Two 5-million houses

[weofodthignen]

Exhibit A: a Victorian in Pacific Heights, San Francisco, that's been owned by various celebrities, been gutted and painted white inside, and then had a fire. So while the price would usually be increased by the gutting and whitewashing, instead it's a steal at $5.5m (Chronicle article). [CORRECTION! $3.5m!] The real estate listing alternates Photoshop imaginings with the actuality. Nice bones and unusually lovely stained glass. (And of course for some people the address in itself is worth millions.) But the house must have been so much more lovely before it was "renovated".

Exhibit B: A castle on a crag above a lake in Alabama, built in the 1980s. 2018 photos. Dubbed "McMansion Heaven" by the MacMansion Hell blog, with digs at the windows (it was built by the owner of a construction company) and the furniture (which may be the realtor's show stuff), it was listed in 2019 at $5.25m, reduced to $4.6m, and after being withdrawn, is back on the market for $4.9m (official listing). It's not selling, although if changes have been made, they're minor—maybe a bit more white paint inside, maybe they just used different filters. Overall, I'd love to own that; some of the features McMansion Hell is weirded out by scream Art Nouveau to me, specifically this, and I like the amount of natural light. I always wanted to live on a crag; but on the Rhine, not a lake somewhere in Alabama. I doubt there's broadband. It does have a private boathouse suitable for hosting barbecues, a machine shop, and an indoor fishing hole. And up to 18 acres of land. Definitely worth more than the poor mucked up house in SF.

... I found the original listing for the Pacific Heights house. And here's a house tour on YouTube. (I can't hear the sound, but judging by the guy's tie, it may be dire.) There were more stained glass windows; I hope those are the ones leaning against walls. Here are some 2015 interiors; it had already been open-planned, but not completely, and not white-washed. I can't find images from its time as the Werner Erhard "Franklin House".

Comments

[cowboy_r]

I agree -- other than the location, the Alabama house is more desirable. Now, if the Victorian were in pristine condition...

[weofodthignen]

In fact I misread, and the Pacific Heights house was $6m in 2019, and is now $3.5m. Cheaper than some of the big tract houses here in Silly Valley. It's still a sad wreck, but I wonder who did those deep-sea stained glass windows.

[cowboy_r]

Given my situation, I can't help thinking of what I could do with even 5% of that in Holbrook.

German castles on crags

[altrinc]

Your comment about perching on a crag above the Rhine sent me on a websearch for suitable castles, for fun. I found quite a few, generally for 1.5 to 3m Euro if restored; (horribly described in German property ads as sanierte!) considerably less if you buy a wreck, but the restored ones sell like hot cakes. Here are some that have recently been on sale, but it appears to be a clickbait site - every time you click on the link for the particulars, the castle has already been sold. https://castleist.com/german-castles-for-sale/

You might also need to extend your search to the Main or the Moselle. There are quite a few in Saxony and Thuringia if you're prepared to venture further afield; some put to slightly worrying uses during the East German regime. I was interested to find that many of the wrecked castles advertised in Germany have been wrecks since the 30-years war, though at some stage people have carved out dwellings in them. A reminder of the devastation caused by that conflict 400 years ago.

Re: German castles on crags

[weofodthignen]

Yes, at the very least not being updated - the Rheinburg zu Koblenz listing was archived in 2021. But I was very surprised to see that listed; last time I checked, the Rhine was very much locked up. And there are indeed some amazing (and badly treated) castles in Thuringia. (And the famous Rudelsburg in Saxony.) German Wikipedia has a much fuller selection of Burgen than English Wikipedia, leading me to both sad cases and eye-popping ones that I wish were available as jigsaw puzzles, if not year-round webcams. Apparently there's a tradition of multiple branches of the same family inheriting sections of a castle and living separately (Ganerbenburg), which has led to a multiplication of towers and great halls, galleries, and other accommodations for residential display. e.g. Burg Eltz, which is on the Moselle, and the half-ruined Burg Lichtenstein in Franconia. Apparently Burg Liebenstein on the Rhine, now used for a hotel and restaurant, was a Ganerbenburg.