Biltmore, ballrooms, and avarice just ain’t my thing
What’s your idea of a “dream home?”
Mine would be a rustic cabin with cozy-but-open living spaces hidden from any public road and tucked away on about 20 wooded acres with a pond or stream. Our kids are grown, and we just need enough room for us to relax and for family not to feel cramped to be relaxed and for family to not feel cramped when visiting. We prefer to spend time on porches, decks and outside, so a lot of house is not what we need.
A lot of peace and tranquility is what we need.
Others may disagree. Those who know me well know that my tastes are quite simple. I don’t care about expensive trends or fashion. (“Noooooooo!” my old friends and colleagues all just said sarcastically in unison.) Status symbols mean nothing to me. If I had billions, I wouldn’t waste a cent on a fancy car and would keep driving pickup trucks — newer pickups but still.
I doubt George Vanderbilt shares my views — and not just because he’s dead, which, granted, does hurt my chances of convincing him my way is better. After inheriting a fortune started by railroad tycoon Commodore Vanderbilt (a fortune then expanded by his daddy, William), George used his inherited generational wealth to “build” America’s largest, grandest, persnickety-est home with 250 extravagant rooms — even though Granddaddy truly hated such ostentation. It’s called The Biltmore Estate outside of Asheville, North Carolina.
Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
Of course, George didn’t build Biltmore. He rode on the backs of his family’s wealth and 1,000 laborers who weren’t exactly treated very well. It was managed with a whole bunch of servants. It’s an amazing architectural achievement, and it’s mind-boggling to think they built it over the course of just six years in the 1890s. It’d probably take 20 years to build it today.
I toured America’s largest privately owned home with my wife and mom in September. I was in the area to cover disaster recovery work helping families whose less-than-250-room homes were damaged or destroyed by Helene (video at end). I was perfectly happy to let them tour the place on their own, but I had a break and was encouraged by my wife to join them on the tour. (I think I still have a bump on the back of my head from her encouragement.)
I went in with an open mind … even after the rather expensive ticket price. And, I hated the “house”. I found it vulgar and gaudy, which was par for the course for the Gilded Age, but it ain’t my thing. If it is your thing, more power to you. The gardens and 8,000 lush acres around the place are my thing. My wife also found the gardens more impressive than the house, which was “a bit much.” Apparently, ol’ George’s burning need to impress people was about equal to my burning need to get away from people. If I want to see lush gardens and sleep in a home with a view, I’ll do something far more reasonable and rent a cabin overlooking Georgia’s beautiful Pine Mountain Valley and visit Callaway Gardens for the umpteenth time.
Worth it, by the way.
Again, though, if that kind of gaudiness with hand-me-down money impresses you, fine. If you’d rather watch “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” that’s fine, too. I prefer “Beachfront Bargain Hunt.”
I don’t hate all large or famous homes. I recently visited William Faulkner’s Rowan Oak in Oxford, Miss., and found it impressive but not ostentatious. It was a tucked-away retreat for him. I also enjoyed Graceland, which may have been tacky in a lot of areas, but it was the kind of tacky that perfectly reflected its owner, some musician named Elvis or Elvin or something.
I also just returned from Peru, where The Fuller Center for Housing has built more than 120 homes over the years and now is building a 44-home community in an arid area known as La Florida. These houses are each about 650 square feet with two small bedrooms, an indoor bathroom (a big deal there) and a kitchen/living area. More than once, families described these simple, decent dwellings to me as their “dream home.” Compared to some of the bamboo-and-straw homes there, these new homes might as well be mansions.
With the cost of homes skyrocketing in the United States and the concept of a typical American home becoming unaffordable for so many — even with ridiculous equity-killing concepts like the 50-year-mortgage being floated now — we may be seeing more “dream” homes in the United States look far more like a home in La Florida than mini versions of the Biltmore.
Tiny homes may be a bit extreme for me, but cozy cottages seem like a sensible solution. Especially when they are out of the crowded cities and on the right, peaceful plot of land, an 800-square-foot cabin can be a dream home.
Well, so long as no one tears down part of your cozy, practical home to construct a gaudy, vulgar, monstrous, golden ballroom as a salute to avarice and a new Gilded Age. I’m sure ol’ George would approve of all the efforts to turn the people’s house, The White House, into Mar-a-Lago II.
What do you think about this?