I took one of those riverboat cruises in Palm Beach a few years ago to see how the super rich live. The tour guide explained to us that it was very common for for the uber rich to buy perfectly good waterfront mansions, tear them down and build their own. When you’re that rich you want things “just so” and I guess and you have time and the resources to make it happen. So when I heard that Elin Woods had purchased a 12 million mansion in north Palm Beach and demolished it, I wasn’t surprised. It sounds super wasteful to tear down a home that most of us would consider beyond our wildest dreams, but those people don’t live like most of us by any stretch. Still, it’s disappointing to hear the Elin Woods is one of them. We don’t know much about her, but we heard that she’s going to be responsible with her massive divorce settlement and not waste it. I guess that’s relative when you’re talking about powerball level money. Here’s more:
Bought a year ago for $12.3 million, the oceanfront mansion owned by the former wife of Tiger Woods has been demolished and she is building a new house on the lot in the exclusive Seminole Landing development near North Palm Beach.
“It was a beautiful place, incredible landscaping, fantastic ocean frontage,” said Realtor John True, who was at the house on Halloween for a charity event after work had begun.
“I heard that the original plan was to renovate. But once they started, I heard they decided to tear it down.”
Elin Nordegren is living in the San Remo condominiums, an oceanfront development in Juno Beach, while her new home is being built, according to local officials who asked not to be named.
Palm Beach County issued the demolition permit on Dec. 16 and it is active until June 17, records show.
The 17,000-square-foot house, built in 1932, was two stories, with eight bathrooms, an in-ground pool and an elevator.
Seminole Landing is on the east side of U.S. 1 just north of PGA Boulevard in unincorporated Palm Beach County, according to county records.
The 77-acre development is among the top five most exclusive communities in Palm Beach County, said True, owner of Oceanfront Realty in Juno Beach.
The gated development is the home of the private Seminole Golf Course.
[From The Palm Beach Post]
Well Tiger is still building an insane compound on Jupiter Island worth nearly $50 million, according to that article in the Palm Beach Post. We heard last year that construction was finished, but he’s still working on it. Compared to him Elin is playing it pretty safe. So if you had, let’s see, $110 million dollars by some estimates, would you spend over 10 percent of it on a house and then tear it down and spend a couple million more building another house, just because you could? Maybe, since a lot of people spend 30 percent and more of their income buying a home. Still, it’s hard to fathom buying something worth that and destroying it, even if you had the money.
Elin’s house before:
Elin’s house before:
Elin’s house after:
Elin is shown in Miami on 12-2-11, credit: Fame. Home photos credit: CelebrityHomePhotos.com
I bet her neighbors are thrilled. Tear down a gorgeous historical home, in order to build a McMansion.
I would be pissed, but if I had that money to own a home there I would leave until construction was done. I guess best thing I can say about this whole thing is, at least she’s providing jobs. Also why do you need an elevator in a 2 story home?
I was thinking the same thing, as least she’s providing jobs.
You need an elevator to get furniture upstairs sometimes.
And maybe the house needed too much work…plumbing, electrical, etc.
It was the old house that had the elevator, not her new one. And sometimes elderly or handicapped people might need an elevator in a 2-story house. You never know who lived there before.
I get her wanting to start from scratch – and spend that dirty SOB’s money while doing so.
What an ignorant reply!! People are out of work and starving and this is how this dumb chick waste money! Shes the sob in this scenerio!!
This is obscene! Hate is a powerful thing Elin, but now you are acting as stupid as little kitty!!!! Sell the damn house and build something elsewere!!!! If you feel a need to piss away kitty’s money, I have a great idea. Donate some to school districts, libraries, food banks, homeless shelters????? Or are you in a class that wears those glasses that ignore real life?????
I totally agree. That home was built in 1932, it probably has BEAUTIFUL woodwork and moldings and carvings. I’m sure it’s gorgeous. It’s really unbelievable to me that someone would do that.
I think this is very wasteful, I don’t care how much money she has.
I live in an area that is not even close to being as affluent as this area. But on the beachfront part of town, this happens all the time. Buy a multi-million dollar home, tear it down, build a brand new multi-million dollar home.
I don’t get it, but I am far from the 1% lol
How many hospitals could that purchase/renovation have paid for? It’s obscene.
it happens near me too (Toronto) beautiful homes torn down and replaced by a tacky monstrosity, makes me so mad. I just heard that you can call Habitat for Humanity and they will use materials from the old house. I hope Elin did this!
I guess I understand if the original really was built in 1932. It sounds like she wanted to renovate but once they started, perhaps realized it would be a bigger job than they originally thought. Most times renovations are more costly and time consuming than new builds. It seems like a huge waste of money but in that area, you really are paying a premium for the location of the land not so much the actual house. It will be interesting to see what type of house is built in its place.
I understand things, especially income and spending habits, are “relative” to the amount of income…well no, I don’t understand, and no that doesn’t hold true cuz many with average income still live beyond their means. Even still, wasteful. Just because she can afford to do so without feeling the loss, to purchase a 12 million dollar mansion solely for the view/location with intent to demolish and rebuild…shaking my head, not just because I and most of the world are struggling, but because 12 mill can be turned to rubble so easily…sick to my tummy.
How is this wasteful? Some one will be working on the new house – construction workers who probably haven’t worked in years! So this is good news .. granted celebs seem wasteful in general but this is a good thing.
And who knows what the placed looked like inside, maybe it needed massive repairs, had mold, bugs, plumbing issues..who knows.
Sometimes it’s cheaper to tear down than repair – especially something that big.
Unless they recycled everything from the last house it is wasteful.
The article says that renovations started then the plans changed to demo the whole house. So, according to the article, she did not buy w the intent to demolish. They probably found lots of worn plumbing and wiring etc. Not to mention MOLD.
Elin is looking a little like LeAnn Rimes these days. If she had the house torn down I hope she at least recycled the materials of the original home instead of it all just going into a landfill.
I thought the same thing – she’s looking like LR. Hope it’s just that one photo.
Ha – that’s the very first thing I thought. Hopefully just the sunglasses – but strangly the nose and smile too.
I was thinking the same. Not the LR thing. I try to think about that woman as little as possible. I’m hoping the materials got recycled. They could have built smaller houses out of that for someone else in need. I’m sure habitat for humanity would have loved to have gotten their hands on it before demolition.
Some of the materials (wood, any decorative material) from old houses are way nicer than anything someone could do with stuff that is available now. I’m especially talking about real hard wood as opposed to those engineered stuff. It’s a shame she did that. I’d rather refurbish it. You are worth lots of money. You can afford to refurbish. I would only knock it down if the whole place was severely infested with termites!
This is normal for people to do when they buy older waterfront homes, from coast to coast. I do not agree with it, and think it’s very wasteful, unless: the infrastructure was so bad it made more sense to raze instead of renovate.
Sometimes you can’t renovate certain things like electrical, plumbing, and heating, unless the house is torn down. Or adding an elevator for someone. I’m hoping she needs the elevator for a relative who is in a wheelchair or something.
Most of the value is in the location of the lot, not the structure on it. She could most likely sell the bare space for $10 million.
Also we should cheer about the amount of money this puts in the local economy and benefits one of the areas hardest hit by the current crisis: construction.
I find that really disappointing…it may be their norm but its still incredibly wasteful and says a lot about person’s values. So much for the “Down to earth, girl next door” image she portrayed.
It’s made my opinion of her alot lower (not that she cares). If she keeps spending like that she’ll go right through her divorce settlement – and she doesn’t have the skills to make that kind of money. Unless the skills she plans to utilize is to land another rich husband, which looks like her plan now. Bleah.
I’m fairly certain that this is common practice among the wealth but this still makes me sick. So wasteful it makes Kim K’s wedding look frugal.
If this woman felt like she needed to start fresh and actually gave a f*ck she’d do this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robyn-griggs-lawrence/how-to-green-a-mcmansion-_b_846868.html
Ah, lifestyles of the rich and famous….
WASTEFUL!!! She could have donated(if its possible) parts or sections of the house since she was getting rid of it. OR she could have SOLD it to someone that would have appreciated it
Tiger’s money down the drain!
Alot of the guts of a house don’t last as long in oceanfront areas, because the added salt corrodes more quickly, which is part of the reason that beachfront homes are renovated/torn down more frequently. It’s also really common to start a renovation and once walls start coming down realize there’s hidden structural damage/mold/old wiring/etc that you didn’t even know about. I’ve lived in a 100yr old house for 10yrs and there’s always something that needs fixed. I learned the hard way that the ‘charm’ of an older home is seriously overrated. 🙁 I just hope they were as green as they could be: donate toilets, appliances, kitchen cabinets, etc to Habitat.
If the home was built in 1932, they likely ran into many problems that come along with older homes, namely asbestos & lead-based paint. It’s hard to salvage things from an older home with such problems–albeit not impossible, it can be way more costly than it would be to tear ‘er down & start from scratch. It makes me sad, though, since I went to design school & have such an appreciation for older architecture vs. today’s cookie-cutter builds. Construction was much more sound back then, but their building materials?? Less than ideal.
Good for her, it’s her money she can do what she wants with it.
i totally agree. plus we don’t KNOW she’s going to build a mcmansion. gorgeous timeless homes are built every day, just not in the “everyman suburbia.” But this isn’t everyman suburbia. Elin paid $12M for a lot of land and she can do what she wants with it. If it sickens people, then they should pretend the house isn’t there, because essentially that is the case.
We could also ask, what has Ellen done to deserve all this? She was married to a golf player for 6 whole years! That’s what I think is disgusting: she has contributed nothing whatsoever to the world, yet has been so richly rewarded for so little.
Average salary in Florida in 2010 was $40,273 a year, so her $12 million house is equal to the full-time salaries of 297 people! Except most of the people who work for her are probably making the minimum wage of $7.67 an hour with no healthcare.
The inequity in this country is just breathtaking.
Save that propaganda for the old soviet block.
Nobody gave Tiger Woods anything. He was a poor kid. He practiced, found a talent in this great nation of opportunity and made a fortune on his own merit.
Then he married, had kids, did a whole lot of wrong and had to give some dollars to the person he chose to share his life with and make a family with.
You didn’t earn that money. It’s you who are definitely the one who’s done nothing to deserve it or decide what happens to it. Nobody else deserves his money more than his kids and the wife he chose and vowed to share a life with.
I watched Steve Wilkos show today. Two crack addicts who started with more money than either of these two burned a baby they were supposed to be taking care of. So who are you to decide who should get Tiger Woods’ money, and who “deserves” to have it? I don’t think those two bums deserve Tiger’s money handed to them because they blew through their own on hurting themselves and a kid.
Some people are born smarter and better looking than others too. Others taller, more athletic, more eloquent. Doesn’t make them better humans. Sometimes better humans have no money, and that’s what motivates them to become better in the first place.
I haven’t seen anyone starving in the streets of this country, so inequality isn’t a matter of survival but just bigger toys as if that’s some great gift. Here when you’re low income you still have t.v.’s, cable, schools and rather than hunger, obesity problems if you’re not careful.
There can be no pure equality, you wouldn’t put Tiger’s money in better hands than he has and have no right to. I am thankful to finally live in a time when two minorities like me and Tiger Woods both have the chance to do something with our lives. The rest is up to us.
Well, well said.
Wow!! There are millions of Americans who are living at or below the poverty level and millions of children whose only meal is provided by school lunches. I don’t have a problem with anyone being successful and becoming rich but the idea that there are no poor people in this country is ludicrous. There are low income families who are not worried about cable tv and toys, they’re worried about where they are going to sleep for the night or how they’re going to feed their children. I guess if you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.
I agree with most of what you said (although you seem to be feeling a little more outraged than me.) But, if you haven’t seen people starving in this country, then you have looked very closely. Hunger is a big problem for the poor in this country and that’s a travesty when we, as a nation, are so wealthy.
Callumna, are you seriously thinking that low-income minorities have the same chance as a blond, swedish model who married rich?
Or deserve less b´c you saw s.th. on tv were members of the underclass did something wrong?
The sad thing about people like you is, that you´re just not well informed and educated enough to get structural/social injustices on an intellectual level. And you don´t have the heart to get it on an emotional level.
THIS.
@ Connie
I’m black. Tiger Woods calls himself “Cablackanasian” whatever that means so I’ll call him a minority … and one who made it big.
My income is my business but my family spent hundreds of years in slavery, working as unrelenting abolitionists and Civil Rights activists for FREEDOM. I’m proud of my contributions and my family’s long line of contributions to this country.
Don’t act like your politics speak for all blacks. Tout yours and I’ll tout mine but at least quit stereotyping — the Ozarks and Appalachians have generations of blue eyed blondes in poverty.
Equal opportunity is equality to me, reread for anything else you missed.
But your feeling sorry for anyone who isn’t blonde routine is degrading and has the sound of superiority to it with which I don’t agree.
Oops that should have said @ Rundee
And Rundee — I am both black AND intelligent in spite of your nasty remark otherwise, and I work daily for others.
And just in case you also had the nerve to assume that the two individuals I was referring to who were addicted to crack on that Steve Wilkos show were African American — neither was.
Don’t know if I have to specify that with the likes of you, but if so you’re willing to make all those other degrading assumptions I’d best be sure.
Good day.
Well I guess it provides employment. Never had much sympathy for Elin. She seems like a spoiled, gold digging little cow. Is she still with the creepy Dimon guy who also banged Rachel U?
What a waste, what a shame. Also a shame that so many people consider 1932 “old” for a house. I grew up in a ritzy coastal town, and this was NOT the trend. Nobody would dare tear down the historic houses, even if you had the money to do so. Sure new houses are being built, but if you tore down a perfectly good old structure on the waterfront, you’d be run out of town. Many of them date to the mid-to-late 1800s, but the earliest in town is a tavern built in 1652. I’m glad no one decided it was “too old” and replaced it with a freaking Chili’s. Give me a leaky roof and lead paint, over a boring, depressing McMansion anyday, thanks. Even though Elin’s Florida house may not have been terribly important historically, I find it incredibly selfish and wasteful. It has nothing to do with whether you can afford it or not.
here! here!
Also, the reasons so many americans visit us in Europe to look at all the ‘old’ buildings.
If Buck House was in America, it would have been torn down a long time ago for being old!!
She has enough money to build new, but also the money to restore this building.
Exactly! My house is a 1914 and no one in my neighborhood would DARE to tear it down such a home just to build new UNLESS there were structural / water damage, etc. issues present that compromised the integrity of the home.
Yes, we have lead paint, but there are steps to remediate it, which can produce a safer environment than just tearing it down and dispersing the toxic particles into the air and surrounding environment. I shudder to think of a 1932 home of such caliber being torn down – what treasures of craftsmanship there must have been in it! The moulding and baseboards in my home cannot be bought without being custom ordered – the baseboards are 10 inches tall and my home was intended for the “average” (meaning someone that could actually afford to own a home) homeowner in the early 1900s!
In James Michener’s book Chesapeake a wronged wife builds a big house on an island called “Rosalind’s Revenge”. This might be Elin’s Revenge.
Stupid and wasteful, nor would I spend 10% of my settlement on such a thing.
But isn’t she going with some billionaire now? I’m sure she doesn’t care. I do hope she recycled the original home’s material, but I kind of doubt it. That’s what’s wasteful.
Built on 1932? That kind of makes me sad. Maybe it was structurally beyond renovation but I kind of doubt it.
What she did was spend $12 mil on lot and location. You can tell from what she and Tiger designed when they were together that she prefers more modern architecture, which is pretty common for a Swede.
The demolition company will recycle most of what is re-usable, lots of copper, etc. because that is one of the ways they make money on a job. They figure into a bid what they think they can get back through salvage.
So is she going to furnish her house with Ikea crap? If she wanted a modernist house she should have just bought some land and built from scratch. What she did was wasteful.
On the face of it yes it sounds wasteful but it’s all relative. She’s got millions so spending another 3 or so to rebuild doesn’t sound like a big deal.
But it won’t be a McMansion, that term is wrong for this calibre of property.
She’s entitled to do whatever she wants with her money, and part of that has been to get a degree in mental health counseling, specializing in children. She’s also started a foundation and will fund a school for children with mental health problems, so I don’t think she’s the typical “rich housewife of wherever” who spends her millions recklessly on plastic surgery, clothing and jewels.
I WOULD NOT pay $12 Million dollars to have neighbours so close… that’s for sure!
I think it’s silly to jump on her for something that people (with money) do all the time.
If the house was built in 1932, there’s a good chance that it came with a whole slew of issues. Lead-based paint wasn’t outlawed until 1978 (77?) and asbestos could also be a problem. She has two small children – it’s not irrational to consider such things. Also, as another reader posted earlier, waterfront properties are usually subject to more corrosion than real estate that’s more in-land. Sometimes it costs more to renovate than to rebuild completely.
At the end of the day, it’s her money and she can do what she wants with it.
I have to point out, that although the house was quite old, I am PRETTY sure it has been well maintained over the years. It certainly doesn’t look run-down, and anyone who owned that building certainly had the means to keep it up and update it.
Tore down a house built in 1932. I’d have spent what it took to keep a house that old going, but that’s me.
I wonder if a house that big could have been moved? I’ve seen it happen here. Someone buys an older home on a lot and wants to demolish it, but sells it for $1 to someone who then moves it to their lot. Saves money in demolition and someone else gets a great old house.
A 1930s mansion sounds like my dream home! Thinking about the amazing Art Deco fixtures and built-in storage that must have been destroyed makes me want to cry.
I don’t know why but Elin rubs me wrong, like fingernails on a chalkboard. She gives off icy cold vibes. And bland. I’m no Tiger Woods fan but I can just picture them in bed and her just lying there, passively, with no expression on her face. I just can’t picture sex being good with her. I know, it’s a totally unfair perception to have but there it is. That’s how she strikes me.
And sheesh, the house she tore down was gorgeous on the outside. I’ll bet she’ll replace it with something with a lot of glass and cold, modern architecture and furnishings. Icy. Like her.
OK – that comment makes me laugh.
haha Petunia, that is so funny! You are not alone, either – I’ve thought the same thing about her. When it first came out about Tiger’s ho-ing around, I kinda thought…well, he’s probably not getting anything hot from that ice princess. (Not that that’s any excuse for his deplorable behavior!) But you’re right, she does look like she would just lie there. lol
maybe she wants to build a hurricane/zombie proof house. lol
She’s a great catch for some lucky bastard out there ! – Runaway….Runaway !
Not uncommon where I work (though we aren’t quite at the $12 mil level, more like $3 mil). As others have said, the monetary value is in the lot, not the structure. The lot alone was probably a sound investment, depends how nuts she goes with the house now.
If she had massive renovations planned, it makes sense, especially with an older structure. But it is sad, it looks like a neat old house. Personally I would have kept it. If someone wants to give me $12 mil…
Hopefully stuff was salvaged and/or donated, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t. We just did a waterfront tear-down here, and people practically picked it clean, which was great.
My old boss’s childhood home is roughly equidistant from both of our homes. It is currently for sale in the few-million dollar range. If I had the cash, I would buy and tear that shit down in a heartbeat.
When you think about the value of a home: the sentimental value in a home, the workmanship that goes into building a home, the memories etc…it is quite upsetting really.
they paved paradise to put up a parking lot.
By Swedish standards-WASTEFUL!!! Let the people of her home country judge; that seems fair!
who cares … it’s her bank. plus, she’s providing work for dozens of unemployed construction workers…
Crazy. Very wasteful. Lots of people how have alot of money buy an older home in much worse condition and spend alot refurbishing it in order to bring back its history. I’m sure this house couldn’t have been that bad. Money’s gone to her head. Maybe she just wants to build because he is. What a jerk.
Wasteful, yes. But in the end, she’ll make money. Buy for $12 mill, rebuild for $6 mill, sell for $30-40 mill down the road.
What a tremendous waste. Kids in America go hungry every day and the rich don’t give a damn. I don’t care much for her anymore. Maybe Tiger had reasons and her wastefulness might be one. Maybe she became as superficial and self-centered as the other “housewives”.
How is her NOT tearing down a house feeding kids?
We don’t know what she donates to charity..and she already HAS the money. So her not spending it as she sees fit will not help anyone homeless or going hungry.
Can’t believe the lack of thinking on your part. The 12 million donated to hungry children in America offends you? I’ll bet you’d be happy with a king or queen telling the starving kids it, “eat cake” when they have no bread. You must live vicariously from these wastrels.
Its not illegal. Its not immoral. Its not ethical. And when you demolish your own property it isnt anyone else’s business.
I agree with those who say “think of the job and the redistribution of income”. I dont judge her for it one iota.
yeah, me neither.
I agree with your one statement and that was, “It’s not ethical.” To waste money when our country is in a recession is poor judgement at best and pure laugh in America’s face at worst. But I doubt she is worthy of thinking of others.
Whats unethical is telling others how to spend what is theirs to spend…or how to “waste” what is theirs. I doubt she cares very much what you do with what is yours…why care what she does with what is hers?
Let’s hope the house was loaded with asbestos and mould and had to be torn down. Let’s hope there were salvagers invited to pick what they could from the house as well. Otherwise, that is a “sin” and an affront in this economy. Any economy really. I hope she’s giving back to charity somehow or her karmic payback will be fierce.
After all the crap Tiger put her and her children through, she has the right to do whatever she wants with HER money. Lord knows she did indeed earn EVERY penny.
He acted like a stray cat and tore apart his family and he had to PAY the price for doing so. Simple as that.
Do you agree with this because he cheated? Would you feel the same way if this were one of the ones who soiled our beaches with oil? Just sayin’. Millions of women get cheated on and it doesn’t give them the right to destroy a beautiful home just because they can. Wastrels.
That woman has so much money, 12 million to her is nothing. It’s her money, she can do with it what she wants.
Rich people always waste things. Values mean nothing to these people. They can get whatever they want when they want it. I’m not mad maybe if I was rich I would probably be the same way 🙁
Unbelievable! No wonder the celebrities from football to movies think they can walk all over others. You people encourage and condone it. Sad.
the oceanfront 1920s house was infested with termites and not compliant with hurricane building codes — and that she gave a local Habitat for Humanity group a month to salvage usable materials and fittings before the demolition.
judge much?
maybe some people should learn to research first before judging elin. she donated a lot of the things from the house before it was torn down to habitat for humanity. i don’t see how that’s considered wasteful when other people are benefiting from her generous donations to charity.
plus, according to this site, there’s a good reason for why the house was torn down:
Habitat workers found extensive damage from termites and carpenter ants, including to Pella windows that could have brought in a lot of money.
Nordegren has taken flak for demolishing the six-bedroom, eight-bathroom home, worth $12.3 m illion.
Habitat defends her.
“What a wonderful thing for (Nordegren) to do. She could have tossed this stuff in the trash. The negative publicity toward her has been very unfair,” said Bobbi Blodgett, deconstruction director for the nonprofit organization that builds homes for the needy.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/07/woods-ex-generous-in-home-destruction.html
God forbid she should use that money for some worthy cause. A $12 million house isn’t good enough for her. I’m sure a lot of it is just sticking it to Tiger by p*ssing away the money. But whereas I used to feel some empathy for her, I took an instant dislike to her when I read about this. Spoiled, ignorant bitch.
Thank you so much Mimi for posting that link. I suspected as much. It was very nice of her to donate all the items she could to Habitat for Humanity.
Unfortunately, as you can see, it still hasn’t shut up her critics (I’m looking at you Diane and Karen).
I’m afraid that I’ve only read some of the comments, and I’m going to be one of the critics.
I consider this to be a horrific waste and vandalism. Others have mentioned that this is par for the course (pun not intended)for the wealthy in this and similar areas, therefore I level that charge not just at Elin, but at the rest of them too.
I have been involved in architecture and conservation for years, so my position is hardly surprising. In principle, the current generation are merely custodians of buildings of architectural/ historical/ social/ technical etc. interest. Not everything can be saved of course, but there should be sound reasons for this – not just a whim to build the meringues with stairs most of these celebs live in.
Some have mentioned that it may be more cost effective to demolish than to repair the house, given its age. As it’s “only” 70 years old, I have my doubts that that is the case, depending on what the proposed new build it is. The roof looks sound and it is highly likely that previous owners have kept up regular maintenance, thereby cutting down the need and costs of repairs hugely. Significant changes to the M&E will incur costs, which will happen in a new-build anyway.
I know many of the commenters here have old buildings and in their experience it might have been as cost effective for them to start from scratch. I would respectfully suggest that they’re not really comparing like for like. Possibly they were not built to the same standard, have had inappropriate interventions in the past, not had the level of maintenance etc – all of which would impact on the current cost of renovation.
In this case I would highly doubt that the necessary renovation costs to bring M&E up to code would even approach what the budget for a complete redesign and rebuild would be.
Studies have actually shown that refurbishment can be more cost effective over new builds in a commercial setting:
http://www.fcpam.com/BCO%20-%20Can%20Do%20Refurbishment.pdf
Add that to the fact that an inhabited building can exist for centuries, most modern houses are really only designed and certified for about 70 in Europe (many commerical structures will see major works or demolition within 20), and I’ll wager it’s not that different in the US. Perhaps any of the readers who are US architects or engineer could clarify that for me?
And I’ll just get onto why this selfish and unnecessary demolition and rebuild is wasteful. Older buildings are vast repositories of skills and crafts that are usually far superior to modern examples, because they were almost all done by hand, often with bespoke tools to achieve a higher delicacy. Many modern craftsmen cannot replicate that. Plus the timber used in older buildings tends to be of a much higher quality than is available commercially today. This is because the wood was from older trees which had denser wood, with a lower moisture content. In this case the wood has had 70 years to season in relation to its location. There’s no way that the hard and softwoods in the new build will out-perform that! In fact UPVC windows will typically start to leak within 6 years for example.
Leaving aside the donation of fittings and fixtures to charity, the actual building itself is a significant carbon store. By demolition and rebuilding without a good cause, other than “I want”, that is massively increasing the carbon footprint of that site as well as contributing to landfill.
So yes, she can do what she wants with Tiger’s money – along with the rest of these people with more money than sense – but I can call it out as the sinful waste that it is.
I hadn’t seen Mimi’s post before mine, as it took me a while to compose it.
Extensive insect damage by carpenter ants can certainly undermine the structural integrity of a wood-frame structure, especially in damp environments, such as the humid Florida shoreline.
But my previous point stands; if the house was not structurally viable, its demolition was wasteful – regardless of who the owner is. At least a charity managed to benefit from it.
I wish women would stop wearing these hideous golf hat things. They look ridiculous and very unfeminine. Not to mention not at all practical. Not even enough brim to shade the sun. Useless.
Anyway, to Mairead – HAPPY NEW YEAR! Houses in America mostly tend to be built pretty crappily. I am in real estate law, and the houses are not built as soundly as in Europe, especially the roofing. Roofing lasts only 10-15 years here, whereas in the UK, roofs are made to last for over 50 years I’m told. I’ve also been made aware of “tropical” climates, i.e., New Orleans and southern coastal states have massive issues with termites, ants and other supersized bugs that if unchecked, literally eat a house to its ruin. But you’re absolutely correct, the fixtures and other things can be recycled.
I am a realtor in an affluent beach area on the West Coast and we see homes being torn down and rebuilt all the time. Quite often municipal codes require that any renovation work being done on a home be brought up to the current building standards. Older homes in beach front area also have stricter structural standards for hurricane and tidal flooding. Insect damage is one of the most costly repairs as it can greatly affect the structural integrity of a home. Attempting to meet municipal codes, property insurance requirement, repair insect/mold damage, can double and triple the cost of initial renovations.
It almost always ends up being much cheaper to raze a property and rebuild, than to try to retrofit the internal structure of property in an attempt to meet both structural requirements and maintain the intregrity of the original home’s design.
There is nothing immoral or unethical about about being finacially smart. Also think about the jobs she will be providing in the reconstruction of her home.
As for the pundits out there who belive the NEWS and think the US economy is collapsing from within remember this:
Over 80% of Americans are employed in jobs that provide well for them financially.
Less than 10% of Americans are employed at a level that leaves them just above the poverty level and that is ALL of OUR (that means YOU AND ME) fault for allowing this to occur in the American economy.
We allow the media to tell us how we should feel because we’ve all become lazy asses and find it much easier to be victims than to stand up and say this is all crap made up to sell newspapers and advertising. TELL US THE TRUTH
Uhhhhh, if termites were really an issue, then they would have discovered them during the home inspection.
I agree this is a huge waste….BUT, did anyone notice how close this house is to the beach ?
We have seen a lot of erosion and it will take only a small hurricane to do some major damage on this low area.
Elin would have been much better off going south to Palm Beach or north the Jupiter where the houses are a few more feet above sea level.
If the truth be told, she is just a scorned woman. Tearing down the house want erase the memories. It may give her satisfaction in a long run, but just that’s it. She has children for the man. We are so quick to point fingers. Just suppose Jesus would have never forgiven us. Wow!! A house is just a house, but a home is filled with love. But these things are not meant to hurt, only to grown us.
The house didn’t meet code standards to withstand hurricanes and was eaten up with subterranean termites. She let Habitat for Humanity come in and take anything they wanted to recycle. Tearing the house down created jobs, rebuilding created more jobs.
The children of Tiger Woods deserve to live just as well as Tiger Woods does. Of course, they’re going to live with their mother who provides a stable home life and doesn’t travel constantly. Elin can do whatever she sees fit with the settlement the courts gave her.