I own a house [^1]. It’s of an age, and we’ve had to replace the windows and doors, and the roof. With that cost, we could have bought a second, smaller house. I once had a house on a road that was lined with a stone wall; every property owner was responsible for their part of the wall. Some just let it collapse into a shitty looking pile of rocks; the rest of us paid exorbitant mason prices to maintain their walls.
I look at castles, and the first thing I wonder is how far £91M will really go when the roof needs to be replaced, when the mortar needs re-pointing, when it needs to be heated in winter, when the plumbing needs fixing. £91M is a nice chunk of change; it doesn’t seem like as much when a castle is involved.
[^1] a bank lets me live in a house that it owns while it extracts interest payments from me.
She probably only really uses three rooms
That’s three servant salaries to keep those fires lit
Only until a day without rain
The cats, however, use all of the rooms.
Even in an English Victorian property this is a concern for me and is preventing me from pulling the trigger on buying one. 3 Chimneys you say? Splayed bay windows each with five sides? Ageing roof, repointing, mold, and the rest. But oh my god, the original fireplaces, the staircase, the split floors, and “that” feeling you get when you walk in to a house that welcomes you as you enter.
I just want to point out that castles are not quite as unattainable a residence as they sound like they are. It turns out they’re very cheap because nobody really wants European castles anymore, they want bland corporate buildings instead.
The Effective Altruism movement got a lot of flak for using donations to purchase a castle for holding conferences, but when they did the math they found it was just more cost effective than any other option.
The running cost on the other hand…
your think three running cost of a cabin are cheaper? look at Baba Yaga
I know nothing about architecture, but I imagine that the operating costs of a castle are very low given that they’re basically just a big rock.
Same problem as churches. The roof costs are astronomical, both internal and external aspects of the roof. The castle will have 2000 windows, all of which will need regular maintenance and because it’s a castle, the tradespeople will be more expensive. The hidden costs are the killer here.
The reason they are “cheap” to buy is all the maintenance cost indeed.
But not only that, they are also under what we call monumenten zorg in the netherlands, basically making it near impossible to make any big changes to the building. So for example you are not replace the original windows for ones with double glazing.
Owning a castle or any really old building in Europe sound more appealing than it really is.
Yep, in England, “listed building” status and depending on the level, you have to also have specific tradespeople in to do work and you have to maintain it to a certain standard. You don’t really own such buildings, you merely become the custodian and look after them.
There is a popular youtube channel that compares Canadian suburban homes to similarly priced European castles. It’s upsetting.
Definitely got a chuckle when Eddie Izzard talked about how Europeans just “long for a bungalow”.
As a perfectionist, this warms my heart. Thank you Enya for teaching me that you don’t have to be great at what you do, but can still make a shitload of money from it.
hey, shut your mouth - read her wiki page and tell me that she’s not great at what she does
Hey you, be off wit’ you now, Sail away… Sail Away… Sail Away
It’s hard to deny that Orinoco Flow sounds really dated when you get to the bridge. I love her other work though.
i mean her music is fire
and she’s cool as fuck
but i don’t want to hoard wealth
i would honestly hoard cats though if i had a castle that’s fire
Sub 100 mil isn’t even hoarding wealth by today’s standards. That’s less than 0.05% of a Jeff Bezos.
If I had $100 and my friend had $220,000, I wouldn’t consider us similar in that regard.
I need a number
How many cats would you have
Can you imagine how often you’d lose your cats though in a castle that big. I lose mine in a two bed house, a castle would provide ample opportunity for them to disappear into another dimension never to be seen again until they’re hungry.
I got nothing. Swap cats for doggos and this seems like a dream life for me.
Small spaces are underrated. If you live in a place thst big you have to walk far to do anything.
Yeah, but think how much the kitties love running around and owning the biggest space any kitties have ever ruled.
but all that kitty poop that would lie undiscovered for months!
Biggest indoor space.
I think I want few small rooms and large grass field.
Walking is a good thing
Only the necessities and enough room for a couple hobbies. Or family. I do think nature needs to be near enough for emotional grounding and connection.
Next time someone tells me “you wouldn’t want to live in one of those old castles” I’ll show themthis.
According to the same submission, Manderley Castle sits at 1300.336 sq. meters, or approximately 14,000 sq. feet in combined floor space.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manderley_Castle
Honestly that doesn’t seem like a lot for someone who’s second best selling artist in a country (behind U2).
modest castle seems like an oxymoron, but yeah I hear you
To be fair, a house with 200 sq. metres is sizeable and roomy. It must take her ages to walk from the toilet to the kitchen. What a waste of time!
What a waste of time!
roller skates
Would have been cooler if she lived alone in a reasonably-sized and energy efficient house instead tbh
Go the James Blunt route:
The constant Whoooooosh as the wings/sails turn would be an instant ‘no’.
I don’t think they actually move
Can’t he afford to fix them?
beats the constant sound of cars
Nah. Giant castle colder than small house, no contest.
I would keep the castle, but turn off the heating in all but 3 insulated rooms and live in the area I needed. Might even open up the rest of it for tourists.
Castles are famous for their zoned HVAC lol
They’re called fireplaces
If I had that much money, MINE WOULD BE!
I think if you can afford to own a $91M castle, you can probably afford the installation of whatever climate control systems you desire.
Could be housepoor lol
Will I ever achieve this dream? Who can say? 🤷 Only time.
Written that way, makes it sound like she has a huge money vault, Scrooge McDuck style.
Yeah, thanks, no.
That sounds extremely lonely and depressing
I’d rather life in an apartment with said cats, at least you have neighbors and social contacts
As an average nobody – totally with you.
But if you had stalkers and an unrelenting paparazzi, I do understand needing some kind of shield from the outside world
I doubt she has no servants
I mean… “servant”? Employees, sure. But as long as she pays them well and doesn’t abuse them, what’s the issue?
I’m sure she still lives alone. And keeping a castle like that alone would be a challenge.
I’d fucking love to work for a friendly super rich artist. Artists usually got rich on pure royalty and aren’t that tight with their earnings, as opposed to some businessmen who abuse all their workers to get every bit of profit they can get their grubby hands on. I’d hate to work for someone like that.
Granted I don’t know what Enya is like but as an assumption
What i mean is that the employees would live in the castle or at least on the same property, but maybe not idk.
I wouldn’t have people living there probably. Perhaps have the ability for people to stay but I wouldn’t want like 247 live-in servants.
Rather hire people in 3 shifts if you need 247 care I guess.
If you could afford it that is
Housekeeping of J-Lo call her Pay-Lo for obvious reasons. The rich and famous aren’t always good employers.
If I had to assume who was and who wasn’t a bitch based on their public image, I’d have wagered J’Lo to be one, yes.
Enya doesn’t seem like one, but I’ve met enough bitch older white women to know I can’t reasonably know that for sure.
Anyway, I don’t mind a little moodiness as long as I’m getting paid well.
The heck you bring J-Lo up for? I see no relevance other than some anecdotal bullshit.
Like I can do that too, I think the whole of Lemmy is dumb as fuck, based on this comment of yours.
“lives like a queen” so yeah, probably servants
Who ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P4RWI-LbrE
Skim through, you’ll definitely have heard some of the melodies before in passing.
“Im twelve what is this”, literally.
They sound extremely generic, never heard them/never evn noticed
It really seems like I have no music culture 😂😭
Still sounds like the soundtrack of an industrial themed level in a Ps1 game
If that mashup didn’t blow you away, I’m stealing your beer
I’ll gladly give it to you ! As I don’t drink
AHA! I KNEW IT! NO WONDER YOUR MUSIC TASTE IS SO STUNTED
