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    TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Aleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:44pm

    Uh, you built on limestone next to water. A strong house is not built on a soft, slightly-soluble foundation. On the other hand, it's a textbook demonstration of how karst topographies form, so... geologists, this one's for you.

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      wraitherTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      6/11/14 7:07pm

      what do you want to bet a geo-technical study isn't required for the area? I wonder if the roof drains tie into a storm line that went to the street or did it enter a flexible pipe section on or in the ground that day-lighted on a slight grade towards the cliff edge?

      or maybe the roof downspouts drained directly on the ground around the home?

      wherever you live, just be glad you don't have to deal with karst.

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      feministtradingcardTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      6/11/14 7:15pm

      So all of Florida essentially.

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    BrtStlndAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:47pm

    A 7,000 square foot lake house is only $700,000 in Texas?

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      ripfire4BrtStlnd
      6/11/14 6:48pm

      Not anymore...

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      sue48763BrtStlnd
      6/11/14 6:55pm

      It's still in Texas.

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    Anna NymityAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:53pm

    Sometimes the free market and lack of government regulations back fires on rich Texans in the most hilarious of ways

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      Anna NymityAnna Nymity
      6/11/14 7:10pm

      I do want to clear up that I am a free market and less government guy but hey you take risks and sometimes the shit doesn't pan out. Hopefully these dumbasses won't be bailed out.

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      SallyShellsAnna Nymity
      6/11/14 7:26pm

      Meanwhile, in the much more regulated, Southern California region, it's equally hilarious.

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    raincoasterAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:51pm

    When I was in grade school this happened to a whole row of houses in our subdivision. They'd all been built on a sand cliff, with a level hung down over the edge, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows. We thought they were the fancy houses, till one day while we were at school they all somersaulted down three stories to the bottom of the cliff. Somebody's mother was IN the house when it did this, but she was okay other than a few bruises. The families got put up at a local motel while they sued the developer, who essentially argued "what kind of idiot buys a house on a sand cliff anyway?" which...yeah, he had a point. He lost anyway.

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      MissBehavingraincoaster
      6/11/14 7:00pm

      Fun story, glad the mom was OK. Any idea why all of the houses somersaulted down on the same day? Just curious how that happened.

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      Lorenzo's LlamasMissBehaving
      6/11/14 7:06pm

      Because that was the day the cliff gave way?

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    nightelfmohawkAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:47pm

    Checking the news story, I see that the front of the house has one of those lame castle-style circular turrets that likely houses a staircase. The cliff is doing us a favor, I think.

    (Okay, I am partially kidding... but that is one architectural feature I loathe on McMansions.)

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      tonyathundertitsnightelfmohawk
      6/11/14 9:20pm

      What makes a house a McMansion? I Google'd it, but it really seems to be applied to a lot more houses that I realized.

      Thanks.

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      TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)tonyathundertits
      6/12/14 10:22am

      "McMansion" refers to mass-produced homes that are large and often expensively appointed, like a mansion. In cities, they tend to be built in tracts, to the maximum dimensions possible for their lot. McMansions tend to be ornamented, but poorly designed and proportioned, and they are cheaply built, with a tendency to fall apart in short order.

      This McMansion is a stellar example of what's wrong with the facades of these buildings: Windows jumbled together, oddly proportioned front columns, a roof that looks like it was generated by a Sims game.

      This one, meanwhile, shows what's wrong with the back: Almost no architectural quality at all, just a huge number of windows. No landscaping, no amenities, just a dull expanse of grass.

      Here, meanwhile, is a critique of a theoretical McMansion, one made with a little more effort:

      I hope this clears things up.

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    It takes a nation of millions to elect the corruptAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:50pm

    Rich people are so lazy they won't even stand their ground in Texas.

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      FrownTacoIt takes a nation of millions to elect the corrupt
      6/11/14 6:58pm

      Why is this not top comment.

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    cuntybawsAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:59pm

    I believe the architect has previously done work for House Arryn.

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      burneymcburnerstancuntybaws
      6/12/14 8:26am

      I know this is a Game of Thrones reference but I still don't get the joke...

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      cuntybawsburneymcburnerstan
      6/12/14 9:14am

      I fear, then, that it is not a joke, despite my high hopes. But my thinking was, one would have a hole in the floor, or indeed a floor with many holes, not unlike the Moon Door in the Eyrie, through which people could be hurled.

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    iElvis Found Trump's Tax Returns Too Late to Save GawkerAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 7:24pm

    Here is the house on Google Maps, apparently before the cliff gave way.

    https://www.google.com/maps/@32.02801…

    Kind of got to question the judgement of the person who built it so close to the edge.

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      catanarchyiElvis Found Trump's Tax Returns Too Late to Save Gawker
      6/11/14 7:28pm

      Wow, that is really close to the edge. Yikes!

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      iElvis Found Trump's Tax Returns Too Late to Save Gawkercatanarchy
      6/11/14 7:43pm

      I can't bash Texas for this, though, because California is easily 100x worse. All up and down the coast, you've got rich idiots buying houses perched on the edge of unstable seaside cliffs, then demanding state/county assistance when things start sliding down or building unauthorized supports into the cliff and screeching when the county cites them for it.

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    the actual bajmahalAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:51pm

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      MissBehavingthe actual bajmahal
      6/11/14 7:02pm

      A house held up by a couple of pool cues basically, seems legit.

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      CaiteeCruellethe actual bajmahal
      6/11/14 8:34pm

      The Loved One! I wish you had found this in English.

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    Justice Rains From My ButtAleksander Chan
    6/11/14 6:57pm

    "Mom, I might fall off this cliff."

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      BfunkadeliaJustice Rains From My Butt
      6/11/14 11:10pm

      brilliant

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