Big Fat Deal: $12 Million to Dream Bigly in Suburbia

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

Address: 7120 No. 5 Road, Richmond

Price: $11,880,000

Listing ID: R2139278

The skinny: Ten-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 14,157-square-foot house on approximately four acres.           

The bling: You have to admire the insouciance of suburban life—that refreshing lack of concern about style, or taste, or engaging with the pressing issues of today’s world. Here, the preoccupations are simple, the code for belonging clear and unequivocal: buy a big house on a big lot and throw more upscale bells and whistles at it than are in evidence at the homes of your neighbours. Here, embracing unfettered, naked aspiration will never be viewed as bad (or sad). You bought your way in with the multimillion-dollar price tag, now all you have to do is prove your willingness to engage in one-upmanship regardless of sense or sensibility. Don’t let the fact you live in what many would consider a cultural wasteland prevent you from setting a tone of global sophistication. Who says a North American interpretation of a French chateau plonked down in the middle of a nondescript street can’t work? Euro trash is just another way to say “lots of cash,” isn’t it? It’s never about utility: in top-end suburbia, it’s only ever about the show. So have your circular driveway to carry you a few feet from the road; engage a topiarist to manicure your bushes. Install your fussy front door, your grand double staircase that sweeps over your even grander entrance foyer. Add marble and sparkles and pair them with as many ridiculously curlicued furnishings new money can buy. Come on, leave the constraints of the city behind, come over to the hinterland and let your craven consumerist freak flag truly fly.

The hidden extras: Sprinkler system for your acres of lawn, Italian marble and granite throughout, Thermidor kitchen.