Asking price: $100,000,000
Year built: 1914
Number of bedrooms: Seven
Number of bathrooms: Nine
Acreage of land: 47
It's hard to find enormous parcels of land in the South Bay, especially ones so bucolically located in between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The 16,000 square foot, Mediterranean-styled, Bliss and Faville (who also designed the St. Francis Hotel in SF) mansion is positioned on approximately 47 acres which have been owned for 150 years by one family–the de Guignes–and is one of the last remaining mansions of its kind in the state. It boasts all the usual luxuries of houses like this, which you could only dream of lording over IRL; think a sweeping, grand ballroom, library, pavilion, flower-arranging room, and a gorgeous pool courtyard designed by landscape architect Thomas Church, which gives grandiose views of San Francisco and the East Bay. There was once so much staff at this estate, that it warranted six staff rooms to be built into a servants' wing. And if you got a load of the driveway up to the front door (it's 4500 feet long and lushly lined with trees), you'll feel pretty important every time you come home from work.
However, there is one caveat. The seller is Christian de Guigne IV, who is 75. His grandparents built the house and have owned the land from the beginning. He is selling the whole thing but retaining a life estate in the property, which means he exclusively gets to live in the main house for the rest of his life, according to his attorney. So if you have $100 million to literally get rid of, this sale is for you. Perhaps Mr. de Guigne would let you build your own home on the property, and you could meet in the formal gardens for tea? If he won't, you can always visit your new $100 million purchase just to stroll its many acres for a major chill session whenever you need it.
Info and photos fromSotheby's Realty, Curbed SF, and the Wall Street Journal
