Tuesday, August 2, 2011

#LetsBlogOff - I Want(ed) the Big House

This week's installment of Let's Blog Off asks a poignant question about every one's childhood: What one thing did you really want when you were a kid.

At first I was a bit perplexed and really couldn't figure out what exactly I wanted back then. I called my mom, expecting that she would rattle off a list of frivolity littered with expensive and unrealistic material junk. 

Nope.

She actually said that I must not have wanted much.

I'm not sure that I really went on about what I wanted as a kid, but I remembered one thing in particular that I longed for... a big house. 


Not just any big house... but a BIG house. A house that you could get lost in... I just knew that a home with more square footage than the median U.S. household income(31,111) was in my future! 

5000 square foot great room... 

I blame my parents mostly(Ha!). For some reason we always had house plan books around the house . I was always attracted to the almost obnoxiously large homes, imagining myself walking through the front door and touring the house as if deciding if it would be worth my time to have... 


Trips to the bookstore were always fun. I didn't read normal kid magazines... I went straight for the duPont Registry. It was even better than the house plan books! The glossy pages and brilliant photographs were even more enticing than floor plans. 


Nowadays, the big house seems more of a curse than a blessing. I guess I've grown up... I don't like cleaning 1000 square feet. Could you imagine having to maintain 10,000? 20,000? 48,000? Yeah, the house in the pictures has 48,000 square feet. 


I would still like to have a grotto one day... After all, I want to be able to say to guests, "Let's all go down to the grotto!"


I recognize that homes the size of this one typically has a staff and crew to maintain both the interior and exterior of the home- Somehow, it bothers me to know that I couldn't take care of it myself. 


I'm thankful that I grew out of my big house dream. I still like to look at them, but the effect isn't nearly the same. Typically, I point out more design flaws and blatant misuses of space rather than bask in the loveliness of a space(except that pool above... that's just nice).


As nice as this big house is, I am extremely underwhelmed by the kitchen... Surely that's not the only one!? 

I kid, I kid. Maybe.

*The house pictured is available for sale now. It's referred to as the Castillo Caribe and is beachfront on the South Sound of Grand Cayman in the beautiful Cayman Islands. The home was once owned by software mogul Jerry Beck and features 48,000 square feet of living space, a helipad, theater, gymnasium, eight bedrooms and fourteen and a half bathrooms. You can own this lovely property for a cool $59,500,000. 
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11 comments:

  1. It would be quite the chore to clean but if you could have the house, you could afford the staff. :D

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  2. I absolutely cannot imagine having a house this large. In fact I like to think that if I had the money for the purchase of it that I would use it for something more constructive.

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  3. Riggins- Very true!

    Joseph- I'm with you... I think about how small the "home-life" I have is: living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom. It's hard to justify something SO gargantuan.

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  4. I used to draw floorplans on the backs of church bulletins during Sunday services. One time, I was about fourteen, I was filing out behind everyone else and bumped into my schoolmate - he had been doing the same thing. Guess it's therapeutic...or just more interesting than the monotone preacher ranting on about the Apocalypse. That's a feat - ranting in monotone. I digress.

    I still draw floorplans, but now they're for characters in the short stories and many other writing projects I have scattered over my desktop. There's just something about having a spacial understanding of a person's life.

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  5. Chamois- Floorplans have limitless potential- therapeutic for sure! What better way to exercise our creativity?!

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  6. I would totally spend all my time in the grotto! I think my version of this giant house would've had a trampoline & a bowling alley & a skate park. And I agree with you on the pool, too!

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  7. I could so see you wanting the big house as a kid. This house IS a blatant misuse of space but if it had a skate park like Becky suggested You could hire me for maintenance. Between that the grotto and the pool I'd be in heaven!

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  8. Jeremy(RJM)- It's about big enough for us all to live there!

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  9. Dude... I have a similar post in my mind I've been meaning to get out. Getting a big house and I'm kinda over it. If only a big house came with a free lifetime cleaning crew. Le sigh.

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  10. Alycia- Shame that with a house that size it'd take all your time to maintain it without a staff... I'm a nervous sort anyway about having lots of people in my home.

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