Building a luxury home is expensive enough in more urban parts of the country, but when building off the beaten path, a whole new host of challenges arises. For example, many areas people are looking to build their wilderness retreats do not even have the most basic infrastructure that most people take for granted, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Depending just how deep into the wilderness one is looking to build, live-in construction crews and helicopters or barges to deliver equipment, cement, and large appliances are required, and the costs can add up quickly.
For example, Mark Fertitta, the owner of a real-estate and property-management company in Beaumont, Texas, spent $8 million on a ranch in Texas Hill County and spent another $3 million to build 60 miles of road, create three large lakes, and construct 14 miles of fence for his $300,000 herd of whitetail deer. Additionally, 200 yards of ditches for underground power lines have been dug, new wells have been drilled, and a 10,000-square-foot barn and caretaker’s house has been constructed. What hasn’t been constructed yet, is the actual house, a 7,500-square-foot structure that will overlook one of the new lakes.
“Eight million dollars, that just brings you to the party,” Fertitta said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It costs money to stay.”
