Free Republic

Buying a house is usually an impersonal transaction. The buyer sees a scrubbed version of the home, artfully “staged,” possibly with a fresh coat of paint and flowers on the table. Once a purchase price has been negotiated, the buyer and the seller sign legal papers in triplicate, and the new owner gets a set of keys and – if lucky – an extra garage door opener. So, when Hal and Corinne Prewitt decided to buy Mitt and Ann Romney’s Park City, Utah home in spring of 2009, they figured they were in for another paperwork hassle. What they got,...

SAN DIEGO — At Mitt Romney’s proposed California beach house, the cars will have their own separate elevator. There’s also a planned outdoor shower and a 3,600-square foot basement — a room with more floor space than the existing home’s entire living quarters. Those are just some of the amenities planned for the massive renovation of the Romneys’ home in the tony La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, according to plans on file with the city. A project this ambitious comes with another feature you don’t always find with the typical fixer-upper: its own lobbyist, hired by Romney to push...