Betsy DeVos' lake house in Holland, MI.

[greatauntoftriplets]

At 22,000 SF, this is the largest house in Holland, MI.



Amway heir Dick and Betsy DeVos move into sprawling 22,000-square-foot mansion

HOLLAND -- Amway heir Dick DeVos and his wife, Betsy DeVos, moved into their new digs over Labor Day weekend.

For months, cars have slowed along South Shore Drive as gawkers have followed the construction of the DeVos home, the biggest house in Holland, if not Ottawa County.

"We are very excited with it," said Betsy DeVos, who grew up in Holland as the daughter of the late industrialist Edgar Prince. Her mother, Elsa Prince-Broekhuizen, owns a home a few doors down.

"As our family is continuing to grow, our hope is that it will be a gathering place for many generations," she said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/09/amway_heir_dick_and_betsy_devo.html

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. She actually has difficulty sleeping nights in that house, she is literally

kept awake nights figuring out how to DESTROY teachers who make less money in a year than it takes to power her house for a few months. This being one of many of her houses.

How that does not make people RAGE with anger, I dont know.

[Initech]

15. It makes me rage with anger!

These people live like kings and queens and they don't care who they trample over to achieve it, and nothing satisfies them. They just want more and more. They're addicted to wealth and power, and nothing is ever good enough. It's scary.

[Eliot Rosewater]

17. What scares me are the millions of idiots lining up to say

"yup, yup...take everything from us , yup , yup"

Makes a normal person crazy.

[Initech]

19. I know it's completely revolting.

I think of conservatism as a virus - it destroys everything it touches. And now it's metastasized into something that we can't control. We need some chemotherapy ASAP. Or something really bad is going to happen, whether it's a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or a civil / global war.

[smirkymonkey]

38. That is the most frustrating thing!

How stupid and masochistic can people be?

How is it that the most evil, miserable assholes in the world have such fortune shine upon them?

[sarcasmo]

20. No soul, these people worship money.

[Initech]

23. AM hate radio tricks people into voting against their best interests.

Thanks to those assholes - the Sean Hannitys, Ann Coulters, Limbaughs, and Savages of the world, people on the right have been trained to utterly despise us on the left despite that we're trying to help. And Trump is the product of 30 years of AM hate radio brainwashing manifesting itself. It just sucks.

[Ace Rothstein]

24. They are all temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

They all think they are going to magically become rich one day so they want taxes to stay low.

[Initech]

35. Bill Maher had a good new rule about that a couple of years ago.

He said something along the lines of the fact that we need to get rid of this "soon to have" mentality and focus on the things we do have. But republicans trick people year after year on this. And they get away with it. And he was 100% right on that. I know who were utterly destroyed in the 2008 crash - a lot of my parents' friends, and they still vote GOP! Is it Stockholm Syndrome?

[Maru Kitteh]

44. What blows my mind are some of the desperately poor - I've been in their homes

They rely on the government for every meager penny that trickles into the home.

They would be dead without government health care, they eat and sleep in a warm bed because of entitlements, and yet there they sit, glued to the radio as it blasts out the sounds of Rush, bloviating on the evils of big government, liberals and how entitlements must be slashed.

[Initech]

45. If we ever get back in power, we need our own Nuremberg trials.

It was only then that we knew what the real extent of the damage that the Nazi party did. If we don't have that here, it will only happen again.

[guillaumeb]

51. Very well said.

The lack of awareness is amazing.

But sometimes they justify it by saying that if it were not for (insert non-white group here) they would be doing great.

[Mariana]

62. It's really entrenched.

Remember Joe the (not a) Plumber? He sought out then Senator Obama, got in front of a TV camera and said he was "soon to have" his own business making a bunch of money and he was worried about taxes. Turned out it was bullshit, he was broke, up to his eyeballs in debt, not paying his bills on time. So what did the RWers do? Did they ridicule him for lying on TV like the idiot he was? Were they embarrassed to have a loser like that on their side? Hell no. The admired him. They considered him a hero.

How the hell do you reason with people who think like that?

[brush]

55. Makes me angry too. Why wasn't this photo blasted all over the internet? That would've...

angered many more people and riled up more protests.

A person living in a palace like that is so far removed from the world of public schools and should not be in charge of the Education Dept.

[Initech]

58. I'm showing that picture to the next deplorable who calls us out of touch elitists.

You can't get much more out of touch than a billionaire heiress who lives in a castle, and has never dealt with the public, or guy who lives in a solid gold building with his name on it.

[vlyons]

76. Correct-o

They worship the God of Money.

[Vinca]

2. But, hey. She's just an average person who will understand the needs of every child.

[crazylikafox]

3. Well, that's obscene

[riversedge]

4. a few more pics at link--guesthouse yaght etc

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. Thanks for pointing that out.

[niyad]

6. that isn't a hotel?

[BeyondGeography]

7. They wanted a 10-foot high fence

Town said uh-uh, 3 feet. Bet they re-apply; they're going to need it.

They do have ten toilets though.

[greatauntoftriplets]

9. I recall that. Maybe they'll be lots of protests now.

Not sure how likely that is since the area is heavily Republican.

I have cousins who live in the area and saw the house while it was under construction. It was a monster.

Seems like it needs more than 10 toilets, though.

[BeyondGeography]

11. The toilet-to-square-foot ratio is rather low, I guess

Only one per 2K-square-feet. Talk about your hardships.

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. That's comparable to a 2,000 SF single-family house with one bathroom.

Clearly she believes in the "hold it" theory of bathroom use.

[justhanginon]

52. They probably did not want to have the house

be considered ostentatious.

[Ilsa]

36. 10 toilets isn't enough for people as full of shit as they are. nt

[3catwoman3]

56. Oh, that is absolutely...

...brilliant! And probably true.

[jmg257]

8. Wo w- great looking house...and on a lake?? Pretty sweet.

[shenmue]

10. Larger than some schools

[wordpix]

13. and a lot better looking, too

[wordpix]

12. that would house 10 teachers' families

[mainer]

14. It only has 3 bedrooms, yet 10 toilets?

In a 22,000 sq ft house?

[herding cats]

22. What are they doing with all that other space?!

I mean, that's a lot of space there!

[greatauntoftriplets]

25. They must be large!

According to Wiki, she has four kids, probably grown, but still.

[LisaM]

41. That seems to be the trend.

Maybe there's a guest house or two.

[greatauntoftriplets]

47. There's a 6,000 SF guest house.

[riversedge]

50. Looks like a big guesthouse also--or boathouse two story-click on link for a few more pics

[jmowreader]

68. When you're as full of shit as the DeVoses and Princes are, lots of toilets are a necessity

[alarimer]

18. Scams really pay well.

Why was Amway never investigated for the Ponzi scheme it is? ALL of those people belong in prison.

[NCTraveler]

21. Grrrrr...... It's fucking beautiful.

It's not a hotel?

[rickford66]

26. Architectural and environmental nightmare. McMansion hell.

[Squinch]

53. Complete with the dreaded "Pringles Can of Shame" random turret.

[rickford66]

61. You've visited the McMansion site.

[Squinch]

69. Don't you love it? I love that the phrase "Pringles Can of Shame" has made it into

the parlance!

And there it is on little Betsy's house.

[rickford66]

71. I just had to go look at the latest stuff.

We know a couple who lusted after one of these and finally saw it for sale and bought it. I remember one quote about a roof. It was easier to burn the house down than to re-shingle it. Of course Betsy would have a place like this. What's the saying ? There's no there there. Also if she wasn't rich she would starve.

[Squinch]

72. But I guarantee she'll begrudge kids school lunches and a decent education.

Unless they ride to school with Jesus on a dinosaur.

It's going to be a tough few years.

[rickford66]

73. She has no empathy for those outside her social-economic-religious class.

I am an agnostic/atheist but I hope there's some punishment for her kind sometime somewhere.

[Freethinker65]

27. Nice house. Been through Holland, Michigan tho

I would not want to live there

[mahatmakanejeeves]

28. I'm sure it was based on something that had been in good taste, but it ended up as

the Trump tie of houses.

[octoberlib]

29. Architecturally, that's a really odd-looking house. Like different styles were all

mashed together. Kinda ugly. I love the stonework and big porch, though. And , DeVos is a horrible person.

[greatauntoftriplets]

32. It's definitely a mishmash of architectural styles.

Overdown, IMO.

[annabanana]

37. kind of , um, lumpy. . .n/t

[Locrian]

60. why is it that rich people have such tacky taste?

Her and that fugly mashup of what passes for a house, and trump with his russian hooker/pimp golden palace.

[MrScorpio]

75. It's typical of those huge lakefront mansions on Lake Michigan

The oligarchs of Republican Hell.

[wcmagumba]

30. McUgly to me...nm

[JDC]

31. I would guess we are looking at 300k worth of windows

stupid money personified

[moondust]

33. Worse than waste.

Heating and cooling a ton of space that seldom if ever is used creates excess demand that tends to needlessly drive up the cost of heating and cooling for everybody in the area.

[Thrill]

34. All those working class folks that voted for Trump

You really think this person gives a shit whether your child gets a quality public school education? lol

[onethatcares]

39. I wondeer

if they've vetted her lawnscape crew for work visas.

Seriously, that's a pos looking house. Look at it a while and you'll see the ugly sides of it. I bet the carpenters were cursing the entire time they worked there.

[skypilot]

40. Wow!!!

I had no idea that Betsy DeVos, the sister of a Blackwater exec, is also married to an Amway heir. Pretty fucking scary.

[kwassa]

42. This is what a pyramid scheme pays for, if you are at the top.

[LisaM]

43. It's way oversized for the lot, that's for sure.

It's like Bill Gates' monstrosity of a house. It's really awful looking and the people around him were inconvenienced for years while it was being built (and even now, when he hosts various gatherings like fundraisers). My only view of it has been from a boat on Lake Washington, but every picture I've seen makes it look ghastly.

Money doesn't buy taste!

[IcyPeas]

46. this is just their VACATION house according to article:

Their three-story vacation home sets a new standard for size and grandeur among the other million-dollar-plus mansions that line Lake Macatawa, a popular spot with access to Lake Michigan.

The stone and shingle house has 22,000 square feet of space. But if that's not enough room, there's a 6,200-square-foot guest house, plus a large infinity pool with a 700-square-foot pool house and three garages, according to city records.

[Azathoth]

48. Lol, all it needs is some balsa wood columns spray painted in gold to bring it up to her boss'

aesthetic standards. Talk about a waste of money.

I swear, at least the aristocracy of old were educated and cultured enough to sink their unearned billions into vanity projects that had a little bit of class.

[TexasBushwhacker]

49. Tore down a 12K sf 5 BR house to build this 22K monstrosity n/t

[Egnever]

54. I don't understand houses like that

I get wanting a house with some room but this is WTF teritory. You could go weeks without entering several rooms. I just don't understand the point. Home alone in a house like that would freak me the fuck out.

[Foo Fighter]

57. I dunno. It's not so bad.

That water, for example, looks like it would be a great place for gators.

I'm sure snakes would like it also. Lots and lots of snakes.

[Mariana]

63. It's too cold for gators.

And all the water snakes are harmless.

Shame.

[Foo Fighter]

66. Some dangerous reptiles must be able to survive there.

There's already at least one that we know of. If DeVos can survive in that environment, other reptiles should be able to as well.

[Mariana]

67. It's just the one, I think, and its close relatives.

Besides, what self respecting snake or gator would be seen within ten miles of that hideous house? Only a much lower, more primitive life form would live in a place like that. An extremophile.

[Foo Fighter]

70. Excellent point. nt.

[3catwoman3]

59. Houses like this, no matter how grand, are often...

...referred to as "cottages" if not lived in year round. Just a little extra thumbing of the nose to us 99.9 per centers.

[brush]

64. Yeah, that's just her lake house, not her main residence, or any of her other homes.

Last edited Thu Feb 9, 2017, 11:03 PM - Edit history (2)

If you saw her being grilled you know she isn't smart enough to have figured out how to make her billions.

She's a not-the-sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer plagiarist who was frequently at a lost to answer the senators' questions.

[3catwoman3]

65. She sure as hell is not.

I had a 6 yr old patient the other day who was learnedly discussing the definitions of transparent, translucent, and opaque.

I bet DeVos can't do that.

[BannonsLiver]

74. Hideous

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

77. I live in Michigan....

although on the other side. I live in S.E. Michigan, by Pontiac.

Five of my family are in education. They hate the DeVos family.

Six people I know were taken to task with Amway. One lost almost everything trying to make it work. They prey on people with little or no hope. It never works. The manual states most will not make money... Most will lose. Great way to do biz.

I have seen the house and when I did, I just wanted to commit....oh yea can't say.
But I enjoyed the fire on Lake Michigan that evening, sitting gazing at the flames dreaming it would spread.

I hope you get my drift...wood.

[greatauntoftriplets]

78. My Republican cousins who live in the area hate the DeVos family as well.

Also the Van Andels. I've been down that road many times (it leads to where my cousins live) and although there are many big houses, this sticks out like a sore thumb.

I bet I bet that all my relatives therel voted for the corned-beef dirigible.