Keith Barton Lived Here: A House as Big as Utah

Well, folks, you know it’s bad in America when rich-as-Croesus attorneys like Keith Barton, who owned this sprawling estate in Alpine, Utah, lose their homes to foreclosure, too. The house is on 9 acres with an incredible mountain view. Barton, a personal injury attorney who is famous for his “One Call–That’s All!” TV commercials, tried desperately to sell it and avoid losing it. It was on the market for $14.9 million last year, but no takers. The bank just sold it for the rock-bottom bargain price of $7 million.

I think this is another case of “Oversized House Syndrome.” I’d feel like I was living in a hotel. But that’s just me. Take a look at this place and decide for yourself. Even if you’ll never have to decide whether to spend your vast amounts of wealth on a ridiculously big house or not, they’re still fun to look at!

The grand foyer:

The dining room:

A close-up of the ceiling and chandelier in the dining room:

I thought this might be some sort of Ballroom, but no. It’s just the “Great Room:”

Here’s the view from the other end of the Great Room, which has a sort of “Sound of Music” vibe to it, like you can imagine those Von Trapp kids marching into line:

Even though that seems plenty big enough to host a dance of some sort, they weren’t taking any chances when they built this house. Here’s the official Ballroom:

The music room:

The kitchen:

No, this isn’t part of the kitchen–it’s a separate pantry:

The cozy family room:

The library (which is suspiciously lacking in actual books):

Upstairs hallway:

Upstairs there are 7 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. The master bedroom, shown below, is so big that the dresser looks like doll furniture. Look at all the gold leaf they used in this place! It’s sort of ridiculous, don’t you think? (Or maybe it’s just not my style, so I don’t get it.) It’s trying to be grand, but this room just looks sad to me, like nobody’s home:

There are two master closets, which I could totally get into. Here’s his:

And hers:

The master bath (you just know it echoes!):

Another bathroom (or maybe this is an extension of the master–not sure):

Forget about Great Clips–there’s an in-house salon:

After you get your hair done, you can head straight to your own bar, where I can just about guarantee “everybody knows your name:”

A room called “the lounge:”

It also comes with its own ice-cream parlor so you don’t have to schlepp to town when you want some Baskin-Robbins:

I don’t think this will surprise you–they have their own in-home theater, too:

This is supposedly the laundry room, but I see no sign of a washer or dryer, do you? They must be cleverly hidden behind all that cabinetry. Or maybe it’s way down there at the other end, too far away for us to see them.

I love this but have a tiny quibble with it–it’s too narrow. Just imagine trying to fit the piles of clothes and all of your laundry baskets in that space. Then again, if you lived here, you would have someone else doing your laundry for you, so maybe you wouldn’t care!

Here’s the (drained) pool and amazing view from the back of the house:

Big thanks goes to Hooked on Houses reader Aubrey, who forwarded me these photos. Read a news story about this home’s foreclosure, and see aerial views of it here.

If You’re Hooked on Tours of Unusual Houses:

• Toronto’s Littlest House
• Tumbleweed Tiny Houses: Living Small
• The Spite House in Alexandria, Virginia
  

Tagged as: ballroom, big, chandeliers, Decorating, foreclosure, gold, home theater, house, House Tour, ice cream parlor, Keith Barton, mansion, mountains, pool, Real Estate, rich, salon, staircase, Utah, Versailles