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My Day at the Oversized Mansion

July 30, 2008 2:26 PM

‘Nightline’ spent a day last week at an oversized mansion in Connecticut that is on the market. Producers Claire Pedersen, Maggie Burbank and correspondent Andrea Canning profile the owners, who suffer from ‘oversized mansion syndrome.’ The couple is part of a trend of homeowners who are trading in their enormous homes for more modest digs.  Claire Pedersen gives us a sneak peek behind the scenes. You can watch the story tonight on ‘Nightline,’ 11:35 p.m. ET. 

As we pulled off the highway and onto the quiet leafy streets of Greenwich, CT, I was excited.  I was finally going to see one of the fabled estates of Greenwich – home to the rich and powerful investment bankers, money managers, and hedge fund billionaires that you read about in the Wall Street Journal.

When we made the turn up the driveway of the Hillcrest Estate, I was amazed by the grandeur of the house – and it just kept getting bigger as we got closer.  It looked like a chateau in the middle of the New York City suburbs...I half expected there to be a moat around it.  We pulled up in front of the house and were greeted by the Cheslocks', two dogs, Mookie and Wilson (named after the Mets player who helped win the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox). The owner himself, Stan Cheslock, was waiting at the door to take us inside. 

Once inside, I immediately noticed the huge vaulted ceiling, crisscrossed with beams – it looked more like a cathedral than a home. From there, Stan and his wife Dorothea took us on a tour where they showed us the two living rooms, two dining rooms, a game room, six bedrooms, the lap pool, sauna, home theater (where we watched a few minutes of Casablanca), and the bass pond in their front “yard.” It went on and on, room after room – the complete tour took almost two hours.

The Cheslocks had clearly put a lot of time and thought into building Hillcrest and I was certain that no expense was spared.  But the things that they seemed the most proud of were the small comforts of home – the backyard herb garden (the couple urged me to take some fresh sage and mint back to my apartment in Manhattan), the kitchen, where Dorothea baked homemade biscotti, and the pictures of their three children.   The Cheslocks themselves were two of the nicest people I have ever met – they reminded me of the friendly neighbors down the street who organized the summer block party. They didn’t seem like a couple worth tens of millions of dollars who lived in a 26,000 square foot mansion.

Sitting on their terrace overlooking the 30 acre property, I began to wonder what it would be like if I lived there.  As an enthusiastic, if novice, cook, I certainly would love the wood burning oven in the kitchen and the walk-in refrigerator. And who doesn’t want a movie theater in their basement?  But all in all, the house was just too much.  It was too big, too ornate, to elaborate. I shuddered to think what the property taxes and electric bills were each month.   As I washed my hands in one of the estate’s 8 bathrooms, I found myself missing my cramped, narrow, 4th floor walk-up apartment.  I was proud that I could live comfortably in a space smaller than one of their closets.  I didn’t need a walk-in refrigerator to be happy….in fact, I didn’t even need a dishwasher. 

As the day was wrapping up, I wondered how a couple like the Cheslocks ended up in a mansion like Hillcrest. It was supposed to be their dream house – they built from scratch and customized every detail.  And now, after only living in it for two years, they are doing whatever it takes – including opening up about their lives on national TV – to sell it.  In the end, I learned a valuable, if clichéd, lesson from my day at the mansion: be careful what you wish for.

July 30, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

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Posted by: Becky113 | Sep 1, 2008 1:27:49 AM

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