I just can't get over the massive platform block roof

Also, don’t worry about the empty hall space, the mailbox will probably spawn there later since you didn’t put one on the lot haha

James, you were so focused on whether you could do something in this build, you never stopped to think if you should.

I've always felt that McMansions were for people who just came into a lot of money and have no idea how to spend it. They're always just so incredibly tacky. The kind of people who think a chandelier in the bathroom is classy.

Grey everywhere is absolutely not bringing down the vibes, this is exactly how these kind of properties end up decorated 😭 It was the perfect colour scheme lol

Not me thinking a McMansion was like a McDonald’s themed mansion 😂

Feel free to repeat this challenge as often as you like - so freaking entertaining.

If theirs one thing I know about Mc mansions it's that the windows need to be ridiculous and that it needs way more roof than a house that size should ever have

You should move Oak into this house. It’s strange nature suits the cursed, teleporting baby.

“Maybe we need more columns” *triggers flashbacks to island living LP*

Our dream home ❤😂

It's so funny watching james struggle to make the kitchen dining living room all one room cause my kitchen dining and living room are all oneroom. Its super common where i live.

I would love to see James build an actual McMansion without restrictions 🤣🤣

‘White is a shade of gray’ James genuinely cracks me up. I loved this challenge 😂

Half walls are a thing in McMansions that would’ve served you well here. 😅

The forced perspective made me think of a building challenge inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Where the sims appear giant in relation to the house and objects, but it's still livable.

the funny thing is in the past few years McMansions in the US all have the same grey "wood" floors

This is giving the vibes of early TS4 gallery builds. I would see houses just like this all the time.

Once you put in the garrish columns and the terrible roofline, it locked in the 'McMansion' theme. Perfectly disgusting hahaha

I like everything else but that big platform on top is just not it for this one 😂

James’ love language is actually columns 😂

Never thought I'd say this, but you managed to build something so chaotic it was too much even for me lol You sure nailed the aesthetic, though, I'll give you that. It's definitely a house!

With peace and love the outside is giving funeral home and tbh that's pretty fitting for the McMansion vibe

I have literally just finished watching Plumbella’s one and all I could think was how badly I wanted you to give it a try haha. Then I refreshed my homepage and see this. Today is a very good day!!

The random column placement is really giving me flashbacks to a Virginia house we rented that had so many random columns it actively made the place difficult to put our furniture in

i love james' "yehehah!" giggle

Clicked so fast hoping it was Plumbella's challenge!

A ridiculously tall roof would make the whole place look bigger too. Or an actual 2 story entry that is open so it wouldn't count since there is no liveable 2nd floor space. Also, I just had to do a census thing and one of the things they asked was how many rooms my house had (like they needed to know that!) and it said not to include the bathrooms so you could use that an excuse to make one of the other rooms separate. lol

hearing james go "good luck babe hug kiss hug kiss plumbella" was very cute for some reason? super endearing. but also one floor mcmansion..... obsessed lol

When I read McMansion I immediately envisioned a tall, narrow, 3 story mansion with red and yellow colors and topped off with good ole golden arches. Had never heard that term before 😂

...James...wtf? 😂 McMansions inside are modern, open plan and clean lines. You thought too hard on this one and resulted in cramped chaos. LOVE IT!!!!

The village where I live is growing rapidly, and almost every house built in the last 15 years is what I would consider to be McMansion. Huge looking houses on tiny lots with terrible layouts inside that waste a lot of space. They go oh so well with the rest of the neighbourhood, which is a mix of ranch and split level houses built in the 50s and 60s, on larger lots. We even still have a working well on our lot, although the municipal water hookup was mandatory.

Btw a little build mode tip for you; USE HALF WALLS FOR THE KITCHEN. they look amazing connected to a dining area and don't count as an extra room! (Also you can put plant pots and other small items on them, which is super cool!)

I think there's technically a 10x10 lot in the hidden world from Willow Creek but it's kind of a pain to get there lmao

This both pained and delighted my architect's heart :'D Terrifying how well you hit that challenge! "Maybe we need more columns" - My favorite repeating theme!

"I feel like the potential fire hazard is very McMansion too" 🤣 this is too good hahahaha McMansion copium as James said

I live in a HUGE subdivision of McMansions made in the 90s. They take up about half of their lots. And they have SOOO much trimming and roofing on the front, but the sides and back are surprisingly bare. Sometimes there aren't even any windows on the sides. And maybe 1 windowed door to the outside and 1-2 windows on the back. Only the front (on the outside) is ostentatious.

James snickering at all of his McMansion ideas had me dead. 🤣

copium McMansion is definitely a good description, lol! very fun challenge!

the windows matched too nicely. mcmansions never use the same style of window twice lol

Only Plumbella could create something so chaotic I love her

Actually the roof got me seething and we gotta fight Semaj 😭😭 Cause whyyyyy lmao

This is that house with a Napoleon Complex.

😂😂 omg ya should have flipped that layout bedrooms on the other side , ya dont know how badly I wanna fix this 😂

I feel like not having a bathroom vanity mirror really adds to the McMansion feel 😂

i think the kitchen and living space should have been switched with the bedrooms; kitchen in back with the back door, living room near the front, reading book in the half circle, etc. you did a great job though this video was so fun to watch!

I love to see my simmers suffering just for fun 💜

Oh God this is legit a nightmare lmao. And technically theme and accent colors are different - so you can definitely get away with grey and something lol

Not me thinking McMansion was a McDonalds Mansion

Love the definition of a room in this video, a completely separated space by walls with 1 little opening? Not a room obviously. But a completely open space with no walls, just lowered a bit? That's obviously a room

I love seeing you experiment with different building styles! Would love another one of those!

Remembers a bin but forgets a computer and mailbox

I love that the sims tubers all support each other!

We need more cursed builds. This was grey-t

It’s almost tragic how much certain elements of this build remind me of the homes of my ‘wealthier’ friends growing up 😂

Yes, would definitely like to see more of these! The options on plumbellas generator can come up with some wacky challenges for sure!

I love his little giggle. It's a verbal expression of how people feel when looking at those stupid McMansions in suburbia.

I like to go by McMansion Hell's criteria in defining a McMansion: 1) 3000+ square feet 2) 5 or more bedrooms 3) a massive garage 4) Built after 1980 Important features include cheap and poorly executed imitations of classical architectural features; disproportional entryways and roofs; mismatched styles and windows; asymmetry that feels off balance; needlessly complex roof line; little to no landscaping; etc. James, I think your build perfectly encapsulates the feeling of a McMansion within the constraints of the challenge.

Loved her video! So happy you’re trying it out too!

Thanks I hate it.

This is so fun 😂 I loved plumbellas video too! I’d be happy to watch more of this build challenge! :D there seems to be a lot of different styles there!

Some of those other challenges as you counted to three, dang that's a horrible build generator lol. Loved how you tried to pull it together, it makes so little sense but that makes it more real because McMansions are just like that. I used to live in a tiny California farming town that was on track to be swallowed by sprawl into a bigger city. So the houses were 99% old poor-to-modest rural area style housing. Then on the outskirts of that, in what had been the literal middle of nowhere but now was turning into commuter homes, there were these gigantic opulent McMansions. Except it was hot and dry there so the huge lot would be bulldozed before building and then nothing would grow there. Huge mansions surrounded by nonstop dirt. It's been nearly 20 years and some of those mansions are still dirt with like, one palm tree. Looks weird as fuck.

As someone who lived in a McMansion with some roommates for a while, I cannot express how on point this is 😂

YESSSS, I've been so excited to see someone use her generator, soooo happy its you!

This was so much fun! I'd love to see more of these. Thanks to Plumbella for that generator!

“What’s a McMansion?” - and then first thing you build is the turret. You nailed it! 10/10

This was so much fun to watch, I couldn't stop laughing the whole way through!! McMansions are hilarious, you really captured the McMansion essence XD

It’s like you read my mind. When I was watching Plumbella’s video and she was showing some examples and then did one herself I remember thinking “I’d like to see James do this!” And here you are indeed doing the challenge. Awesome! I think you mastered the McMansion exterior concept. It looks so much like the neighborhood a friend lives in. All the houses are nearly identical and have that same small house pretending to be a mansion look. The interior of my friend’s house probably would’ve worked for you since her house is two bedrooms and one bath. You enter the front door and immediately to your left is the kitchen which the room is entirely open so from the kitchen you can stand at the island and literally watch tv on the far wall. The kitchen is actually small with the refrigerator, stove, and some counters and cabinets along the wall and then the sink and dishwasher are part of the island right across from that. There’s a small bar with two barstools that separates the kitchen space from the dining room space and she just has a round wood table with four chairs. Her sofa/couch is just passed that with its back to the kitchen and then she does indeed have a fireplace with her big tv mounted above it and there’s bookcases on either side. From the front door entry space like I said left goes into the kitchen/dining/living space, right in front is the door to the bathroom and then to your right is a hallway that leads to the two bedrooms. One of the windows that faces the outside front yard is literally along this hallway. She has plants on a small table in front of that window. Her bedroom has a walk-in closet that’s has one wall that connects to the bathroom, one wall to the living room (you can hear the tv on the other side when it’s on) and one to the outside. You’re absolutely correct that the houses are built without much yard space. Her house sits on a lot the same size as my house does, yet my two bedroom/one bath house built in the 1940s leaves a lot of yard space. My bathroom and bedrooms are smaller, but my kitchen is bigger. She does also have like a laundry room in her house just off the kitchen, it’s not really a separate room, more like what you did in your build, but my house doesn’t have that. Her house is newer having been built in the early 2000s, too. But yeah, I think you captured the McMansion vibes really well!

Mom pick me up I’m scared

I wanted to try this and mine said I needed 3 rooms on 4 floors. Re-did it and got 8 sims in 1 room on 1 floor! Wish me luck!

I would have exchanged one of the bedroom paintings for a bathroom mirror

Impressive. Very impressive 👏🏻 Also love how you go "Yeeaahhh" and then the laugh when you're excited 😂

omg why do i lowkey love this video so much. i could sit and watch a series of you building each scenario.

17:45 but like... we are obviously going to make a vampire family live in this household, right? Grey/dull-toned, rich and ambitious, small yet large. The parent vamps are the head-masters of the house of course, and their only child is supposed to lure other individuals in the household, to transform them into a vampire, specifically into their family. Anyways, before a ramble on, I thank you for your videos as they are a blast and leave me with interest and a smile on my face.

As an American who is very familiar with the McMansion, you missed a few key elements. I think you were on the right track, but the kitchen should have been tiny with an island that is way too big. And you needed to keep the great room with living on one side, and dining on the other. And definitely grey wood floors. I always feel like I have to renovate your builds :P

I'd love to see you try another one of these. there are some really interesting things you can experiment with!

This was so much fun. Can't wait for the Gallery to work again lol.. I'd say outside platforms should be allowed to not be a separate room, but as outside decorations. If you can fit a full on bbq/lounge/pool area outside, it's technically not a room, right? Can't wait to place this somewhere and generate a random budget for it

McMansion wasn't a word I've used for the past 20 years, but man, this brought me back. Early 2000s, american, shitty architecture, tacky, too many roof lines. Check check check! I love this challenge.

Love it!!! Laughing so hard at the end result - so ridiculous!! Please do another one! These are soooo funny.

I would love another video like this! It was a lot of fun watching!

I love the chaos of this. I watched her video yesterday and hoped other simmers would participate

this is so much fun to watch! the challenge is so versitale too, please make more of this! :)

This theme was perfect for you 😂 would love to see more of these challenges

I would love to see more videos with this challenge! It's so fun

This was so fun to watch! You should do these a lot more often

This came out great considering the parameters of the challenge - really loving the interior with the 'greige' Hollywood Glam look!

Idk. Maybe could have used more random roofing. The neighborhood next to my parents I swear required a certain surface area to be roofing so you could encourage as much leaking as possible.

0:38 PLEASE i need to see the three-story one-room orange asymmetrical industrial prison unit

PLEASE do another one of these James! 😍

This was so ridiculous (in a good way)! Thank you for the much needed laugh as you built this opulent McMansion. It actually reminds me of a lot of homes in Texas (my state).

There IS actually a single smaller lot! It's the lot your sims spawn in at in the Sylvan Glade hidden world.

I tried the building challenge generator, clicked it 3x and this is what I got: Build The building style of your house is greek revival, and your colour theme(s) will be warm toned colours. It will have 3 floors and 1 room(s). Your budget for this build is 25491 simoleons exactly. It houses 3 sim(s). Your disadvantage for this build is that you cannot place the same object twice. Good luck babe, xoxo plumbella How can you possibly make 3 floors with only 1 room? I am stumped on this one.

I'd love to see more of these challenges 😊

Love this build James 😍 you have amazing ideas ❤

this is so cool! Please do another Plumbella challenge sometime! :D

I love that the solution to every problem is more columns.

Someone summed up McMansions perfectly a while ago: it’s not the overall size of them, it’s that the architecture they employ is not designed to be scattered across such a huge canvas. You have dainty trim on a porch the size of a barn. French shutters on a window so tall no human could possibly operate them safely. Buckingham palace is huge and was designed to be that size; windows and doors are in proportion. McMansions have a three story carport because someone clicked and dragged to a drawing of a house bigger and didn’t think of the practicalities of it. Or they planned to keep giraffes as a hobby….

yes please do more challenges from from plumbella.. i've just seen a few and saw some wack challenges! LOL

Love it, definitely do as many of these as you want 😂 was so much fun

"Which means kitchen, living room, and dining have to be in one room... which is a bit weird." As I sit at my dining table between my kitchen and living room areas, in one open plan room.