I Want Dallas' Biggest Spec Home Ever Built

Not sure what I'd do with 18,000 square feet on one of Highland Park's most prestigious streets... but I could definitely survive in the wine cellar and have lots of company (it holds 5,000 bottles; ought to tide me over) but with six bedrooms, eight baths, formals and offices, libraries and billiards room, craft room, spa and work-out room, who needs a hotel? (Note to self: stock up on TP.)

I watched 3500 Beverly being built, and if I had a dollar for every person who called to tell me this was the future home of President George W. Bush, I could probably buy it myself. It was the basement - most Texas homes are built on pier-and-beam or pier-ed slabs and have no basements - that first stirred speculation. 3500 Beverly's basement walls are twelve inches thick 4500 psi water-proof concrete. The entire house was studded, insulated, and then an armor of more concrete (in this case, only eight inches thick) was poured from ground to gutter. The house is, in essence, a concrete fortress. The builder was hoping to provide for future remodeling ease: because of the concrete exterior, the home has few interior load-bearing walls which facilitates remodeling.