1 exterior

Each week, BCBusiness takes you inside one of the most outrageously upmarket real estate offerings in the province

Address: 8200 Kalavista Drive, Coldstream

Price: $11,500,000

Listing: 10183262

The skinny: Six-bedroom, nine-bathroom (plus three powder rooms), 9,585-square-foot house on Kalamalka Lake in Coldstream

The bling: So here’s a mansion on the shores of Kalamalka Lake, south of Vernon. It’s big and impressive. Add up the full and partial bathrooms and you get a nice, round dozen. With all those sinks, toilets and bathtubs plus a big patio jacuzzi, there’s probably more water outside the lake than in (although the fishing is likely more fun in a boat). You get close to an acre of land, 170 feet of waterfront and a six-car garage. It will cost you $11.5 million.

But here's the thing: You’ll have neighbours. It’s a house on a street with other houses. A big house, sure, but on a street. Come Saturday, Jim next door might be mowing his lawn, if he happens to be one of those obscenely rich people who get a kick out of mowing their own lawn. Is that really what you want? Neighbours bringing over pies and lasagna and extra zucchini from the garden, uninvited?

Maybe I fail to misunderstand the truly wealthy—after all, I am looking at them across a very wide financial gulf—but if you are spending 11-and-a-half million for a headquarters located somewhere outside Vernon, wouldn’t you expect to be more or less alone? Inside a palisaded fortress, perhaps, with a moat and maybe crocodiles? Robot sentries?

Well, who can tell? Maybe you got stinking rich as a Walmart greeter. Have fun with the gang!

The hidden extras: One of the bedrooms has bunk beds! Decorating tip: starving college students.

1a back

2 entry3 entry main staircase4 living room5 dining6 kitchen7 kitchen8 kitchen9 upstairs10 master bed11 bedroom12 bunk beds13 media room14 den15 gym16 patio17 patio wide18 patio bbq chairs19 patio BBQ20 patio covered21 patio table22 hot tub 223 hot tub24 beach and dock25 dock26 lake27 aerial