Those pillars may or may not be structural. Yet they really are an eyesore. I have rotated back to that picture several times. A ideal would occur but as I looked again it was pretty much a would not work. It just does not look like a house.

Yet you might build a stone wall in front of the house leaving a suitable distance from the structure. Say a Trump wall in your case nine or ten feet high. Or a reverse slope. Many variations are possible. Backfill whatever and grade out to the front line. Then you would only visually see the second story driving by.

Fortunately you can easily visually create the effect on a computer program and have a look. It is my guess that only seeing the second story and roof might look like a more secluded normal large house. I think the lot size is large enough to make something like that work. The thread is young yet so fasten your seat belt.

The other thought was at one time houses of this size where usually surrounded by stone walls. Currently it looks like something that does not even belong there as well.

That could work.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Hah hah!

I have no idea why Skid would pick me out for nice comments but Hey, I am sure his motives are pure!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Always respect the truth, experience/expertise, achievement/accomplishment(s). Pretty simple.....

Computer modeling of any appealing ideals might be worth the effort.


This is not the first time of great wealth differential in America by some. I lived near the town of Cobourg,Ontario. In the pre or very low American income tax period a ship would cross lake Ontario on schedule. You might want to look up the history of Cobourg, Ontario on the internet as most know little about it. Even Canadians. It is somewhat very interesting..


Very wealthy Americans constructed large mansions with staff etc. They used them in the summer. Some of the largest names in earlier American industry were involved.


Then the ship sailing stopped and the mansions sat empty until converted into apartments or were torn down. I suspect the boat sailed out of Rochester. It was rumored that some wealthy women kept a variety of stable boys on hand.


I think this as the first time I saw what to me were odd large residential buildings. Some where still very nice with the passage of time and some grotesque.


An old fellow that sailed with me every Wednesday afternoon when the weather was good. Both owned one and sold me my first Mercedes a fintail. He would show up like clockwork at the yacht club with his dog.


Even with the real age spread we enjoyed those times sailing. He had a thirty five or forty foot motor boat built made totally out of stainless steel. He only used it once or twice a season.


He even offered to sell me the converted mansion as he had gotten older eventually. I consider without knowing for certain that it may have been a misteak not to buy it. Still no one visualized the future then with great accuracy.


A new 1400 square bungalow then in that town was about 12k. He wanted 80k from me for it. Peanuts today of course. Odd in that you could not build the gated stone wall around the place for that today.


Perhaps the buildings time was over when oil prices went through the roof. Those cut stone places had no real insulation and would be difficult to retrofit with insolation. At least that one looked good even after his converting it to 13 larger apartments.


Why the details in this post? In the second world war and the years after. My grandmother would throw her fur coat on. Load me into her Buick and she would go out buying houses. If nothing else she showed me by example as she would buy about 2-3 houses a week.


Send a crew in to refresh them as soon as she got the titles. Sell them off for usually about twice her total cost.. She was a very successful early house flipper.


There were endless times I remember she said the house did not look right. Tell me why and we would leave. It is odd what you can pick up when very young. I think I absorbed how to really inspect a purchase before sealing the deal from her.


Looking back from todays perspective. She knew the business inside out. I grew up in one of her acquisitions for a time. She purchased a small private hospital and a doctors residence. Converted the hospital very little. Rented each room out for women working in the war industry. She sold the doctors residence to my mother and father while dad was still overseas. I accidentally eventually burnt the place substantially but insurance rebuilt it.


As a young tyke I was allowed to visit the young ladies in the converted hospital. They usually were young girls far from home but there for the big dollars of war work. Grandmother had really strict rules for the place. When the war ended she sold the old hospital. She made a ton of money at a time probably very few women did.


So in an abstract way when I look at a building my grandmother conditioned me. Perhaps that is why I still like to look at them? Looking back today. I wonder why grandmother never did commercial property basically?

Barry, when your Grandmother passed, did she leave a large estate, financially speaking? Or did she spend her profits or give them away while alive?

For a smart woman I often wondered why she changed in her later years. She had two sisters and the three of them found religion with the Jehovah Witness cult. I blame the older sister for that. They all lived to their middle to late nineties.


I would estimate for about their last ten years they all lived in one of the cults nursing homes. It is like the Canadian version of the IRS told me years ago. Once you have control of an older person you can get them to sign or agree with anything. Especially with enough brainwashing involved.


Since my parents did not have the power of attorney. I suspect that organization had it. I can hear their spiel now. Something like you know we are all good honest people.


It was by nursing home standards a very nice modern secluded place and in my mind only certain people were allowed to live out their remaining years there. The very wealthy members of the cult specifically. My mother had tried to convince her to hire people to take care of her at home prior to this.


It was noticeable that Every time I visited her I was being really screened on entry into the locked facility. It was never just who are you here to visit?


Plus there always seemed to be an administrative staff member present with the two of us during the visits. Paranoia on my part I think not. For one thing the administrative staff where very high in numbers compared to any other nursing home I have ever visited.


Members of normal means would be told there was no room there I suppose. If they even knew it existed but they may have.


Even before she became an actual resident of that place. I knew she was giving decent sums of money to the organization. Perhaps they have many nursing homes for different levels of wealth? Come to think of it I do not remember the cults name on the building. I think it was just nursing home. Still it was 100 percent a Jehovah witness facility.


Grandmother sent me a cheque from time to time. As I imagine she did with all the other members of the family. Not a substantial amount in total.


There was nothing left when she eventually passed. I think my parents engaged a lawyer but nothing could be done.


No offense to any believers of any religious organization. Technically they are not criminal in nature. Just like the majority of beliefs the money only flows on a one way street with them though.


It has been a long time since I have thought about how my grandmothers life ended. When I think of her at all what I remember is the better times.


As for the money it does not really matter. As she got into her late 6os she wanted me to take over. She would have been too controlling and have consumed all of my time. I mean all of it. She had a streak in her that if I made an error it could go bad as well for me pretty easy. She set and would have expected a ferocious pace up till the time of her total retirement.


I do not know if the money was grandmothers god in the really busy years or she just enjoyed the challenge. She was driven by something. Her daughter being my mother was without a doubt money oriented. So is my only sister today.


My sister got our parents estate because it was deemed I did much better than her. Plus Our part of the family including the grandchildren moved here.


I have no real complaints about it. My father might have felt differently but he preceded our mother by quite a few years. I had what I consider a good childhood and have to give thanks to both of them for it. My sister was so self centered she was not satisfied with hers. I tried to explain the world did not totally rotate around her at times but it was hopeless.


As she grew older mother caused me many concerns. I always made it a habit to go back several times a year to make sure she was really still okay. She had developed an anxiety disorder in her fifties and it seemed slowly progressive in nature. The last two or three years of her life she had memory issues as well. She at times would say the most atrocious things in that state.


As for myself and the wife. We have enough to last us out. We do not need or really want anymore as we are happy as is. Our children are normal and do decently. So are the grandchildren so far. I may yet live to see great grand children but that is a bit of a long shot.


I hope we as a couple are still up to the task of selling and giving excess stuff off. It is time now. Although I have started correspondence with a member about one of his cars. One more potentially decent 123d with a little work cannot hurt.

Joe asks questions and it might not hurt to express different values in life. For me it is family and building/repairing things. You never make much using your hands. But you are serving a passion.

I even once overheard an individual say that our family has it all. This was about fifteen years ago. It did cause me to pause and think. The guy was partially right and I had been taking it all for granted. Pretty good circumstances in general have followed us in life. So many things could have gone wrong over the years but did not.

Well I better get off and get some snow tires installed on the wives car. Or I might yet suffer. Snow tomorrow..

And never tries to mooch free advice from a professional...

Barry, that's a helluva family story.

I think we all have good stories to share.

I'd sure have liked to have seen the 30' to 40' full stainless steel shell power boat that gentleman owned when you were acquainted with him many years ago. He sounds a lot like a guy that realized he had it all financially as he aged.

I'd get that 123 MB diesel for certain, were I you. Shopping for, and thinking about things you really like and are interested in is the essence of positive Capitalist life. I'm shopping far and wide for a new residence. The searching and shopping is a big thrill for me. I also decided to buy another newish Chevrolet Corvette. I am having a ball in the shopping process for one - similarly to the years I spent in shopping for my prized E320 CDI, I bought used 3.5 years ago. I bought my first new Corvette 40 years ago next month. I think it's time I buy another one.

I am very interested in perhaps buying a couple power boats too. A small aluminum outboard for fishing, and a large cruiser of some sort. Chris Craft or Bayliner perhaps.

So you see, that's where this home I really like comes in. It's in the wheel house of my current interests.

The home came up FS a few weeks ago. It was purchased for approximately $800K when it sold to the current owners. I don't believe they ever moved in, nor did they plan on doing anything fruitful with it. The asking is now $2.3Mil and change. Which isn't much of a profit if they get that much for it, based on what the time value would yield versus investment in securities over that time period. Property taxes are $25K annually now. Glad that I wasn't interested in it then or now.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert