Couple Tears Down $4.2 Million Manse for a Better View

When is a $19 million 11,200-square-foot mansion with a "resort-style health club," a 60-foot pool and 5,000 square feet of stone terraces not enough? When the view is partially obstructed by the $4.2 million mansion next door.

The solution? Tear down the house next door.

That's what Clark and Sharon Winslow of Belvedere, Calif., did. They bought the home next door to their sprawling estate at a foreclosure auction and started demolition on the property a few weeks ago, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The mansion, which sold for $7 million in 2004, was repossessed by the Bank of America when the owners fell behind on their mortgage and fled the home. Once demolition is complete, the Winslows plan to use the new open space for gardening.

%Gallery-159161%
The house was about 100 years old, but it was not found to have any historical significance.

"The house was pretty beat up anyway," Olivia Hsu of Decker Bullock Sotheby's International Realty told the Marin Independent Journal. "The people hadn't lived there in the last two years."

In fact, neighbors welcomed the teardown. As neighbor Roger Snow told NBC Bay Area, "The view is really nice now!"

View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.

See more demolition stories on AOL Real Estate:
Bush Joins Tear-Down Brigade
Tyler Perry Buys $40M Atlanta Mansion as $7.6M Teardown

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Find homes for rent in your area.

Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.