Quote Originally Posted by zoom-zoom View Post
This scenario really gets me. This house wasn't enough:
Main house: 12,000 square feet
Number of bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 8 1/2
Garage: 3-car
Guest house: 1,100 square feet
Value: $4.5 million

So it was demolished for this:
Main house: 22,000 square feet
Number of bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 5 full and 5 half-baths
Garage: 3 buildings
Guest house: 6,000 square feet
Value: Still being assessed; building permits over $3 million (total finished value was guesstimated to be ~$10 mil.)
Where was this at?

I got a full tour yesterday. There are many secret passageways and hidden rooms. There's even a panic room. It's pretty cool. The reason they have so many bedrooms (and 4 kitchens!) is that they have guests that will stay with them for several months at a time. The mother-in-law is currently visiting them for 3 months and will eventually live with them full-time I imagine.

These people have more money than I can even dream of. As DH said, the interest on their savings alone could probably build that house every year. And in a time when no one has been building, they employed quite a few people over the last year. I'm thankful they reinvested the money locally.