I Paid $20.00 To Go See Multi-Million Dollar Homes Today

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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In Las Vegas they sometimes have something called Street of Dreams, and this year there was Parade of Homes.

You buy a ticket, this year it was $20, and drive to a location in a new building community, and they have a bus that takes you from one home to another. We saw five homes today, ranging in price from $2,700,000 to $11,000,000. They are always decorated by professional decorators and usually are eye-popping experiences.

Two of the homes had their own private elevators. Two had private movie theaters with seating for up to 15 people. All had pools and jacuzzis. Master bedrooms were about 1000 square feet, with closets you could park a few cars in.

The one for $11,000,000 had four floors, elevator, gym, game room with pool table and pinball machine, 6 bedrooms - each with a jacuzzi tub IN the bedroom, not the bathroom, a huge kitchen on the main floor and another kitchen by the pool. It was located next to a golf course, had a view of the Las Vegas Strip from almost every room, and garages for 5 cars.

But to be honest, the house that impressed us the most was the “cheapie” for only $2,700,000. Nice layout, great view, great pool and also on a golf course, but far enough away that you were private.

The best was two years ago…a home for “only” $3 million had an entrance that you could not believe…in you walk and there was a huge waterfall that went into the pool directly off the main living room, with a view of the Strip THROUGH the waterfall…and when you went to the bar/theater downstairs, there was an aquarium that was the wall to the pool. Now that was spectacular.

Any of you ever been to one of these events, and what did you think?

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Are you allowed to use the toilets?

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We had one in Orlando, also called Street of Dreams. No bus, we walked to the six houses.

It was quite enlightening to see what comes “standard” in these homes. Pools, outdoor kitchens, lovely pantries, servant’s quarters (although they called them guest quarters in the brochure, and they were separate from the rest of the house), theatres, etc. I really enjoyed it.

Although Ivylad noticed something…none of the bathrooms had toilet paper holders. I guess they install those later.

My only thing is, if you’re going to pay that much money for a house, I want it on at least 10 acres of land.

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I went to something like that in Tampa a few years ago. It was only 3 houses, but they were cool.

The one house I remember in particular was really cool because of the interior decorations. Like, one hallway had a dome or circular top, and they had painted a mural that went all the way across it.

I love looking at houses. Whenever I pass houses in construction, I always want to go in and wander around and look at them.

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We have Street of Dreams here too. During the DotCom wave, and when Billy G was at the top of the heap, lots of those multi-mill houses were sold to very new money.

Last year, I had a friend who was a little down on her luck stay with us for a couple months. To get herself back on her feet, she cleaned houses.

A friend had a cousin who bought a Street of Dreams house, back in the DotCom age.
Because the bottom had fallen out for them, they didn’t have a regular housekeeper, but they were hosting a wedding and wanted everything to be perfect.

My friend asked if I wanted to come with her, just to see the house.

The house was 11,000 sq feet. It had 5 bedrooms, an entertainment “pod” which was an oddly shaped room with 3 computers, a wide screen TV and a sewing/craft area. It also had a small gym with a “pet” palace for some reptiles, 3 dogs and 4 cats. It had two laundry rooms. The media room would seat 12 people in theater seats, 2 in recliners and 4 more on a sofa, farther back from the stage. That room also had a fully equipped wet bar, with 4 leather high backed swivel stools. So, in all the media room would seat 22 people.
The library had a desk that The Donald would envy, and two walls of bookshelves (with a ladder.) The other 2 walls were windows, with window seats. The entry way was inlaid marble. The living room had a marble coffee table that took three stong men to move, and the dining room had a Marble table (top and legs) that sat 6. It took 10 of us to move that. It was a “smart” house, so lights came on and went off as one passed through a room. The “nerve” center was a floor to ceiling “data tower.”
The house was set on a lot, just over an acre. It had a pool and hot tub. The pool, instead of being the ordinary aqua color was midnight blue. (a nightmare for rescuers)
The couple had taken some good advice in the beginning. Instead of paying cash for the house, which was their intent, they set up a trust fund they couldn’t raid, that made the house payments each month. When they their fortunes down turned they still had the house.
It was a good thing I went along. The house was in shambles. It appeared it hadn’t been cleaned since they’d had to fire the maid. There was dog poo so bad on the carpets two rooms had to recarpeted.
I pitched in to help. It was obvious one person couldn’t clean 11,000 square feet of disaster in a day. (It took two of us 3 days with my husband joining us on the last.) It took me 4 hours to clean the media room, and all of one day to do the library. (I had to remove every book because they were so filthy, not to mention upsidedown and backward.)
The wife was there to “help.” She introduced herself with her name and “I used to rich.” They both complained about being so poor, but he drove a Mercedes SUV and she drove a Plymouth Viper. They paid a “gardner” $600 a month to mow the grass, nothing else. He got paid extra for spraying a weed.

This is way longer than I intended, sorry. I’ll stop now.

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OK, let’s see if I can actually post without training wheels (or the help of Mr. Den Mum, known as Bumbazine on the SDMB) We have gone to a number of the “Street of Dreams” events in our area. They are ususally a charity event with a ticket price in the $12 or $13 range. I must admit that I try to go on Realtor Day and we enter for free by flashing our Lockbox key. Only bad thing is you have to share your afternoon with hundreds of Realtors :stuck_out_tongue:

The last one we attended was kind of a disappointment. We thought it lacked any real creativity in home or interior design. Also I would have to agree with the earlier post about lot size… maybe they don’t need to be on ten acres but if you were building a multi million dollar home , I would think you would want some elbow room and a bit of privacy. That said, these events usually raise a lot of money for their charity and are a fun way to see some over the top homes and occasionall see some design items you can recreate on a budget.

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Got a cousin in KY with a 20,000+ foot house that he lives in alone. It’s in the $10-12 mil range. Been there. There’s about 9 cubic miles of marble and such. My brother told me the master bedroom, with bath and closets, is bigger than his house.

He also has an island of off Belize that may (or may not, depending who you ask) be for sale for $55 mil.

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Sounds fun but it would be even more fun with 12 million dollar homes or celebrity homes like a real life "Cribs.
Are the people that own these ever at home?

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My dad had a friend who was a big time Real estate dude in Aspen. He would take us on tours of multi-million dollar condos when we went to visit. I remember one that was five stories, with a hot tub and wet bar , and kitchen on each level, as well as a hot tub outside. It had about 10 bedrooms. And came with a Jaguar and a Jeep when you bought it.
But I think the target customers were corporations to buy and let the execs use, rather than single owners. Cause each story was essentially a fully functional fancy ass condo.

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In one of our bathrooms we have a brass stand they holds the TP. Maybe that is what the use, only gold or silver with inlaid gems. :stuck_out_tongue: