So, I was at the carwash the other day getting my old truck washed and I picked up this little newspaper called the North Scottsdale Times to read while I was waiting. I flipped through the pages, and this article caught my eye. It was called "The Valley's Most Expensive Recently Sold Homes". The first home featured sold for the tidy sum of $7,212,672.00. I don't know about you, but imagining that sum of money simply boggles my brain. I have the same mental trouble when I try envisioning how many light years it is from our galaxy to the next closest one. Even more incredible, the house is a modest 12,244 square feet and includes a game room, theater, two-bedroom guest house, outdoor kitchen and spa. Holy smokes!
As I read further in the article, I was stupefied to discover that the house was purchased by none other than Christiaan Meyer, the sole trustee of Marrowstone LLC, an Arizona Limited liability company. Christiaan Meyer, as in the husband of Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series. Okay, so Stephenie is obviously doing pretty well for herself, not that I doubted it. Do you think she paid cash for the house or has a mortgage? Yeah, maybe she put down, say, five hundred thousand dollars and financed the rest.
I studied the picture of the house, which is actually an estate – a HUGE estate – and I began to wonder how many full-time people it takes to keep the place up. Two maids, at least, a caretaker and a groundskeeper for sure. For fun, I Mapquested the house and was pleased to discover Stephenie lives only about nineteen miles from me. Why, she and I are practically neighbors.
While the carwash guys finished up with my slightly dented 2001 Ford 150 (what kind of vehicle do you think Stephenie drives?), I start fantasizing about being so successful as an author that I, too, could afford a home valued in the seven digits. One that I don't have to decorate with sale items from Ross and TJ Maxx. Next thing I knew, my brain started to do that shut-down thing again - like when I try picturing dinosaurs the length of a football field and living amongst them fifty million years ago.
Cathy Mc
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6 comments:
Just imagine how much her house was probably worth BEFORE the economy went down and the housing bubble burst!
Hey Cathy,
Sandra Brown lives only a few miles from my house. My mussings took a similar path a few years back when she let the Texas Ranger TV series blow up her house for one episode. It looked like a pretty cool stone house to me. Then she built a mansion on the property with a brick wall and two separate gated entries (one is a service entry). Anytime you drive by there are fresh seasonal flowers planted around the property and typically a couple guys working on the lawn. Circular wood stair case, a couple pools. One can only fantasize.
And you're ahead of me. My little car is a 2000.
You're both ahead of me. I drive a 1997 Ford thunderbird.
I cannot imagine a house that big---or the need for it.
Why would anyone want that big a house. Even if I had the money, I would not buy something that big.
You girls are talking to someone who just downsized house wise and loves it. And my other house was no where nearly as big as the ones we've been discussing. I think as we get older, the need for that type stuff is countered by the expense and even more so in my case, the RESPONSIBILITY!
Poor Stephanie with that big ole house and all those servants! :-)Personally, I'd hate the loss of privacy that would go with having to maintain such a huge estate and having servants around me all the time.
Check that, I could stand to have a chef around me all the time...
:-)
I watched a show on the Monte Carlo lifestyle yesterday and thought - "ugh! no thanks!" All those mega-yachts jostling for position on the harbor, all those people, having to keep up appearances. All those tiny apartments perched on the hillside for upwards of 60 million Euros!
If I was mega-rich from writing I'd be putting it back into literacy programs and libraries rather than huge houses and estates and yachts.
Money doesn't buy happiness.
Good post, Cathy Mc!
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