Little House Fire in Texas

[BB_TX]

OK, us Texans are always accused of trying to do things bigger than life. Well yesterday they had a little house fire in Dallas. Seems someone's little of cottage of a mere 70,000 sq ft (yes seventy) burned to the ground. Had been under construction for 7 yrs and was only weeks from completion, and had never been lived in. Was going on the market for $45 million. Owner said they would probably rebuild.
Looks like another case of someone having more money than sense./w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

 

[BB_TX]

Oops!! This mornings paper changed the story to say it was ONLY 43,000 sq ft. Hardly big enough to consider./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color=blue>Looks like another case of someone having more money than sense.</font color=blue>

Folks say that about some of my customers.

I smile and tell them that from my perspective it's actually the perfect combination (of sense and money)./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Bird]

There's been a number of stories in the news about it. I think the 40,000 square foot was supposed to be the main house, and the 70,000 included the gate house, guest cottage, garages, etc. But of course, as expected, the news stories are constantly changing./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[dmccarty]

BB_TX,

A couple of things I found funny about the size of the house.

The bedroom, it must be a suite and not just a bedroom, but
that is what I read was just shy of 1,800 square feet!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif That bedroom is over 500 sf larger than my house! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

The main house is 40,000 sf. An acre is 43,560 sf. WOW! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

How would you like to FURNISH an acre much less build it?

Was the plan to run a compact tractor with a vacuum
attachment to clean up this house? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later...
Dan

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Better question; Was there a plan to sell the now bad investment to an insurance company?
Was this built by an Enron exec, or a Global Crossing exec?
I guess I'm just a bit cynical this morning.

 

[mbsil]

I read that the house was a spec house. Any chance that arson was the cause?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The house was fully insured by the builder. I don't know how the speculators would profit by the fire under that insurance unless it would delay their construction loans coming due or there was a compromise with the insurance company where there was a partial payment and the only ones stuck would be the contractors as the principals walk away.

 

[BB_TX]

It's a little hard to believe someone would attempt arson on something this size. BUT. This house had been under construction for 6 years and was due completion in a few weeks. A lot of contractors and workers would soon be out of work at this site. /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif
Don't know if it was originally started as a spec house, but it had never been lived in and the latest owner was listing it at auction to start bidding at something like $44.9 million.

 

[GarageSmoker]

Our office in Dallas overlooks the TPC course and someone built a very large house along one of the fairways. All during the construction (well over a year) I kept thinking it was a combination proshop/guest lodging for the course it was so big.

Seems there is always competition to have the biggest home in Dallas. Crazy.

GS