I could understand a mansion on a couple of acres with a pool and a tennis court and a housekeeper and a gardener. Really, I could. That's what "normal" rich people do. It's not my cup of tea, although a pool would be nice. It's the contrast between the enormous, say 6000 square foot, house and the .18 acre lot that astonishes me.
There are a lot of "estates" in Fairfax, too, but somehow a huge house on a huge lot doesn't seem odd to me, although I've never known anyone who lived in one. Well, yes, I did, once. I represented a woman who had been married to a doctor, and they had built one of the estate type houses you mention, and got divorced, and she got the house but couldn't make the note, so she rented the house out to what turned out to be a couple of flim-flam artists who never paid the rent. When she sued them for the rent, they counter-sued her claiming the place was uninhabitable, and I got a court order allowing a home inspector to come through and I went along with him. They certainly didn't have enough furniture, but considering the type of people they were, it was no surprise.
Oh, well, I've also been to parties in houses like that, a couple of women lawyers in the Virginia Women Attorney's Association are married to so-called Beltway Bandits (defense contractors), and they have estates, but the houses are furnished like estates, and don't seem remarkable to me.
No, it's the huge ostentatious house on the tiny lot with no furniture inside that amazes me. |
