Tasteful friends...What do we think of the most expensive home in West Virginia?

The interior is truly fucking hideous. First, the moldings make it look like a church or something very dated (and they are ugly - they look like MDF with a veneer). The blue carpeting in the library is hideous - and again, more MDF shelves with veneer. The furniture seems like budget furniture that you see in fraternity basements...with those fugly stripes in silk or whatever overpriced store in West Virginia sold it to them. The fake books only make the library worse. The color schemes - if they even can claim to have color schemes - are fugly. All blue dining room? Ew. All red/orange/burt sienna living room? No fank you. The bathroom with the black/beige patterned wallpaper could give someone a seizure.

kitsch

Yeah, it has a very heavy, dated look and the house is only about 10 years old. The furniture is truly hideous, like an insurance agent's office.

And it seems grossly over-priced. I don't know who in WV could afford it.

[quote]The furniture is truly hideous, like an insurance agent's office.

Ah yes, that's what I was looking for... not frat basement.

It's identical to what we had when I was an intern at a discount brokerage one summer in the late 90s. We all had these ridiculous oversized desks (like that house) and chars with faux silk stripes...shiny shiny.

Does the owner have fantasies of a presidential run?

We like that this monument to bad taste isn't anywhere near us.

Only 10 years old ? Id have sworn it was 1989 all over again. Its got good bones,but needs a major redo.

Couldn't they have found a better videographer? The dips, swoops and jerks are annoying

Not my taste at all. I don't like any of the rooms. R6 I also thought WH.

I don't like any of the room either -not one. Some are decidedly uglier than others, but good taste or design is not present anywhere. Even the carpeting and rugs are staid. I bet the maid is instructed to use Pledge once a week on all that wood.

I'll bet all of these negative comments are coming from those fat whores on the condo thread who brag about their 600 sq ft city cave dwelling.

If it's only 10 years old the owner likely commissioned it. I wonder who it is. I have a hard time believing that pile belongs to old money.

Why would you say that R12? This is truly an ugly house...and I can name a dozen gorgeous houses that I've seen (virtually all of the ones featured on Million Dollar Listing NYC and LA - never could afford - but I'm not going to talk shit about them because I can't afford them...except maybe the hyper-ultra-modern ones).

Unlike the thread where everyone rips the looks of some hot model to shreds, this doesn't have anything to do with envy.

It's rather dour on the outside and not my taste inside, so I'll pass.

For that much money, I don't want an estate that can be seen from the road.

I don't want the poors even LOOKING at me or my house.

Even if you were rich, who would pay 17mil for THAT house, located THERE? Gross.

the furniture and decor look like my bank's interior.

I have some issues with this house. This is a new mansion which I rarely like new mansions.The dinning room is dark blue and weird. The back of the house doesn't look finished. I prefer an older stately mansion if I was to spend that kind of money.HOWEVER, it isn't that bad as the usual DL exaggerators like to scream out. The furnishings are not out dated. They are classic designs ,which basically look American Colonial furniture etc. that have transcended time for hundreds of years and they are not in the trendy category. However, they are not old and high end copies at least or antique pieces but cheap copies. I do love the library and I would put first editions on the shelves and Moroccan leather bound books. My dream was to own a home that had a library with and antique globe, a window seat to stretch out and read. A home library is like a warm blanket warped around you on a cold day. Also, there are no antiques to be scene in the house and no art. No antiques in Virgina? Please! Virgina has magnificent American antiques. Also. there are struggling American folk artists whose works are a dying art in America. I own some pieces which I highly treasure.I notice people don't have art in their mansions like they used to do. In addition, art can be beautiful, but it can be a very good investment as well.

The homes in Million Dollar Listing LA are all cookie cutter predictable minimalist modern mansions to the point that it looks like Beverly Hills is turning into a millionaire's Levitt town. I used to love watching Million Dollar Listing La ,but now it's boring as hell because everything is so predictable and the same. I think it's hilarious when theses pretentious buyers think the public is drooling over these mansions that are just a lot of glass and a lot of steel. I think their wealthy buyers are one dimensional who lack imagination and intellect.If I was a millionaire, I would want my mansion to have character and to be unique.That is why I adore old homes because no two homes were a like when they were built, and each home has unique character and expression.

BTW, I live in California in Silicon Valley and these tech jerks are moving in and taring down these beautiful stately homes and building these buttt ugly homes in their place. Their homes look all the same and they are ruining the once elegant neighborhoods and making them into Orwell's 1984. All they know and care about in life are computers. These tech people out here are one dimensional.

The facade looks like a cement factory - perhaps a Tuscan cement factory.

Isn't Jennifer Garner from Charleston, WV? This would be the perfect place for her to pack up with Ben and the kids to try and patch things up back down home and away from temptation.

What a hideous over sized mess. I hate the architecture. I hate the 6 garages. I hate the finishes. I hate the blue and red hotel decor. Although its a gigantic hotel of a house. Homes that large generally don't appeal to me. Was that a television sitting in front of a window in the bedroom?

The colour scheme seems weird. I wonder what kind of person designed that interior. Straight guy?

It looks like it would make an excellent bed and breakfast for the nouveau riche.

The interior is very Carleton Varney on a budget (and a butched up color palate. I assume they were aiming for something more like this:

Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful.

The grounds aren't bad. The house is ugly and the interior is tacky tacky tacky.

The drive up to the house looks like a garage park with a stalinesque home stuck in between. I think the only thing in the entire house that I liked were the biedermeieresque sofas in the entry hall, and then only if they were reupholstered.

It's not to my taste but I find it hilarious that if this was a house in San Francisco or NYC this thread would have been different.

I would think for a $17 million listing, they could have hired a professional real estate photographer to shoot it. The vertical lines in the photos are all tilted and the color tones are weird.

All that and a view of what looks like an industrial park.

Who do I call to book a viewing?

For about $100 less per square foot - you can get the most expensive home for sale in Minnesota. Southways, the summer home of the Pillsbury Family on Lake Minnetonka outside Minneapolis. A real mansion from the tail end of the gilded age.

$17 Mil and you're still living in W. Virginia, and in that mausoleum? No fank you.

I do think the alabaster chandeliers in the foyer are pretty.

That Pillsbury house is to die for !

The building materials and construction quality are likely top notch. But, the decor is obviously tailored to a bunch of arrivistes devoid of good taste.

I'm not sure who would want to live in the place other than some toothless hillbilly version of Jay Gatsby.

lol R34. Hillbilly Jay Gatsby.

You gals are biggest bitchiest queens in the world!

The grounds are nice, I like the pool and tennis court. The exterior is really very ugly. It looks like a hick was once taken to a motel and thought it was just THE fanciest thing imaginable and decided on that for a dream home. The interior is awful. Presumably the owners aren't bankrupt so why not employ an interior decorator? It looks like it was furnished in 1985, entirely from QVC. The blue / burgundy theme is oppressive and the ONE light room, the kitchen - diner, has that hideous double height faux stone fireplace. And I'm trying to work out what's going on with the bathroom complete with microwave and Keurig machine. WTF?

I do like the library though. The decor is terrible but it's an interesting shape and I like the double gallery bit.

It is salvageable though. A decent architect and builder could do something with the exterior motel-ness and a good decorator would rip out the wrapping-paper carpets, put in some hardwood floors with antique rugs, lighten up the walls and hang some original art. A few nice antiques mixed with some bespoke pieces would give it some character. Still, seems like a lot needs done for that price tag. No matter what you do the one thing you can't change is location.

[quote]And I'm trying to work out what's going on with the bathroom complete with microwave and Keurig machine. WTF?

R37, that's all the rage with the newly rich. I see it all the time. I presume it's so they can drink their coffee and eat their microwavable Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits while they take their morning shit.

its a tear down.

Jay Rockefeller's home?

[quote] The building materials and construction quality are likely top notch.

[quote] A few nice antiques mixed with some bespoke pieces would give it some character.

This residence welcomes its visitors with an impressive reception hall, showcasing intricate Brazilian Mahogany woodwork handcrafted by Hallidays of England and unique ironwork designed by Herndon & Merry of Tennessee. The silk lined walls perfectly balance the acoustics, while the alabaster chandeliers provide subtle and elegant lighting for this grand entrance. Perfect for entertaining, this space seamlessly flows into the formal living and dining rooms as well as the salon bar and sitting area. The sophisticated interior design and custom furnishings create a distinctive and unforgettable aesthetic.

[quote] That Pillsbury house is to die for !

It's worth the dough.

I like the dog washing room, but I don't think that warrants 19 million. I agree that parts of it are very Carlton Varney.

What is the deal with the swimming pool with a tiny lane running the entire length? Why separate it just for swimming laps?

I can't imagine having that much money and still living in West Virginia. Even if I had to be there for work I would commute.

Looks like a place someone with the last name Giudice would live.

R43, I think that's just the collection pool for the water that flows over the disappearing edge pool.

Which coal lobbiest owned it?

It's owned by an asbestos trial lawyer and his wife who is a WV Supreme Court justice.

at the turn of the last century, the state with the highest per capita percentage of millionaires was West Virginia. All the reflexive slams of the state and it's people is somewhat ignorant.

The money in West Virginia was the epitome of WASP, and the basis of most wealth was natural resources- coal, gas and timber. Most of the families sold out to mega-corporations, mine did by the early 50s, took the money, moved out of state and now live elsewhere. Those who are still there tend to decorate their homes like the Greenbriar resort, as if you have money in West Virginia, the Greenbriar is your home away from home. And if you are a regular at the Greenbriar, you likely have rubbed elbows with lots of highly placed federal government personel- thus the "White House aspirational" décor of this place. But yes, the whole place does have a certain naïve quality to it.

YOu piss ant losers. You should be so lucky to own such a house.

[quote]YOu piss ant losers.

Pot

From what I've seen of West Virginia, it's beautiful but the people all seem like they are from Kentucky.

[quote] I'll bet all of these negative comments are coming from those fat whores on the condo thread who brag about their 600 sq ft city cave dwelling.

[quote] You gals are biggest bitchiest queens in the world!

[quote] YOu piss ant losers. You should be so lucky to own such a house.

I'm not going to name names or point fingers. But someone here is desperate for attention.

R51, that's funny, because when I'm in Kentucky all the people there seem like they're from West Virginia.

Didn't even look. ON train but who cares when you have to drive 2 hours to ocean unless Colorado?

The exterior and grounds have an institutional look, as if the place were an expensive rehab facility and not a home.

The thick stone walls are to hide the sound of patients screaming through withdrawl...

[quote]It's owned by an asbestos trial lawyer

I guess this explains the reference to union carpenters and tradesmen.

[quote]Presumably the owners aren't bankrupt so why not employ an interior decorator?

I suspect they did. There are probably more untrained, bored, wealthy women who open design boutiques in smaller cities and towns.

R56 should die in a grease fire.

R48 You are correct about the WASP population and wealth with West Virginia. Huntington is a WASP bastion of wealth which would match up nicely against Sewickley< Pa., the horsey environs of Northern Va. outside DC.

But you did make one mistake: it's Greenbrier, not Greenbriar. I spent my summers in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. in one of the "cottages" on the grounds of the Old White. And as you said, the interiors of the home reflect the Carlton Varney ones of the hotel.

[quote]I used to love watching Million Dollar Listing La ,but now it's boring as hell because everything is so predictable and the same. I think it's hilarious when theses pretentious buyers think the public is drooling over these mansions that are just a lot of glass and a lot of steel.

Yeah - I am the one who said the thing about MDL. It was mostly to quiet the person who was like "you queens hate everything". I agree that the cookie cuter metal & glass boxes (what I was calling the hyper-modern) in my post are ugly...and have absolutely no character (unless you are going for hospital/office chic). I think there are quite a few nice homes still on those shows, though. Jeff Lewis does a good job as well, even though it's not really my taste per se & every house he does is the same... but the main point I was trying to make is that I don't find homes ugly just because I can't afford them.

What kind of money is in Huntington? Huntington is dead.

The outside is bearable, the inside awful.

The curtains are atrocious and should be burned ritually and publicly.

R59, you're great! It's obvious you have very good taste, and it is refreshing that you don't drink the cool aid like so many others sadly do. I love ya!

Bad taste trash. Looks like the owners either won all the furniture on Let's Make a Deal or bought the contents of a Broyhill store.

R62 it's possible to dislike something even though you can't afford it. Weird, right? But still true. I really dislike the interior of this house. I also couldn't afford it but I still dislike it. It's not to my taste. See how that works?

Also, there's really no such thing as good taste or bad taste, there's just personal taste.

The exterior cladding is horrendous. There is no flair to the proportions and angles and the oversized windows weigh the whole thing down.

I do appreciate that is does not have low ceilings. If the interior wood is real, it has potential. Get rid of all the interior wrought iron and finish the rails, balustrades, etc in total wood. Tone down the colours, improve the furnishings, and it might look like an "upscale" student centre or specialty library built in 1995 on a 2nd tier "elite" college campus trying to look oldy worldy and classy.

It's hideous.

If you want to do a new home in a showy "old world" European style, then you call Robert Stern and have it done right.

Well done, R66.

But is it a Craftsman home?

To make this house work, you will need: one drapey royal blue satin dress with HUGE shoulder pads, 2" heel satin shoes dyed to match, Bar Bush oversized pearl set, hair helmet, Anaise Anaise, Fancy Grouse scotch, and Premerin.

The Stern design is great.

In addition to Robert Stern, you can always rely upon Andrew Skurman to give you classic Mediterranean, French or Georgian designs.

That Robert Stern house is lovely and such an attractive use of blue. I don't know much about architecture. Could that Stern house be built for $17 million?

The furniture in the WV monstrosity does look like Broyhill, not even LazyBoy.

If I were going to spend money on a home in WV I'd try to get Willow Wall plantation, which is going up for auction soon, starting at half a mil.

R66, that mansion is jaw dropingly gorgeous in every way, now that is living in class! R73, I 'm in awe of that old mansion as well. My Gosh! the rich history and the elegance is just amazing. The murial in the dining room is stunning. It's sad in a way it is on the auction block because you just know some foreign buyer will buy it and screw that piece of history up.

Was that carpeting in the kitchen? Nobody has ever cooked there.

The stacked palladian windows on the wings - I have never seen that before. Also the higher small palladians on the wings, perfectly echo the front porch. The porch is very odd, but indeed elegant.

here it is in design

The new owner needs to bring back the shutters and heavier window mantels

Wow those two other ones were great... even though the inside is a little more "old world" than I'm be used to - they are fantastic. The second one has a pic of what a library and wood-clad walls SHOULD look like (hope the WV owners are reading!). I can't seem to link directly to the pic, but it's fantastic. I like the outdoor dining a lot too...that is serious design talent whether it's my taste or not.

The master bedroom looks like it would be a highly priced suite at the St. Regis or botique hotel somewhere. I couldn't imagine that being my bedroom (not enough IKEA - j/k), but I'd definitely stay in it for a while!

R76 Excuse me mister, but here in West By God, we call them things palladium winders.

Certainly is bigger than our West Virginny homestead.

Threads like this really bring the gals out, have you noticed it?

I understand tht Willow Wall plantation is historic but it's faux Georgian architecture is pretty horrible.

Europeans visiting it back in 1812 were probably making comments about how uncultured Americans were...

It's no Monticello.

It gives me the dry heaves just looking at it.

To me the most tacky thing was the drain in the floor in what is probably the bar kitchenette. If that for the draining of the blood when they bring back the varmints after hunting with Mitt Romney?

I like the grounds better than the house.

Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed. Poor mountaineer -barely kept his family fed...

Anyone else find the label? I looked and looked for it.

A couple of the neckties are nice.

The introductory image tells me all I need to know: a garage only slightly less prominent than the house; an architect/builder whose wife made him watch some Jane Austen-y thing set in a Regency house with a semi-octagonal entrance bay; vertically unaligned window openings; shit details; inferior materials...

It has been on the market for 1943 days – over 5 years.

Almost hell...

They're democrats. Article from 2001

At home in the mountains gets a whole new definition

One of the most expensive homes in Kanawha County, belonging to a state Supreme Court justice and her attorney husband, is taking shape on a mountain above Watt Powell Park in Kanawha City section of the state capital.

State Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis and husband Scott Segal have spent $5.7 million on the structure alone, city of Charleston building permits show. The house is located on Quarry Ridge East, on a road branching off the posh Quarry Creek development. The monolithic home, with four garage bays and two bronze dog sculptures in the circular driveway, will surely be appraised as the most expensive residence in the county, said Steve Duffield, Kanawha County supervisor of real estate and reappraisal. Davis and Segal are living in the home. She declined to talk about it earlier this week, when a Gazette reporter and photographer drove down the steep driveway, marked by four massive columns at the top. Segal was out of town on business. Duffield said the house could easily appraise for $6 million.

The only other home in the county that compares to the Davis-Segal residence is one belonging to Shelley Cuisset, said Duffield. That property, and an adjoining parcel in the Quarry Creek area, is appraised at $5 million, Duffield said. A list of city building permits includes general construction permits for $3 million, $1.5 million and $500,000. These indicate construction costs. Other costs and permits include $250,000 for furnaces and air conditioning; $175,000 for plumbing; $100,000 for electric service; $75,000 for an in-ground pool; $70,000 for landscaping; and $45,000 for a burglar alarm and video camera system. Property transfer records show that Davis and Segal spent $390,000 in January 1997 for lots in Charleston. It's unclear whether those lots constitute the Quarry Creek property. The house has been under construction for at least two years.

Appraisals are normally based on what comparable properties are selling for, Duffield said. The Davis-Segal home and the Cuisset home do not fit that mold, he said. "Such homes are built to address an individual's particular desires and needs," he said. Some homes amount to statements, he said. As for resale of the Davis-Segal home, "I wouldn't foresee that happening," Duffield said.

Before her election to the Supreme Court, Davis enjoyed a lucrative law practice that included labor and divorce cases. A Democrat, she won election to the court in 1996 and again in 2000. The Boone County native has boasted to visitors that her new home is built by union labor. Segal, meanwhile, has made his fortune in asbestos and personal injury cases.

Location, location, location

It's right next door to McDonalds

one block away from Taco Bell, Starbucks, a hospital, KFC, Wendy's and a Subway

No on most everything about it. So many of the rooms are very dark and depressing. But frankly, the interior construction looks cheaply done in some areas and rather tackily overdone in others. And as usual whoever did the interior décor should be shot. Some of the furniture looks like it came from Unclaimed Freight.

I like what they were trying for, and I actually like the dark interior colours, but what they were aiming for they mostly missed. It all looks "off" - wrong proportions, wrong details especially the exterior. The one R66 posted is far nicer

Wold have looked much better with real antiques or good repros. I actually like the curtains though

R17 is right though - its not great but its not THAT bad. Its far nicer than all the hideous concrete glass and steel boxes, like Ryan Seacrests place that was the subject of another thread here

ITS REPULSIVE

Nouveau Riche

What I don’t understand is if you that much money to spend, and you want an traditional style mansion, why they always seem to get some hack to build a huge Sheetrock By The Acre monstrosity and not find the plans of some smaller but wonderful Stanford White shingle style home and recreate it. If you cut the square footage by more than half you’ll actually have money to get beautiful custom woodwork in rooms that have a sense of scale, proportion and flow instead of a clumsy barn filled with Home Depot oak kitchen cabinetry. The RM Stern home proves that the craftsmen needed to build beautiful traditional homes still exist - you just need good blueprints.

White Trash Windsor Castle.

The house screams WEST VIRGINIA

[quote]Location, location, location

[quote]It's right next door to McDonalds

Worse, it's right next door to Virginia which means it's in West Virginia.

I would not pay $17M for the entire state, let alone this monstrosity.

It looks like some sort of nouveau riche private home halfway through a conversion into a conference center when they ran out of money.

[quote] Segal has said he and Davis are selling the house because they are simply unable to keep up the maintenance on this ridiculously big white elephant any longer and want to afford that privilege to some other dumb schnook with money.

There, fixed that for 'em.