Ever since childhood, I’ve had a fascination with architecture. I never had sufficient artistry to justify studying it in college or choosing it as a profession, but I enjoy doodling floor plans and looking at how different buildings are designed.
One manifestation of that interest is a dream house project. When my wife is having a good day, it’s sometimes enjoyable to sit with her and play with the layout and features of a mythical house. And, for all the conservation minded features I throw in (rainwater capture, greywater usage, solar & wind power discreetly installed), I do have to admit that our dream house has such a large square footage that I ought to be ashamed of myself for even conceiving such a monstrosity.
However, it sounds like our 15,000 square foot cottage might not be quite as ostentatious as some residences in Connecticut. Consider this post in the WSJ’s Wealth Report blog (free link):
Greenwich, Conn., is a small town of big houses. Like Steve Cohen’s 32,000-square-foot home with its own ice rink. Or Paul Tudor Jones’ 13,000 square-footer.
So when Greenwichers complain about a house being too big, that counts as news. According to an article in Greenwich Time by Hoa Nguyen, Russian billionaire Valery Kogan and his wife Olga are planning to build a 30,000 square-foot home on Simmons Lane. [...]
The house would have the usual Russian-billionaire amenities: eight bedrooms, a gym, theater, lockers, wine cellar, staff quarters, game rooms, a Turkish bath, a Finnish bath and a special room in the basement for grooming dogs. The home also features a grand total of 26 toilets.
Twenty-six toilets?! There probably is some method to that madness (one per bedroom, plus an extra one to provide jack-and-jill facilities in the master suite, a couple in dressing rooms for the gym, ….), but even so, uttering the phrase “my house has 26 toilets” just don’t seem right.
I wonder if I can score some floor plans. I’m dying to know how one comes to need 26 toilets in a house.