Westport, CT

It used to be that one side of Westport was all mostly new homes. Sometimes referred to as "Greens Farms", it's the side where Martha Stewart and other Johnny Come Lately types reside. Gigantic Nantucket or New England Farmhouse style homes with as little aesthetic appeal as modesty.

Now though, all the old sections, including my beloved Old Hill, have become carbon copies of the incessant drive to build bigger, more grandiose, more four car garaged homes.

Generally, I don't care about such things. People want to spend a million dollars just to rip down an old lakehouse so they can spend another million building a McMansion, that's fine, their business, their money.

But at a certain point, the scale becomes so overwhelming... Half acre lots weren't meant for 8,000 square foot homes. And if you put one on such a lot, you need to do it carefully.

Little towns like Westport, whose value is found in its beauty, not its size, will find that they quickly lose their appeal with just a few small errors. As for me, I'm already looking for the next border town between New England and New York, Westport has been consumed.