14 DAY TRIAL // The latest celebrities to expand their homes by buying the house next door and then combining the two in one super-mansion are Madonna and Jamie Olivier. Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow and singer Chris Martin have also followed on their lead by expanding next door in order to create a superhouse, in their case counting no less than 33 rooms and being evaluated at £7 million, restorations not included, the Daily Mail informs.
In 2004, Martin bought the family’s current home from actress Kate Winslet for £2.5million, while the neighboring property came into their possession two years ago, for the hefty sum of £3.1million. The couple have just now decided to merge the two properties into a single one, having already started work on it, replacing windows and getting ready to tear down walls to turn the two houses into just one, the aforementioned publication says.
Luckily for Gwyneth, she did not encounter the same obstacles as her best friend Madonna, who had to cease all work on her newly acquired property because she did not get the permits to tear down the walls. “It will be a massive house. What they have already is a substantial family home, but to double and add a bit on will make it a real mansion. No one objected as they are not going to change the outside appearance of the property and the extension is on their land and a few other houses in the street have similar add-ons. Mind you, I wouldn’t want to have to pay the council tax on the new house – but I don’t suppose that will concern this particular couple.” a neighbor says for the Mail.
Paltrow, Martin and their two children have not been living in the London house since May, when they moved to the US for business reasons. Here too they have plenty of properties, including a house in the Hamptons, near New York. However, it is believed they see the London residence as the permanent one, since they mean to have the two children receive a British education, therefore are expected to move back in the moment construction and restoration of the mansion are complete.
“Pictures submitted with a planning application show the couple’s garden with a slide for daughter Apple, five, and son Moses, three. Plans show they intend to knock through the connecting walls to create eight rooms on the lower ground floor, six on the upper ground, five on the first floor and eight on the second floor. A two-storey extension at the side of the existing house includes a gym, changing room, three bedrooms and a bathroom.” the Mail writes of the stars’ plans of making the London house a genuine super-mansion.