I am not sure how one lives in such a home in 2013. The house where Downton Abbey is filmed originally boasted a staff of more than 100, far larger than the one seen on the show. Also, even the first season gave short shrift to the sheer number of balls, large dinners and parties that a house of this stature would host. These houses were quite full of people. Today a staff of that size is prohibitive even for most of the rich (a butler now earns six figures). Nor are the residents likely to be making full use of the rooms as they were intended; there is no need to be dressed in a separate room in the morning by a valet or ladies' maid, write in the library, change for lunch, go to another room later for tea, change for dinner, have the butler count the spoons in the butler's pantry, withdraw to the drawing room, send the servants down for supper in a separate hall, and on and on. People live in these houses today like they're in a suburban McMansion. They come and go at whatever hour, eat whenever, often alone, microwave a few snacks and watch TV. Yes, there are parties, but not as many as formerly, and additional staff comes in for that. So what are these houses for, exactly, once you get over being bludgeoned into admiring them? Oh, and the reno of this house left the ceiling looking quite cheap. Drywall with air vents from Home Depot? Please.

Ok, three of my favorite voices around here--Palimpsest, Ideefixe and Oakleyok--have pretty well covered all the bases, but just to recap... The three biggest causes of Decorating Remorse--other than watching TV decorating shows & wishing you had done something other than what you already did, I mean--are Being in too big a hurry & buying something just to have something (rather than have nothing), Worrying about inconsequential stylistic labels & categories, and Buying brand new pieces. I did without a sofa for five years rather than buy something merely to be have something to sit on, I don't worry about what style supposedly goes with what, and I never buy anything new. Well, almost never. The most expensive thing in my house is an early 19th century sofa, for which I forked over 850 of my hard-earned dollars, and the two-months-long diet of peanut-butter sandwiches that paid for it was worth every bite. The second-most-expensive thing I ever bought was also the only thing I've ever bought new: a gigantic 3-piece arched mirror set out of a popular catalog that looked very handsome in the photo but which turned out to be a piece--well, three pieces--of junk, which I should have predicted, since, Hello!, it was in a popular catalog. All I can say is I must have been on Nyquil that day. Anyway, I seldom make mistakes, but when I do, I don't brood & beat myself up over them, so I hauled them down to the service entrance lobby of my building and in a few hours, they were gone. The sofa I'll have forever.

Yes, it's the disconnect between the exterior and interior that is so jarring. The views are to die for! It's interesting to know more of the house's story. Sadly, the remodel looks like an absurdly expensive folly of some super-rich folks. Especially that they, apparently, never moved in. With those $$$ they could try to create an interior more fitting such a beautiful Beaux Arts mansion. Although the modernist interior is nice in its own way, the disconnect seems to signal the owners' lack of desire to honor the milieu. They just pushed on with whatever suited their fancy. If there were no protective restrictions on the exterior, the shell would probably be destroyed or altered beyond recognition, too.

Oh. Well, in that case Bumblebeez, you'll have to sell them all and hope that DC meant white truffles and Beluga. :) Of course, the Birkin was styled after a bag that a lady was carrying on a plane. It's an expensive knock off. :) My mother had one of the original kind, or a cheaper knock off of that.... :) Special requirement foods, like kosher or organic or both, which are for philosophy rather than need, are expensive, but they're another story. It's an overall choice to spend a larger portion of one's wherewithal to get a specific kind of groceries that fit one's way of life. While my university made me learn to hate broccoli (I've gotten over it and can eat it, but won't buy it for myself) because there was a bumper crop and we had horse broccoli 3-4 times per week because it was cheap, a lot of universities now are following student insistence on sustainable agriculture and grown within 100 miles. It's expensive, though they save some costs by going right to the farmer, but they do manage to stick to budgets while feeding the young people according to their philosophy. Some have few clothes and many second hand in order to pay for their food philosophies. That's all about way of life, rather than indulgence of the buy oneself a treat variety.