Construction Resumes on Biggest House in US

'Versailles in Florida: Construction Resumes on Biggest House in US'

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2013/10/versailles-in-florida-construction-resumes-on-biggest-house-in-us/

By ABC News

Oct 1, 2013 10:27am

After a four-year hiatus, the Florida couple whose quest to build the biggest house in America became the subject of its own documentary have resumed construction on their 90,000-square-foot mega-mansion.

Vacation time-share mogul David Siegel and his wife, former beauty queen Jackie Siegel, say they are “fully committed” to building what has become known as “The American Versailles,” a home with nine kitchens, 30 bathrooms and two movie theaters.

“Whatever it takes to finish it, that’s what I’ll spend,” David Siegel, the billionaire founder of Westgate Resorts, told ABC News’ Matt Gutman this week.

It was just last year when the Siegels, who have a family of eight kids and five dogs, were the feature of filmmaker Lauren Greenfield’s documentary, “The Queen of Versailles,” that showed their prickly marriage and some belt-tightening. When the recession hit, construction stopped on the home for four years.

“This is almost like a riches to rags story,” David Siegel said in Greenfield’s documentary.

After the documentary was released, the Siegels sued Greenfield and others tied to the film for defamation.

“I just wanted the truth to come out. I didn’t want people to … see the movie, and think this is the truth. It wasn’t,” David Siegel told ABC News in July 2012. “The scenes are totally manipulated, staged. The suit was not to gain monetarily. The suit was so that people would know that it’s not the truth.”

Now the Siegels say they sparing no expense in building their home, the size of which can hold two 747 planes.
The home’s mahogany doors and windows alone cost $4 million. There is no estimate on what the house itself will cost because the Siegels keep on spending.

“I have a gold elevator in my closet,” Jackie Siegel told Gutman, referring to her 4,000-square-foot ride-in closet.


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