Where Does Paula Deen Live And How Big Is Her Home?
While Paula Deen might not be making the TV rounds quite as often these days as she used to, she's still plenty busy with book tours and her television series Positively Paula. Deen's culinary celebrity has helped her build quite the fortune with a net worth of $14 million. That's a far cry from the sort of money she was making as a bank teller before she started her own catering business in the late '80s (via Britannica).
With money in the bank, Deen purchased a lavish Savannah, Georgia home dubbed "Riverbend" for $3.75 million in 2006 (via Mansion Global). Deen may not have built the home, which was constructed in the '80s, but it's certainly been Paula-ized with her signature cookware and custom-made furnishings (via Curbed).
As for the look of the home, well, it's not exactly the Scarlett O'Hara plantation-style mansion that one might expect Deen to live in — but it's definitely grand.
Riverbend is a massive home on Savannah's Wilmington Island
The massive 14,500-square-foot home has an architectural French-Caribbean style design and sits on five and half acres of low country waterfront real estate. According to People, the home has a three-car garage, media room, aviary, and gourmet kitchen (obviously). That really just scratches the surface though, as there's also a pool with a pop-up movie theater, outdoor kitchen with four fridges and three grills, a croquet court, koi pond, and yes... a chicken coop.
Oh, there's also a 10,000-square-foot barn with three-bedroom accommodations and eight-car garage. Should you need even more lodging for guests, there are two guest cottages and a dock house.
"It's a grand house for entertaining if you like to have friends over," Deen told Open House TV (via YouTube). "I wanted when my friends walk in the door and the house feels like it's wrapping its arms around you and giving you a kiss and saying 'Hey ya'll, come on in.'"
Her home is currently for sale
As spectacular as Deen's home is, she's ready to pass it on to the next tenant and if you've got the cash — and you'll need a lot — it can be yours. According to Realtor, Deen first listed her home for sale for the price of $12.5 million. Even if Deen did pour a few million into upgrades, nearly 9 million more than she paid for it is a pretty steep price increase in barely a decade.
Such a high-selling price has apparently been a bit much for any prospective buyers, and the price has been slashed several times from $10 million to $8.75 million to the current price of $7.25 million (via Christie's International Real Estate).
When her home first hit the market, People reported that she was thinking about building a new home in Savannah and buying an apartment in New York City. Neither of those moves seemed to have happened yet, so she could be hanging out at Riverbend a while longer.