Topic: If you could build a mansion... (Read 13495 times)

Stormbringer · « **Reply #20 on:** December 14, 2003, 12:40:05 pm »

Well there was one marble tile for 6 bucks per square but the sample was cracked and not in good shape it was marbled grey with large goldish yellow blotches. looked good. But I could not tell if The blotches would make a pleasing pattern given enough tiles. Atthose prices by the time I got enough of 'em to tile a room they'd be burying me in a marble garden.

Stormbringer · « **Reply #21 on:** December 14, 2003, 12:42:05 pm »

Some ceramic tiles are affordable and look pretty good. I just have caviar tastes and a tuna fish budget.

Toasty0 · « **Reply #22 on:** December 14, 2003, 12:44:11 pm »

Quote:

Some ceramic tiles are affordable and look pretty good. I just have caviar tastes and a tuna fish budget.

Or as one torch song singer put it: Campaign taste and beer bottle pockets.

I too suffer that syndrom form time to time.

Rondo_GE · « **Reply #26 on:** December 15, 2003, 03:28:43 am »

My mansion would be built like a Roman Villa...with a garden in the center/perhaps a fountain and rooms for living all around.

The section furthemost from the entrance would have more than one story, with a third story/study/observatory like tower.

My manse would also have a small theater in it with a popcorn and a soda machine on the first floor somewhere...perhaps in the West wing. Bedrooms would be beneath the tower and the Kitchen and den would be in the East Wing; with a service entrance their. The formal "Living Room would be in the West

Aperatures would be large as i love wind and light.

An American poet named Robinson Jeffers (one of my favorites) built a stone Tower he called Hawk Tower and his house was called Tor House. So I might want to make a Tower separate from the house.

If I did that them the far end of the house would have just two strories, with the Master Bedroom surveying the interior garden. There would be a balcony of course.

I would also study some true Roman designs before I proceeded with the final design with an eye toward fusing Roman ideas into my own desires.

Jeffers link:

http://www.torhouse.org/

(sigh)

Ave Caesar

No bitterness: our ancestors did it.
They were only ignorant and hopeful, they wanted freedom but wealth too.
Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.
Or rather--for we are not aquiline Romans but soft mixed colonists--
Some kindly Sicilian tyrant who'll keep
Poverty and Carthage off until the Romans arrive,
We are easy to manage, a gregarious people,
Full of sentiment, clever at mechanics, and we love our luxuries.

Robinson Jeffers

Taldren_Erin · « **Reply #27 on:** December 11, 2003, 07:14:05 pm »

...what would it have in it/what would it incorporate? Sky's the limit.

Tus · « **Reply #28 on:** December 11, 2003, 07:59:02 pm »

had to do somthing like this for cad last year, guess i will post a pic of it when i get home in a week

Tus

WaterTiger · « **Reply #29 on:** December 11, 2003, 08:31:22 pm »

It's funny you post this topic. Kinda gave me chills for a second.

When I was young, my mother worked as a secretery for a major archetect firm in Phoenix, Az. She sometimes would bring renderings home ... I took up an interest in art, and for Christmas "Santa Claus" brought me an easel. I sat there for days and watercolored and pencil drew my own renderings so that she would be proud of me and show her bosses at work.

I had a picture that I'm sure mom has stuffed away in some box of a southern mansion that I envisioned as a home -- my own private little castle. I drew a large library for the master of the house (me) with leather chairs and a dark cherrywood desk, and a huge kitchen and winding marble staircases in the entryway, like those in "Gone with the Wind."

The mansion had a long road dirt road to its circular horse and buggy driveway and wrot-iron gate. The road was draped and shaded by decades-old willow trees, so that it looked like a tunnel to the marble columns and stoney white brick that layered its entrance ...

This picture was so vivid in my mind, I drew every detail, from every angle ... It's almost as if I had lived there in a former life. And at the age of nine, the visions rushed to the paper in a flash.

The grounds were covered in flowers and you could almost smell the suckle-sweet aroma fill the air and honeybees buzzed dance around your head, flying harmlessly to the next rose for nectar.

I found something on the Web that comes close now 32 years later.

Southern Mansion

I don't know if you spotted the "wedding" specials, Erin ... but I'm currently single. *wink*

They even have two-for-one weddings specials.

You can bring a friend. Perhaps ToastyO would like to ride along?

WaterTiger

Stormbringer · « **Reply #30 on:** December 11, 2003, 09:09:17 pm »

Queen Anne Victorian (turrets) Three story with basement. Vestibule entry with cloakrooms/closet. Beyond a curved stair. Also an elevator. parlor/den. 2 story library. guest suite on first floor. Island kitchen. dining room. gathering room. 2 car garage with work area. skylighted sunroom conservatory. gathering room. living room contains plasma TV/stereo system. 2nd floor contains master suite which has balcony and stairs, sitting area and master bath. Master bath has walk in closets, and a huge spa type bath tubon a dias, also a shower stall with sitting bench. separate vanities, linen or towel closets. toilet is out of site in its own chamber. exits to balconied gallery. Exercise room. lounge area. 3 additional bedrooms each with bath. third floor turrets. Used as office, studio and activity or storage. Basement. Safe/storm room. Utility/laundry/sewing. mechanicals, alarms, automated systems. Gameroom and storage.

House has additional victorian touches: Wrap around veranda/covered porch, hardwood or marble tiled floors. Dumb waiter and laundry chute.

lot size: 5 or more acres. Old trees. Water garden. southwestern patio like area with marble benches (forgot the term)

Cost to build locally over 500K.

Kmelew · « **Reply #31 on:** December 11, 2003, 09:34:51 pm »

Quite frankly I would be happy with a modest house.

WaterTiger · « **Reply #33 on:** December 11, 2003, 09:46:33 pm »

Erin,

Did you check out the "wedding specials" or not?

**kicks Erin under the editing table**

P.S. We live just down the 91 Freeway from eachother. Wanna grab a beer? The passenger seat is barely worn in the Vette.

P.S. You are female, right? OMG!! Erin could be a guy!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!

JMM · « **Reply #34 on:** December 11, 2003, 10:15:56 pm »

I'd be happy with a modest house, a little bit of land, and maybe a swimming pool to bask in the sun in...

Taldren_Erin · « **Reply #36 on:** December 11, 2003, 11:50:01 pm »

Awww, that's... uh... sweet, WT

but I'm afraid you're not my type of tiger.

I should clarify, too -- I didn't mean the question as a sort of "if you won the lottery..." question (I agree I'd build a small but architecturally elegant and self-sustaining house out in the Olympia region -- for one thing, I wouldn't want to clean a mansion =P), but rather just as a question about what, in your wildest dreams, would make the coolest and most luxurious absurdly big luxury home/castle. My tastes in this have a lot in common with Stormbringer's... the two-level library is a must, as is the conservatory, and I would add outdoor aviaries and greenhouses, plus full-on wiring for the interior, polished granite countertops in a big kitchen with stainless steel appliances and wrought-iron fixtures... I could go on.

So, let me rephrase:

Suppose a man was going to pay you two million dollars to build a house. You have an unlimited budget (access to his gargantuan accounts), and he wants it to be your idea of perfection in every way, with every amenity and every element you could possibly need to entertain yourself and any guests you would like to have around you. You have an unlimited budget, but the budget goes toward the house and in the end you get your two million and that's it. What do you build, and what features does it have? In as much or as little detail as you want.

TB613 · « **Reply #37 on:** December 12, 2003, 05:47:41 am »

Even in the if I won the lottery vein I really don't want a mansion, a two or three bedroon raised ranch on a minimum of twenty acres would do me just fine. The only real extravagance I would have would be an indoor sauna. Now the other buildings would be where I would spend some money with a minimum of a three car heated garage/shop and a good sized pole building/barn if the property did not have a barn already.

Atrahasis · « **Reply #38 on:** December 12, 2003, 05:55:11 am »

LOL I have the inside word that Erin is quite the hottie.

No offense, Miss Hoffman.

News: