Not the most exciting story, but when else do I get a chance to use this as a post title?
The Wall Street Journal has interesting detail on Mitt Romney’s application to double the size of his beach house in La Jolla, CA: It will have an additional 3,600 square feet “of finished underground space, according to public records.”
“Tony Crisafi, one of the project’s architects, declined to comment on Mr. Romney’s motivations but says that these days, most of his clients want to be discreet about the scale of their home, and one way to do that is ‘by pushing things underground.'”
A tasteful McMansion, I guess, just the type every good Applebee’s-going American should aspire to own.
cathyxc
Do Mormons have a doomsday scenario too? Underground bunker anyone?
Raven
Ya don’t need a weatherman. . .
dr. bloor
OTOH, Mitt strikes me as the sort of fellow who knows exactly how many homes he owns.
dmsilev
Supervillain underground lairs should be built into the sides of volcanos. Putting one in a La Jolla beachfront neighborhood is just déclassé.
Brachiator
I would think that at Romney’s level of net worth, he doesn’t hang out at the local Applebee’s, he hangs out with the CEO of Applebee’s International.
c u n d gulag
Jeez,
Didn’t the “Evil Geniuses” in the Bond and Austin Powers movies do this?
I’d expect this from Newt – but NOT from Mitt!
ZOMG!
BGinCHI
I assume that’s where Romney will stack his money when it’s finished.
fasteddie9318
Holy shit; is Mitt Romney really Batman?
Raven
He ain’t puttin in a full court that’s fo sho.
scav
@BGinCHI: Wasn’t there an underground swimming pool in one of these? Filled with cash like Scrooge McDuck, I say the odds are good for here one. Plus, of course, Room for a Pony.
ChrisNYC
Obviously, the basement is for the Situation Room. Romney’s building the new western White House.
Hahaha just kidding.
The Dangerman
It’s for his grow room.
LesGS
@cathyxc: Actually, they kinda do. A Mormon household is supposed to keep a year’s worth of food stored away.
scav
@scav: yoikes, developing full-on full-word dyslexia (are good for one here. Plus FYWP.
Jewish Steel
I clicked over from Benen with that exact thought in mind.
Willard’s in the basement mixin up the medicine etc etc.
ant
from what ive seen of the ca coast line, it’s all hills and rocks and shit.
sounds expensive.
i mean, its one thing to take a back hoe, and dig a big hole. quite another to start digging into solid fucking rock.
shortstop
Mitt, you naughty, naughty boy. That’s one spacious dungeon. I wonder if Ann’s ordered a pair of St. Andrew’s crosses?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Mr Mansion soon to fall into the sea on unstable California coastal range.
Is it possible for Mittens to be clueless in all things in his life?
Cassidy
Swinger parties?
Culture of Truth
Also, oops, Bain is the largest supplier for Red China’s massive Communist surveillance system.
But never mind, Obama hugged a black guy.
PeakVT
3600 is 50×72. It’s likely just a one-level finished basement under the entire house.
Yawn.
Culture of Truth
“It puts the magic underwear against its skin or else it gets davy crockett again!”
Southern Beale
Hmmm …
Sounds like a Dick Cheney bunker to me!
David Koch
This is the mansion (one of four) that Mitt’s kid said had to be torn down because at 3,000 square feet it was too small for his empty-nest father to live in for part of the year.
Loneoak
@cathyxc:
Yes, they do have a doomsday thing in their theology. Mormons are required to keep one year’s worth of food staples for each person in the household so they can be self-reliant after the apocalypse. I’m not really sure about the details, tho.
MikeJ
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That’ll be the day I go back to Annandale.
WereBear
Oh, great. After our Galtian Overlords spend a few years underground, they will develop into those eyeless gilled fish-creatures out of Lovecraft.
Kathy in St. Louis
All I can see is Scrooge McDuck’s vault. Perhaps he’s planning on closing his accounts in the Caymans and Switzerland and bringing it all home, you know, because he’s such a patriot.
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@Kathy in St. Louis:
There’s something really sexy about Scrooge McDuck.
cathyx
Maybe he needs it for his very own emergency room.
Super-Rich Americans Now Have Emergency Rooms In Own Homes
huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/concierge-medicine_n_1353155.html
beltane
Every lord must own his own dungeon.
JasonF
Fun fact: at 7,200 square feet, the Romneys’ beach house will be roughly 40% larger than the typical Applebee’s.
Lev
The explanation I offered at my blog: Mitt Romney could be Batman. I think there’s also a good chance that Tim Pawlenty is Robin. That seems like the natural role for him.
BDeevDad
I’m surprised no one has noted that this will be underground in La Jolla. I realize he’s probably up in the hills of La Jolla, but still, this is a beach community in earthquake country. Very few people build underground in San Diego, let alone right along the coast.
Sargent Pepper's Spray
Romney’s in the basement mixing up the medicine?
Raven
And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill
beltane
@Loneoak: Why only one year’s worth of supplies? Do they really think that their local supermarket will reopen after the Apocalypse? That is not the type of apocalypse I can believe in.
AA+ Bonds
It could be for his Mormon canned food collection
Oh okay I see this was covered
PeakVT
Here’s the front of what the Mittster is tearing down from Jim the Realt*r, and an aerial view (note that it’s not the one with the big yard).
Sargent Pepper's Spray
Newt’s on the pavement thinking bout the government
Sargent Pepper's Spray
Newt’s on the pavement thinking bout the government
AA+ Bonds
@beltane:
I think the idea is that you should be ready to contribute to a community store, not that you’re going to be holed up with a hunting rifle
It isn’t the sort of Rapture fantasy that affects right-wing Protestants – pace Romney’s lack of moral compass, Mormons champion interdependence in times of crisis rather than chest-puffing go it on my own BS
But Romney definitely doesn’t need that much floor space to fulfill that LDS obligation, even if he wanted to contribute proportionally based on his wealth
PeakVT
Blah. I can haz un-moderashun?
ETA: aerial view from naughty post.
Raven
@PeakVT: French pressure cooker huh?
Sargent Pepper's Spray
Romney’s pump won’t work cause Santorum took the handle…
scav
Countdown to the Rombot wandering into a factory, looking around and remarking how it seems such the right height and how much he feels at home on the factory floor as it reminds him of his basement.
AA+ Bonds
@PeakVT:
Romney wishes he had Empress Nails
kindness
Have you seen that thing? It’s right on the water. I don’t care what kind of waterproofing they do, the water table by a sand beach on the ocean is probably 5 feet. That thing will leak.
PeakVT
@Raven @AA+ Bonds: Argh. Sorry. The short url is crap. The one in the previous post leads to the house.
cathyx
@PeakVT: Is it the house with the empty lot next to it?
Raven
Norfolk State Mizzou is a serious barn burner!
EJ
@ant: Southern California is made mostly of sand and rubble. What with the whole “subduction zone” thing. “Solid rock” is for those fancy east coast types.
PeakVT
@cathyx: Yes, though the adjacent lot isn’t empty, just huge. Switch to map view to see the lots.
Nancy
I don’t think he is trying to be discreet. Since it is beach property, there are rules about blocking someone else’s view. I suspect that is the reason.
Chyron HR
Silly Mitt, we’re the ones who’re supposed to evolve into Morlocks.
Jay in Oregon
@Loneoak:
Is that just for the lords and ladies of the house, or do they have to lay in stores for the live-in staff, too?
@beltane:
I suspect it’s just one year to give them a buffer to get their crops planted, cattle fences up, etc.
Ben Franklin
Preparing for local, or greater interruptions in the food supply is a rational thing.
Sometimes the Doomsday Preppers go overboard. You can’t prepare for every contingency. But if you don’t have a 30-day (minimum) supply of food and water stores, you are whistling through the graveyard.
samara morgan
i think head of infidelity is a bad translation, DougJ.
i suspect it was something more like commander of lies.
its very difficult for westerners to translate arabic.
for example, there are 77 different words for love.
also, gender is not just dependent on context, but also on inflection.
Loneoak
Ok, so I went on teh Gazoogle to look up the Mormon food storage thing. It’s not tied to an apocalypse theology, it’s more about a culture of self-reliance.
Raven
@samara morgan: You watchin this game???
feebog
The La Jolla house is on the beach. Don’t see how you get a finished basement, the water line has to be just a couple feet below the surface. Maybe he should just buy the whole fucking block, might be easier.
Raven
@Ben Franklin: Fuck all that, ammo is the key.
MikeJ
@Raven:
This Mizzou game that is giving me a heart attack?
Ben Franklin
@Raven:
Yup. The funhogs will visit, otherwise.
Raven
@MikeJ: Whoa, AND ONE! O Quinn is a HOSS!
Raven
El ChokeO Los Tigres!
inkadu
And you know the salad bar is going to be enormous and made of marble.
Litlebritdifrnt
@scav:
Ha Ha kudos for the Hyacinth Bucket reference.
AA+ Bonds
@feebog:
The wealthy take this sort of thing as a challenge; go down to NC and check what they build out there on those lumps of sand off the inner coast
dmsilev
@kindness:
Where I work, the occupied part of the building extends down about 20 or 30 feet below the water table (and we’re not all that far from Lake Michigan, so there’s substantial amounts of water nearby). It can be dealt with, but it takes a substantial amount of effort in design, construction, and operation of the building (read: $$$). Slurry walls extending several feet below the building foundation, proper drainage between the slurry wall and the building per se, and a good sump pump system.
AA+ Bonds
This is the best thing I read today and if you are the sort of person who forwards things, forward this:
Union Thug George Clooney Arrested Today
Raven
@dmsilev: Like Grant Park, built on the trash from the great Chicago Fire!
schrodinger's cat
Speaking of salad bars at Applebees, Bobo is at it again. Its seems that Obama is cagey.
Comrade Dread
@Raven: Yep. Back when gold buying was at its apex, I used to joke with conservatives that a smart man would invest in lead to face the apocalypse.
It would buy more than gold.
samara morgan
@Raven: no. no joy in ballgames for me.
im sulking because i couldnt get kegs-n-eggs passes this year.
tormenting anonymous ppl on the interwebs is my only fun today.
>:(
kindness
@dmsilev: I have friends who used to live in La Jolla. Getting anything through zoning there is le miserabe. They tried unsuccessfully many times. They were up on the hill though, not down on the beach.
Who knows? With Mittens money (lawyers) and republican connections maybe he can do it. Thing is, in 20 years when the oceans are a foot higher the water will come in through the first floor during a good storm.
AA+ Bonds
game, what game, Vermont lost half an hour ago
AA+ Bonds
@dmsilev:
The risk for such a venture is probably substantially lower around the Great Lakes than on the beach in La Jolla, at least for the time being
dmsilev
@AA+ Bonds: I’m sure. I didn’t say it would be easy or cheap, just that it would be doable. Guess it’s a function of how badly Romney wants his ginormous basement.
AA+ Bonds
@dmsilev:
The best way to mitigate risk is to be a psychopath – risk would appear much larger to anyone else but your perception of it is zero even after the fact
It’s an old Wall Street trick
j
He’s building an “End Times” bunker. Just like “W” did in Crawford, and Cheney did right next door to the CIA HQ.(which I’m sure has a secret tunnel).
gnomedad
It’s like a Swiss bank account for your living space!
S. cerevisiae
A basement full of cigarettes and cheap whiskey will make you a king in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Irving
…oh, dear Lord, Mitt Romney’s Batman.
g
It’s his safe room.
opie jeanne
If it’s on the beach in La Jolla it is NOT a McMansion.
That said, how odd that they’re all worried about perception of wealth. Probably more worried about the lawsuit for blocking the view of the neighbors up the hill behind them.
opie jeanne
@PeakVT: Man, that’s a shame that he’s tearing down that nice house.
opie jeanne
@kindness: Look again. He’s at least 20 feet above the water, probably more.
Joel
La Jolla is a nice place. I was just there the other week (visiting, before you ask!). I wonder if Mitt Romney is a big participant in that monster Mormon temple they have near UC San Diego (architecturally, it’s probably one of the nicest things in the city.. apologies to Tbogg).
PeakVT
@opie jeanne: It looks nice, but I don’t see it as being so exceptional it shouldn’t ever be torn down. Of course, there’s no guarantee something better will replace it, and I doubt Romney’s new place will be nicer.
Origuy
I worked with a Mormon guy who buried gold coins in his back yard. After he got fired (mostly for working on his portfolio at the office all the time), he found out that his teenage son had dug them up and cashed them in.
moderateindy
to be honest, if I had that kind of cash every last one of my houses would have a huge ass bunker with years of emergency supplies inside.
Also, if its not a bunker I actually appreciate people that are super wealthy that do not feel the need to flaunt it. Which I actually think might be the way Mittens feels, unless of course he thought it might garner him one more vote, then I think we would see the Romneybot 2000 going around showing everyone his gold plated bathroom fixtures and acting like Donald Trump.
I don’t mind that much when politicians pander, in cases like saying y’all to a bunch of southerners I find it amusing because its so transparently ridiculous, but Mitt is so god awful at it that its a little painful to watch, the trees are all the right height indeed
Brandon
@ChrisNYC:
@j:
It is weird to me how these theories have to be couched as jokes. Every recent Republican candidate except the extreme loser Dole had their own private ‘western’ WH. Ronnie had his Santa Barabara ranch. GHWB had Kennebunkport. Old man McCain had his AZ tire swinging ranch. Bush even bought his Crawford ranch during the ’00 campaign and then immediately sold it once he left office with little to no comment from the morons who used it to exemplify his regular guy persona, although he never used a chainsaw before and hasn’t since. It seems reasonable to me that Romney is following suit in the same vein. An I suspect that this extra space will no doubt be outfitted accordingly. I suspect it will be used as a press briefing room during the campaign and probably have a ‘panic room’ that will double as a ‘war room’. My guess is that he’s thinking ahead and planning this for a prop in service of the election campaign and perhaps beyond.
jr la jolla
Romney is from a state where you own the beach in front of your house. I hope that the city does not close the beach in front of the Romney house, that would suck. I have a bad feeling about our beach.