maybe was a style choice? I don't know. The overall look is clunky. Inside isn't much better with the two stove units shoved in side by side, bathrooms with no plumbing, and the rooms within rooms that create terrific firetraps. 

Spoiler

  

[fundiewatch]

Wow. She really is just a shit person. 

[Ozlsn]

What's a "dormer"? Dictionary claims it's a window, which seems an odd choice for Shaun to move into.

I am also debt free apart from my mortgage and credit cards.

[ignorantobserver]

What a nightmare of a McMansion ! It looks like it's made of plastic. The windows are completely out of proportion, like a child's drawing. That roof is going to cost a fortune to renovate. I am freezing just by looking at those shoddy walls and gigantic windows ; that thing has to be leaking energy like crazy. If they had the money, why not build an actual house made of materials that will last, even if it looks a little more humble ?

[danvillebelle]

1 hour ago, ignorantobserver said:

I am freezing just by looking at those shoddy walls and gigantic windows ; that thing has to be leaking energy like crazy. I

You are correct in that it looks like a leaky energy sieve, but the problem down here is not cold, it's heat.  Based on our bills over the last 15 years of living here in East Texas and factoring in the size of their house, if they keep it reasonably cool then their electric bill in July and August has got to run $1000+.  Although I wouldn't be surprised if they *don't* keep it reasonably cool, so Braggie has one more thing for her martyr mommy checklist.

Edited October 28, 2020 by danvillebelle

[JermajestyDuggar]

Braggie loves to brag about selling past homes for a profit. That’s not a huge deal depending on when you bought and sold. We bought our home in 2010 when the market was crap. Ten years later, we could sell for a very large profit just because the market has gotten so much better in the last decade. What’s funny is that I doubt she would sell their current home for a huge profit. It’s not going to be that appealing to most families. It’s like the Duggar house and the Bates house. It’s fine for huge families, but makes little sense for the average family. 

[danvillebelle]

I love how she says "we custom designed the blueprints" like that's some great point of pride.  Their rooflines and ceiling lines look like something out of a Tim Burton movie or a Terry Gilliam animation.  

ETA:  a quick Google search brought up an article last year in the Ft. Worth paper with these gems:

"- Anyone can set themselves up as a home building contractor in Texas, where there is no licensing process and there are no minimum training standards.

- Purchase contracts favor the builder on newly-built homes, and the law also favors contractors when home buyers seek recourse for problems.

- The municipal inspection process, the only oversight of home builders, covers minimum construction standards. Inspectors are spread thin, and the work is often done by third-party contractors. In some areas, such as unincorporated portions of Tarrant County, municipal inspections are not even required."

That explains a LOT about the Halberstadts, Master Builders (NOT). 

Edited October 28, 2020 by danvillebelle

[Melissa1977]

4 hours ago, ignorantobserver said:

If they had the money, why not build an actual house made of materials that will last, even if it looks a little more humble ?

I'm sure they had a better home before. With better I mean an average quality house, actually built by builders. But she wanted an enormous house with a low budget, and the weird McMansion is the result of that.

I know the house is unsafe. But when I think about quiverful families living in normal-sized houses, I start to sweat. At least Braggie's children have room to move! Shupes, Andersons, Duggars years ago, they all turn normal houses in jails and firetraps, due to the excess of beds in each room and no privacy.never.ever.

[ignorantobserver]

28 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

At least Braggie's children have room to move!

I don't know how much that space is worth if there is no privacy. A giant dorm is better in terms of fire safety, but I doubt it makes much of a difference for the children's quality of life. They would be a lot better off with a lot of smaller rooms.

[catlady]

5 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

What's a "dormer"? Dictionary claims it's a window, which seems an odd choice for Shaun to move into.

I am also debt free apart from my mortgage and credit cards.

In her case, I would guess that it’s some kind of in-law apartment, a tiny one-bedroom unit over a garage or built onto the back if the main house.  I never heard that word used in this context before either, but then Braggie is super-special and super-smart and way better than us heathen peons.  
And I’m debt-free too!  If you don’t count my mortgage and credit card.  But I must be as special as Braggie because I don’t owe any money on my 2008 car.?

Edited October 28, 2020 by catlady
Heathen and heather are not synonyms.

[theotherelise]

For a refresher, here is the home layout. The nursery is really the biggest fire risk IMO. Also, if you ever wanted to sell this home, I have no idea how you would do it. I'm not sure how many of the rooms are legal bedrooms since they did a family closet. the lack of efficiency in the home is really astounding. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

11 minutes ago, theotherelise said:

For a refresher, here is the home layout. The nursery is really the biggest fire risk IMO. Also, if you ever wanted to sell this home, I have no idea how you would do it. I'm not sure how many of the rooms are legal bedrooms since they did a family closet. the lack of efficiency in the home is really astounding. 

If someone actually bought the house, I think they would put it up for sale within 2 years. A person can walk in and be wowed by all the space and possibly put up an offer. However they would find that after living in it for awhile, they don’t actually use half the space they are paying big bucks to air condition. And would then try to sell. 

The biggest problems for potential buyers:

excess unused space to cool.

Bedrooms attached to bedrooms. People hate that. There are very old houses set up like this and people hate connecting bedrooms because you disturb the people sleeping and there’s less privacy.

Multiple useless studies. This would only be needed for people who homeschool. 

A workshop. Not everyone would actually use a Workshop. Sure it’s great for someone who would use it. But just more wasted space for anyone who doesn’t need one. 

[SassyPants]

9 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

If someone actually bought the house, I think they would put it up for sale within 2 years. A person can walk in and be wowed by all the space and possibly put up an offer. However they would find that after living in it for awhile, they don’t actually use half the space they are paying big bucks to air condition. And would then try to sell. 

The biggest problems for potential buyers:

excess unused space to cool.

Bedrooms attached to bedrooms. People hate that. There are very old houses set up like this and people hate connecting bedrooms because you disturb the people sleeping and there’s less privacy.

Multiple useless studies. This would only be needed for people who homeschool. 

A workshop. Not everyone would actually use a Workshop. Sure it’s great for someone who would use it. But just more wasted space for anyone who doesn’t need one. 

Isn’t the workshop actually the classroom? Also, I wouldn’t have the laundry downstairs, or I’d get rid of a study and have 2 laundry rooms. I have an upstairs and downstairs laundry, and I’m not living in a 7000 square foot house. No one get excited, one of mine is in the basement, so not a room, but a space.

[catlady]

29 minutes ago, theotherelise said:

For a refresher, here is the home layout. The nursery is really the biggest fire risk IMO. Also, if you ever wanted to sell this home, I have no idea how you would do it. I'm not sure how many of the rooms are legal bedrooms since they did a family closet. the lack of efficiency in the home is really astounding. 

In my region, this would be a one-bedroom house; just the master bedroom.  None of the second floors bedrooms have closets, so they probably would be dens.  The ones without direct hallway access would be called bonus rooms.  And that little interior “bedroom” on the first floor would probably be called “storage” because it has no windows.  
this whole house is such a colossal waste of space.  Some day if I have time, I’d love to print it out and re-draw the whole thing.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

23 minutes ago, catlady said:

In my region, this would be a one-bedroom house; just the master bedroom.  None of the second floors bedrooms have closets, so they probably would be dens.  The ones without direct hallway access would be called bonus rooms.  And that little interior “bedroom” on the first floor would probably be called “storage” because it has no windows.  
this whole house is such a colossal waste of space.  Some day if I have time, I’d love to print it out and re-draw the whole thing.  

In order to sell, a realtor would have to say that those large bedrooms attached could be the walk in closets for the rooms attached. Thenthey could be counted as bedrooms with huge walk in closets. Which would likely be unnecessary for most buyers but it’s how they would have to sell it. 

[catlady]

@JermajestyDuggar, you’re right; I didn’t think that far ahead, probably because my personal concept of walk-in closets doesn’t have them as big as the corresponding bedroom.  I like to play on realtor dot com, so I know they exist, but part of me thinks that mega mansions just need a way to occupy 10k sf of floor space........?

[danvillebelle]

The laundry room is upstairs (edited because I think Turing is right below).

From what I could find, in TX realty a bedroom does not have to have a closet to be considered a bedroom, but it DOES have to have a door AND a window.  So the "bedroom" on the first floor doesn't cut it.

Edited October 28, 2020 by danvillebelle

[TuringMachine]

40 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

Isn’t the workshop actually the classroom? Also, I wouldn’t have the laundry downstairs, or I’d get rid of a study and have 2 laundry rooms. I have an upstairs and downstairs laundry, and I’m not living in a 7000 square foot house. No one get excited, one of mine is in the basement, so not a room, but a space.

I think the workshop is actually a workshop, and I don't think she's ever shown it. The classroom is the big room to the right of the living room. The "study" upstairs is where Theo and Honor currently sleep, and the only room upstairs that actually qualifies as a bedroom. I don't believe there's actually laundry downstairs, the pictures she's shown make it look like a mudroom. The washer and dryer are in the upstairs "laundry closet".

[theotherelise]

I'm procrastinating my real work. I've only done the downstairs, but my design is in black, current house footprint in red. The thing next to the dining room in the entry way is built in storage FYI.

Edited October 28, 2020 by theotherelise

[TuringMachine]

13 hours ago, bea said:

Abbie, if someone has a mortgage, they’re not debt free BY DEFINITION.

I live rent free minus my rent.