8 houses

Fancy, over at Fancy Schmancy tagged me for a little game called:

If you were as wealthy as the McCains, where would YOUR eight homes be?

Actually, I read that he has 13 homes...but who's counting, right? Anyway, the rule of the game is that they all have to be, like the McCains, within the United States...which, damnit, rules out the Italian villa next door to George Clooney. I just don't see the need to own more than 2-3 homes in the US; what about the rest of the world??

Anyhoo, here are the 8 places in the US that I would want to own homes:

1. Stanley, Idaho

I have a deep love for this area; it's just a couple hours outside Boise and is so, so beautiful. I've always said that if I ever win the lottery, I'm going to buy several hundred acres in Stanley, build a small cabin right in the middle of it all and put in a landing strip so that you could only access it via plane. No unexpected visitors! ha! This would be our "escape from everything" house. No TV, no phone....NO COMPUTER ACCESS DAVID. Just plenty of books, binoculars and hiking boots.

2. Castle Valley, UT.


I love Southern Utah. It is breathtakingly beautiful down there, with hundreds and hundreds of wild canyons full of natural arches, wandering creeks lined with Cottonwood Trees, weird sand-stone formations, ancient Indian dwellings under the cliffs and amazing birds. You could go out exploring every day for years, and still not come close to seeing everything. It is really a magical area. Castle Valley is a tiny community 20 miles east of Moab; it is (as you can see in the photo) a lush, verdant valley surrounded by stunning red-rock sandstone cliffs. Many environmentalists and naturalists call Castle Valley home, including one of my favorite authors, Terry Tempest Williams.



3. Next, and this is more about the house then the location (most of them are in California or Illinois) , I would buy a Frank Lloyd Wright house because owning a FLW has been a dream of mine since I was young. I just love his designs; they are modern yet warm.






The one I would quite possibly KILL for is this one. (I can't copy/paste the photos so you'll have to follow the link). It is the epitome of everything I love about Frank Lloyd Wright design and it is, quite simply, MY DREAM HOME. It's on 80 acres, between Monteray, CA and Yosemite National Park. It's actually for sale, for a cool $2.7 million. Worth every damn penny.



4. Hawaii. Gotta have a place in Hawaii, right? I found some land on Kauai that would do.

It's $6,000,000. With $1.2 million down, your monthly payment would be $31,000. And that's just for the LAND people. But look! Private beach! And I think I see a spot to pitch a tent.



5. Manhattan. Food, music, arts, food, and...um...FOOD. I was hoping for Upper East Side (my understanding is it's more bohemian, where the wealthy, artsy, liberals live). But I require a view of Central Park, so all I could find was this penthouse on the Upper West Side. It's $21,000,000. It's a bit over-the-top (who owned this place, Liberace??), so we'll have to redecorate. But that shouldn't cost more than a couple million more. The view is lovely, though, no?




Oh my god. I've only bought 5 homes and I'm EXHAUSTED. I still have 3 more to go??? Uugggghh. This real-estate-collecting is, to quote W, hard work.



In fact, I'm losing my motivation and my blood sugar is crashing. So in the name of brevity, I'll just list the rest:


6. Vermont. I'd find a huge old barn and convert it into a home and have many, many acres with some horses.

7. Alaska...this one is for David. He gets to choose where. As long as it's on a lake or river. Honey, I'm happy to allow you one house out of 8. Because that's how I roll.

8. I'm stumped on the last one. Really....there's no where else I can think of. So YOU, my readers get to choose the last one. How's THAT for being a socialist??

Oh, also, I'm supposed to "tag" some people to play the game. So if you are reading this and have a blog, consider yourself tagged! Come on, Jodi, Jacki, Heaher, Robyn, MP...whoever else. You're up!




Oh, and be sure and tell me, in the comments, where we should buy our 8th house.