Ryan Seacrest the American Idol host very recently revealed that he and his girlfriend Julianne Hough, who has been dating Ryan since 2010 are living together. He was a guest on the Howard Stern Show. The 37 year popular TV personality must be really serious about his girlfriend as he has bought her a new pad for a cool $49 million. It is no simple home but a Beverly Hills estate, formerly owned by another popular TV personality Ellen DeGeneres. TMZ reported the details about the property. It is a 2.87 acres palatial grounds with the main house built on 9,200 square foot. The estate boasts of three guest homes and several sprawling wildlife ponds.
Ryan’s net worth is estimated at around $125 million and he is believed to earn about $45 million a year. He had been trying to sell his Hollywood Hills West estate since 2010 for $15 million. According to Los Angeles Times he managed to sell it finally last month for $12 million. His girl friend who featured in the show Dancing With The Stars would love the space the estate provides and can revisit her dancing routine. Ellen DeGeneres who has married Portia de Rossi have moved to a luxurious Malibu beachfront pad which earlier belonged to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Manhattan seems be relatively unaffected by the downturn in the real estate market. The luxury real estate seems to be flourishing in the area. The buildings that provide views of the Central Park command high prices and find buyers with deep pockets with relative ease. There is news of a big ticket transaction in Manhattan’s expensive Central Park South. Casino mogul Steve Wynn has added a new property to his large portfolio and instead of his favorite Las Vegas strip he has opted for Manhattan this time. The 70 year old billionaire who has been declared legally blind shelled out $70 million for a duplex apartment on the Central Park South.
It is not clear how he will enjoy it but the apartment affords some incredible views of the Central Park. The duplex apartment in the Ritz Carlton Hotel occupies two floors and is located on the 30th and the 31st floor of the building. The apartment is spread over a total area of 10,882 square feet. It was originally built as the hotel’s grand ballroom but was converted into a private residence that the billionaire plans to move into with his new wife who is much younger to him. He married Andrea Hissom, who is in her forties, last year in April in one of his casinos.
Over forty years after man landed on the moon the status of the space program is rather disappointing to say the least. Most of us can’t really do anything about it but an anonymous electrical and systems engineer going only by the moniker BTE-Dan seems to have done a lot of brainstorming on the matter and posted very elaborate plans for a full-scale, functioning Starship Enterprise. He has even provided a timeframe of twenty years in which his plans can be turned into reality. His projections are backed by detailed specifications, costs, mission plan and funding strategies. Dan disapproves of the International Space Station for its lack of gravity and cramped quarters. In his assessment the money could have been used more innovatively with much better results. In his opinion it is quite possible to build a full scale USS Enterprise that could function as a spaceship, a space station and a spaceport and accommodate up to a thousand people at a time.
Dan believes that the ship configuration of Enterprise in the movie and the TV series Star Trek is quite functional. However, the Gen1 Enterprise, the name he has given to his proposed craft, would be functionally very different. According to his estimates his craft would be capable of covering the distance between Earth and Mars in just ninety days and reach the moon in just three days. His proposed craft would have ample living space and generate a gravity of 1 g. To achieve this he has proposed a rotating magnetically-suspended gravity wheel. In order to prevent the body of the ship rotating he has suggested a counter-rotating ring. He also suggests that water, propellant, or other materials that would be needed aboard ship could be stored in the second ring. He has proposed a Universal Lander to function as a ferry when the mother craft operates as a space port orbiting around a planet. The lander would be designed to enable it to relaunch from planets with the rockets and fuel it carried on board without the help of any boosters.
It is easy to say that every adversity is pregnant with an opportunity but really difficult to actually turn the adversity around into a profitable opportunity. Josh Opperman is one of those rare young men who turned his broken engagement into a business opportunity. Six years ago, one day when he came back from work he found his Manhattan apartment empty except for the engagement ring his fiancée had left behind. It is easy to imagine his disappointment but he was even more shocked to find that no jeweler was willing to give him more than 30% of what he had paid for it.
He was disappointed, no doubt, but he wasn’t discouraged and was in fact inspired by the experience to start idonowidont.com which is an online market place for people like him looking to rid themselves of their once-prized wedding jewelry. I Do Now I Don’t has grown into a great platform for people interested in jewelry with a story or simply a great price. The range of jewelry available on the site is wide as you could find discards of millionaire matchmaking gone wrong. You have billionaires and the really rich also using the site to buy and sell. It is a convenient place for people who want to unload a diamond ring they haven’t worn in years. The site is transparent and safe with all its gemologist verification and escrow.
The high priced luxury real estate requires some marketing effort to find a suitable buyer willing to pay the asking price. Former “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Christopher Meloni seems to understand that well. He had listed in late February his three-bedroom apartment on the 60th floor of the Park Imperial on West 56th Street on Prudential Douglas Elliman. He must be aware of the pressures on the real estate market and decided to sweeten the deal for the prospective buyer. The listing promises that a brand new fully loaded 2013 Porsche Panamera Hybrid will be included with purchase price if a contract is signed by June 1.
The asking price of the listing of the midtown Manhattan apartment is $12 million. According to a report carried by New York Post the Porsche with the apartment deal is sure to catch the attention of prospective buyers. It is a stunning apartment with a total living area of 3,000 square feet featuring three bedroom and four and half bathroom. The apartment had featured in one of the issues of Architectural Digest. The building in itself is rather high profile boasting of celebrity residents.
The luxury real estate industry loves new records as that’s what keeps it going. Manhattan, one of the most exclusive areas of New York always obliges as it boasts of homes and apartments that fetch record prices. The most recent example is of an apartment in a building located on 740 Park Avenue that was bought by Oaktree Capital founder Howard Marks for a record-smashing $52.5 million. It is one of the most exclusive buildings in the city with the list of former and current residents reading like a who’s who of New York. Marks and his wife, Nancy who currently live in Los Angeles will move into the sprawling Manhattan apartment that is spread over two floors.
The apartment boasts of 30 rooms, including two libraries, eight bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, six terraces and a dining room plus a special room with stunning city views for breakfast. This is no ordinary building or apartment as the maintenance alone is a mind boggling $412,000 per year. And it is not enough for you to have the money as a new buyer into the building must have the approval of the board of the co-op which is supposed to be one of the toughest in New York City. In the past they have rejected big and powerful names like Barbara Streisand, Barbara Walters the billionaire investor Nelson Peltz and the late actress Joan Crawford.
It was a common sight in James Bond movies to see 007 zip out with his cars into the high seas. His vehicles and fancy gadgets were specially designed because he was after all a secret agent ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. If you happen to be a Bond movie fan it will be your dream to own on a super luxurious sports car that can go invisible, store high end missiles to bomb enemies and if the need be also go under water and turn into a submarine in a jiffy.
Well, if it can go invisible and turn into a submarine we don’t know but we sure have a sports car for you that you can also drive on the ocean if the freeways traffic has started to get on your nerves. Called the Sea Lion, this car will help you relive every moment of a Bond movie. He price is also as expensive as Bond movie would be. The Sea Lion comes with a hefty price tag of $259,500. The car intends to win the title of the Fastest Amphibious Vehicle. It will have to compete with 25 similar vehicles in order to make this title its own. If you are the rich and loaded kid of a billionaire and need to experience some thrills on road and off road also then have a look at what the Sea Lion can offer you.
The Sea Lion, the world’s only Amphibious Car
The car is actually the brain child of Marc Witt who happens to be an avid car fan. It was his dream to build a car that would send people on the roads in a tizzy with its mind boggling speed and could also float into the ocean with the same amount of energy. He started work on this project in 2006 and it was his aim to break the record set by another amphibious car that could be driven on water at a speed of 45 mph.
Are you by any chance a billionaire loaded with cash? Do you enjoy sailing in a super yacht? And after indulging in all the pleasures of the rich and famous do you find time for issues such as environment sustainability and care about our blue planet? If yes is the answer to all our questions then we have just what you were looking for. A super yacht that is fancy meant exclusively for the affluent and also saves the planet from all the poisonous fumes that we emit every day.
It is the first eco friendly yacht that the world has ever seen and don’t think it will come with a price that just about anyone can afford. Meant only for billionaires whose bank accounts are over flowing with cash, this first go green super yacht known as the Columbus Sport it comes for a whopping $30 million. The yacht starching 130’ and hybrid is however not the first super luxury yacht despite its unique eco friendly features. It is Paul Allen’s’, billionaire and the co-founder of Microsoft, Octopus that is so far slated as the most fancy yachts of all time. It is said to be 414 ft long. The super yatch boasts of having a basket ball court and its own submarine. The weekly expenditure on this yacht is a staggering $384,000. Several parties on the yacht which also has a music room have been hosted in honour of billionaires and celebrities.
Anyway, our concern for today is not the money and the mindboggling expenditures on the world’s plushest yacht but a boat that also promises to prevent our blue planet from further damage. And Columbus does just that. Read on to know more about this floating paradise that is also eco friendly.
The Eco-Friendly Columbus
The Columbus, which is being manufactured by Italian boat builders Palumbo will be ready to hit the seas by 2013. Giuseppe Palumbo, the General Manager at the company’s Naples yard, has stated that the boat will combine superior technologies as well as eco friendly features.
We have already reported on how London’ going gaga over the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations. As the Queen completes sixty years of her reign this June, London will be full of joy. No stone has been left unturned to make this an event of the decade. Hotels have already started their bookings and some of them have been already booked with tourists streaming in London from all across the country and the world. We have also reported on how some luxury hotels in London have planned an array of things like high teas to super lunches and special souvenir gifts for their guests. Some renowned jewellery of the city who also have earned a Royal Warrant from Buckingham palace have also recreated a crown for the Queen which will be displayed and will later be out up for sale.
If this was not enough we have another event lined up to mark the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen. An exhibition of the Queen’s jewels has been planned at the Buckingham Palace and it is already touted as the most apt celebration planned to revere the Queen’s six decades of rule.
These are no ordinary jewels. Well they cannot be ordinary because they are after all a possession of the royalty. But the unique thing about these jewels is that they have been made, hold your breath, from a huge rock of diamond which was known for its blue white purity when it was first discovered. Necklaces, brooches and earrings were all made only from this diamond which is supposedly the largest ever. These jewels are worth million pounds and the jewels cost somewhere around £78 million just for the brooches. The other brooches cost around £9.4 million and £4.4 million.Phew!
I am sure I have got you all hooked to the Queen’s precious jewels. Read on if you wish to know more about these jewels and the details of the exhibition also.
One of the most popular shows on HGTV is Million Dollar Rooms where viewers get to tour the very best in high end design and luxury living around the globe with Carter Oosterhouse. The trends at the very top end change rapidly. In just over a decade we have witnessed a transition from million dollar homes to million dollar rooms. Even a few years back it would have been unimaginable that a $5 million space could be used for parking luxury cars. But you can see it now on the show that has special access to the most exclusive and expensive spaces. The millionaires and billionaires of today, many of whom are new rich know how to splurge and demand what was unimaginable some time ago. Million Dollar Rooms specializes in one of a kind multimillion dollar spaces and provides an unprecedented look inside these spectacular spaces that have been created without any budgetary constraint.
The world’s largest residential pool:
One of the episodes of the Million Dollar Rooms featured not a room but a pool located next to a 9,000 square foot mansion in El Campo, Texas. The owner of the mansion wanted to create a tropical getaway and commissioned the pool designer Cheryl Kuykendall who created an aquatic wonderland. The main pool is spread over 40,000 square foot and takes 750,000 gallons of water to fill. The features that make the large pool extra special are six waterfalls, a 21-foot slide, a 500-foot lazy river, a bar, an outdoor kitchen, a kiddie area, and more. It has been designed as a complete weekend entertainment. The cost of the pool complex went beyond $3 million.
Renaissance-style Ballroom cum Garage
Villa Rosa Rugosa located in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., was owned by a couple who got a Renaissance style ballroom attached to the villa. Since it is rarely used as a ballroom it normally functions as an eight car garage. It featured on the HGTV show Million Dollar Rooms as the most luxurious garage and we are yet to see another garage which is as extravagant. The ballroom cum garage boasts of barn-style hydraulic doors, a 35 foot hand painted mural and the largest mosaic ever to be installed in a private home. The mosaic has been made with Chinese tiles that took almost two years to assemble. As a ballroom it hosted the owners son wedding which was attended by five hundred guests. Shelley Brose the owner of Villa Rosa Rugosa had listed it for sale initially for $15 million but failed to find a buyer. Ultimately he sold it for only $4.7 million last February. Just the ballroom/garage had cost him $2 million to construct.
