Mansionmania continues. I'm going to show you the most expensive homes in every state and a few territories, with a few extras thrown in from the largest states to get the tourney up to 64. It'll be a single-elimination tournament.
You will choose among each pair of houses with the following assumptions:
The purchase price for you is $0.
All maintenance, utilities, property taxes, and cleaning is included.
You must live in the home for the rest of your life.
You can't travel more than 100 miles from home (via google maps drive time) other than 1 two-week vacation each year.
You get $250,000 per year as a living allowance
You get an additional living allowance at the cheaper home, which will be valued at 1% of any cost difference annually. I will note this amount in the poll.
You get the furnishings. If unfurnished, you get an allowance that will give you mid-grade furniture in every room.
You get any vehicles in the garage. But only the garage - nothing parked outside.
I encourage you to click on the maps in the listings to see the general location and neighborhood.
Also, I will only enter contestants if they have a sufficient number of photos to judge, as determined by me.
I made a judgment call on Utah. There was one property that was more expensive, but despite being large the house looked really cheap and non-mansionlike, so I figured most of the value was in the land even though the house was large. So I went with the #2 house, and you cannot deny that it was intended to look like a mansion. [Reply]
Utah - Great curb appeal. The inside looks like the architect was a 12-year old girl who grew up with Disney, but you could work with it. It's way too white, but throw a few coats of paint around and you can warm it up. The setting is great, and 3,300 acres means that I could while away my time doing lots of little hikes. The pool is too small to be really useful, but I like that it's indoors. It's 60 miles from Salt Lake City and other places like Provo. But Salt Lake City isn't exactly a mecca of arts, culture, and night life. Utah is gorgeous and has low humidity, and it's really unfortunate that the Mormons found it before other people did. All in all, I could live there, but I'd really look forward to my vacations.
North Carolina - I'm not wild about the house. It looks like an apartment complex on the outside, and the inside is far too generic to be a proper mansion. It's just a really big house. I'm not into beach houses, but this one looks nicer than the setting we saw earlier for Delaware. I could live here, I think. It's convenient to Norfolk if that's a good thing, and I suspect there's a tourist infrastructure in the area. You're going to have mild winters, but will pay the price with humidity and probably an occasional hurricane. You'll also have a huge stipend here, which you can use to become a legend in Norfolk.
Tough choice here. Both have notable advantages. In the end, though, I'm a westerner, and the natural setting of Utah will win me over. Give me the Rocky Mountain High over Carolina in My Mind. I sure wish I had that Carolina stipend, though. [Reply]
If you check out the satellite view of the Utah property, you'll have a far smaller house than your nearest neighbor. Is that thing really a house? It's triple the size of our house, which is 17,000 square feet. It looks like a house on satellite. [Reply]
I was in Utah a few years ago and really liked the desert and National Parks. I had high hopes for this house before clicking on it. But I didn't like it at all. And I would be more than 100 miles from any of the National Parks. There appears to be significant snow.
The North Carolina house is nice enough, if lacking in luxury, and has a great view. Climate is pretty mild. I won't let hurricanes scare me away from ocean front property. You can reach Norfolk, which I guess overall is a plus. $660,000 isn't chump change. Easy winner of this round. [Reply]
I'm going with the Utah house even though normally I would be all over a beach house with a perfect ocean view. You may have to import booze from other states but the house is incredible and the surrounding mountains and everything else is unbelievable. You may even be allowed to have a different wife in every bedroom. [Reply]
Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat:
I'm going with the Utah house even though normally I would be all over a beach house with a perfect ocean view. You may have to import booze from other states but the house is incredible and the surrounding mountains and everything else is unbelievable. You may even be allowed to have a different wife in every bedroom.
You could probably put a couple of wives in different wings and they wouldn't even know the other one exists.
"Honey, who was that redhead that I saw off in the distance in the west wing today?"
Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat:
I'm going with the Utah house even though normally I would be all over a beach house with a perfect ocean view. You may have to import booze from other states but the house is incredible and the surrounding mountains and everything else is unbelievable. You may even be allowed to have a different wife in every bedroom.
The Utah house is all fancy schmancy to the point of not wanting to touch anything.... I'd have to paint the walls or something, but do like the amenities and love the setting on 3000+ acres with the mountains. Never been to SLC, but nice that you get the seclusion while still being well within range of a decent sized city.
I like the NC house for the laid back vibe, but as Rain Man said, perhaps a bit too laid back for a mansion... the total package is good enough to win some rounds, but the Utah mansion is pretty perfect when it comes to acreage, outdoorsy stuff, proximity to a city, etc. Hard to beat. [Reply]