Oh, Jill, then don't buy the house if it will embarrass you.

Agree. So garish.

AWD, can you please provide just one example of a person striving for excellence and then having been vilified and looked down upon after the fact?

and besides, it looks like an ugly mcmansion style house.

To: alt ideas needed - You want an example of a highly successful person being vilified? The democrats and their mainstream media have been doing this endlessly to Mitt Romney. Seriously, open your eyes!

Right on, Lisa L. - Unfortunately, liberals are unable to recognize this job creation through their fog of envy. Yet, the liberal millionaire Hollywood stars are their idols...go figure.

@Lisa -- Do you have any idea what those people make per hour? It's usually not enough to have health insurance, much less own a modest 1000 square foot home of their own.

It isn't making the employees wealthy- it's making the owners of the small businesses who own the individual businesses some money- such as the landscaping business, the cleaning company, the window washing company...etc. I personally would not want a home that size simply because of the COST to heat and cool it! DANG!

I know a couple who have a very large home. She works part-time, he works 50+ hours a week. They have no outside help - She actually LOVES taking care of the house, as you see they had no children and they rarely entertain. He takes care of everything outdoors and enjoys that. To each their own I guess. Its just another glaring example of the imbalance of wealth in this country.

I can tell the difference between skilled hard work and not. Most people paying for work to be done can too. Usually you get what you pay for. The owners can choose to be generous with honest hard working employees or not.

My mother told me about sneak-roller skating in the ballroom and corridors of her childhood home. It sounded lonely to me. That's not a home.

This residence is garish and depressing. Tear it down and restore the farmland.

Right. That'll happen.

Jealous, Bob?

Bren - seriously? Tear it down? What about all of the landfill space the demolished house would use? Liberals are not logical and you have illustrated this! I always thought that liberals do not tell (or judge) other people how they should live their lives. Nobody is forcing you to live there or near there.

No, not at all, Annie. If I had 2.5MM, that's honestly not the kind of house I'd blow it on. For that kind of money I'd probably build somewhere other than Brookfield, for starters, and I'd go for something a lot less garish. I really think that thing's hideous.

Hey Bob...I still think you are envious. Most people do not criticize others' homes without reason. It is not my style, either, but I do not begrudge the people who live there. Do some soul-searching, Bob.

Annie, most people don't read as much into a pretty straightforward comment about a house as you do. It's a house, it cost $2.5MM and it's ugly. Why are you so personally invested in the place that you take offense at that observation? Is it yours? Are you trying to unload it?

It IS hideous. Just because a house is technically a mansion with a four-car garage and other unnecessary extra amenities that only a wealthy person would need, doesn't mean everyone should be drooling over it. I love the mansions on Lake Drive and I've had the opportunity to tour a couple of them; they are more appealing because they have historic value and many of the original woodwork and layout has been preserved. If I had the money, I'd sooner opt for a home with some historic value/character than a new mcmansion, any day. I really think most people agree, too.

alol - totally agree.

Annie, in addition to being one of the most hyper-segregated regions of the country, southeastern Wisconsin is also one of the worst in terms of suburban sprawl. Every acre of land converted from growing crops into a subdivision lot reduces the food/resource supply, and ultimately helps to drive up cost.

So yes. I would argue that the land the house sits on is more valuable. Deconstructed properly, much of the material from the building could be recycled/reused.

Aesthetically speaking the house is a mish-mash, déclassé. What a mess.

Bren - when is the demo scheduled for your house and farm field contracted to be installed in its replacement?

@Steve

Apparently she thinks farmland is worth 1 million per acre. She makes a lot of scents (peeyou).

@Bren -- Obviously farmland brings in much less tax revenue than a crown of McMansions built on half-acre lots. So there's a lot of pressure from municipalities like Brookfield to urge the farmers out to increase their tax base. It's short-sighted, because the new construction ends up costing them more in services than the farmland did. Sometimes i don't think the new property taxes make up for it. And once the green-space is gone, it's gone.

►Bren and Randy◄ I just checked back in from running a business all day, trickling down my created wealth and solving a lot of problems with third party technology.

I am surprised but have not been informed when you both plan on demolishing your homes and restoring them to farmland. I await your response and thank you in advance. Your determination to this is a credit to our entire organization.

Best Regards-
Steve ®

@Steve --So sorry to make you waste your valuable time a a job creator to come here to chide us.

How would you know where and how I live? Don't assume and make a fool of yourself.

Luke, I was referring to the land's value for food production specifically. I'll also add that construction increases ground temperature. So I'm female, eh? ; )

Steve, my lot isn't quite large enough to make a dent in the global food chain, sorry. And the house is historic. That's why I agree with Bob about the value of true architecture vs. ...this. If helpful, I did encourage my father to sell acreage to the DNR instead of the developer dogging his heels a few years back. It's part of a preserve now. As a traditional Republican, land conservation is very important to him.

Also, I thought you "sold" your business. No? In that case, do you try to pressure your employees into voting GOP? Just curious.

Either is this lot. Typical liberal hypocritical statement. Keep burning your food supply in your fuel too right?

Long face...A discontented or sullen facial expression.

My guess is that you have a "certain" envy. Columns happen to be prominent in architectural history. If you were trying to be funny, your joke was limp.

@ Jim - Sigmund Freud might have a few words to say about the extensive use of columns and towers. It's pretty clearly compensation for a personal deficiency.

It's tempting but I won't go there....

@Annie Nominous, I am very comfortable with my personal architecture. And the use of columns in design from Sumeria to Brookfield is not foreign to me. Clearly you welcome columns. OK. But mixing classic columns with Tudor-esque towers, all indented with arched and eyed windows... well, it really is a mash-up of the nth degree.

@ Jim Price - now you are trying to justify the innuendo of your original post. Did the Mrs. read it or something? Mixing classic columns...blah, blah, blah...nice try, though.

Why thank you for your opinion, Dr. John Smith! Perhaps you should utilize your "psychology" degree to deal with all of the envy on this posting site generated by some photos and a selling price. Because I am not jealous and green with envy, that means I have a problem? As an "online doctor," you should not be so judgmental of me - I am happy that someone can afford to live in that house. I think you are the one full of venom, doctor.

Absolutely they should. And when they achieve the kind of wealth that allows them to build a 2.5MM home, they shouldn't settle for a McMansion on steroids. They can do better. We've got some darn good architects in this area who could come up with something in that same vein that wouldn't end up looking like the architectural equivalent of a stretched and pimped out Hummer.

@Bob McBride -- To me, this has the look of something designed by a computer without the sense to differentiate between the Richardsonian Romanesque towers and those oddly baroque round windows. I doubt it's very comfortable inside as well.

This house design happens when the homeowner(s) hand the Architect a pile of photos & magazine clipping of architectural elements that they like/want and 'require' all of those things to appear in the front elevation.

I see. Verily, I dub it the Chateau Parvenu.

Hey Bob - why do you feel the need to dictate how someone should spend their money? Some people may find this house attractive. Does everyone find you attractive?

Because I'm in charge of everything. And, yes, everyone thinks I'm attractive.

Anything else?

Whoa, Bob...really? Everyone finds you attractive?

Hey Bob...Are you sure your name isn't "Bob McPride?"

Yes, really, everyone finds me attractive. Absolutely everyone. It's a curse, really. You should be thankful you don't have that problem.

Anything else I can help you with?

Bob McPride...now you are just getting obnoxious. You are too good for yourself.

I keep telling myself the same thing Annie, but what am I going to do? I'm stuck with me.

I did check your profile, and I think you resemble Bill Murray...so take that as you wish. Goodnight, McPride.

Damn, you looked. You're a sharp one. Like a butter knife, you are. Nighty-nite.

@Cricket I agree with you --- most of these new houses are all smoke and mirrors ---

Here is UTube story on how much faster new construction homes burn than old construction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIyZx8uIMh0

In many municipalities now, codes are calling for mandatory sprinklers on new construction as they burn so fast.

Even new homes that appear brick or stone are often just frame construction with a facade of brick or stone --- not the way real brick houses use to be made

I was in an apartment building that was older construction, with concrete slab floors --- and really good drywall fire wall construction --- there was a fire so intense that it blew out the windows in the apartment and flames were shooting out at least 10 or 12 feet --- after the firefighters extinguished the blaze, I checked out the apartment directly above it, expecting it to be pretty much toast --- and it was totally untouched, looked like there was never a fire just below it --- same with the apartment next to it

It depends on who 'they' are, Steve. My father built my house, literally, with his own hands, just like I redid the roof this summer. The eventual owners of that house will have amassed a pile of money that they will hand over to a builder, who paid his labor not a whole lot to construct it. The people who mow their grass and clean however many toilets are in that house will also receive very little for their labor.

The trickle is very thin.

2.5 million with $27,000 per year property tax and this socialist Randy guy is talking about a thin trickle.

In terms of jobs and wages created by those ostentatious piles, the trickle is thin.

This family single handily employees one teacher via one property tax payment. How many do you employee socialist Randy?

A teacher works for $27,000 a year? In that case, i employ between a quarter and a third of a teacher.

Randy, your "trickle" is even thinner than the guy who owns that house. Size matters, and the tax base is not satisfied with you, by comparison.

Is that so, Luke? Do you have a bigger one?

Randall is quite ignorant of most matters that involve economics. We need more people like this building and owning homes this size. Randall, just because you live in filth and squalor doesn't mean we all should.

I don't know who this 'Randall' is, Pennypacker, but I know a lot more about property taxes than you might think. And I bet mine is bigger than YOURS too.

You should give more since you want to force everyone else to. Lead by example. Prove that higher tax rates work better than consumer spending.

LOL -- I think mine is bigger than yours too, Steve, judging from your reaction.

How much every year to you pay over and above?

Same as you, Steve.