The opening of “Versailles, the Would-Be Biggest House in America,” Susan Berfield’s stomach-turning yet amusing Businessweek account of David and Jackie Siegel’s attempt to realize their most ostentatious fantasies, to build a fun-house mirror version of the American Dream:

“‘Our house is like a convention center compared to the other houses here,’ says David Siegel as he drives through The Reserve at Lake Butler Sound, a gated community in Orlando. The other houses here are not small: They average 10,000 square feet. But his home will be nine times as large. Siegel stops at the end of Kirkstone Lane, pulls into his driveway, and looks around. ‘Next door is a 12,000-square-foot house. That could be my maid’s quarters one day,’ he says lightly. Then he catches himself and adds, ‘No, I shouldn’t say that, it sounds like an insult.’

David and Jackie Siegel’s dream house sits on 10 acres of lakefront property. Built on a custom-made hill, it occupies one full acre and, when finished, will be the largest home in the country. David, the founder and chief executive officer of the biggest private time-share company in the world, Westgate Resorts, designed it. He and Jackie named it Versailles.”

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Lauren Greenfield’s documentary about the building of Versailles: