Thursday 31 October 2013

Jared Followill Lists Nashville Bachelor Pad

SELLER: Jared Followill
LOCATION: Nashville, TN
PRICE: $3,500,000
SIZE: 8,050 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Back in late 2009 Your Mama discussed with the children Grammy-winning Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill's $1,825,000 purchase of a modern-minded and newly constructed bachelor pad mansion in the leafy and prosperous Green Hills area of Nashville, TN.

Fast forward to last fall (2012) and the 25-year old platinum selling rock star hitched his love wagon to a slightly younger brown haired gal named Martha Patterson and, as rich and/or famous folk often do in the wake of marriage, divorce and/or a new baby, the newly-wedded couple hoisted Mister Followill's former bachelor pad on the market with an asking price of $3,500,000.*

Current listing details show the vaguely chalet-like and slightly cathedral-esque, three-story residence, completed in 2009, sits on just over an acre of hillside land with five bedrooms and five full and two half bathrooms in 8,050 square feet of fairly airy interior space.** The ceilings throughout much of the mansion appear to be nicely high and the wood floors in much of the house are graphically striated, wide plank, high-gloss, and Goddamn gorgeous. Large expanses and, in some cases, entire walls of windows suck up postcard worthy tree top, rolling mountain, and big sky views.

A compact entry opens into a spacious (and sparely furnished) combination formal living/dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows and a raised firebox with chatoyant stainless still surround. Say what y'all may but, even though we find the over-sized square mirror in the dining area appallingly pedestrian and the multi-candle centerpiece on the table wholly unnecessary, Your Mama thinks the George Nelson bubble light fixture and the Gaudi-ish dining room table and chairs are a exceptionally taut and rather inspired pair since—if you look closely—they speak the same language, as do the trio of sinuous electric guitars hung on the wall as art. Anyhoodles...

The sizable center island kitchen, outfitted with top-quality finishes and equipped with high-grade appliances, adjoins a family room where a group of caramel-colored tufted leather seating is arranged for optimal viewing of the flat-screen television that's mounted over another raised fireplace with another one of those chatoyant (and ever-so-contemporary) stainless steel surrounds.

The formal living/dining room and the family room both have long banks of glass doors that slide open to a kind of indoor porch with grey tile floors, high ceilings, and an entire wall of wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows. French doors on either side of a stone fireplace—one not surprisingly surmounted by a flat-screen boob-toob—open to a small, trellised terrace with a big view.

We're not sure where each of the five bedrooms are located but it seems clear from listing photos that in addition to whatever bedrooms may (or may not) be up there, the mansion's uppermost floor offers a central common space where Mister Followill has a cache of musical instruments, including a complete and probably loud drum set. A few steps up from the music room, a crow's nest lounge has more of those verdant, wrap round views of the green hills of Green Hills.

The finished area of lowest living level includes a number of recreation and amusement spaces such as a concrete-floored fitness room, a home theater with built-in wet bar/candy counter, and a temperature controlled walk-in wine cellar and tasting room minimally furnished with nothing more than a rustic farmhouse table and eight, Eames-designed Eiffel Tower-base molded plastic chairs.

A matching set of exterior stairs leads down from the slender terrace that runs along the back of the lowest level to a negative-edge swimming pool that fairly well mimics the residence's complicated roof-line. To one side of the pool there's a shaded outdoor kitchen/barbecue situation with four-stool snack counter and in the middle of the pool there's a raised circular spa. That means, of course, that every time Pacolito the house boy brings a fresh round of gin & tonics to spa-sitters he has to wade inconveniently ankle deep into the pool.

We confess that we (currently) have no inside intel about where Mister and Missus Followill plan to move but iffen we had to guess—and we don't have to guess, of course—we'd predict they're headed towards and similarly large and (arguably) more family friendly mansion in one of Nashville's more exclusive and expensive zip codes.

*Actually Mister (and Missus) Followill listed the Green Hills property back in April (2013) at the same $3.5 million price but it's now, after several prompts by a couple of in-the-know Nashvillians, that Your Mama is getting around to it. Don't hate. Sometimes, children, it just goes down like that. Anyways...

**Listing details from the time of Mister Followill's purchase put the house at 7,441 square feet. Make of the discrepancy what you will.

listing photos: Showcase Photographers for Fridrich & Clark

A. Quincy Jones Mid Century Modern Home in Tarzana Hits The Market

[Update January 22, 2014]: This home sold for $868,000 on December 20, 2013.

[Original Post]:
Images courtesy Coldwell Banker
4941 Calvin Avenue
4 Beds/2.5 Baths on 2,160 sqft on a total lot size of 0.33 acres built in 1961 by A. Quincy Jones in Tarzana currently available for $849,000. The home is owned by the late Jaroslav "Jerry" Gebr who is an accomplished artist, painter, sketch artist, and illustrator working for over 50 years starting with 20th Century Fox, followed by MGM Studios, and then Universal MCA Film/Television Studios working up until 2008 with his last credit on 24: Redemption. Gebr's extensive resume can be viewed at IMDB along with some of his personal works at his website. Additionally, you can view some of his paintings in the listing below. It appears that Gebr possibly owned this home since it was first built and consequently commissioned Jones to design the home so can it be called the "Gebr Residence?" Gebr passed away on February 7, 2013 at the age of 87 where he had stated that "I think I left enough good work." You can view his obituary here

Moving on to A. Quincy Jones who was a Los Angeles based architect and educator known for innovative buildings in the modernist style and for urban planning that pioneered the use of greenbelts and green design. He has designed numerous homes and buildings including another similar residence in Tarzana in 1961, the Eichler development in Granada Hills in 1964, the 1961 Case Study House # 24 in Chatsworth (unbuilt), and Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood in 1951. 

The listing description states:
Welcome to an A. Quincy Jones architectural beauty. Contemporary in design w/ open spaces & large windows to capture the essence of nature. Located south of Ventura in the hills of Tarzana on a sweeping corner w/ mature & majestic trees. A lovely planted courtyard greets you at the entry & you are welcomed to high floor to ceiling windows all in a very inviting & spacious floor plan. A fireplace wall separates the dining room & living room, whose sweeping window takes in the swimming pool & large patio area overlooking wonderful views of the San Fernando Valley. The 4 bedrooms are located in a separate wing & include an en suite master w/ walk-in closet. Easy access to a powder room is located near the den/family room area. The well-appointed kitchen is conveniently located in the center of the home w/ walls that stop short of the ceiling--a design element that adds light & contributes to better air circulation. The kitchen also provides easy access to the dining, family and living room as well as access to the pool & patio area for easy entertaining. This wonderful home is a special retreat & a work of art to be cherished for years to come. There are very few opportunities to own a well known architect's creation. This is one of them. .make it your own.
You can view more SFV Architecture and Real Estate here.































Wednesday 30 October 2013

Pop-Country Star Gary LeVox Lists Nashville Spread

SELLER: Gary LeVox
LOCATION: Nashville, TN
PRICE: $3,350,000
SIZE: 12,802 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Nick Nameless, a helpful little birdie down in the star-studded city of Nashville, was kind enough to let Your Mama know that top-selling singer/songwriter Gary LeVox of the pop-country trio Rascal Flatts two-stepped his Nashville-area mansion on the market with an asking price of $3,350,000.

Iffin Your Mama is being honest—and we always are—we'd come right out and spill it that despite having sold than 21 million albums, toured to sold out audience, and taken home more than 40 industry awards Your Mama wouldn't know a Rascal Flatts ditty if it came up and chawed off our ham hock. However, it didn't take much scroungin' 'round the interweb to figure out that Rascal Flatts' several dozen industry awards include (but are not limited to) six ACMS, five AMAs, six CMTS, seven CMAs, five People's Choice awards, one Grammy, and a star on the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame. Anyways...

Property records we peeped indicate Mister LeVox picked up the sylvan and rolling 2.62 acre property in March 2005 for $295,000 and it is he who is responsible for for the (almost garishly) opulent mansion that current digital marketing materials describe as a "grand Romanesque Villa designed by [Nashville-based architect] Mitchell Barnett."

Lantern-topped pillars and electronically operated iron gates mark the entrance to the multi-acre property that's located in a small, gated enclave of similarly sized mansions. The medium-length driveway slips over a gentle rise before it arrives at a rather grand(iose), double-wide circular drive that hugs a central fountain. A long flight of stone-balustraded steps climb (and climb and climb) up to a soaring, double-height portico with, when turned around facing away from the house, bucolic over-the tree-top views of forested mountains. Current listing details show the 18-room villa has a total of 12,802 square feet on two floors, plus a finished basement. There are five bedrooms, six full and two half bathrooms, at least four fireplaces, and, at either end of the house two two-car attached garages with direct entry.

We're not sure but the lack of personal effects suggests to Your Mama that Mister LeVox and family either prefer a type of day-core that looks and feels like a hotel or they've already vacated their unapologetically decadent suburban Nashville abode that sports an almost exclusively and rigorously adhered to brown, beige, cream and white color palette. The center hall entry has mottled mink and ecru colored inlaid marble floors, a double-height ceiling, and dual staircases that curve and float and were clearly designed with prom photos and over-the-top Christmastime day-core in mind.

A double-columned gallery at the back of the foyer leads to a spacious, step-down formal living room dressed with with a hulking carved stone (or, possibly, poured concrete) mantelpiece, a deep coffered ceiling, and painstakingly swagged and lightly pasamenteried drapery in an almost identical taupe shade to as taupe-colored deep pile wall-to-wall carpeting. The formal dining room has a fabric-paneled wall treatment that probably helps to deafen the clankety-clank of silverware during holiday dinners and both the formal dining room and the office/study that flank the foyer have mottled mink and ecru marble floors, French doors, and a fabric-tented ceiling. Personally, we don't care for or even understand a pleated and fabric-tented ceiling treatment but maybe we're funny that way.

The kitchen, fitted with raised panel cabinetry and chunky carved corbels, can be accessed from the dining room through a sink- and wine fridge-equipped butler's pantry or, less elegantly, directly from the formal living room through doorways on either side of the fireplace. The bullet-shaped kitchen has an a oval-shaped center island, marble tile floors laid on the bias, and dark granite (or some sort of stone) counter tops that seems to be a perfect match to the fireplace surround. The adjoining breakfast room has lots of windows but, as far as Your Mama can tell, no direct access up to the outdoor entertainment areas that run along the back of the house. The service area behind the kitchen includes a small home office with built-in desk and cabinets, a roomy laundry room, a powder room, and back stairs that link to both the upper level bedrooms and the finished basement.

A double-doored main floor master suite has all-but-windowless bedroom with raised corner fireplace as well as a separate sitting room and a wet-bar/morning kitchen. The a custom-fitted walk-in closet and dressing room is as big as a bedroom and a private bathroom offers a two-sink vanity, a marble-lined stall shower, and a soaking tube set awkwardly into a windowed niche (not-surprisingly) dressed with a bespangled balloon shade.

The five upper level bedrooms include a second, chandelier-lit master suite with domed ceiling, a quilted fabric wall treatment, and more swagged and pasamenteried drapery. There's also a corner fireplace, a two-room bathroom suite with super-sized circular bathtub, a compartmentalized and fitted walk-in closet plus an even bigger cedar-lined closet-room, and a private loggia with ceiling fan and fire pit.

There are at least two family room spaces on the upper level and down in the basement there's a game room with full kitchen as well as a home theater with rust-colored, extra- wide wale corduroy upholstered recliners. An extensive cache of listing photos Your Mama perused also show a long, skinny and kinda claustrophobic looking fitness room and several more less-than-optimally-shaped rooms of unknown and/or flexible utility.

For a 2.5+ acre property the usable area of the backyard is surprisingly compact. A curtained loggia with built-in barbecue station overlooks a small-ish, half-moon swimming pool that's set into a hedge-topped curved retaining wall. A think strip of terrace between the house and the swimming pool leads around the side of the house where a sunken trampoline is wedged into a corner of the house. Beyond that there's a flat bit lawn and a playhouse done up in the same "Romanesque Villa" style as the main house.

We're not sure of the LeVox family's future real estate plans but we do know that their old house, the one that's currently for sale, is located in the same small gated enclave south of Nashville where Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban once owned a home and where country superstar Kix Brooks owns a three-story contemporary on XX acres that backs up to an even larger spread with a modern mansion custom-built (and owned) by oft-reported to be divorcing but still touring together NashVegas royals Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

listing photos: Fridrich & Clark

Your Mama Hears...

...from trusted tipster Babbling Babette that supermodel turned Emmy-winning reality t.v. power player and budding apparel tycoon Heidi Klum is fixin' to hoist her mock-Med mansion in L.A.'s Brentwood area on the market with a price tag somewhere around $24,250,000.

The German-born Miz Klum and her estranged hubby, four-time Grammy-winning musician Seal, purchased the estate out of foreclosure in late 2010. They paid, as per property records, $14.2 million so if Miz Klum gets anywhere near their (rumored) asking price she'll have earned a substantial profit, less carrying costs, upkeep and improvement expenses, and real estate fees.

We're not sure what, if any, improvement and/or alterations Miz Klum made to the roomy residence or property but at the time of their acquisition the spacious mock-Med mansion had 8 bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms in, as per listing details from the time, about 12,300 square feet of decadent interior space that included a wine cellar with tasting room, a cigar room with separate filtration system, a colossal kitchen with an early 17th-century Scottish mantelpiece, a domed library with a fireplace said to have been extracted from Napoleon's farmhouse, and a dining room that was originally installed in the Pierre Hotel in Paris and was dismantled and re-mantled in Brentwood.

The property spreads across 8.52 acres—or just over 12 acres, depending on where one looks on the internets—in the guard-gated Brentwood County Estates community where some of the other residents include (in)famously philandering former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and real estate size queens Tom Brady and Giselle Bündchen who recently had their custom-designed and—ahem—eco-conscious 22,000 square foot mega-mansion featured in Architectural Digest.

The children will recall that it was Your Mama who first let the celebrity real estate cat out of the bag a couple weeks ago about Miz Klum (and her new bodyguard-boyfriend) dropping close to ten million clams on a brick-built neo-Georgian-style pile in a little-known gated enclave high in the mountains above hoity-toity Bel Air.

aerial photo: Pacific Coast News

Celeb R.E.: Mexican DJ "El Piolin" Eddie Sotelo Re-Lists Calabasas Mansion Rented by Rapper Tyga




Images courtesy Pinnacle Estate Properties
Back on the MLS after a one year hiatus is the home of Mexican DJ Eddie Sotelo who goes by the moniker "El Piolin" which translates to Tweety Bird that was given to Sotelo as a child. Sotelo has suffered from some negative publicity lately for an alleged sexual harassment with his producer and other staffers which has resulted in the cancellation of his radio show Piolin por lat Manana on Univision's KSCA La Nueva 101.9 FM. But just like any other radio DJ who gets canceled, Sotelo immediately returned to the airwaves via SiriusXM which makes me wonder how many of his fans switched over to XM and purchased subscriptions.

This home was first listed back on March 12, 2012 for $7,450,000 and lo and behold it is now re-listed at $7,275,000 representing a $175,000 difference. The home measures 7 Beds/8 Baths on 9,279 sqft on a total lot size of 0.96 acres built in 2005 which Sotelo purchased fro $5,850,000 on May 31, 2006 at the peak of the last housing bubble which is irrelevant now because this home is asking well above that mark. 

For some reason, the listing agent failed to take any decent pictures and blurry one on top of that using either a damaged camera or a really old camera that needs replacing. However, for your viewing pleasure, you can view pictures from the last listing here when I first talked about this listing. Additionally, you can also read about Sotelo's other homes. 

And one other random tidbit, it appears that rapper Tyga was recently renting this property according to a TMZ post. So numerous questions came to mind. Does Tyga still live in the home and hence the reason for the lack of interior pictures? Where does Sotelo currently live? And is Sotelo selling due to 1) financial troubles with the loss of his job, 2) Tyga left and the house remains vacant and therefore Sotelo doesnt want to deal with tenants again, or 3) does Sotelo just wants to make a quick buck? Inquiring minds want to know. Sorry for being so damn noisy, just love celebrity real estate.

The listing description states:
PROUDLY PRESENTING AN EXQUISITE MASTERPIECE, CUSTOM BUILT, UNIQUELY DESIGNED "MANSION" NESTLED IN THE PRESTIGIOUS DOUBLE GATED COMMUNITY "THE ESTATES" WITHIN "THE OAKS OF CALABASAS", SITUATED MERELY ON A PRIVATE ONE ACRE FLAT LOT. STEP INTO AN INVITING 30 FOOT GRAND FORMAL FOYER LOOKING UP A DETAILED DOMED CEILING, PLENTIFUL OF NATURAL LIGHT, OPEN, USEFUL, FLOWING FLOOR PLAN, UNCOMPROMISING LUXURY LIVING, PROFESSIONAL CHEFS KITCHEN, STATE OF THE ART SS APPLIANCES, FINE WALL FINISHES, HAND PAINTED MURALS, CUSTOM HANDTOOLED, CARVED, CABINETRY, FINE FINISHES IMPORTED FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, PAMPER YOURSELF WITHIN THE SPA ATMOSPHERED MASTER BATHROOM ADJACENT TO THE GENEROUS MASTERSUITE, ALL EN-SUITE BEDROOMS, CENTRAL EQUIPPED SOUND SYSTEM WITH CRESTRON CONTROLLED KEY PADS FOR EACH AREA, AND SECTOR OF THE MANSION, HOME THEATRE, OFFICE, GREAT ROOM, GYM. STEP OUT TO PARADISE!! A BREATHTAKING RESORT AT YOUR BACKYARD, AN ENTERTAINERS DREAM WHERE YOU WILL INDULGE IN THE WATERFALLS OF THIS ROCK FORMATTED ENORMOUS SPARKLING POOL, SPA, SLIDE, TENNIS & SPORTS COURT, OUTDOOR KITCHEN WITH STATE OF THE ART VIKING APPLIANCES, CABANA, FIREPLACE, FIREPIT, MATURE CANARY DATE PALM TREES, EXOTIC VEGETATION, LUSH LANDSCAPING THROUGHOUT THESE WELL MANICURED GROUNDS.
Pictures from TMZ.com when Tyga rented the home which match the listing pictures shown in this post and here.



Images courtesy TMZ.com
The Calabasas area is home to many celebrities, athletes, and famous execs as discussed in this blog listed below:
  1. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett rumors of pocket listing of Calabasas compound for $42 million in August 2013.
  2. Marla Maples of Donald Trump fame sold Calabasas home for $2.2 million in July 2013. 
  3. David Hasselhoff moves from Encino to Calabasas paying $1.95 million on May 15, 2013. 
  4. Former NBA star, Mitch Richmond, listed his mansion for sale on April 29, 2013 for $9,495,000.
  5. Former NFL star Keyshawn Johnson listed his mansion for sale on December 3, 2012 for $10,500,000.
  6. The late Eazy-E's wife, Tomica Woods-Wright, home was recently foreclosed on May 11, 2012 and later sold for $2 million on November 27, 2012. 
  7. Justin Bieber recently purchased the former Nicole Murphy (Eddie's ex) on April 6, 2012 for $6.5 million. 
  8. El Piolin (Tweety Bird) Eddie Sotelo's listing of his mansion for the just reduced price of $6.8 million
  9. The former Britney Spears rental was sold for $5.4 million on October 19, 2012.
  10. Baseball great Eric Davis home was sold as a short sale on May 4, 2012 for $1.8 million.
  11. Joey Lawrence purchased on December 13, 2011 for $1,442,500.
  12. NBA star Bryon Russell's home was foreclosed and later sold for $1,560,000.
  13. Nearby neighbors include Katherine Jackson and the rest of the family, Travis Barker,  James Wilson's massive ranchCandi Milo (former), Joel Diamond, and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine to name a few.  
You can view more SFV celebrity real estate here.