Tasteful Friends: Proof again the wrong people have money

It's very specific to one taste (or lack thereof). Hard to see what another owner would make of it. That marble bedroom floor with the little furry throw rug is a broken limb waiting to happen.

Good lord! Kill it with fire!! 🫨😯

The whole thing looks like some sort of boutique or restaurant or something commercial.

It’s absolutely vulgar to the extreme and is uninviting.

The Ferraris are nice, though. I’ll take those. 😛

Wow that's fucking awful.

Very Christian Audigier

I could live there.

I came to say something similar to r2: it looks like an "upscale" (and I use that term LOOSELY) office/commercial building of some sort.

Good lord.

Stripped down it could be attractive to someone with a modern aesthetic. The niche Ferrari in a box fetish is a bit much. I wonder if the owner would consider transforming those spaces to make it more attractive to a wider demo of buyers. They should also remove those deformed looking lobsters from the exterior.

I'm guessing a bachelor who maybe owns one of the Exotic sports car boutiques.

That big granite or marble slab standing looks like a tree monster and the ASTRO turf mirror is odd.

Hideous, the whole thing.

By comparison, there is a house up the road from me that is for sale 1.6M - on 32 acres. I was inside the home shortly after it was built - really beautiful exterior/interior. The former owners had traveled in Europe and the wife designed the house to mimic European cottages they had seen while there. Anyway, this home is truly beautiful/charming in countless ways and is a testament to good taste regardless of available resources. BTW, the house was accessed at $650K when completed in 2005.

I think it's very warm and lovely!

R10 - Helen - did you notice the one level living and hardwood floors throughout? Lots of room for your seeing eye companion to spread out although that might present a tripping hazard should you not be aware.

The game room is the worst and the guest room. If some of the garish decor were removed it would be better... you could strip it down. Sad use of the $ though.

R9, it's very homely except I noticed the photos look as if they were taken in late Autumn or early Winter and it's still on the market. Also don't give hints to the where you live. The identity thieves will swoop in.

Heinous

ChaTGPT, please show me what a rich Persian date rapist’s house would look like.

Oh, my, R9, that is truly, truly lovely.

I would buy that in a flash.

Where is Esmont VA? Anywhere near Clifton VA? Southern or northern VA?

Yeah, forgot to say that those things look like bugs climbing up the building, and that huge marble slab is disturbing.

r13 I'm sure it was a mistake, but there is a difference between "homely" and "homey."

One means "unattractive in appearance" and the other means "pleasantly comfortable and cozy."

Oh, wait...I just found out if you're British (or from the U.K., I guess) - "homely" CAN mean "simple but cozy and comfortable."

Never mind and carry on, then.

Russian-Texans!

My soul died a little just looking at those pictures

It's not my style, but I'm glad that someone got to build their dream home.

Owned serially by Dallas Mavericks players, I presume?

What a wretchedly uncomfortable looking house that is. It looks like a high end car dealership . Hard edges abound.

R17, exactly. I'm American but I was using the British definition of homely. I read too many British news sites.

That’s the problem with new money.

If you check it out on Street View, it sticks out like a sore thumb. The rest of the neighborhood is full of typical suburban ranch houses, then you get this hideous eyesore right in the middle of it all.

r8 do yer neighbors play okay banjo from their porch rockers?

Asking from distant Charlottesville

R9 ^^

I have seen a lot of these, in LA we call them Persian Palaces.

Always over the top, celebration of the car, excessive display of luxury like chandlers in the garage, marble on every surface you can find.

Where’s the pool?!

Where is the hookah lounge?

I do love the black kitchen and refrigerator treatment. I'm a car buff too and understand the pleasure of being able to see your cool car when relaxing in the house. But damn everything else is horrid.. well I guess I like the closet too

Never mind, I think I found it. Why else would there be a cheese fan up in the corner in a room that has an entire wall open to the air.

The glass car closet is deadly.

It’s Michael Jackson’s fault:

Where is Elon moving to?

Complete scrape.

I've seen Carnival cruise ships with more restrained decor.

How utterly shitty.

It seems their Pinterest "mood board" consisted of photos of Neimann-Marcus facades and The Price Is Right sets.

That's a lovely place, r9. I could see myself enjoying it.

R26 - no neighbors at all - the dirt/gravel road I live on is only 3 miles long with a total of 14 houses - my closest neighbor is about 1/3 of a mile away. They are lawyers so no banjo playing - a very peaceful, private area which is why I move here 20 years ago. I don't have the deep pockets of the people who built the house I referenced in R9 but it's nice to see those with means build something unique and tasteful unlike some who build monuments to their wealth - sort of like the structure at the beginning of this thread. If you're in C'ville then you know that rural Albemarle is packed with farms and monied folks along with regular residents such as myself. A really pleasant place to reside although the real estate taxes are getting out of hand.

My god, that place is so Dallas. But no pool? Who decorated it, Juul Uuluu?

R38 More like Let’s Make a Deal

It looks like a rich people mall. You know, not the mall with an AMC multiplex and a PF Chang's in the parking lot, the mall with Lexuses in the parking lot and no Macy's but a Nordstrom and a Neiman Marcus.

That's not a compliment. It's pretentious and pedestrian at the same time. Extremely off-putting. I can't imagine relaxing, spending the night or remaining sober in a place like this. I'd need drinks and maybe drugs to tolerate the awfulness.

It's really awful. But I don't hate it, because it's very authentic.

Can I get the name of their decorator?

Not Persian. Not Russian. Not professional athlete. Just a typical Dallas douchebro.

Here's more info about it from a Dallas real estate blogger. Be sure to read the comments. The neighborhood absolutely hates it.

R13 - The house was put on the market in May when foliage was just starting to fill in. The house is way off the road as is my house and most others along the road I live on. I don't think Identity thieves would roll in down here since the pickings are far greater up North in C'ville.

“I see Darth Vadar. What do you see?” I see gay Boba Fett’s house.

R16 - Esmont is South of Charlottesville. It's a small farming community with great charm and the people here are really great. Most people are regular folks and even the well heeled are decent.

Now, as for that monstrosity that started this tread - what a hideous piece of shit dwelling in every sense of the word. Taste is subjective but that eyesore makes me glad I live where I do!

TTFN

It looks like a flagship luxury store. I hate the marble floors.

Thanks, Icky. It’s too far south for my taste.

I think northern VA is safer for minorities.

The house at r9 really does look like a lot of houses in Southern France, very charming.

OP's house has shut my thought processes down.

The Esmont home could do without the McMansiony great room, but otherwise nice. The Dallas pad needs free roaming bugs and reptiles to make it livable.

Here's what that same amount can get you in Staten Island.

Or if you would prefer a condo on the Upper East Side.

I’m stunned. Not in a good way.

Wild how some million dollar NYC apartments come with the same janky AC units as trailer homes, plus a little window tin foil for that luxury bunker vibe!

R51 - there are minorities in Esmont too! Charlottesville is rather progressive, especially w/UVA and its diverse student base. Albemarle County in general is more blue than red and lots of wealthy people that have migrated from NOVA. I used to live in Madison County before retiring to Albemarle County and it was far more cloistered regarding 'outsiders' than where I live now. Anyway, I understand that living in a rural area is not everyone's cup of tea. I cherish peace and privacy and I have that here along with a really picturesque locale and lots to do and places to visit.

UVA must be the least diverse flagship state university of any decent reputation. Let’s be clear—it ain’t Berkeley, Westwood or San Diego

So they’ve been trying to sell it since September 2022, bwahahaha. Initially listed it for $300,000 more but after that, haven’t budged on price. The house next door is slightly less ostentatious but yeah, the neighborhood is all 60s ranch houses and they are pissed. I can’t imagine buying/building a monstrosity in a settled neighborhood where everyone hates you.

UVA is not a charm school, r59

R57 Yeah, I don't understand the pictures... the two versions with a "before" picture pretty dilapidated, and the (A.I. generated?) after pics still with those cheap and antiquated window air conditioners - easy to put in Europe-mounted air/heaters.

R55 Looking at the floor plan of the condo it has a space listed as "staff room"... but that must be a storeroom, not a maid's room. No restroom and I don't think they'd want Rosa to use the main restroom next to the other bedrooms.

Perfect for a reboot of "Dallas"

Makes one nostalgic for the days we just stuck steer horns on everything.

It's too unironic. If someone broke in with a can of red spray paint and wrote messages over the murals like "Fuck You" and "Eat My Ass" and "White Privilege" and "Greenhous Gases" over the cars you could sell it as art.

It looks like a mausoleum