Vanderbilt inherited $10 million from his grandfather which is over $280,000,000 in today's dollars and that may not be enough to re-create Biltmore even if you could find extant Italian stone masons to carve all that limestone. As it was, it nearly bankrupted him. His widow sold 117,000 acres to the Federal Government which became the Pisgah National Forrest to help pay his debts.
My Victorian station cost over $200 in raw materials and that was completely in styrene. I'm planning on retailing a kit of the distillery and I'm working to bring the overall costs down a bit so it's affordable. I can see why B.T.S' entire sawmill complex will cost you over $3,000 to buy the kits.
