While I'm all for living small and beautifully, sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me, and I wonder what it would be like to live large — really, really large. In reality I have no interest in living in a house much larger than 1,800 square feet. It's just too much upkeep for me, not to mention the environmental cost of living in a big house. Still, when I saw photos of an Upper East Side mansion on the market for $75 million, my interest was piqued. What exactly does this exorbitant amount of money buy?

To find out, read more.

Turns out, it buys you a lot. Seven floors, counting two basements, comprise approximately 21,000 square feet of this massive mansion.

The Sothebeys listing reads:

This grand and elegant neo-Italian Renaissance mansion is exceptionally wide (45 feet) and one of the largest and most important townhouses in New York. Commissioned in 1922 by Julius Forstmann, a prominent German merchant, the house was designed by C.P.H. Gilbert, the renowned architect who created majestic mansions for the leading families of the city. Behind a stately and distinguished limestone façade are five floors with an additional garden level and a full sub-basement comprising a total of approximately 21,000 square feet. The dramatic entrance foyer leads to a magnificent reception hall and grand-scaled rooms which feature many superb original details, including a spectacular sweeping marble staircase, an enormous skylight, marble fireplace surrounds, hand-carved moldings, and soaring high ceilings. This extraordinary townhouse offers the rare opportunity to own a Manhattan landmark with the versatility of luxury residential or trophy commercial use.

Interested in reading more about the history of this house and its neighborhood? Check out this New York Times article. Who can you imagine living in a house of this size (maybe the Jolie-Pitt brood)? What else do you think it could be used for?