Celebrity spies and Florida real estate watchers have been on red alert since it was first reported last week that Tiger’s ex, Elin Nordegren, was demolishing the $12.2 million North Palm Beach mansion she bought last March. Most recently, she’s donated material from the tear down and planned an identical replacement.
WPTV reported that the home was officially torn down last week and that Nordegren donated an estimated $300,00 worth of of appliances, furniture and other household items to the Habitat for Humanity of Martin County.
Meanwhile, the home that she’s planning to build will appear nearly identical to the one she just tore down, according to TMZ. It will have nine bedrooms, two large living rooms, two kitchens, a large pool, a pool cabana, a detached guest house with three bedrooms and a wine cellar.
People reported that she decided to make the change because the mansion, built in 1920, wasn’t prepared to sustain the hurricanes that have come to typify late summers in North Palm Beach. “It wasn’t built to the South Florida wind-loading codes of today that were put in place because of hurricanes. We had an architect and a structural engineer out here and everyone agreed that it made more sense – structurally and economically – to tear it down and start over,” said Dan Reedy of Onshore Construction and Development which is overseeing the project. [WPTV], [TMZ] and [People]