Tasteful Friends: A surreal $25M retina busting mansion in Boca Raton

Just looking at the photos raised my blood pressure by a LOT. I’m assuming the house has come up for sale because one of the occupants cracked up and killed everyone else in the house and then himself. No one could live there and retain their sanity.

Great find, OP!

No words.

Goodness me...viewers need to be warned they may end up having an epileptic fit looking thru all those grotesque rooms. Not one surface for your eyes to rest upon. Thanks OP, can't say it was a treat.

All that money, time, and energy and they couldn’t close the dishwasher door?

The Gears N' Roses bathroom.

How did they collect all those signs?

Whoever wrote the Zillow property description doesn’t speak English very well, at all.

I wonder if it was built for one of those depraved rich people who sit around doing psychedelics all day. Some of the art hints at "drug enthusiast".

Did the owners do a lot of drugs?

R7, which makes one wonder what Elon's homes look like.

You are not even close R9.

Oh this is a fantastic find OP.

I feel it should be preserved as some kind of museum to help people understand Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Looking at those photos brought on an epileptic seizure. And I'm not even epileptic.

But I must say, that's a whole new level of gaudy.

I literally LOL'd when we finally got to the interior on photo #22. So much bad taste in one frame!

You know you're in a special kinda house when a beige sofa sticks out like a sore thumb.

Exactly which mental illness is being manifested here?

That place is going to be up for sale for a very long time, with many price decreases.

I admire their commitment to a theme, or a style, or something, whatever the hell that might be. Clearly they decided to just do exactly what they wanted, and to hell with the latest trends or resale or anything like that, they just totally went their own weird way, I respect that.

And you absolutely cannot accuse this of being dull or boring, and certainly not bland. Its refreshing in that respect. But even I would struggle to live with this, and as R16 says they are not going to find buyers easily especially at that price point. It has, shall we say, niche appeal

All that money and no taste. I have good taste and no money….I don’t know which is worse.

I almost feel sorry for the agent. Not really.

This is why communities have the hated HOAs, and Design Review Committees.

Wow right out of the dreams of my old pilled out beach bum aunts. They love tacky 'seaside' tchotchkes. A lot of this art looks like those kits you get at Michaels for kids where they can color in some felt thing with markers.

The thing is, all that decoration. It’s not just pictures and plaques hung from a nail on a wall. That would be easy to remove. It’s all inlaid. It’s awful and it’s mind boggling but it’s basically permanent. You’d have to gut this down to the studs.

Instead it should be turned into a museum. It’s outsider art. Really want to know the back story.

I like the simplicity of the Sauna.

Who is the current owner?

Howard Johnson realness.

Whatever walked there, walked alone.

Never was so much money spent nor so much space used only to look as though some fat suburban bitch in a pleather bustier won a $100,000 Hobby Lobby gift certificate.

The terrazzo floors appear to be well done, just executed to bad designs.

The white-on-white behemoth next door is no atrocious, though I suppose its interiors are worse: vast rooms with nothing to distract the conversation with the owners of such a place.

Well, on the bright side, it won't be there in 20 years and will make a cool diving day-trip.

Buying anything by water in Florida is like buying a sand castle.

It looks like SpongeBob would live there.

Seriously, though, this is way too much. Every photo is confusing to look at because there's so much in each frame I don't know where to look.

I wonder how their poor pets deal with so much visual overstimulation.

Built in 2016???? looks like the 90s!

Fun and horrible. Way too much "character". Hideously stupid flood risk for that investment.

Buy a pirate ship that can float.

My hunch was an older eccentric woman who thinks of herself as an 'artist'. I had to look up who lived there and see if there were any pics online.

Looks like Virginia Nalbantu-Shrager is 71 and lives there. I didn't find much - except some pics of a heavy set woman with blue and purple hair.

I'm thinking that's the source. There looks to be a kiln in the house for her ceramics and art.

I honestly don't know how they're going to be able to sell that place - they've RUINED it. Every room needs to be completely redone - she has fucked up EVERY inch in every room - including their appliances.

I'm at a loss for words - this is just destructive. I believe this is her with her mother who passed away. Why wouldn't you lease an art studio with all that money?

R32, thanks for looking that up; I was worried it belonged to a pervert because of all the damn bunk beds. A tiki bar mansion would impress children.

Oh - here we go - a Romanian newspaper article about the couple.

Ok - so I don't buy this at all. Romanian immigrants who became millionaires. Some shady stuff went down.

Apparently he got in with Tweedy Browne, an investment company.

It's POSSIBLE - considering 30 years ago was before the stock market and tech stock booms. But yeah - she's a Romanian immigrant.

Nuts to have a huge, expensive home like that built RIGHT on the water in FL.

I'm surprised it has lasted this long. Just one good hurricane and it will flood.

OK, perhaps she sponsored the craftsmen as they taught themselves the fundamentals of community theater set design. I should say RICH community theater.

I hope she fucked the hell out of the artists.

nightmare

Boca Raton is gonna sink into the sea with the rest of Florida, shortly. So why bother.

I want to trip in that house!!!

I don’t think they designed it with resale in mind.

Call it a hunch.

I want to know the paint color names

All that carved wood definitely feels like a Romanian peasant's dream.

What's with all the inset seating in every room?

And here's the thing - you KNOW she paid a lot of money for some of that custom shit.

They didn't pay $25 million for it - so I guess there's that. But - and I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this - this feels like a tear-down. She fucked up every single thing inside AND outside.

I can't imagine what her husband has to go through. There is no visual peace in that place except the sauna. It's a physical assault at every angle.

Didn’t they shoot “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” there?

R41, “It’s not a sin if it’s anal” amber brown, “I got a guy at Disney” yellow, and “Check my hairy moles” red

These people need to be taxed into oblivion.

They’re definitely into the Old Country and sea faring vibe.

Can you imagine being their housekeeper?

You could play hide and seek in there and wouldn’t even have to hide.

Like a cross between Cost Plus, Pier One and a Disney queue to a ride.

According to that article they had several kids and then adopted 3 more from Romania. Imagine sitting in one of those kid's rooms. They look relatively tiny compared to the others.

I can't imagine being raised by a woman like that - that blue hair and the smile just gives me WARNING signs.

You'd be one step closer to move-in ready with a half cup of gasoline and a lit match!

R32, the sauna does not need to be redone (surprisingly).

It definitely tracks with her Romanian heritage. They favor a busy look. My MIL, part Romanian, decorated in a similar style but to a lesser degree. There wasn't a bare wall to be found. Lots of carved wood, too. It's a shame about the ceilings because they look cool but they get lost in the decorative, geegaw shuffle.

Her poor housekeeper! I'm sure she had a service come in to dust 1-2 a year.

From the outside, it looks nice.

I admire the commitment to the vision. There's a couple of moments I almost get.

I wonder what this person's ceramics look like, I see the studio here. How much of this did they make? It's totally alarming, ok, we all get that. New take: this person has some appreciation for carved wood, stained glass, roman/italian mosaics. There's some sort of sense of color and logic to it all. It's funny how so little of the madness extends to the outside.

It looks like Lego or Lincoln log roofs attached on top.

Boca Raton Means Rats mouth in English

Stevie Wonder likes it. From the driveway it looks fine as you can’t see the roof or the interior. After that, all bets are off.

Burn it down for the insurance money.

OMG! It's like Pee-wee's playhouse on steroids!

Too much....

Complete gut job

Why would anyone spend so much time building a mansion and personalizing every inch of it with such strong ornamentation, only to sell it eight years later?

Perhaps a financial setback?

I shudder to think what the utility bills are like for that place.

There are some interesting things here and there - some of the tilework and wood carvings, for example. But it's all lost in the visual clutter.

[quote]I wonder what this person's ceramics look like, I see the studio here. How much of this did they make?

R54, tile mostly, it appears. Look at the kitchen where hand-painted tile decoration is everywhere, even inset into wooden cabinetry: single tile designs; multiple tile panels, etc. Then look closely at the photos, many show doorways (R57) framed in similar tiles, fireplace surrounds entirely in tile (R56) and other examples of tiles inset into woodwork (R53 with the two small dogs in tile above a way-too-large-for-a-single-tile painted wood panel of a big dog -- and of course the dog motif carried into hand-painting the Venetian blinds, and the dog stained glass bits, and whatever the fuck is the medium of that frieze of dogs below the ceilings.

She's not shy about showing her work. She's shown it to us thousands of time in those 209 photos.

[QUOTE]I feel it should be preserved as some kind of museum to help people understand Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

[QUOTE]Exactly which mental illness is being manifested here?

I honestly wonder if the Romanian owner might actually be afflicted with Bipolar Disorder? She appears to have traveled widely and collected a lot of material she obviously did not create. Profligate overspending is a symptom and collecting stuff can be indicative.

Intense, unbearable focus is another characteristic. The house was built in '16, yet it's intensely over-painted, over-decorated, over-frescoed, and over-inlaid a mere 8 years later? I suspect, she herself got up on scaffolding and painted, and painted, and inlaid, and directed artisans to satisfy her mania.

A 25 million dollar shithole.

And with mania comes bankruptcy, on occasion. Possible contributing factor to the sale before the courts take over?

[quote]The home features over 16,600 total sq ft with 12 bedrooms, 6 fireplaces [bold]and 3 pools, one incredibly shaped like a fish, another with a 'swim against machine' and one for pedicure fish.[/bold]

Leonid, I can haz mink piano here?

R65 - it does look like mania. But I surmise it could be 2 things:

1) She had multiple children - then adopted 3 more from Romania. Presumably they are all out of the house now. She went from being busy all day to empty nest.

2) I have a feeling her husband lives up in CT still and works there and flies down every once and awhile.

3) Her mother died in 2017 - a year after it was built - which would be another distraction.

Add it all up - I wouldn't be surprised if she build this to be with her elderly mom - who died - the kids don't visit - the husband is up in CT. Maybe she wanted it to be like Romania for her mom?

I'm being generous here - but I don't care what background you're from - this is a sign of severe mental distress and craving something to do or trying to recapture.

The front of it is fine - but honestly, to rip all that out - how much would that cost to do a complete interior overhaul? $2 million? You have to rip out everything to the studs.

Maybe she forced the adopted kids to help her do it all. "Cristina! Bring me the trowel!"

Mentally ill person lives here...

He seems to be obsessed with appointing z-list or reality celebs to all of his major cabinet posts. Seth the B-Team Fox weekend host; RFK Jr; Sean Duffy (former Real World contestant) to Transportation; Dr. Oz. It's like being minimally famous is the main consideration in most of these picks.

Obviously wrong thread at r72. Oops!

I LOVE the color of the roof tiles, but that is it!!

The home is fucking ugly, for 25 million dollars I don't want to have neighbors living on top of me

Plus the FLOODING!!

This is what happens when a Gypsy wins the Powerball Lottery.

I can think of better ways to spend 25 million dollars

There's a plant in the backyard that I like. And I'm kind of amused by the "Fart Zone" sign next to the toilet. It's the key to understanding everything else

It's no Del Boca Vista.

r65-Perhaps.. My mother is also an artist, airy fairy, impulsive, go-with the flow human being. Now in her 70's her entire life's work (that she hasn't sold) is cramped into her small1,200 sq ft. house. There is not spare surface, wall, nook or cranny to speak of. Although she is an incredible artist her sense of design is an assault on the senses. Bright tropical murals, next to her collection of thrifted teapots. Blue oriental carpets, next to velveteen green couch. She has absolutely no sense of editing, and insists that all her artwork be displayed at once. She has taken to thrifting lately and now has an obsession with wall sconces? Where will she put it all. So I hate to say it- she has become a hoarder, and although I llove her dearly, I suspect like all these types she is batshit crazy.

That means you're crazy too

That's a lot of money for a Lego house.

Actually r79 it sounds like it could be kinda cool.

I love it!

New money and latino

They can always turn it into one of these landmarks:

Its son1990s reminds me of all those high end mall stores like the museum store and the nature company and catalogs like signals. Stuff I would have thought super cool and classy as a 12 year old in 1991

This is without question the most hideous property in the history of Tasteful Friends. The only thing I liked was the slide. Everything else is destined for landfill. Just bulldoze the entire nightmarish structure appliances and all because this shit is unsalvageable.

I like it. But that kind of design is intensely personal and does not invite any other people to live in it. I’m thinking the people that did live there never expected to move or have to sell it.

[QUOTE]New money and latino

Are you latino enough to have ignored the thread because you couldn't read it in English like the people you hate? Go back up and pretend to read at least, alrighty?

The sooner the oceans rise and swallow that shithole state the better

How is this house and "property" worth a dime? And the white palace next door.

At least on east coast barrier islands they can bulldoze in long protective dunes.

I'm not a fan of living at sea level. I can see building commercially like this. A hotel, OK. People's homes shouldn't be so vulnerable.

A newly rich Romanian artist woman never had any joy in her own draconian, Eastern European country so she understood how a hurricane could put Florida under, but not her!

I don't know Broadway, if this is not!

“ Likely to sell faster than 82 % nearby”

Zillow is certainly optimistic.

Seriously one of you must live close enough to schedule a tour. Do it and report back.

[bold]HORRIFYING![/bold]

[quote]Its son1990s reminds me of all those high end mall stores like the museum store and the nature company and catalogs like signals. Stuff I would have thought super cool and classy as a 12 year old in 1991

R86, I think even The Museum Store, and The Nature Company is too high a reach. This shit is more strip mall grade: Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc. No pretense of history or art or inspiration from nature, just oodles of puppies and kitsch that could make only an idiot smile.

The owners are probably from Kuwait or some other oil rich kingdom.

R96, see R34.

Houses in Kuwait *can* be very special, but nothing remotely like this pile.

My rods and cones are throwing up in my eyeballs.

I got diarrhea from looking at this.

I couldn't even finish looking, the rooms all ran into each other, indistinguishable, like vomit.

It’s like Crocket and Tubbs stole the House On The Rock and hid it beneath a contemporary Mcmansion.

I'm thinking possibly some mild psychotic disorder. It's like the psychedelics, but your born with it.

We´re $miling but very very tired.

It’s kind of fun.

209 pics? Edit. So many near-duplicates, triplicates.

I appreciate that they fully committed. Given all the stuff packed in there, it doesn't really seem cluttered. Probably because so much of it is on the wall and the floor space isn't overrun with extraneous stuff. What a trip.