Back in 1999, an acquaintance of mine became a paper millionaire of a dot-com and bought a 2.3M home in Boca Raton, Fl, and put in a further half million renovating it. As he was driving me and a few friends through the neighborhood, he indicated that if you don't like the style of house, it could be demolished and a new home built, and pointed out a few homes that were new, the old having been demolished.

He also said that it cost him something like $10,000/month to live here, what with the mortgage and huge electric bill (he had three multi-ton A/C units to cool the almost 10,000 square foot (900 square meters) home.

It was ... something.