hollywood hills

August 18, 2008

Jenna Jameson lists Hollywood Hills home

Jenna Jameson home for saleActress Jenna Jameson has listed her Hollywood Hills home for $2,700,000. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths according to listing information.

The home boasts city views, a guest apartment, 5 patios/balconies and a 2-car garage. It does have a lot going for it with a master suite, 2 bonus rooms, a formal dining room, gourmet kitchen, and a sunken living room with fireplace.

The TV room is interesting, with a dark striped wallpaper that contrasts with beige rugs and cream furniture. Oh, and there’s a zebra print ottoman to go along. Really jumps out at you. It’s almost overwhelming and doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the house. But the structure of the room is nice.

The kitchen is large and has lots of cabinets. It certainly looks like those upper cabinets are pretty low, limiting the space between cabinet and countertop. But it definitely has a lot of storage - and at least they don’t look terribly outdated. Is that fridge built in? That’s certainly something you don’t see too often. And there’s a formal dining room with plenty of room for what looks like an 8-person table. Notice the window detail in the dining room. It would be even nicer if that theme was repeated throughout the entire house instead of just here and there.

We love the detail on the stairs up from the sunken living room and also up to the top floor. It’s the kind of detail you don’t see on newer homes, and it’s too bad. It adds such interest and character to a place. See that little sitting area at the top landing? Perfect book nook. Additionally, the exposed beam in the family and living rooms is nice, but I actually prefer all or nothing when it comes to the beams.

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August 5, 2008

Sports Illustrated model Molly Sims lists Hollywood Hills home

Molly Sims, best known for her role in “Las Vegas” or maybe swimsuit modeling for Sports Illustrated, listed her Hollywood Hills home for $2,999,000. The 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath house is 3,100 square-feet and is built with a 1930s Spanish style (with Hollywood flair, according to the listing).

Both Ann Breoff of the LA Times and the Real Estalker wrote of this, so we’re not sure who got the scoop on this one.

The listing highlights a newer kitchen with carrera marble, Viking appliances, a Sub Zero and a wine fridge. We might just be in love already. The kitchen does look quite nice, even with the white-on-white of most everything. Can we just mention that the perspective in these pictures is killing us? Can someone please hire a damn professional photographer or even a competent amateur to take these pics? Although in this case, it looks like the post-processing is what skewed the proportions. C’mon real estate agents, let us properly drool over the homes, will you? We’ll say “pretty please” if it will help.

Can we just stop for a moment and talk about the master bath? Love. Huge shower, and what looks like a fair-sized tub as well. While we’re not exhibitionist enough to have a big window like that in the shower (not to mention at least a door or curtain to keep the steam in), we love it anyway. But we’d have to put something on the window to keep the gardener from getting more of a view than either one of us would like. Now the sinks on the other hand, we’re not as wild about. The countertop just doesn’t quite match and we’re not a fan of the sinks. But those are minor points on our list, anyway.

We’re not sure what the deal is with the wallpaper and shag carpet in the den, or sitting room, or office, whichever it is. But again, that’s something that can (usually) be fairly easily remedied. We do like the collection of mirrors and frames on the wall, though. Nicely arranged.

Take look at the patio with ceiling fan and tons of seating space. That is absolutely a perfect place for entertaining on a nice summer night. And the area by the pool isn’t so bad, either. Overall, it seems to be quite a lovely abode, with lots of greenery and shade. We wouldn’t turn it down, is what we’re saying.

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August 1, 2008

Luxury Homes Hilton Hyland Worst YouTube Real Estate Videos

This week’s winner nearly didn’t make it because I think I may already have a few out-of-focus slide shows in my collection of worst youtube real estate videos. This luxury home in Hollywood hills is listed at $17.5 million. Watch the video, then see if you agree with my assessment:

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Presumably, they are looking for movie-industry buyers. I wonder if a typical movie executive watches real estate videos on youtube. I will not be staying up nights worrying about it, because I am fairly sure I know the answer. So, the first question is - why bother?

This video has more cheeps than a box full of newly-hatched chickens. The real estate agent looks cheap, the property looks cheap, and the venue is extremely cheap. It is a seventeen million dollar property, yet this is a slide show taken from still photographs?

The only one involved who doesn’t end up looking cheap is the company that produced it, Avanti films. I imagine they tried their hardest to persuade the agent to let them do a decent job, but with a budget of about fifty bucks, this is not too bad, and some of their other work is excellent. Although, the only thing I like about this one is the background music. Very Hollywood epic :)

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July 3, 2008

Brett Butler Sells Hollywood Hills Home

08-266405Actress and comedienne Brett Butler sold a three-bedroom home in Hollywood Hills for $2 million. The home had been on the market for $2.347 million. Although the house sold in April, the papers weren’t recorded until last month. It doesn’t appear to have been bought by another celebrity.

According to Mr. Big Time, the house has three fireplaces, an atrium great room, a pool, separate guest house and a fair-sized yard on just over 3/4 of an acre.

The atrium great room has a ton of windows, with views of the trees and hills. It opens out straight to the pool. We love the brightness of the room with all of those windows. Not really digging the fireplace, though. But there’s not enough of it in the pictures to get a great view.

The kidney-shaped pool has several palm trees at one end and a little deck/ entertaining area next to it. And the kitchen? Well, you know our love of kitchens. It seems nice, with what could possibly be cherry wood cabinets. A six-burner stove is always a good sign. But other than that, there aren’t enough shots of the kitchen for us to adequately drool over it. And that? Makes us sad indeed, my lovelies.

The living room seems pretty huge, with a raised ceiling and exposed beams. The beam look may not be for everyone, but we like it when it’s done right. You can fit a couple of extremely long couches and plenty of chairs, so it would be perfect for someone who likes to have quiet parties with lots of friends sitting around, sipping wine and talking about their latest book club read.

Anyway, we’re a little surprised that anything in the Hollywood Hills is going for “only” $2,000,000, especially one with views of the city and Hollywood sign.

Butler is best known for her acerbic humor and television show, Grace Under Fire.

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June 27, 2008

Deana Carter lists her Hollywood Hills home

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With another exclusive under his belt, Mr. Big Time reports that country music singer Deana Carter has put her Hollywood Hills home on the market for $899,000. I guess that thousand dollars below nine-hundred grand makes it sound so much cheaper.

The listing calls it a “charming celebrity home” which means, hi, this is a small place. And indeed it is, at 1,080 square feet containing 2 bedrooms and only 1 bath. Apparently the lot is teeny-tiny, too.

It does have some charm. We like the dining room ceiling with the beams and detail work. And we’re always a sucker for lots of built in shelves like you see in the two bedrooms. The bathroom has everything crammed into the space, though. And are those cabinets extra tall? It sure looks like it from the pictures.

The kitchen isn’t all that large, but if we’re not mistaken it appears that they shoved a 6-burner gas stove in there. And while the bench seating on the patio is nice and could accommodate 8-10 people, it’s narrow. And the view of the hedge? Not so great.

So for what you get, it doesn’t seem like a great deal. Carter paid just under $600,000 for the home in 2003. Guess she’s hoping for a tidy profit after 5 years. We’ll see what happens to this one.

Carter is best known for her debut song, Strawberry Wine, and the quirky song Did I Shave My Legs for This?.

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June 23, 2008

Ryan Phillippe Buys Zen in Hills for $7.175 Million

Philippe-VActor Ryan Phillippe recently bought a $7.175 million home in Hollywood Hills. It had been listed at $7.470 million. But unlike many homes today, this one was only on the market for a little over 30 days. Not everything is in a slump, apparently.

And we’ll let you in on a secret. Once you see the pictures of this place, you’ll see exactly why it was snapped up. The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom house is decorated in an Asian zen style. It’s even named “Rising Zen.” It has two master suites with offices, a media room, and a gorgeous deck complete with a bbq, spa, sauna, and good-sized pool. And the views aren’t half bad, either.

Some of the details are pretty incredible. Take a look at that kitchen: double ovens, nice center island, large kitchen sink. Is that a subzero fridge we see? The dining room has a shoji screen, the living room looks like it could seat about 20 people.

Phillippe’s divorce from actress Reese Witherspoon was finalized recently. He’s now seeing Australian actress Abbie Cornish, while Witherspoon has been linked to Jake Gyllenhaal.

You can see a couple of slideshows of the place (links courtesy of our friends at Big Time).

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May 16, 2008

Christina Aguilera Lists Luxury Home in Hollywood Hills

christina aguilera homeChristina Aguilera and her husband, music marketer Jordan Bratman, have put their Hollywood Hills home on the market for $7.995 million.

The new mom’s Midcentury home is quite a playground - for big kids. It has plenty of room - 6,500 square feet. It features a professional screening room for up to 18 (and we love the recliners in the room - can we have 5, please?), a gym, a pool, a 12 person spa with fireplace, walnut floors, and a 1,200 square foot master suite. I don’t know about you, darlings, but I’m in love. That master suite is bigger than our tiny digs here in San Diego, sadly.

Oh, we forgot to mention that this home is high in the Hills and has spectacular views. The five bedroom, seven bathroom house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac. Sigh.

The LA Times reports that Aguilera bought the Osbournes’ former home in Beverly Hills last summer. And that home almost doubles this one, at 11,500 square feet. More room for the little one to run around. Just how many kids is she planning to have, anyway?

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