"Ya don't say," the realtor sighed as he fidgeted with the zipper to close his yellow Gore-Tex jacket against the creeping chill. "Let's go on in and have a look," he continued, without looking her way. "I think you'll like this one."

The house-the fourth she had looked at today-was cavernous and cold even with the thermostats at 75. Palatial was the word that skipped to mind, a palace overlooking the lake. Like the other four FOR SALEs, it was a monument to visit, not a residence, not a place to reside. This one contained over 6,500 square feet, the smallest so far. "Tell me about it," she instructed. Maybe there was less than met the eye.

"Built five years ago. A guy and his wife. Valley people, I think. Could've been L.A. On the market two years now. Hardly used, as you can see."

She could see. Inside it was designer perfect. There was a trace of traffic, but not much wear. The kitchen could handle any whim. Two of the five bedrooms featured hot tubs beside picture windows featuring views of small, latticed enclosures. Every room had a mammoth, built-in TV. This palace, like the others today, was equipped with plenty of protection from boredom. The owners apparently didn't want to risk running out of things to do in the mountains. You see one swirling creek, mountainside, or vista, you've seen 'em all. Hit the POWER button.

She loved the Sierra deeply. Incongruities hurt. To her way of thinking the landscape was compromised when structures were out of proportion to their surroundings. Structures should be of the land, not on it (Frank Lloyd Wright). Excesses bruised the serenity of Lake Tahoe itself, somehow. She felt the surrounding peaks and creeks deserved respect rather than indifference. They had endured time...along with the firs, pines, and cypress trees still standing and soaring upward. "It's all a little depressing," she thought as they returned to his maroon Lexus.

It is easy to become possessive about a special place on the face of the earth. A person is lucky if he or she can come to know one or two in a lifetime. Tahoe was such a place to her. The basin, separating the mountains, was a unique combination of earth, water, and sky; and the Truckee Canyon still evoked memories of early miners and loggers pushing along the river. She knew that in recent years the region had been re-discovered as California and Nevada swelled with people. Kings Beach, Tahoe City, Truckee-they were all squirming with the influx, with no relief in sight.

She was familiar with the known, trophy-house life cycle. Such houses were usually conceived innocently enough during a whirlwind vacation visit to Tahoe, typically by car or private plane. If the weather was good, the vacationer(s)-she, he, or they-decided it would be fetching to own a piece of the scene. A frenetic search ensued for a house or property to buy, but property generally won out since one person's palace seldom fits the next person's fancy. Land in hand, an architect or developer, often from the down the hill, was engaged. Contractors, usually locals, eventually began work. And a year or so later a simple piece of Tahoe was converted for life.

The cycle continues. More often than not, within a few years of its unveiling, the trophy is FOR SALE. One of two things had happened. Either the house was found to be too big: "A smaller house would have been quite enough," is a common epitaph during cocktail conversations on the deck looking out over Big Blue. Or the house was under-used and, therefore, excess baggage to the owners. As John Updike put it in the Autumn 1998 issue of The American Scholar:
"...The essence of the superrich is absence. They're always demonstrating they can afford to be somewhere else." He goes on to say, "Don't let them in...."

It was almost 6:00 when she left him in the tilted parking lot beside his office. He watched her squeeze into her beige SUV and out onto the crowded highway. "Kinda spaced out," he thought. "She won't be back." It had been a hamburger day.

Copyright ©2005 Steven C. Brandt

For related feature stories, go to the tahoetopia.com archive on the Home Page and cllick Other Stories..