You can buy hundreds of items from inside Fort Lauderdale’s White House. Here’s how

Imagine tearing down The White House and putting its contents up for auction.

In Fort Lauderdale, you can do that.

On Saturday, the owners of La Maison Blanche — you got it, the White House — a 1930s neoclassical estate with a stately white portico and towering columns beckoning to boaters on the Intracoastal from a 1-acre plot of land, hoped to begin emptying the mansion of its contents if all goes to plan. In a couple weeks, the mansion will face the wrecking ball and a 20,000-square-foot modernist home with a waterfall and 12 bedrooms will eventually rise in its place.

But first, an auction of its contents at 1818 SE 10th St. in Fort Lauderdale, hosted by Auctions4America, that started at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The checkout schedule will continue Sunday, then Tuesday, Dec. 26 through Saturday Dec. 30, and by appointment. Movers and carpenters will be on site to help bidders cart away their purchases (for a fee, of course) after winning bids are processed.

What’s up for auction?

The La Maison Blanche auction, which you can also participate in online on Auctions4America.com, offers hundreds of items from small housewares to signed artwork, including:

▪ A full bathroom and full kitchen along with their accouterments like gas stoves, a Subzero refrigerator, Hobart dishwasher, pot rack, granite bar top, kitchen cabinets, a Kohler commode and vanity.

▪ Chandeliers, ornate gold-tone mirrors, a pair of gold medal sconces and Egyptian rug.

▪ Impact windows and doors.

▪ A solid wood bar imported from Italy.

▪ A complete sound system, including a Sony multichannel receiver, blu-ray player, Sonance speakers and subwoofer.

▪ Pavers from the driveway.

▪ Crown molding.

▪ Leather recliners, chairs, end tables.

▪ Wood doors.

Bidding customers

Kaysia Earley, founding attorney at Plantation’s Earley Law Firm, remembers a graduation party aboard a yacht on the waterway at the La Maison Blanche after she earned her degree from St. Thomas University School of Law. “I saw this house and it was absolutely beautiful,” Earley said.

That’s why, when she saw a news report about the auction at Fort Lauderdale’s “White House,” she raced over on Saturday and bested a $50 opening bid on a framed world map for her home office. She also bid on a number of appliances including kitchenware to fill her second home in Jamaica, along with a home theater system.

“I came for two reasons. One, its historic. It’s a beautiful landmark. And two, its beautiful pieces,” she said. Earley also called her friend, registered nurse Andrea Service, founder of Ahava Home Nursing Registry in Aventura, to let her know about the auction.

Speaking to the Miami Herald by phone, Earley and Service step out onto the yard and Earley dropped her voice like a master poker player so as not to tip her hand to the other bidders milling about the mansion-turned-auction-house.

“I have a home office and I really liked that world map,” Earley said. “It’s inspirational to me and it reminds me to not only work but to travel. That piece will serve as a reminder to not live to work but to live to enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

The price of such inspiration: a $250 winning bid.

“The moment Kaysia sent me the information I looked at the place and some of the furniture and said, ‘Wow, that’s my taste.’ So I was here within 15 minutes,” Service said as she motioned to head back inside the house to bid on a piece of furniture that caught her eye. “That centerpiece table. I’m looking at that. Hopefully no one has that as of yet.”

Why is the mansion coming down?

Scott Grasso of Auctions4America figured the house and its waterfront setting added allure to the auction. About 100 people turned out by mid-afternoon Saturday, he said.

“When people walk through this house they’re going to be, like, ‘I can’t believe it!’ It was built in the 1930s. ‘I can’t believe they’re going to take this house down.’ But you can’t stop progress, bro,” Grasso said in an interview, noting that the redeveloped property is estimated at a value of $120 million. “There’s gonna be a waterfall from a second story down to the first. So even though this house is going down, what’s going up is going to be monumental.”

The owners bought the property as an investment for about $26 to $29 million, Grasso said.

“They saw the value of properties going up and listen, from $30 million to $120 million that’s quite a jump. Nobody would pay $20 million for the house that’s there now even though it’s a mansion and all that kind of stuff, it’s not today’s mansion. It’s mansions from ‘Gone With the Wind.’ When you go onto this giant staircase you’re like ‘Holy cow! Where is she? I was ready for her to come down from the stairs.’”

The pre-construction, three-story, renamed La Maison Blanche Reimagined mansion to come in the Rio Vista neighborhood after the original house’s contents are removed and it’s demolished, was designed by architect Rene Gonzalez, according to listing agent Elmes Group.

The new property for sale will have the aforementioned waterfall, 12 bedrooms, 13 full bathrooms, a marina-grade dock for a yacht up to 250 feet, and a third-floor primary suite with a private balcony and deck, pool and garden.