Word: masters
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These overachieving homes and the American lust for space have given sprawl a new interior dimension. Even in 2,000-sq.-ft. starter homes, says Peake, consumers are demanding a family room, a master suite and an upstairs game room--known locally as a Texas basement. On the upper end, McMansions built to the lot line and stuffed with media rooms, gyms, home offices and oversize three-car garages can distort the look of a neighborhood and result in exteriors that even their designers find distressing. "People don't seem to care," says New Orleans architect Mark Schroeder. "They want...
...teenager will tell you, all this family togetherness has its limits--like, 15 minutes, O.K.? But their parents have discovered their own not-so-secret antidote in the luxurious master suite. It's well beyond a bedroom, with sitting areas, breakfast bars, exercise rooms, computer rooms and his-and-hers walk-in closets so customized they can alphabetize their socks...
...sinks and vanities, which can lead into the closets, which can have separate exits to the hallway so early risers can avoid disturbing a sleeping spouse. Now add chandeliers, imported European fixtures and enough Italian marble to make a bishop covetous, and you've got an idea of what "master bath" really means...
Which leads to the slightest bit of introspection about the master suite: Aren't we being a little too selfish? After all, most of this added space is coming out of children's bedrooms, which are being reduced to 11-ft. by 11-ft. cubicles, the idea being to flush Junior out into the open...
...answer, thank goodness, is no. The seemingly paradoxical combination of large informal areas and walled off, elaborate master suites makes perfect sense, says Bernard Beck, a sociologist at Northwestern University. As children have become more powerful and vocal, and present, adults have a greater need to pull back. "I love my children, and I spend enormous amounts of time with them--there is no escaping them," chuckles Veronica Fowler, a mother of three, who added a new master bedroom suite next to the expanded living room. "But there is [the idea of] creating a buffer zone. I desperately want...