air castle 

Enormous dreams that will never come to fruition.

Did you hear all the things Bob is going to do this summer? Yeah I heard him, but I think he is just building a bunch of air castles.

air castle by Camel'sTowing January 17, 2015

"castle in the air" vacation cottage 

Or "castle in the air" hunting camp --- same diff. Refers to a much-hyped "back to nature" dwelling that turns out to be just a crude cramped tumble-down shack with no modern facilities.

Disgusted office-worker who was greatly in need of a little good ol'-fashioned R&R: That no-good shyster of a realtor gave me a glowing song-and-dance description of this backwoods cabin on the lake --- described it as a "castle in the air" vacation cottage, and claimed it had "electric lights, running water, and stained-glass windows". Turned out to merely be a shabby musty hovel hardly bigger than an outhouse, with absolutely no amenities whatsoever --- the "electric lights" turned out to be just a couple of small LED battery-lamps hanging from the ceiling (which I ended up having to buy fresh batteries for, by the way!), and the "running water" translated into merely a plastic bucket that you would pick up and "run" down to the lake, fill the pail with water (what am I --- Jack and Jill?!), and then "run" back up to the cabin again! And come to find out that the "stained glass" in the windows was nothing more than just the disgusting filmy MOLD-STAINS on the panes from the damp closed-up-for-months interior of the cabin! What a rip-off!

"castle in the air" vacation cottage by QuacksO September 26, 2018