100,000 SQ FT home being built

This Forbes article from September 2009 says he agreed to downsize the house to 18k sq. ft. Is that still the case?

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/54/rich-list-09_David-Duffield_M1J9.html

 

There are codes here which prevent houses over a certain square footage, I think it's 25,000 sq feet. Local lawyer built a house just within the guideline then after he got the C of O he closed in the pool. He was promptly jailed and the whole house was torn down. No joke. Lot still sits empty on the other side of the lake.

 

?? That's stupid.

Isn't this a free country?? What business of the government's is your house?? Jealous morons.. they should have just jacked the taxes on him to increase revenue for their area.. now they have nothing.

 

WTF?!?

jailed? house torn down? on what grounds?

that's absolutely, ridiculously over the top.

 

Yeah, seriously. What was the point of that. What bull****, I would be enraged if they tore my house down.

 

AND the town also sent him a bill for it too. This was like 20 years ago. He has been in and out of trouble since. Did I mention he is also a lawyer? Iv'e never met him. IMO he got the short end of the stick.

 

Jailed for contempt for not leaving the house when they had the order to tear it down. His wife was jailed too.

 

Where did that happen? is there a link to the story?

 

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/at_77_former_onondaga_county_l.html

When this happened I was a kid working for a home builder in this area. I would have NEVER dreamed in a million years that I would have ended up living around here. But hard work did in fact pay off over time.

 

Throughout history, the wealthy have been patrons of the arts, with architecture being pre-eminent among them.

Those who gripe about and criticize the "types" of persons who wish to live in such residences and can afford to build them have obviously never given a thought to the number of professions, trades, industries, manufacturers, and many other business and service entities that are involved in the design, construction, and maintenance of these structures and environs.

I know this because I spent a 30-year career largely devoted working on ultra-highend homes.

Those who want to impose huge taxes on "the rich" don't realize or don't care that in doing so, they will pull the livelihood out from under many, many persons.

 

interesting. jail for contempt makes (some) sense.

tearing down the house-and not just the addition that put it over 25k sq ft-does not.

 

I was wrong about the 25k sq ft thing. It looks like it is 10k cut off. After reading the article it looks like his place was 11k sq ft.

 

Crazy... that guy is a real Bad A**.... look at all his silly charges.

 

Interesting rap sheet; a few high, err lowlights from the link:

 

He seriously comes off as a prick with an entitlement syndrome.

 

I'm sorry if this makes me sound like a jerk, but 11K square feet simply isn't that big. We're planning our 'dream home' now and we're trading opulence (marble counters etc) for pure raw space. I decided if this is my dream home, I want an indoor tennis court. (that doubles as a basketball court and gym etc) that alone is 7000 square feet. (think typical school gym on site)

I have 3 kids and the mother in law will stay with us for her final years. Plus I have family that visits about 3 times per year and they have 3 kids so I need 2 more guests rooms. So that's 7 bedrooms. In addition I need an office for my business...

So far, I'm at about 7,000 for the main house, 7K for the gym and ahem... haven't figured out the garage(s) yet but with 3 kids that will all be driving plus my wife and myself, that's 5 slots for daily drivers. Add 4 'clean' bays for a small collection and 3 'dirty' bays for projects and maintenance etc and you're looking at a WHOLE lot of square feet. (and when the kids move out, I can add to the collection!)

Now mind you the gym and the garages will just be bare concrete floors and bare concrete walls... the costs will not be that incredible. But on paper it will sound like a mansion. I could cross 20K feet easily. But with a cost per square foot of ~$110 you're looking at about a 2.2 million dollar home. Which is a nice home but hardly a world beater.

 

$110 per sq ft is super low... it would be at least 3 times that in L.A.

 

Yeah but remember the gym is 7000 feet of open air and bare concrete floor. That helps the average a bunch. Most of the money in your house is kitchen and bath.

 

I like your plans. Pretty much what I would love to have. What flooring material do you plan on using for the gym? Wood for bball and carpet to roll over for tennis or one of those synthetic plastic like things that is multi-use?

You could also add a grass and/or clay court outdoors at that rate.