How Much Is Too Much?

Read this article . I can promise it will be interesting. But it begs the question in terms of super mansions:

How much is too much?

Now I love big, fancy houses. I wouldn't be writing this blog if I didn't. But when you can be measuring your home in terms of acreage instead of square footage, your'e not in Kansas anymore.

Honestly looks like two homes mashed together. 

So I implore the super rich homebuilders, if your are going to do it so big, do it right. 

1. Hide it. 

Surprisingly the Manor cannot be seen from the street. 

Which is very good. 

Plantings in strategic areas can reduce the impact of a home. 

Also a basement for the garage and amenities can reduce the home's footprint while providing the same square footage. 

2. Mass it. 

Some homes are like certain people; going on forever but not really saying anything. 

In such a home it is important to proportion things out and create some sort of order to the design. 

Thats what separates a classy home that will be cherished from some billionaire's tacky crash pad in the eyes of the people. 

Similarly: room proportion and layout should make sense. You don't want to accidentally bump into guests from that party three days ago that never found their way out.

The Hearst Mansion. 

You're not going to mistake it for a smaller home, but strategic plantings and terraces help reduce the impact. Note the plantings. 

3. Let your lot match your ambition. 

Let me just say, I love Beverly Park. Big lots, big homes. 

Too big a home on too small a lot= Neighbors know where the secret entrance for the strippers is. 

Bad photo or somewhat tight lot? 

You decide. 

20,000 sqft on a 50,000 lot with a tennis court, outbuildings, and pool on St. Cloud Road. 

That dress is a bit tight on you, no?

Thats all folks. 

Hit me up with your opinions, dream mansions, etc. 

All photos credit to respective owners. 

Would You Rather?

Would you rather have a home with a view or a home on a larger lot?

Cause lets face it they don't come with both. 

Or if a view home has a large and useable lot the price is eye watering. 

I think with proper work, a small yard with a view can be an entertainers paradise. 

In that regard, I take the view. 

All photos credit to their respective owners. 

1000

Wow! 1000 page views! Thank you guys, I will keep it coming.

9555 Heather Road

So yesterday there was an 8 figure open house at 1005 Laurel Way. I could not be there. So while I bang my head on a wall (figuratively of course), here is a look at 9555 Heather Road.

Keep the crazies out when 2012 strikes. 

Anyways, the home is asking 100,000 a month. 1.2 Million a year, or a nice home in the Valley. But this is your neighbor. Its located off Coldwater Canyon, but with a traffic light at the intersection so driving isn't a total pain.

Tennis court. 

I would definitely go beyond calling this a mansion, this is an estate. Sedate design? Check. Tennis court? Check. Pool? Check. More bedrooms than OctoMom could ever possibly use? No. There are only 9. So sad.

We are definitely checking all the amenity boxes here. 

Main house is nearly 10,000 sqft with 7 of those 9 bedrooms. There is a lower floor game room and such. There is also a guest house and pool house.

Yawn inducing pool. Not terrible, just boring. 

Allegedly there is a bowling alley, though I haven't found any pictures of it. I don't know why a private bowling alley feels tacky. A gym I can understand but are you really going to bowl that much?


All photos credit to their respective owners.

Unreal Estate Review

The real estate world of Los Angeles was in a tizzy at the release of Michael Gross's newest book, Unreal Estate, which promised to chronicle the most expensive homes in Beverly Hills, Beverly Park, Bel Air and Brentwood.

And after waiting seemingly forever for the book to come in at the library, I finally got my grubby paws on Unreal Estate and devoured it. I had quite high hopes, having loved 740 Park. 

I can honestly say I was not dissapointed. Gross goes into (somewhat excruciating) detail about the homes and their overly ambitious owners, billionaires (or frauds) who seem unable to keep it in their wallets or pants. In fact you could argue there is too much detail with some skimping on the homes. Most homes described are old, really nothing new or current. 

Hopefully there will be a lovely website for this book as was for the last... 

Overall its definitely worth a read if you are a real estate junkie. 

All photos credit to their respective owners. 

GTA V

Confession time: I am not the biggest gamer. In fact, it could be argued that I really don't care one iota. 

But I do have a somewhat weakness for open world games and the GTA series is a very good example. 

Its been confirmed that the latest in the very long and complex video games will take place in Los Angeles or be a carbon copy of LA with a different name. Anyways.. there is a certain joy to driving through a video game like a psychopath and going "I know that place!".

But me being me, I thought about the real estate. In previous GTA games you could buy homes (no, I could not bring myself to say 'cribs'. Cribs are for babies). Hopefully this one will offer a huge selection. How about a cliffside home in Malibu? A chateau on the Los Angeles Country Club? A mansion in Beverly Park? Are you listening Rockstar? Please capture the complexity of the city, don't give us a shrunken grey caricature of a city like in GTA 4. 

What do you think?

All photos credit to respective owners. 

Home Theaters

I was just thinking about designing a house. Well, I think about that a lot.
My home would have to be a manageable size; measured in square feet, not acres.
And of course the home theater.

It would have to have steps. Probably would be in the basement by the gym and game area. 

Maybe I would have a separate TV room off of the family room? 

Or if space was a concern, go for the big living room with a drop down screen. 

An outdoor screen like 9362 Nightingale Drive has is undeniably cool, but what about when it gets cold?

The home has an indoor theatre too. 

 A little dull looking or maybe just a bad picture? 

What about you? What's your dream home theatre? 

All photos credit to respective owners. 

On Bel Air

Went to Bel-Air for an open house that got canceled. Twas a great pity. However, Bel Air seems to be quite nice though rather dark from the fact that everyone has absurdly high hedges. 

Saw a Bar Mitzvah at Hotel Bel Air and more old people in tiny, tight shorts than I would care to admit to.

Drove up Nimes Road, past Leo DiCaprio's home that ate its neighbors. Quite nice though. 

Then uber mansion row. 

The completed on was made by Mohammed Hadid and is 38,000 sqft with 9 beds and 14 baths. It sold for 50 million. Yes, 50. Not shown, is the massive retaining wall on the other side of the house. 

That construction is now finished, the home looks like it belongs in Miami. I don't hate either of these homes, but they could both use some land. 

All photos credit to their respective owners. 

Open Housing January 7 of 7

And so we end our glorious Sunday in January with this house:

631 N Arden Dr.

It even smells old. 

This is the kind of house that little children protest going into. It feels like your WASPy grandma lives there. It even smells very old. But the layout is very solid and low key, though grand.  It needs a renovation, big time. The lot is very large and if it is not torn down to put two homes there, future WASPs could love this house. But 6 million is a lot for the amount of work needed in a house without a pool.

Huge living room, office and family room are off to the right. 

Hopefully it wont be torn down and made into two 'classy' Mediterranean villas with more stone than common sense. 

All photos credit to their respective owners. 

Open Housing January 6 of 7

617 N Camden Drive 

Not shown, you are living on your neighbors. 

No tour would be complete without that house. You know the one. The one so ugly you don’t even know how to react. This home is the epitome of best-laid plans gone wrong. 

You better take the picture at night, in the day that yard is very tiny and unfinished. 

 I don't get it. In the Valley we get McMansions of 4,000 sqft on a 5,000 sqft lot. But in Beverly Hills, they are not contented with just that so we end up with...McMansion Super sized! This 11,000 sqft McMansion on steroids decimates a 13,000 sqft lot in the Beverly Hills flats. 

To make matters worse, it feels like they forgot stuff. Very important stuff. Like how to finish the yard or add a garage for goodness sake. If you want ten million bucks for this McMansion, do you expect people to park on the street? There is a basement, which may have seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out very cold and full of entertaining rooms that only manage to appear depressing. In lieu of thought, they added stonework. Lots of stonework. Nothing worked, not even the acres of lit stone and parquet floors. Stay away. 

Lit stone looks cool, but cannot compensate. 

What has been seen cannot be unseen. 

All photos credit to respective owners.