Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Robert Van Winkle, better known as rapper Vanilla Ice, is filming a home makeover series for the DIY Network. (Allen Eyestone/The Palm Beach Post)
Photos: Vanilla Ice rehabs Wellington house
“Come on in! Want some pizza?”
The friendly man in the sharp suit inviting you to stay for a slice seems like a normal married father hosting a gleefully busy gathering of friends and family at a well-appointed Wellington home.
He also looks a lot like Vanilla Ice, famous and infamous early ’90s rapper, motor sport enthusiast, hard-core rocker and surreal reality show hell raiser.
So what’s a rap icon doing in this refined setting, shaking the mayor’s hand and cutting an official-looking red ribbon with those really big ribbon-cutting scissors?
Well, for starters, he’s making a TV show. And enjoying his hobby of rehabbing houses. And, maybe, saving a neighborhood. So, yeah, he’s kinda busy.
“And later,” says Rob Van Winkle, “I’m gonna jump a car through a ring of fire!”
Clearly, some habits survive even the fanciest of suits, which is probably why Van Winkle, 42, was a keen choice for a show on the DIY Nework. Slated for Oct. 14, The Vanilla Ice Project follows Van Winkle and a crew of friends and home improvement professionals as they renovate a 7,000-square-foot house in the Versailles community, one that had been “trashed” by its previous owner, he says.
“Everything was missing, from the floor to the ceiling. They took everything – the crown molding, the flooring – yes, even the kitchen sink!” he says. “It was depressing to see a fairly new house be ravaged But I love Palm Beach County. This is my area.”
Of course, this now- sparkling six-bedroom, five-bathroom home isn’t the only one in Versailles with a troubled history. The community, whose huge structures once sold in the multiple millions, was the subject of a very public scandal involving mortgage fraud and rampant flipping to collect money for houses the flippers should never have qualified for in the first place. Versailles needed a hero.
It needed Vanilla Ice.
Van Winkle, who lives in another Versailles home with his family, was referred to the house by Realtor Steve Bate, who’d been keeping his eye out for a property for him. Once priced at more than $2.5 million, it was bought by Van Winkle for about $400,000 and cost about $300,000 to renovate.
Van Winkle’s hoping to get somewhere in the six figures for it, selling it to a nice family that will take care of it and love Versailles as much as he and his family do.
“This lets people know that we care about the community,” says Van Winkle’s wife, Laura. “A lot of people bought in here to make money, until the market fell out. I think it’s coming back.”
Joe Basile of JFB Construction in Lantana says the project took about 11 weeks, beginning in April. “When I saw it, I knew we had a lot of work to do,” he says, because the property had basically been stripped to the drywall.
Van Winkle and friends are rehabbing a home in the gated Versailles community in Wellington. (Allen Eyestone/The Palm Beach Post)
Wes Kain, a friend and one of the show’s cast members, swears that on the show, “it’s not just Rob driving over here once a day. You’re going to see him actually doing the work.”
That work, of course, provides some of the drama and hijinks for the show, although Van Winkle admits that some of the difficulties were exaggerated for dramatic effect – “You can’t just say ‘Everything was easy to fix! Thanks!’ ” he says.
The hardest part of the project was the home theater, which resides in a 300-square-foot nook on the second floor that had been drywalled over by the previous owner. It didn’t have a load-bearing wall, so it basically had to be built over as a real room before the home theater equipment could go in — “It was a major, major job. We put so much heart and soul into that. It was very gratifying,” he says.
And the powers that be in Wellington hope that it’s gratifying for the village, as well.
“I support anyone willing to put their money into a negative situation and make it a positive,” says Capt. Jay Hart, commander of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office District 8, which includes Wellington. “Our community needs this. There’s a possibility that if this catches on with people, only good can come of this.”
Wellington Mayor Darrell Bowen agrees. “Whenever you have a blighted house on a block, it affects everybody, from how it looks, to the part of the budget that it takes to secure it,” he says. “This is a good thing.”
If this all seems a little surreal, Van Winkle gets it, because it’s kind of that way for him, too. His initial stardom, he says, was “a weekend that lasted for a few years,” which made a star out of a young kid with hip-hop aspirations and a marketable edge as a white rapper who could break into the “mainstream” (read: white) record-buying market.
“When huge success comes down, you crash if you don’t have a purpose,” says Van Winkle, whose website features a first-person account of how disenchantment with his image as a “puppet” and a “novelty act” led him to attempt suicide with cocaine, Ecstasy and “anything I could get my hands on.”
He survived that suicide attempt, and a career downturn, getting married and staying in the public eye, including an incarnation as a hard-core rapper and a cast member on VH1′s The Surreal Life. During that time, as he rebuilt his career and built a family, he got into rehabbing and flipping homes.
A Texas native who grew up in South Florida, Van Winkle lived for years in Miami, including the tony Star Island, where “I lived next door to Don Johnson and Gloria Estefan. At 12 in the morning, all you’d hear is ‘boom boom boom,’ ” he says, imitating bass stereo noises. “There would be tourist boats coming by with people waving, going ‘Hi, Vanilla Ice!’ “
Now a married father of two, Van Winkle moved his family north, first to Stuart (you might remember the 2004 episode where their pet goat and wallaroo escaped briefly) and now to Wellington, “which is a better family area. It’s fresh, clean, new — really a good family environment. We’ve got a lot of good friends here from Motocross — and the mall is awesome.”
Although he’s now a family guy, it’s not all mall outings and home renovations with Vanilla Ice. He’s promoting his new album WTF, in which the letters stand for “Wisdom, Tenacity and Focus,” across the globe, recently performing at England’s Glastonbury Festival and in Portugal, and being featured in the PlayStation 2 “Sony Singstar” game. He says he still does about 100 shows a year.
Now, “I have a purpose, with my family. I’m surviving and doing good,” he says. “I like to jackass around sometimes, but I’m a good guy. I still like to have fun.”
And lest you think that the suit and the mayor and the big scissors have taken the chill out of Vanilla Ice, there’s still the matter of that car-jumping thing.
“Yeah,” he says excitedly, leaning on the sleeves of his fancy suit. “Wanna come?”
When you pay him, you can call him Vanilla Ice. When you don’t pay him, he frowns upon the name and it must be Ron Van spanky my monkey. HE IS HARDLY THE HERO AT VERSAILLES but of course he will take all the credit for turning Versailles around. HE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM- HE DOESN’T PAY HIS HOA’S. Is this “celebrity” going to give the house to a deprived family? NO WAY. He is out to make all the money possible from everyone involved and could care less what thehome sells for. He utlizes the schmoes at the PBPost for free publicity. Although I applaud his efforts, we all know that he is not doing this to make Wellington a better place.
The Post must be jealous or something of Versailles. All they do is bash it but has anyone been in there? Vanilla right- It’s beautiful. Yes it was no exception to the bubble and fraud and savages but we are all waiting for the FBI to get the builder and related parties and it is only a matter of time.
Dumbo (that name says it all) Dumbo is the DUMBO here. Duh, RVW is trying to make a buck, so what? He cleaned up a house that a bunch of DUMBOS trashed, and that doesn’t come free or even cheap! Shouldn’t RVW be entitled to recover his costs and profit? Anyone else that did the work would be entitled to do so. Additionally, from what I can tell, RVW is NOT taking “credit” for turning the community around! He is taking credit for turning the house around. And why in God’s name would he just hand over a house to a deprived family, too many people that are simply handed things that they have not earned don’t take care enough to treat said item with respect anyway. Way to go DUMBO…another uninformed whack.
Leave the guy alone, he is trying to make a buck. I say kudos to Vanilla for stepping up, and taking on the work. Hope he makes millions.
Yea ok know it all KL tell me how much Rob put up for that house? Do you think he cares what that home sells for – no he doesn’t BECAUSE HE DOES NOT OWN IT! He is merely the face of the project and is profiting without risk. Sounds like you are the uninformed Dumbo
All PB Post every does is copy and paste from associated press or write Vanilla ice articles. So lame.
Wow. Driving a car through a ring of fire! Cool! Whats next? Juggling bowling pins while on a unicycle? You are great Rob don’t let anyone tell you differently. Watch out Bob Villa here comes the Ice clown and his load bearing walls.
You truly are Versailles hero. Now only 50 more abadoned homes to go! Go get em Winky!!!
julie i guess you didnt see the video, there wasnt a ring of fire and the car just went off the side of the pond.
I know one thing about Vanilla, he is a VERY STINGY tipper. He calls for local food deliveries at his home and you’re lucky to get a couple of bucks out of him!
He’s got $700,000 wrapped up in the home. I hope he at least breaks even on the sale. May take another year or more though with the depressed market and falling prices. Plus the scum County Commissioners seriously raised the millage rate on property taxes, making it even harder to afford a home purchase.
Former Star or No Star; Money or No Money: why is it in any situation the negative comments and the put down of one human being to another are the main focal point. If a person chooses to use their fame, their money or just there “positive” influence to take something bad and turn it to good, should we really point at their faults? Has anyone passed by a mirror lately and looked at their own true reflection? Instead of continually ripping one another away in our country, maybe we should put our aggression and focus on the positive and help one another, Lord knows, other countries are sure helping themselves to ours. So the next time you contemplate pulling someone apart for trying to do something positive at any level, try re-focusing your own negativity to something positive, no matter how big or small and make some type of difference in you’re life or someone else’s. To RVW, keep doing what your doing, maybe one of the negative posters will actually get it and pay it forward! God Bless!
Michele, yours is the first intelligent post on here. You are SO right. Quit tearing down and start building up, people.
Christine, yours is the second most intelligent post – thank you! I am tired of such a cynical world.
First off….why would someone pollute their own county by putting a car in a small pond in a cancer sensitive area? Didn’t Travis Pastrana get fined for jumping a dirt bike into the San Fran Bay a few years back ??? Ft Pierce denied the permits for this stunt, so he does it in a secret location in Lox Groves without permits and promotes it for his own gain! NICE GUY !! He owns property out there, why didn’t he use his own land?
This “family” man has the biggest deadbeat dad “working” for him….his buddy gave up his job to be a cast memember and barely supports his kid but is able to donate his time to this project to make RVW money and look like a hero !! HYPOCRITES !! they are all self absorbed and don’t care about the county, the community, etc….it all boils down to personal gain at someone elses expense.
Vanilla Ice is NOT a rap icon. Jam Master Jay, Biggie and Pac are rap icons. Snoop, Em and Jigga are rap icons. Vanilla Ice is just a blip on the history of hip-hop radar. He may turn out to be a DIY icon though.
Wow! I am constantly amazed how people today still feel the need to tare down others dreams and aspirations. I love the comment that “d man” made about a cancer sensitive area. That is the most uninformed comment I’ve heard since our beloved ex-president claimed there are WMD’s in Iraq. First of all if your so worried about pollution, why don’t you stop wasting electricity by turning of your computer and the rest of your electrically dependant appliances. It require more pollutants than you can imagine just to manufacture, construct and power that computer you are using to spread your ill informed comments. I bet you drive a car too. Dumb ass!
RVW never said he was out to save the world one house at a time. He’s just providing entertainment for those of us that don’t have the balls to take a chance in life. I give this guy full credit for all of his past accomplishment. Yea he’s made some mistakes, but I’ve never seen him hanging from a cross so I guess he can’t be perfect. Oh and where the hell does it say that celebrities have to hand out huge tips to pizza delivery people?
I do beg to differ when I hear the comment that “he’s just a regular guy”, sorry but that’s just not true. He is creative and inventive and I wish him the greatest of success with this chapter in his life.
Word to ya motha!
Talk about not tareing people down and then turn around and call someone a dumb ass way to drive your point across DUMB ASS here an idea why don’t you try getting off your knees and wiping off your chin or do you have gain with this punk wanna-be Word to ya motha, F**KER
Michelle & PHD,
Thank you, because of posts like yours I believe that there are still good people in this world. Go RVW! glad to see you are doing something positive for yourself & your community. I hope you triple your investment!
Who is the interior designer going to be?
Rob is simply a handsome young man who wanted to become a rap star. I wish someone in the film industry had recognized his drive and ambition before he went overboard with the tattoos. I can think of many sitcoms, soap operas and films that could have illuminated his natural ability to act. It very difficult for young men who do not have positive role models to succeed. I am very proud that he continues to strive for success.
Hi, I like your article. I wish everyone would pay such attention to their post as you do. I came acros your weblog on yahoo when browsing for a compartment. I will arrive back for your blog. I’m sorry for my poor englisch, i am in the netherlands. Best regards in the netherlands!