LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,049,000
SIZE: 2,171 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1.75 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Last week word slipped down the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine and into Your Mama's inbox that slim-hipped and prominently-jawed sitcom and movie actor Adam Scott's hillside house in Los Angeles's Silver Lake 'hood* was quietly put up for sale and quickly whisked into escrow with an asking price of $1,049,000.
Mister Scott has toiled in Tinseltown since at least the mid-1990s but for the last few years—five seasons, to date—he's shaken his wry-humored professional tail feathers on the idiosyncratically charming and often very funny, 8-time Emmy nominated sitcom Parks and Recreation. In addition to the numerous television programs on which he's appeared and/or starred—they include Party of Five, Six Feet Under, the under-rated Eastbound & Down, and the silly, smart and canceled cable sitcom Party Down that also starred the pre-Glee Jane Lynch—Mister Scott often appears on the silver screen (Our Idiot Brother, Monster-In-Law, The Aviator). His upcoming movie projects include the next Ben Stiller vehicle (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) and a feature-length version of the t.v. show Party Down that is slated to star most of the original cast along with the usually quite funny—except for that fuh-reeky, fake butter shilling gig a few years ago—two-time Emmy-winning Will & Grace star Megan Mullally.
Property records show Mister Scott and his writer/producer wife Naomi (Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Andy Milonakis Show) purchased the three-story Silver Lake abode in March 2007 for $889,000 and current listing information shows the tree-ringed, taupe traditional was originally built in 1935 and offers a flexible floor plan with 2 bedrooms and 1.75 bathrooms in 2,171 square feet of interior space.
This is not—as our stair-avoiding house gurl Svetlana vehemently pointed out—a home for the lazy, the weak hearted and/or the glutially frail. A locked entry gate next to the street-level two-car garage hides a fairly long slog up an exterior flight of hedge-lined concrete stairs to the front door that opens to an especially voluminous double-height entry where a sturdy stone staircase with wrought iron railing requires even more grocery-hauling stair climbing to reach the residence's main living, cooking, eating and sleeping areas located on the upper-most floor.
The top floor "formal" living room spans the full width of the front of the house with peg and groove hardwood floors; a shallow-beamed ceiling; a cutesy, built-in display niche; an Old-School bay window; and glass doors that slide open to a covered balcony with long views over the hilltops towards the iconic Hollywood sign.
The peg and groove wood floors run into the back of the house where a flexi-use room with tray ceiling and corner windows could be utilized, according to listing information, as a dining room, a third bedroom or—as it is by Mister and Mister Scott—a "children's creative play space." Without question, we'll take the dining room option, thank you very much.
The unexpectedly roomy, country-meets-modern eat-in kitchen looks to Your Mama like it might have been recently remodeled and equipped with a built-in breakfast banquette seating set into a sun splashed corner; the usual collection of higher-grade stainless steel appliances that include a muscular, extra-wide commercial style range; charcoal colored counter tops of unknown but probably high quality material; and two-toned painted wood cabinetry, white Shaker style stuff around the outside and a glossy, deep turquoise center work island outfitted with two seat snack counter and under counter wine fridge.
The wall-to-wall carpeted lower level living space is currently used as a media den/liquor lounge with vintage built-in bar—check the Old School porcelain slop sink—and an attached three-quarter lavatory with built-in toiletry dresser, pedestal sink, light camel-colored honey-comb tile floors and a white tile-lined corner stall shower. Sliding glass doors open the den/lounge, also convertible to home office, domestic quarters, home gym or—ahem—"children's creative play space," to a delicious roof terrace set atop the street-level two-car garage with over the roof- and treetop views
The terraced and fully landscaped areas that step up the hillside behind the house are somewhat constrained due to the upsloping geography but include a kitchen garden planted with herbs and heirloom vegetables and an elevated deck for dining and lounging with big sky and cottage-dotted canyon views.
A brief and entirely unscientific perusal of various property record data bases did not turn up any evidence that Mister and Missus Scott own any additional residential real estate. That does not, of course, mean that they don't. Since they'll soon have to vacate these premises, one imagines they're on a mad search for—or, perhaps, have already moved forward with the acquisition of—their next family homestead, one that Your Mama would bet both our long-bodied bitches, Linda and Beverly, will have fewer stairs and be better set up to accommodate a pair of Tinseltown adults and their two young children.
*Silver Lake, in case y'all don't know, is where you go if you're an arty-farty, East Side type of Angeleno who wants delicious and affordable homemade pasta at Speranza on Hyperion or a $47 cup of custom-brewed, single origin goor-may cwawfee at Intelligentsia on Sunset Boulevard.** One friend of Your Mama called Silver Lake the Williamsburg of Los Angeles, a characterization that will—no doubt—offend any number of Williamsburgians and Silver Lakers.
**A single cup of single origin coffee at Intelligentsia doesn't really cost $47, but it is, like, five or six bucks for a pretty damn wee cup of coffee. That's not six clams for a 17,000 calorie, half-caf-frap-crap thing drizzled with butterscotch (or some other gooey dessert topping), but a single cup of black coffee. If you're a somewhat snooty, eco-conscious coffee connoisseur, you'll totally get and happily cough up the eye-popping price. If you think Folgers does you just fine, well, you'll probably think it's foolish bordering on financially reckless to cough up $23 bucks for a pound of "refreshing and juicy" Fleca Roja from Costa Rica.
The high prices are no deterrent to some heavy duty commerce. The shop—at least the one in Silver Lake—is jammed-packed almost all the time and snagging a hotly coveted table on a Saturday or Sunday morning involves an exhausting amount of stink eyed obstructionist maneuvering wrapped in a slouchy, I-might-be-hung-over sort of nonchalance because no body wants to actually look like they'd cut a bitch for the four top in the corner...but they would. Anyhoo...
listing photos: Michael McNamara, Shooting LA for Sotheby's International Realty
