John Edward's at home
Posted on 01/26/2007 4:32:14 AM PST by Tom D.
Edwards Home County's Largest The 28,200-square-foot Edwards home in Orange County is expected to be valued at more than $6 million. RALEIGH — Presidential candidate John Edwards and his family recently moved into what, according to county tax officials, is the most valuable home in Orange County. The home, which includes a recreational building attached to the main living quarters, also is probably the largest in the county. “The Edwardses’ residential property will likely have the highest tax value in the county,” Orange County Tax Assessor John Smith told . He estimated that the tax value will exceed $6 million when the facility is completed. The rambling structure sits in the middle of a 102-acre estate on Old Greensboro Road west of Chapel Hill. The heavily wooded site and winding driveway ensure that the home is not visible from the road. “No Trespassing” signs discourage passersby from venturing past the gate. Don Knight, Orange County building plans examiner, told CJ that, including the recreational building, the Edwardses’ home would be one of the largest in Orange County. Knight approved the building plans that showed the Edwards home totaling 28,200 square feet of connected space. The main house is 10,400 square feet and has two garages. The recreation building, a red, barn-like building containing 15,600 square feet, is connected to the house by a closed-in and roofed structure or varying widths and elevations that totals 2,200 square feet. The main house is all on one level except for a 600-square-foot bedroom and bath area above the guest garage. The recreation building contains a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room designated “John’s Lounge.” Edwards was the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2006 and a former N.C. senator. Thursday afternoon, the Edwards for President press office was unable to provide information on any additional buildings planned for the estate. Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.
It only cost 3.1 Million ... is that both property & house or just the house?
In light of Edwards' campaign announcement among the NO por and his effort to occupy still anouther house...the White House..., this info needs to be on a separate thread IMO.
With the massive appreciation of real estate in Georgetown, it is very possible that he needs to spend this kind of money to avoid capital gains taxes. Also, if you look at his past financial disclosures, it becomes clear that he has a lot of investment income that comes into play.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.asp?CID=N00002283
por = poor
The only farming I see is the trees they had to cut down to build it
I wonder what the enviro freaks will think of that
Good googly moogly!! What does Johnny need with a 28,000 square foot house?!?
one for 22-year-old daughter Cate and one for visiting friends and family -
Hey John it's just poor ol' me by myself in Pittsboro. If I move a few miles closer will you build me a house too?
"If you're in public life, people will be critical of you because of the way you walk, because of what you eat, because of the way you talk, like this Southern accent I've got. You know, you can't worry about stuff like that," he told CBS News.
Thanks John. Don't put it on the fact that you're a scum sucking personal injury lawyer, lay it on your Southern accent instead you worthless SOB. Some of us are rather proud of our accent. Y'all understand?
Howlin .. can you tell me what those fincial records say?
My Acrobat Reader isn't working properly and crashes my IE
Gotta love Acrobat!!!
Is "shifty" a misspelling here? "F" is in rather close proximity to "T" on the keyboard, no?!? ;-P
Among other 'improvements' to their DC home, Elizabeth Edwards reveals in "Uncle John's Cabin" another 2000 square feet and touchingly....floors of pine from the floors an old mill. (Could his daddy have walked those very floors in that mill?)
HAHAHAHAHAHA ... could they be any more obvious
Off to read that article .. Thanks!
I doubt he put much into that house.
John Edward's at home
The land was 1.3, I think.
I'd pay the moving $$ just to see you live ONE NIGHT with that guy; he won't have a chance...........LOL.
Oh, let's just put that article right here:
Uncle John's Cabin
By Shawn Macomber
Published 5/12/2005 12:07:10 AM
Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate and class warfare enthusiast John "Two Americas" Edwards and his wife might spend their anniversaries at Wendy's (at least when there are newspaper photographers and cable news anchors in the parking lot), but the other 364 days of their year are played out in much swanker quarters.
Considering his much-lauded penchant for what passes for "populist" rhetoric theses days -- "Let me say this in simple right and wrong, black and white terms," Edwards bravely told one New Hampshire crowd during primary season. "I say no to kids going to bed hungry in America. I say no to kids not having clothes to keep them warm" -- one might be tempted to assume that the former senator put his Georgetown house on the market for an asking price of $6.2 million dollars as a prelude to finally joining a commune.
Alas, another progressive hero is about to bite the dust. The sale is not a precursor to Edwards liquidating his worldly possessions for redistribution among the proletariat, but, rather, simply a fundraiser for the country estate currently being constructed for him on a 100 acre plot in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Is it just me or is anyone else surprised there are 100 contiguous unpopulated acres in Chapel Hill? Must be a "who you know" thing.) That's right, faster than you can say "plantation," Mr. Edwards is building himself one.
It's a good thing his mill worker father taught him "the value of a hard day's work," because even with shrubs, that is a lot of lawn to mow. This will be ameliorated somewhat by the fact that the Edwards family also plans to sell their Raleigh home. But they will hold on to their Wilmington area beach house. After all, man cannot live on 100 acres alone.
Nevertheless, before anyone gets the wrong idea and start thinking being a sappy, spoon-deep politician with nice hair is the only occupation that pays better than being a ruthless, client and venue shopping trial lawyer...Well, it just isn't like that. Edwards is a working stiff again with a new job heading the University of North Carolina Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, which plans to explore "innovative and practical ideas for moving more Americans out of poverty and into the middle class."
The first lesson, I suppose, is that one way to escape the tyrannical socioeconomic prison George W. Bush has fashioned and get to the promised land where normal folks relax on their 100 acre plots with periodic beach house breaks -- the "other America," as it were -- is to get some university to pay you to study poverty. For real poor people this should be a cinch; a real work-from-home opportunity.
In view of their current living situation, some of you cynics out are probably thinking maybe John Edwards and his kin are uppity folks who don't really understand how you live. Pshaw. If the family learned one thing living in Georgetown it was how it feels to toil all day and then come home to a house with only seven bedrooms and six full baths, with their friends embarrassingly being forced, on occasion, to use one of two half-baths.
But as Elizabeth Edwards explained recently to the Washington Post, this perky little family rolled up their sleeves and made the home work for them.
"We pretty much gutted it, but we wanted to keep the character of the house, since so many people knew it," she said. "But it needed to be more family-friendly for us."
So how does Elizabeth define "family-friendly"? Probably not much different than your own Ma and Pa defined it. She just wanted to add on what every family with two young children can barely get by without -- 2,000 new square feet, an enclosed porch, central air conditioning, a new study, a new room above the garage, and the little matter of replacing the home's flooring with heart pine from an old mill in South Carolina.
That at least partially explains why Edwards is selling a house he bought in December 2002 for $3.8 million less than three years later for $6.5 million. At first the disparity had me worried that Edwards had completely sold out and had perhaps become possessed by the profit motive.
Still, as much as I instinctively trust trial lawyers, I can't help but wonder why Edwards didn't buy, say, a 50 acre estate and maybe build a homeless shelter or even send money to that girl he talked about in his speech following his South Carolina primary victory.
"Somewhere in America, a 10-year-old little girl will go to bed hungry, hoping and praying that tomorrow will not be as cold as today," he told the crowd. "She's one of 35 million Americans who live in poverty every single day, unnoticed, unheard."
It sounded as if Edwards was actually deeply concerned about this nameless, faceless, probably entirely fictional young girl. It seems entirely unlikely a Democratic politician would use a caricature of a poverty-stricken person simply to score some political points.
Perhaps with the $6.5 million from the Georgetown house he can take her shopping at Wal-Mart for a blanket and a new cardboard box. Then maybe grab something off the dollar menu at his favorite restaurant, Wendy's? It would probably even all be tax-deductible if on the car ride over he studies her for his no doubt critical work at the University of North Carolina Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.
But even if you can't empathize with the Edwards's politics -- basically, massive expansions of government bureaucracy to be in turn paid for by massive tax increases -- I think all of us can agree on what an absolutely miserable experience moving is, even if it is to a modest 100 acre country seat.
"I'm sitting at the desk in the study now and there's nothing on top of it," Elizabeth Edwards laughed to the Washington Post from their Georgetown home as it was being emptied. "It doesn't look like anybody lives here anymore."
Ah, now she knows what it's really like to live in the other America.
Shawn Macomber is a reporter and staff writer for The American Spectator. He runs the website Return of the Primitive.
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