LOCATION: Los Angeles (Valley Village), CA
PRICE: $1,250,000
SIZE: 3,017 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It took a little sorting out and a back up from the always in-the-know Lucy Spillerguts to figure out that a comfortable-looking if ho-hum ranch style residence located in the heart of the suburban Valley Village area of L.A.'s San Fernando area and currently listed at $1,250,000 is owned (if not occupied) by former Dawson's Creek heart throb James Van Der Beek.
Although Mister Van Der Beek, now in his mid-thirties with the blond, chisel-chinned good looks of Clark Kent (or maybe Prince Charming), has worked steadily in a slew of movies and television programs since 2003 when Dawson's Creek ended he didn't land another gig as a series regular until 2012 when he killed it for two seasons in a brutally self-skewering role as a preening and comically vain version of himself on the short-lived sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. He occasionally pops up on the long-running and award-winning but soon to be shuttered sitcom How I Met Your Mother and in May (2013) it was announced that a major network picked up the upcoming Friends-like sitcom Friends With Better Lives starring Kevin Connolly, Brooklyn Decker, and—you got it—Mister Van Der Beek. So, it seems, The Beek is back, at least as long as Friends With Better Lives stays afloat. Mazel tov and anyhoo...
Property records suggest Mister Van Der Beek and his ex-wife, actress Heather McComb, acquired the humble if not exactly inexpensive Valley Village abode in happier married days, in February 2006, for $1,260,000, a mite more than its current $1,250,000 price tag and a bit less than the original asking price of $1,295,000.
Current online listing materials show the 3,017 square foot single story California ranch residence was originally built in 1936, sits on a .21 acre mid-block lot in a respectable if ordinary neighborhood just off Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and has four bedrooms and three bathrooms.
The front door opens directly in to the white-walled formal living room where there are wood floors under foot, a vaulted exposed wood ceiling over head, a fireplace on one wall, and two sets of French doors on the other that expose the room to the covered entry porch where listing photos show an Old-Timey chain-hung porch swing.
The wide plank wood floors in the living room switch to slate tiles in the adjoining over-sized family room that's commodious enough to accommodate a t.v. lounge and a pool table and has direct access through wood-framed glass doors to the backyard entertainment and recreation areas. A breakfast bar is all that separates the dining area from the kitchen that appears dated and a mite tired despite the high-grade, commercial-style stainless steel appliances.
The private master suite has more vaulted ceilings and wood-framed glass doors that lead out to the backyard plus an attached bathroom with tumbled travertine type tile work, a jetted tub, a separate glass-enclosed stall shower, and an unexpected bamboo vanity cabinet topped by a pair of frosted glass vessel sinks.*
The back of the house wraps around two sides of a sun-baked flagstone dining and lounging terrace that steps down to a hedge-ringed flat patch of grass and classic, kidney-shaped swimming pool. Staging Lady in a Pink Toyota tucked a free-standing hammock in to the back corner of the property that would be a great place to read a book if you didn't have to look at the air conditioning contraption on the roof.
We're not quite sure where Mister Van Der Beek and his preggers-with-their-third-bambino second missus, Kimberly, currently reside but we do know it's not at the gated, hillside in the hills above Studio City that Mister Van Der Beek acquired in 2001 for $1,330,000 and sold off in June 2009 for $1,825,000.
*Your Mama is seeing enough of these too-trendy frosted vessels sinks lately—we also spotted them in Chris Colfer's Hollywood Hills house—that we feel compelled to create Rule #109 in Your Mama's Big Book of Decorating Does and Donts that reads, "Thou shalt not, under any circumstance or decorative compulsion, install frosted glass vessel sinks in any bathroom anywhere."
listing photos: The Agency
