Former Mattel CEO Jill Barad (Re-)Lists Barbie-free Sunset Boulevard Mansion

SELLER: Jill and Thomas Barad
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA (Brentwood)
PRICE: $11,250,000
SIZE: 9,393 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This may be the mansion Barbie built but there is, as far as Your Mama's boozy peepers can see, nary a narrow-waisted Barbie doll to be seen anywhere on the premises. We do spy a cigar store Indian and a profusion of other dolls, statuettes, portraits and figurines but not even a whisper of Barbie or Barbie-ness except maybe for the tiger-stripe stair runner in the foyer and the wall-to-wall leopard print carpeting in the game/exercise room.

Then again, this house, recently (re-)listed at $11,250,000, is in Los Angeles where it's hardly unusual for animal prints and fabrics to be used as an interior decoratin' mo-teef in large and traditionally opulent high end abodes in or near the Platinum Triangle.

Could be the mansion's owner Jill Barad long ago put that Barbie business to bed and we're just barking up the wrong and long-dead tree in order for a cheap and easy angle. Could be, yes, but onward we press none-the-less.

Missus Barad, herself once a bit of a brunette bombshell glamor puss, dontcha know, worked her way up the corporate ladder at Barbie maker Mattel, ignoring the proverbial glass ceiling all the way. In 1997 she became the Chanel-suited powerhouse CEO known for her keen ability to spot, package and monetize fast-moving trends in popular culture. Alas, her tenure at the top of the multi-national toy-making conglomerate came to a quick and abrupt end when she resigned in early 2000. The previous year, it seems, Missus Barad green-lighted the $3.5 billion acquisition of a company that hemorrhaged money at a (reported) rate of $700,000 to a million dollars a day and Mattel's stock price quickly plummeted more than 65%. The shareholders and board tend not to like when things like this happen and Missus Barad was ushered out the door, but not before she was politely and generously granted a fat severance package (reportedly) worth $50,000,000.

We're not exactly sure what Missus Barad has been up to the last dozen or so years since her tenure as at the top of Mattel went up in smoke. We seriously doubt a go-getter like Missus Barad would, but she certainly could afford to sit around and eat bon bons all day with her husband and kids. At least that's probably what we'd do with a fifty million dollar post-firing payout: sit around, talk on the phone, pick at our hideously callused heels and eat bon bons by the pool.

This isn't the first time Missus Barad and her Mister—very part-time movie producer Thomas K. Barad (Crazy People in 1990 and Open Window in 2006—have attempted to ride the bronco at this particular real estate rodeo. In June 2010 they briefly listed their Sunset Boulevard mansion at an unknown asking price and in February 2011 it was re-listed at $12,900,000 then quickly de-listed after a price cut in June (2011). In early March (2012) the property popped back up with its current price tag of $11,250,000.

Property records aren't as thorough as we might hope but at least one database we perused shows Mister and Missus Barad spent $725,000 for the property over the summer of 1987. It's not clear if at the time of the sale the 24,119 square foot parcel had an existing house. What is more clear, based on various online listings and property records, the existing mansion was built in 1991 or 1992.

In March 1998, Mister and Missus Barad dropped $1,500,000 for the two northeasterly adjacent parcels, 24,389 and 11,326 square feet respectively. The additional lots brought their entire Bel Air-adjacent spread up to 1.37 acres. Tucked behind a high hedge between the house and the half-acre(ish) flat lawn next door Your Mama spots a construction trailer, both an eyesore and hint that Mister and Missus Barad may (or may not) have planned to further develop the undeveloped parcels in such a way as to seamlessly combine the three contiguous parcels into one cohesive estate that jives with the existing, carefully landscaped grounds that surround the residence.

Listing information shows the mock-Med mansion, set above a screaming s-curve of Sunset Boulevard and all but hidden by a gorgeous chorus line of jacaranda trees and wrought iron driveway gates, was designed by architect Steve Giannetti, measures a stately 9,393 square feet and contains 6 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, including a multi-level master wing with sitting room marble bathroom where a soaking tub is set into a shelf in set into a wide bay lined with squashed-looking windows.

A center foyer impresses guest and FedEx delivery people alike with it's marble tile floor, capacious double-height ceiling and loopy, wave-like pattern of the wrought iron banisters. The essentially conventional lay out provides for all the customary and expected, well-proportioned rooms such as formal living and dining rooms, and a fairly formal library/den with glossy wood paneled walls, built-in book cases, Parquet de Versailles-style hardwood floors, wedding-caked coffered ceiling, 19th century French fireplace mantel, and a flat screen tee-vee tucked up into a niche above the two-seat wet bar.

Slightly less formal is a family room with carved stone fireplace and high arched French doors and a little more less formal still is an especially spacious, mixed-use game/exercise room with shallow vaulted ceiling and window-lined (and curtain swagged) nook perfect for a bridge or poker table. There's plenty of room in the middle and around the edges for a big, brown sofa, a fringe-pocketed pool table with—much to Your Mama's flabbergast—a bunch of crap stowed underneath on a tarp or blanket, a pair of old-school console video games, and a variety of exercise contraptions that may (or may not) be a treadmill, stair-stepper and/or—dear Jeezis!—and elliptical thingamajig.

Listen chickens, Rule No. 77 in Your Mama's Big Book of Decoratin' Dos and Don'ts is quite explicit when it informs and educates those who absolutely must have exercise equipment in their home than it must be kept in a separate room or other space tucked way from every other living area of the house. Let's get real, babies, no one with any dignity or a single shred of style thinks it's cute to have a medicine ball in the breakfast room, a stationary bicycle shoved up next to the bed in the guest bedroom, or a set a free weights in the god damn dining room. That's because, of course, it ain't cute.

Anyhoo, current listings we've seen on the interweb don't include a single photograph of the kitchen, not usually a very good sign when it comes to the condition or quality of the cookery. Usually if it's not pictured it's because it could knock the wart off a witch with its ugly. However, do note listing information describes the kitchen as "gourmet...with Sub-Zero, Viking and Thermadore appliances," which sounds pretty nice even though we'd bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly it's not done up in a manner that matches our own admittedly opinionated and narrow tastes.

The backyard isn't exactly tiny but not particularly big either with a long terrace that runs between the back of the house and a plush, deep-pile carpet of bright green lawn. At one corner of the lawn there appears to Your Mama to be a topiary in the shape of a big ol' lion. Yes, that's right, a topiary lion just outside and in full view of the paneled library/den. How very whimsical and ornamentally aristocratic is that? Anyhoo, an elevated circular spa set into a semi-circular limestone niche anchors one end of the lawn and an octagonal open-air pavilion with built-in barbecue station the other. The especially long and narrow swimming pool nestles into the thickly planted slope behind the house that's held back by a substantial, curved limestone retaining wall festooned with a handful of carved stone lion's head fountains that dribble and spit water into the pool in an arched and most elegant fashion.

We have no idea if Missus Barad maintains a private museum and/or secret stash of rare Barbies in a temperature controlled vault secured by retina scan and only accessible through a hidden panel in the master bathroom but wouldn't that be absolutely mortifying and magnificent at the same time if she did? A kind of awful blessing that would, we think, make so many feel so much better about their anemic retirement plans and faux-Baroque bathroom vanity cabinets bought on sale last year at Costco? Think about it...

listing photos: Coldwell Banker Previews International, some via Move

Supply Catalog Additions

I've had my eye on one similar to this...all those pockets would be almost like a traveling studio!

As promised, I'm writing to let you know I added some things to our supply catalog...art bags, brush holders, plein air French-style easels, pens, and even some folding stools for those of us who need to be a bit more comfortable when working on the spot and more.

Have fun poking around!  The catalog is at the top of our page, or right here: http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/p/supply-catalog.html

NOTE:  Sorry, I must not have hit save when I added the chair at top!  It's in the catalog now, but it's set to shuffle so you may have to look for it a bit.  My apologies!

Art and Design Writer Sue Hostetler Lists High In Alphabet City

SELLER: Sue Hostetler and Jon Diamond
LOCATION: New York City, NY (East Village)
PRICE: $8,500,000
SIZE: 6,500 (or so) square feet, 3-4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: As we have uncountable times in the five years since we began our little online endeavor, today Your Mama brings y'all a discussion about a New York City residence first brought to our attention by dear, sweet Hot Chocolate, one of our unofficial (and unpaid) aide de camps who frequently sends along links to interesting properties—mainly in New York City—that sometimes turn out to be owned by a celebrity, socialite, big business baron or some other sort of deep-pocketed and residentially blessed, high-profile person.

Today we're gonna peep and poke around a substantial, contemporary, townhouse-type condominium in Manhattan's once burned out and drug infested now boho-chic and family friendly East Village. The residence in question, boldly listed at $8,500,000, takes up the first four floors a nearly-new, six-story, two-unit building custom-designed and -built for its current owners writer/editrix extraordinaire Sue Hostetler and husband Jon Diamond, described in at least one print publication as a bi-coastal media CEO and entrepreneur.

Property records show Miz Hostetler and Mister Diamond acquired the downtown property in May 2008 for $3,500,000. At the time of their purchase, the narrow Alphabet City parcel, just a couple doors down from the still-kinda-grungy but terribly-trendy Avenue B, was commercially zoned and occupied by a single story warehouse-type building that housed a construction company.

Miz Hostetler and Mister Diamond did whatever one does in New York City to get the property re-zoned for residential use and quickly erected a two-family structure with a nearly featureless façade and—Huzzah, huzzah, hoo-ray!—a much coveted, private 1-car garage. The lower four floors comprise a townhouse-type residence for Miz H. and Mister D's own use and the upper two floors contain a duplex penthouse reportedly designed by developer/designers Bob and Cortney Novogratz.

The duplex penthouse, with direct elevator access on the sixth floor and 1,200 square foot Ipe wood roof deck, spans (approximately) 2,700 square feet according to listing information from the time of the sale. The penthouse was first put on the open market in March 2010 for $3,750,000 and sold fairly quickly in August of the same year for, according to property records we peeped, $3,027,375. The buyers were Oscar Proust and Colleen Goujjane, owners of famed, candle lit West Village eatery One If By Land, Two If By Sea, frequently referred to in the medias one the most romantic restaurants in New York City.

On the 19th of April, Miz Gould Keil at the New York Post reported in her Gimme Shelter column that house hunting celebrity couple Rachel Weisz and Danial Craig toured Miz Hostetler's four-floor townhouse unit and—lo and behold—the very next day the vertically-oriented condo was officially listed on the open market with its current eye-popping $8,500,000 price tag.

A pair of almsot-identical wood doors flank a wider wood door that lifts open—no doubt with the heralding of angels—to reveal an exceptionally rare for Manhattan single car private garage. The door to the left of the garage acts as a separate (and private) entrance to Miz Hostetler's townhouse unit and the door to the right opens into the building's common lobby with stairs and elevator to access the upper levels of the townhouse as well all the way up to the duplex penthouse on the 5th and 6th floors.

A half flight of stairs descends from the two-chamber, ground floor foyer with its adjacent half pooper into a cavernous, semi-subterranean, 1,000-plus square foot "great room" with Italian Renaissance-style wood-burning fireplace and poured and epoxied concrete floors. The lofty 18-foot ceiling has a coffered wood ceiling adds a vital hint of patina and was custom crafted, according to listing information, by the very same artisan responsible for the mill work at the Gramercy Hotel's celebrity-stocked Rose Bar. Ain't that fain-cee!

A central switchback staircase connects all four floors and divides the parlor floor living spaces in to a street-facing dining room with sleek fireplace and a spacious eat-in kitchen with stainless steel cabinetry, poured concrete slab counter tops, and top-grade integrated appliances including a cappuccino maker. A full wall of floor-to-ceiling wood-framed windows in the kitchen fold back accordion-like to a nearly 1,000 square foot back yard with, according to the floor plan, an outdoor fireplace.

The master suite spreads luxuriously across the entire third floor with entry vestibule, full-width bedroom with tree-top view, and his and her walk-in closets/dressing rooms. The over-sized, spa-style bathroom with sassy, geometric Moroccan tile flooring has dual sinks, soaking tub, over-sized steam shower and separate cubicle for the crapper hidden, as per marketing materials, behind Parisian Art-Deco privacy glass, whatever that is.

The flexi-use fourth floor has a large, full-width bedroom at the front used by the occupant, according to listing information, as an office/den with black and white horizontal striped wall treatment. A sensational suite at the back of the fourth floor encompasses a private corridor, full-width bedroom, separate play room, walk-in closet, and private bathroom sheathed in Bisazza glass tiles. The play room could be converted to a separate bedroom and listing information—the "brokerbabble" as the kids at Curbed call it—states the good-sized laundry room adjacent to the bedroom/office/den could "easily become and additional full bathroom if so desired!"

While Your Mama's opinion ain't nuthin' but hot air, we find the townhouse condo's featured day-core a mite stale and surprisingly flat despite the thick vein of—dare we say—Novogratzian high-glitz whimsy that runs throughout (see dining room and master bathroom).

Then again, what do we know compared to owner Sue Hostetler, an unquestionably beaver busy gal on the professional go with an eye for art, day-core and other pretty and pricey things. She currently sits atop the editorial masthead of the high-gloss Art Basel Miami Beach magazine and she doubles down with a monthly column called The Aesthete for pan-Arab (English language) luxury lifestyle magazine Bespoke. Previously she was the National Shelter & Design Editor of Niche Media (Gotham, LA Confidential, Hamptons, Ocean Drive, at etc.) where she wrote (and wrote and wrote) glowing house porn articles about the glittering homes of the rich and famous. For a brief moment late in the last decade Miz Hostetler hosted a show on Plum Television which showcased extraordinary residences the country and she's authored a trio of coffee table-type books (Majestic Metropolitan Living, Hip Hollywood Homes and Oceans). Is this beotch tryin' to make Your Mama feel inadequate?

Anyhoodles poodles, previous to building the East Village two-family Miz Hostetler and hubby lived in a 3,000 square foot loft in a classic cast-iron building in the heart of SoHo they bought in May 2006 for $3,750,000. They engaged the services of Los Angeles turned New York City- and Paris-based designer Valerie Pasquiou who had previously worked over the L.A. homes of Showbizzers like Lisa Kudrow, Sharon Stone, film producer Mary Parent, motion picture literary agent Bob Bookman, and k.d. lang.

The 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom Hostetler-Diamond loft was photographed in 2007 for the defunct shelter publication Metropolitan Home, now archived with Elle Decor. This was just about the very same time they flipped the newly decorated SoHo loft back on the market with an asking price of $5,100,000. Over the course of a year, the asking price slipped in small increments to $4,750,000. Property records show the loft sold in May 2008 for its full asking price to John Wotowicz, an investment manager or something, and Virginia Lebermann, known in the art world as the co-founder of Texas-based contemporary arts foundation Ballroom Marfa.

We're not sure why Miz Hostetler and Mister Diamond have opted to sell their custom-created townhouse condo in the East Village nor do we know how their enormously successful team of Real Estates arrived at the eight and a half million dollar asking price that puts it at the apex of the East Village real estate food chain. It is, by a double-wide $2,000,000 margin according to our research on Streeteasy, the most expensive East Village residence of any type (condo, co-op, townhouse, multi-family) currently on the open market with the exception of a pair of side-by-side (but not yet joined), mid-19th century era townhouses on East 10th Street that combined come to almost 8,500 square feet and are listed together for $12,950,000.

With that in mind, Your Mama imagines—but does not predict—Miz Hostetler's townhouse condo in still-rough-around-the-edges Alphabet City may (or may not) be a tough sell at the sky-high price of $8,500,000 even with the private one car garage for which Your Mama imagines most street-parking Manhattanites would probably do the most unspeakable things. Trust Your Mama on that, children. We parked and hopscotched an old but trusty Saab 900S on the streets of the East Village for more years than we can count and we know of what we speak about the absolute desirability and value of that-there garage.

 listing photos and floor plan: Town Real Estate

It's Back: Meg Ryan Re-lists Bel Air Mansion

SELLER: Meg RyanLOCATION: Los Angeles, CA (Bel Air)
PRICE: $11,400,000
SIZE: 6,877 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms


YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Brace yourselves, butter beans, because Meg Ryan's Los Angeles, CA mansion has popped back up on the open market for the 5th time since 1997 with a new, improved and much lower asking price of $11,400,000.

After first shopping it around off-market to folks like Mister and Missus Ben Affleck and British quasi-expats Mister and Missus Victoria Beckham, Miz Ryan had the drop-dead gorgeous Spanish-style casa on the open market from late-October 2008 until early January 2009 with an optimistic asking price of $19,500,000. 

In the fall of the same year (2009) Miz Ryan briefly re-listed the residence at $14,200,000 and the following fall (2010) put it out for lease at a mouth-drying $40,000 per month. Eventually, we first learned from from well-connected Tinseltowner Kenny Kissintell, Oscar winner and historic architecture buff Diane Keaton came along and rented Miz Ryan's meticulously updated, upgraded and maintained Bel Air mansion at an unknown amount of monthly remuneration.

The trout-pouted (former) rom-com queen—she's barely worked in The Big Bizness of Show since 2009 and, hence, ripe for a come back—seems to spend a great deal of time in New York City where she's often spotted around town with middle-aged rock star John Mellencamp. In fall 2010 Miz Ryan was reported to have signed a one-year lease for an approximately $25,000 per month rental in the Jean Nouvel-designed tower at 40 Mercer Street but we can't confirm or deny that tidbit nor do we know if she's moved on or signed an extension on the (alleged) lease. She owns a secluded residence near the quaint community of Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard she picked up in early 2004 for $2,270,000 and had photographed for the glossy pages of Elle Decor's June 2010 issue.


Back in Bel Air, Miz Ryan's privately situated estate, tucked into a hair pin curve in one of Bel Air's most posh pockets, sits surrounded by mansions and estates owned by a plethora of high-profile peeps who include Academy Award-winning legend Clint Eastwood, television super-producer Darren Star (who had his newly remodeled residence photographed for the March 2012 issue of Architectural Digest), Showbiz icon Robert Redford and, right next door to Miz Ryan's place, the Richard Neutra-designed Brown-Sidney House now owed and extensively restored/renovated by fashion world superstar turned film producer Tom Ford, he-rah of the squinty-eyed smolder.

Property records show Miz Ryan procured her Bel Air mansion in October 2000 when she paid $8,500,000 for the multi-winged, two-story mansion that current listing information indicates was built in 1931 andmeasures 6,877 square feet with 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms plus additional living/sleeping quarters in a detached guest house near the swimming pool.


Interior spaces includes a step-down formal living room with fireplace, formal dining room, two family rooms, separate bar room, second floor screening room, and eat-in kitchen with commercial-style appliances and a massive center work island.

The museum quality renovation features dark hardwood floors, hand-stenciled and painted ceilings, vintage tiles, wrought iron details, dozens of archways, and French doors that spill out to various patios and loggias that give way to flat lawns, shaded terraces, a dining ramada with antique wood ceiling, and a small free-form swimming pool nestled into a lower terrace with stacked stone retaining wall. 

Your Mama has discussed Miz Ryan's no-longer-wanted Bel Air pad on several previous occasions so if you're interested in more prattling and pontificating head over here and here.


exterior aerial photo: Pacific Coast News
listing photos: Prudential California / Brentwood

Townhouse Tuesday: Jack and Alison Schneider

SELLERS: Jack and Alison Schneider
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $33,500,000
SIZE: 13,048 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 full and 5 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Several days ago one of our unofficial (and unpaid) aide de camps—that would be dear, sweet Hot Chocolate—thoughfully forwarded Your Mama a link to a real knee-buckler of a New York City townhouse recently hoisted on the market with a hardly unheard of but none-the-less ear-piercing price tag of $33,500,000.

A quick peep and poke around the public property records informed Your Mama the decked-out, dazzling and done-done-done townhouse, desirably located just off Fifth Avenue on East 75th Street, belongs to a (possibly former) hedge fund manager named Jack Schneider and his wife Alison Schneider (née Cayne) who paid $8,250,000 for the the urban and urbane mansion in January 2002.

Missus Schneider, dontchyall know, was born into great Wall Street privilege as the daughter of now-fallen and much-loathed Wall Street fat cat Jimmy Cayne, the former CEO of once mighty and now-shuttered investment bank Bear Stearns. The children may recall that Daddy Cayne literally played bridge in Detroit while his professional (and proverbial) Rome burned to the ground in the magnificent mortgage meltdown and economic crisis of 2007-08. At one point Mister Cayne was worth more than a billion and a half bucks; Today he's considerably less rich but nowhere near poor. As far as we can tell, Daddy Cayne and Missus Cayne still own a pair of adjacent apartments at The Plaza that overlook Central Park, total 3,092 square feet, and were bought in early 2008 for, according to Streeteasy, a combined $28,244,559.


Missus Schneider (née Cayne) caused a bit of a stink of her own in late January 2007 when she was quoted in The Old Grey Lady herself, The New York Times. At the time there was a bit of a brouhaha and kerfuffle going doing at the exclusive and (shockingly) expensive pre-school at The 92nd Street Y on the Upper East Side where tuition ranges from $13,500 to $27,150 per year...for pre-school. The school's director had recently sent out a letter that requested parents who send and pick up their kids in chauffeur driven cars not tie up the street with unnecessary idling. The letter went on to bizarrely threaten parents that failure to follow the new no-idling rule could, as per The Times, "hinder their children's chances of getting into the kindergarten of their choice." Missus Schneider, bless her heart, was cattily pointed out by another parent at the school as someone who sends and picks up her kids in a chauffeur-driven car. When queried about the letter by The Times reporter Missus Schneider said, ''I got the letter, but I don't really have any feelings about it one way or the other. It's kind of boring. It's about cars and parking." In other words, Madam S. don't give a shit. 
 
Anyhoo, Your Mama thought Mister and Missus Schneider's titanic and totally remodeled townhouse might knock the real estate socks off some of even the most jaded of the children and put it on our list of properties to discuss. Alas, we were once again, like with the Lea Michele business earlier today, beat to the blogging punch by those ever-industrious kids at Curbed who briefly discussed the townhouse yesterday. Never-the-less...

At the time Mister and Missus Schneider bought their own high-toned, (approximately) 25-foot wide townhouse, then just an empty shell, the 1920s limestone mansion measured, according to online documentation we espied, 9,759 square feet. The house, originally built in 1872 with the existing and restored limestone façade added in 1917, underwent after a three-year renovation in the early- to mid-Aughts overseen by accomplished architect Peter Pennoyer and equally accomplished lady decorator Victoria Hagen. The architecturally elegant and smack-you-across-the-face sophisticated seven story (plus cellar and sub-cellar) French Empire-, Neoclassical or maybe Beaux Arts-style pile now weighs in, according to current listing information, at a substantially more considerable 13,048 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 5 full and 5 half bathrooms, at least 6 fireplaces, 4 interior staircases, and a staff suite in the cellar comprised of kitchen/dining room and two small but windowed bedrooms, each with private facility.

The remarkably efficient, thoughtfully resolved and fully custom floor plan (above) includes public and service entrances—pretty much right next to each other—a convenient bicycle and coat room just off the entry vestibule, a marble-floored foyer with fireplace, a jaw-dropping elliptical staircase that winds from the ground to the fifth floor, and an multi-passenger elevator that serves all seven above-ground floors as well as the cellar and sub-cellar.

The grand, impress-the-guests front foyer connects to the central stair hall and adjoining walk-in coat room and discreet half bathroom for party guests. Beyond that, a colossal, nearly all-white center island kitchen at the ass-end of the ground floor has a marble counter tops, top-grade appliances, a windowed breakfast area, and a punishingly pee-wee family room barely if at all bigger than the master bathroom. A convenient dumb waiter connects and a corkscrew staircase off the family room curls up to a kitchen-sized butler's pantry and formal dining room. The dark chocolate-stained herringbone pattern hardwood floors in the dining room extend into the extra-wide center stair landing and on into the formal living room outfitted with a fireplace, white walls for displaying art, wedding cake moldings, and a row of street-facing windows that stretch almost to the floor and the ceiling.

A men's clubby, wood-paneled library with fireplace flanked by built-in bookcases and adjacent half pooper shares the third floor with the master bedroom complete with, entry vestibule, one bathroom and two, custom-fitted dressing rooms. The fourth floor was configured with a stair landing sitting area, one large guest/family bedroom with attached private bathroom and two too-narrow bedrooms (for a house of this magnitude) that share one hall bathroom.

The fifth floor, according to the floor plan, was given over almost entirely to the pursuits and (often noisy) activities of the Schneider off-spring with family room, children's library, two bathrooms, and play room/art studio lined with floor to ceiling storage and shelving and used by Mister and Missus Schneider, we think, as a bedroom. Our imperious house gurl Svetlana pointed out there's also a second laundry room on the fifth floor as well as another, larger laundry facility in the cellar.

A sixth floor exercise room has an adjacent half bathroom—but not, it seems, a steam shower or sauna—and the airy penthouse level operates and a refined, adult-oriented media/music room with fireplace, sky light, wet bar and access to an exterior staircase that descends half a level to a roof terrace tucked up behind the ornate parapets.

Listing information also indicates the townhouse is equipped with a top-of-the-line security system—natch—plus as state-of-the-art Crestron system controls the audio, visual, temperature, telephone and lighting systems (including electronically operated shades) throughout the house via convenient touch pads.

Property records reveal Mister and Missus Schneider also own a waterfront residence adjacnet to the Fenwick Golf Club in Old Saybrook, CT that they acquired in September 2008 for $4,232,000.

exterior photo: Property Shark
listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran

Brush Recommendation!

As usual, I like to test drive new tools...here, my new set of Utrecht Deluxe Watercolor Brushes...

It was an incredible buy, a set of four brushes on sale for $14.99 at our local Utrecht store...

I had never even OWNED a #14 brush before...wow...this one carries a ton of water, goes forever, holds a lovely point...what a deal!  I just ran out of room on the page or I could have done much more with these...obviously, they're very versatile.

Had to see how far it would go on a single loading...this is a 9 x 12" Strathmore Visual Journal.  Wow...

I liked the brushes so much that I went back and got my brother-in-law a set!

Glee Gal Lea Michele Buys Hollywood Bungalow

BUYER: Lea Michele
SELLER: Norman Jean Roy
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,400,000
SIZE: 1,805 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: No doubt a result of too much late night and early morning gin, Your Mama seems to be well behind the celebrity real estate 8-ball this week. We are just now getting to the modestly-sized and fully-updated and upgraded if hardly inexpensive Los Angeles, CA bungalow purchased last week by Glee gal Lea Michele for $1,400,000 and already much discussed by just about every celebrity and property gossip across the globe. 

Miss Michele is most probably widely known by tee-vee watching tweens, teens and gays for her downright committed portrayal of enormously talented, wildly insecure and insufferably ambitious singing dervish Rachel Barry on Glee, a plum role for which she was nominated for an Emmy in 2010 and reportedly earns about $40-45,000 per episode. Howevuh, puppies, before the 25-year old Bronx-born brunette went Hollywood and rocketed to boob-toob super stardom in 2009 she was a bone fide Broadway sensation with prominent roles in highly acclaimed musical productions like Les Misérables, Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof and the sensationally successful rock-musical Spring Awakening.

Like her 23-year old Glee co-star Kevin McHale—he's the one who scoots around in a wheelchair but in real life is not confined to a wheelchair—who just laid out $1,025,000 for a glassy and re-worked mid-century modern in the Hollywood Hills and Twilighter Anna Kendrik who recently spent a smidgen over a million bucks on a newly renovated contemporary above L.A.'s quintessentially L.A. Beachwood Canyon 'hood, Miss Michele smartly and humbly opted for a more prudently priced (and sized) residence rather than go berserk and drop a few million on a flashy (and high-maintenance) real estate monument to her new-found financial prowess.

Listen, we wish Miss Michele all future success but—let's get real kittens—Hollywood ain't nuthin' if not a cautionary tale about the easy come and easy go of fame and fortune built on the shifting sands of Show Business. Sometimes young actors peak early and fade into oblivion young. Just think of all those kids on Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place back in the 1990s. Sure, some went on to big time careers and glossy magazine covers. But others, well, not so much.

Anyhoo, eagle-eyed (and sober) children may recognize Miz Michele's new crib as the very same high-hedged and electronically-gated property situated in a centrally-located and celebrity-friendly area of Hollywood known as Sunset Square and owned by celebrity picture taker Norman Jean Roy. Your Mama discussed Mister Roy's now Miss Michele's domestic digs in mid-March (2012) when he listed the property on the open market with an asking price of $1,395,000.

Property records and listing information shows the single-story, mid-block bungalow was originally built in 1920 and measures in at 1,805 square feet with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an office (or potential 3rd bedroom), L-shaped living/dining/den area with fireplace and French doors, well-equipped galley-style kitchen, and a bespoke master bathroom with steam shower.

A vine-draped trellis shades a dining deck with built-in barbecue station that extends off the back of the house and steps down to a compact, hedge-girdled back yard with paver-stone parking pad, detached two-car garage with loft storage area, and a plunge-sized solar-heated saltwater swimming pool sunk into a lush patch of unnaturally green grass.

Miss Michele, according to property records and previous reports, paid five grand over Mister Roy's asking price, an indication—but not, of course, proof—she may have faced a bit of competition during the negotiations to acquire the modernized and well-maintained bungalow.

Mis Michele's new abode sits in the very same neck of the Hollywood woods as homes owned by Tinseltowners like Academy Award-winning filmmaker Dustin Lance Black (purchased fall 2010 for $1,455,000), inestimable actress and activist Sally Struthers (purchased February 1991 for $762,500), and stylish actress Selma Blair (listed earlier this year for $1,780,000 and no longer on the open market). Reality queen turned clothing designer Lauren Conrad's Sunset Square residence is currently in escrow with an asking price of  $2,100,000 and Nip/Tuck actor Dylan Walsh and his estranged wife Joanna Going recently sold their former family home in the 'hood for $1,425,000 to writer Deborah Schoeneman and her husband Josh Groban.

Having nothing at all to do with Miss Michele's recent real estate activities...Miz Schoeneman once wrote features for the real estate section of The New York Observer as well as contributes or contributed to other publications and websites that include (but are not limited to) New York Magazine, The New York Times, Angeleno and The Huffington Post. She penned a 2006 novel about celebrity gossips called 4% Famous and currently writes for the Judd Apatow-produced tee-vee show Girls. Incidentally and also of no consequence to anything related to Miss Michele, Miz Schoeneman's bio photo on her website shows her sitting pretty in a tufted pink leather booth at The Madonna Inn, a fabulously campy and famously garish hotel-motel in San Luis Obispo (CA) where Your Mama occasionally likes to eat and drink with our elementary school pals Bee-bah and The Chicken. Miz Schoeneman's husband Josh Groban is not, in case anyone might be curious, the singer Josh Groban but rather the Josh Groban who is a senior advisor to California governor Jerry Brown.

But we digress...

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty / Los Feliz