Deconstructing a 36,000 Square Foot Home

I guarantee you have never seen a "tear-down" house like this one.  A Minnesota company is disassembling an immense home in the prestigious Lake Minnetonka area west of Minneapolis.
This massive structure is filled with room after room of salvageable building materials in pristine condition, ranging from sprawling kitchens and custom cabinetry to a unique sauna and indoor pool slide.

At the company's link are several pages of photos and a walk-through video.

The company saves money by inviting the public to go directly to the home to harvest materials; what remains is transported to their warehouse and store for resale.

Link.

This is utterly disgusting! Who needs something this big? I'll admit that it would be nice to have a little more room in my house, but 20x more area? Obscene!
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What a hideous monstrosity. Some of that oak moulding is pretty attractive and the granite is nice, but yuck. 36,000 square feet of THAT? On the brighter side, it's fantastic that they can salvage so much. Not everyone agrees with my (admittedly picky) taste, and it's great that they'll be able to recycle it instead of creating more waste.
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Sickening.

Says a lot about our current stupid system at work.

Hello World Economic Crisis.

Some 4000 kids are going to die of hunger within the next 4 hours from the moment you (or I) are watching such very interesting (stupidest, actually) story (or, any recent moment given) as I've recently learned.

Just makes me wanna go puke.

Bye.
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Um, why not? If they have the money (raised legally, I suppose), why not let them build whatever they want to build?

Isn't the freedom to waste one's own money the very foundation that capitalism is built upon?
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Sure, whoever has the means has the right to build a huge house, but I think we are all wondering WHY this house is being torn down. It seems like a real waste of time, labor, and money. Was it built by someone who later found they couldn't afford it? Was it a case of they can't sell it because no one ELSE could afford that much house? Or was it an experiment?

pwscott, a family who is homeless would not be able to heat this house, much less afford the maintenance.
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I'd bet this house has been on the market for a long time and is highly unlikely to sell. So, I wouldn't consider it a waste of time, labor or money to sell it off in pieces to people who can use the fixtures and materials.
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Bank owned. Built in 1987. Most current owner in trouble with IRS, described on blogs as ponzi-schemer.

Ownership of mansion and cars important to demonstrate his success, build confidence of his investors?

Another previous owner Denny Hecker. Much baggage comes with house...

Recent book on the mansions of Lake Minnetonka laments the teardown of architecturally significant ones to subdivide the land and build multiple smaller homes. MUCH better to tear down the tacky ones, such as this.

Commenters above say it is morally bad to build homes suitable for posh entertaining. What do they have against people working in the catering trade? What do they have against landscapers? Why say that people who hire the members of my family should instead not build, but give the resources instead to people who don't work?
I don't understand.
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Yeah, the house is ugly inside (although I like the exterior), but I don't get what people are complaining about. If everyone just took what they needed, then everyone should be living in apartments instead of houses. Hey, why didn't you take that money you spent on that ipod and donate it to charity instead? What a selfish person you are! Why did you have children instead of adopting? Ugh, you're just adding to overpopulation and depletion of resources! Then again, I suppose it's always easier to spend other people's money....
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