A $180 Million Lotto Winner Built His Dream Home and You Can Buy It for $26 Million

A California lottery winner took a small portion of his prize money to build the home he had always dreamed of having, and now it's for sale. Rick Knudsen, a former roofing company manager, told The Wall Street Journal he always felt lucky — he had once won $20,000 gambling — but he was able to make his and his children's real estate dreams come true once he scored $180 million in the lottery from a ticket he picked up at a 7-Eleven in 2014.

True story: Knudsen used to sit outside his Calimes, California home and gaze up at the mansion that was being built atop the nearby peak, overlooking the redwoods. One year later, he bought the home.

He also bought adjacent houses for his kids and built a mountain chalet for himself, acquiring a steakhouse, saloon, and buffalo ranch to incorporate into one 845-acre property, which he's just listed for $26 million.

"It was just bam, bam bam. Within three months I owned it all," he explained to WSJ.

Rick's dream can now be someone else's reality, for the right price.

According to the listing, views are far and wide from this vast property, and include unobstructed looks at Little San Gorgonio, Mount San Jacinto, San Gabriel Mountains, Salton Sea, and Catalina Island.

The ski chalet feel is big here, and you're about an hour's drive from actual slopes. The property also has a guest apartment, stocked fishing pond, and acres and acres of "boundless backcountry" where you'll see bears, deer, and other wildlife. You'll feed your new squad of buffalo (which currently end up on the dinner plate at the steakhouse) and other critters about $1,000 worth of produce like apples and carrots a month.

You might notice a bear motif around these parts. One greets you in the entry way; another in front of the saloon. 

Hope you have a big family. 

There's space for you and 16 of your friends to have movie marathons.

Here's a true family-sized master bedroom and epic place for slumber parties. ( Or really any kind of party... because this room is huge.)

You don't have to be a lotto winner to bid on this house — but it wouldn't hurt to be able to afford it.