Hamptons Couple Tears Down House Mid-Construction

Say you're halfway through building a new home when you realize -- oops! -- there's not enough room for a pool in the backyard!

What ever are you to do?

If you're one couple in the Hamptons, you tear the sucker down and start again from scratch.

Eric and Margaret Friedberg did just that when, in the middle of construction on their new home in Southampton Village on Long Island, they realized the house was too far from the curb, leaving no room for the all-important backyard pool, the New York Post reported.

"There was no backyard and no pool," one worker told the Post. "You've got to have the pool. This is why you measure twice and cut once."

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The new home was being built to replace the $2.478 million house that the Friedbergs bought in May 2011 and demolished. Apparently, the original three-bedroom, two-bathroom home built in 1997 wasn't up to snuff. So in true Hamptons fashion, they had the 1,674-square-foot home (with cathedral ceilings and heated backyard pool) demolished to make way for an upgraded pad.

About $150,000 worth of work had been done on the new home -- and the second floor was already taking shape -- when the Friedbergs noticed that the house wasn't situated where it was supposed to be.

Besides dismantling and removing the complete framing of the first floor and partial framing of the second, the Post reported, the 45-by-45-foot concrete foundation had to be smashed and carted away.

For all the hassle, the Friedbergs don't seem too upset.

"Mistakes happen" Margaret told the Post. "I love my architect and my builder. This was a surveyor's problem."

Read more about the botched construction job on NYPost.com.