House of the Day: The Awesome Ski House of Jon Huntsman's Billionaire Father

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, January 23, 2012, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Park City, Utah
Price: $49,500,000
The Skinny: Jon Huntsman, the Utah governor turned ambassador to China turned an almost presidential candidate, is—apologies to Creedence—a fortunate son. His father, businessman Jon Huntsman, Sr. is a billionaire and profoundly generous philanthropist who has given more than a billion dollars in donations over his lifetime. So when Jon Sr. invites Jon Jr. to go skiing for the weekend, it's no surprise they spend that time in a massive mansion in one of America's premier winter destinations. Located on a 60-acre bluff overlooking downtown Park City, the 20,000-square-foot spread includes 12 bedrooms, 16 baths, an indoor swimming pool, an utterly massive detached garage, a game room, and a gym, along with cavernous entertaining spaces. The ultimate in Park City living, just minutes from Deer Valley Mountain Resort, is listed for $49.5M.
· 5000 Royal St [Realtor.com]

5000 Royal Street, Park City, UT

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Parenting Handbook: Father Hand-Paints Super Mario Bros. Mural in Son's Bedroom

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, February 9, 2011, by Sarah

Anyone accepting nominations for parents of the year? Because this guy deserves it. On a whim, a Tennessee man named Casey Fleser—a self-professed "software developer, hobby collector, family man, and all around good guy—decided to decorate his sons' room in a Super Mario Bros. theme. "I didn’t really think about it," he explains, "except that it would be cool." Well, sometimes cool equals expensive, and Fleser came face to face with a set of decals that would help make the coolness happen—for $1,100.

The aim was to recreate World 1-1, the video game's uber-recognizable first level:

"I worked it out so each pixel would work out to 1/4? square and my scene would be 232 (58?) pixels tall by about 2060 pixels wide (515?). Since the vast majority of it was sky, it surely wouldn’t be that much work, right?

So we got to work and quickly had our three background color painted: black on the bottom, an orangeish stripe along the middle that would be the ground, and the blue sky above. The next day we’d pencil in a grid and start painting pixels."

Later, Fleser reflected on the process. "Now if I can just avoid blurting out any more ridiculous ideas," he writes.

· This Year's Stupid Idea [SGnTN via Boing Boing]

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