Two Americas

John Edwards was partially right about the "Two Americas". America definitely has "haves" and "have nots". Edwards' mistake was in thinking these two groups could ever be combined into one jolly community. If we add the "have mores" into the mix, there is no hope whatsoever. So, let's leave those Bush Pioneers out of the equation, and contemplate the mere "haves"...

For I have seen the other America and have survived to tell the tale. Yes! I spent last week immersing myself in the total greed-fest known as the Annual Home Show here in SW Utah. The original intent of this spectacle was to allow local builders to strut their stuff. About 25 builders participate, each one taking a year to construct a visionary home, with every detail considered and every option exploited, decorated and landscaped to the hilt.

Since I want to custom build our next home, I have attended these events in years past to obtain ideas I might like to incorporate. Things like custom stove hood vents, dream kitchens and bathrooms, and unusual window or ceiling treatments have all been added to my future home wish list. I felt fortunate to be able to "kick the tires" of various home options without having to learn the hard way what can & cannot be done within a budget. Oh, how low my sights were set!

I am sorry to report that this year's experience was nothing short of SOUL-KILLING. It seems the participating builders decided that, given the awful real estate market we are all experiencing, they would concentrate on mansions ... because ... believe it or not, the people who can afford such huge luxury homes are not in the least affected by mundane things like subprime mortgages or whole neighborhoods becoming blighted with foreclosed houses. They are not concerned about having to sell their current mansion into a rapidly declining glutted market. They don't have an ounce of insecurity about their economic situation, current or future. They would've been right at home eating cake with Marie Antoinette ... never mind that creaking guillotine slowly edging its way into their world ... as long as they can gate it out of sight, they will continue to party on the backs of the poor and middle class. They are the other America John Edwards warned us about.

The way our Home Show here works is, you purchase a pass that allows you to walk through every home once ... kind of like a private showing ... if you consider being jostled and hustled in a moving sea of oooh-ers and aaaah-ers to be private. The homes are totally tricked out. Nothing is spared in an effort to wow the viewer. The homes this year were mostly 8,000 - 10,000 sq ft in size and $4mil - $5million in price. The largest home was 21,000 sq ft (that's almost half an acre of home)! Its towering 3-stories of somber dark wood resembled an old european cathedral. Who buys these homes? Obviously none of my dining mates at the local Red Lobster or fellow Costco shoppers.

Here are some of the BIGGER things I saw at this year's Home Show: 10-bdrms/15-baths in one home; stadium home theatre rooms that vibrate the very house foundations (some homes had more than one of these rooms); a home with 28 total TV's; sports bars/grills with enough seating for a whole neighborhood of sports fans; huge floating window walls; an underground massage cave complete with dripping wet mossy rocks; 100-yr old olive trees transplanted from a Napa Valley grove; a secret catacomb archeofaux "roman ruin" with 12-person steaming spa amid crumbling coliseum columns and Phantom of the Opera piped-in music; a neon-lit basement full-size 2-lane bowling alley; a children's theatre stage with enough equipment to dazzle broadway; circular kiddy tube slides traversing floor-to-floor to land on an indoor trampoline in a rock climbing room; gas fireplaces in every possible nook & cranny; ferraris and hummers in the garages ... well you get the idea.

I'm not even going to talk about the furnishings and decorations, the imported carrera marble countertops 3-story tall indoor waterfall, or lalique glass lighting fixtures guaranteed to inspire lust & envy.

Here are some things I did NOT see: more than lip service paid to the concept of environmentally concerned building techniques. Only a couple of homes had solar power panels or geothermal heating and cooling. Water reclaimation or recycling? Don't make me snort! This is a desert and yet these people don't give a fig about overt wastefulness. I can't even imagine what the monthly home utility bills for these homes will be. But then you know the old saying: if you have to ask, you probably would need electro-shock to recover from the answer (or a dip in this steaming lava tube pool):

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OK, just to prove it wasn't a total bust, here are the architectural plans of my favorite home this year, if I had a spare $5million & could manage to live in a mere 6,000 sq-ft with a forever view:

click up "burning bush" pic--->

Even though I loved this home, I could not shake the sad feeling that while freezing homeless people are sleeping on heating grates every winter, the people who buy this house will be comforting themselves in a steamy 10-head shower while enjoying a view of an outdoor burning bush consuming our precious natural gas in order to compliment their pampered lifestyle, especially in cold foggy rain like we encountered on our tour day.

I will now try to forget my week of being reminded that there are Two Americas and Never the Twain shall Meet. Please click on any pic to enjoy the full experience while I resume my quiet peaceful life. And yes, I do realize those home prices are a bargain compared to places like San Francisco, New York or Honolulu.