Buy Marx’s Manse for $18 Mil

Richard Marx, soft rock crooner of the early ’90s, has listed his palatial Chicaco-area mansion for a cool $18 million. Name not ringing a bell? I’ll bet that, somewhere buried in the recesses of your memory, you remember the Top 40 ballads “Right Here Waiting For You” and “Now and Forever.” Luckily for you, you can’t hear me currently wailing the former over on this side of the computer screen. It’s pretty terrible.

With its dramatic round motor court, this home is pretty freakin’ sweet. Just like a 90s power ballad.

But back to the real estate. Marx’s Lake Bluff pad boasts seven bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, and NINETEEN freakin’ fireplaces. Designed in Georgian style by star architect David Adler, the home definitely resembles a little palace. Accordingly, it’s decked out with all the trappings of luxury: lakefront views, a theater room, and a recording studio that accounts for 8,000 square feet of the home’s (ridiculous) 30,000 total square feet. Yowza! To top it all off, the home is set on five acres. Some people really do have it all.

Pictures show an elegant, tastefully-opulent nest fitted out with graceful arched doorways, coffered walls with wainscoting, detailed molding, a dramatically-curved staircase, a wood-paneled study, and a kitchen that is simultaneously homey and chef-quality. Parquet floors shine, chandeliers drip crystal, and the windows soar from floor to ceiling with lavish draperies. There really are just fireplaces everywhere. There’s a finished basement, and, outside, terraced steps down to the beach. All in all, it looks totally like a place where one might expect a king or queen to rest their pampered head.

Marx and his wife bought the home in 1997. No word on why they’re selling, but it’s definitely not because of space issues! It’s pretty cold in Chicago at this time of year, but as long as the new owners bring plenty of kindling, I somehow doubt they’ll have trouble staying warm.