Category Archives: Mediterranean Style Houses

paula-abdul-house

Paula Abdul Selling Sherman Oaks Home

[one_fourth]Price: $1,899,000[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 4,679 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 5[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 4.5[/one_fourth_last]

This is the year for Paula Abdul to clean house of any bad memories—and that included selling her ill-fated home in Sherman Oaks, California. She listed the 4,679 sq. ft. home with an asking price of $1,899,000. Considering she bought it back in 2000 for $1,285,000, she has some wiggle room for an interested purchaser to low ball the price.

Of course, that price doesn’t take into consideration any money she invested in the home since the purchase. In fact, she—or her insurance company—invested a cool $900,000 on behalf of the house into the pockets of Jill Kohl, who slipped in the driveway and sued Abdul, but opted for the nearly million dollar settlement. Of course, it came to a million when the production company for the show, “Hey Paula” taping at the house, agreed to cough up another $100K.

Selling the mock Mediterranean mansion also eliminates the constant reminder of another bad memory, the death of a Paula Goodspeed, an overzealous obsessive fan who parked her car just a short distance from the home and then overdosed on drugs back in 2008.

In the spirit of a clean slate, Paula held a garage sale before putting the five bedroom 4.5 bathroom house on the market. Let’s hope it wasn’t to supplement unemployment due to the non renewal of her contract on the X-factor. Following the sale, she left for parts unknown, so now the fated house remains empty with just staging furniture to lure prospective buyers.

When you enter the home, you’ll find a spacious foyer with twin, wrought iron clad staircases leading to the second level. The living room is wide and spacious with a light brick fireplace and glass doors to the outside living area and swimming pool. On the other side of the room, is an archway to the dining/kitchen area, with the two only divided by a snack bar.

The kitchen, like most celebrity homes, has top grade commercial style appliances. (Do these people even put pop tarts in the toaster, let alone cook a full meal?) The upper cabinets have clear class fronts with the lower cabinets containing frosted glass with a design. There’s nothing dramatic or outrageous about the kitchen area.

On the second floor, you’ll find large bedrooms, with an empty walk-in closet large enough for a family room or a small boutique. You’ll note the word empty, another clue that Ms. Abdul left for the Netherlands. While the home is nice and may be worth the asking price, it comes with a history of incidences and bad memories. It seems Paula is eliminating all the negatives and looking for a new start, both at home and work.

Pictures of Paula Abdul’s Sherman Oaks Home

source: Coldwell Banker – Beverly Hills North.

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chris-paul-house

Chris Paul Buys Famous Bel Air Mansion

[one_fourth]Price: $8,500,000[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 12,184 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 8[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 10.5[/one_fourth_last]

While most people have to prove their income before getting a mortgage, it probably wasn’t necessary when Chris Paul bought Avril Lavigne’s former home, if a mortgage was necessary. His $68 million dollar four-year contract was more than enough to cover the $8.5 million dollar price tag of the Bel Air mansion. While unloading the mansion, Avril also unloaded other items in her life the same day, including her boyfriend Brody Jenner.

Even though the LA Clipper’s point guard, Paul paid $8.5 million for the Mediterranean-style home, he got a bargain. Lavigne previously had the property listed at $9.5 million for six months and dropped the price to meet Paul’s offer. The home is in a gated community where the median home prices run a roughly $1,722,000.

The house has eight bedrooms and ten baths while situated on slightly over a half acre of land. The new mansion has 12,184 square feet, just enough to move about a bit. It also has a 10-car garage, so there will always be plenty room for his cars, regardless of how many lawn mowers, basketballs or other items Paul stores there.

Of course, there’s a swimming pool outside, it’s right after the covered outdoor living area, which comes complete with tiled floor and a fireplace, just in case there’s a little evening breeze. You can use the Jacuzzi if you don’t care to swim. There is also a barbecue area complete with a dining table.

Going inside, you’ll find the extra amenities no home should be without, such as a wine cellar, staff quarters and a gym with a sauna. Guests are greeted in the two-story foyer. If they manage to make it to the kitchen, they’ll find themselves surrounded by a huge L-shaped countertop/breakfast bar that seats five. Separating the bar from the actual kitchen work area is an island for food preparation with storage and a sink. Of course, there are state of the art appliances. What mansion would be complete without them?

There’s a second kitchen in the home. This one is smaller and very private. It’s in the master bedroom, along with a fireplace, custom walk-in closets and two baths. There’s also a patio off the master suite. If you’ve seen pictures of the home, you might recognize it, since it was once featured on the reality series, “Meet the Barkers” and owned by Travis Barker, drummer for Blink-182.

More Pictures of Chris Paul’s Bel-Air House

image source: Zillow

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kim-kardashian-house

Kim Kardashian’s $4.8M Beverly Hills Home

[one_fourth]Price: $4,800,000[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 4,000 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 5[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 4.5[/one_fourth_last]

Say what you will about the reality show star Kim Kardashian, but don’t say she has bad taste in home decorating. While her new home isn’t new anymore and the reports about the price she paid vary from $3.5 to $4.8 million, it would be hard to find a home as well decorated as hers. Her 4,000 square foot abode comes complete with five bedrooms and four and a half baths. It sits in Beverly Hills in a cul-de-sac and has features both the outdoor enthusiast and indoor privacy lovers would cherish.

This Mediterranean style home has a fairy tale entrance with swirling topiary and a gated entrance. In the back it offers an outdoor living area that would make you want to sit all night and watch the stars. The area offers an intricately designed fireplace and tile flooring, with draperies to pull around to keep in the heat on a chilly night.

Besides the sitting area, the back yard contains an outdoor barbeque, which would make any woman green with envy. It’s not you’re standard brick-chimney smoker but a fully appointed kitchen with the same tiled flooring as the sitting area. If offers not only a stainless steel dishwasher, but also the top of the line stainless barbecue smoker built in to a tan granite counter.

The interior of the home is also as well decorated and not overly glitzy. The entryway is huge and gives the Mediterranean feel with deeper toned woods, white columns and wrought iron. While the wrought iron stair rail keeps with the Mediterranean theme, I far prefer wood, but then that’s a personal preference, not a decorating faux pas.

The bedrooms are spacious. In fact, one has a lounging area.  These are simple bedrooms and nothing to write home about, unlike the sitting area surrounding the white fireplace or the open plan kitchen that opens to the outdoors and a massage area.

This tastefully decorated home with a waterfall, pool and personal screening room has ample space for the semi-celebrity to entertain, and yet has many areas that are perfect for solitude and reflection, something she may have been doing quite a bit of this year.

Photo Gallery of Kim Kardashian’s Beverly Hills House

image source: XposurePhotos.com

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alexis-bellino

Alexis Bellino’s Fab New California Mansion

[one_fourth]Price: $5,00,000 ish[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 7,146 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 5[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 5.5[/one_fourth_last]

There’s something amazing about celebrities, including reality TV celebrities, which is a whole “nuther” category in my book. No matter how broke they are, or how financially ruined, they still land on their feet and live in the lap of luxury. Just one year after the bank started foreclosure proceedings, forcing reality show star of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” Alexis and Jim Bellino to short sell their property for $3 million, incurring an equal amount of loss and not covering the $4 million plus mortgage, they’re living in new quarters. On top of that, Jim’s company also filed bankruptcy.

Living in a new house is reasonable, unless that home costs more than the one they lost due to lack of funds. On the reunion show of “Real Housewives of Orange County,” Alexis noted they were buying a new one and this time paying cash. The new home listed for several prices with a range between $4,999,999 and $5,900,000. Did they buy the property?

Some speculators note that since the records online show it belongs to the original seller, they may have simply leased it. However, there often is a lag between a closing and the updating of online records. So, they mystery remains. If they did buy the property, this writer wants to find out how they managed and whether they keep a magic genie captive in a bottle.

The home is a 7,146 square foot Mediterranean-style five bedroom, five and a half bath home. It has three levels and even an elevator for those adverse to any physical activity. There’s an access to a private beach, an eight-car garage and a state of the art kitchen. Each room comes complete with an ocean view, except the windowless media room on the lower level.

While the home is attractive, the mystery remains. Did Alexis and Jim buy the home or lease it? If they bought it, how can they afford an even more expensive house than the one they lost to a short sale and almost foreclosure?

More Pictures of Alexis Bellino’s California Mansion

image source: movoto


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tom-brady-mansion

Tom Brady & Gisele’s Brentwood Mansion

[one_fourth]Price: $20,00,000 ish[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 22,000 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 8[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 14[/one_fourth_last]

Tom Brady, New England Patriot quarterback, his wife Gisele Caroline Bündchen, super rich super model and spokesperson for the UN Environment Programme and baby boy, Benjamin Rein Brady have a new home. The 22,000-square-foot mansion that would make Conrad Hilton turn green with envy has plenty of room for Brady’s other son, John Edward Thomas Moynahan.

It offers eight bedrooms, a weight room, wine cellar, a lagoon-shaped pool complete with a spa and even has a covered bridge that connects the two main wings of the home. Of course, what home is complete without a butler’s room and gallery? All that is missing in this house is a counting room for the couple to count their bulging bank accounts.

While there’s no final figure on the cost of the mansion ($20M rumor), the 3.75 acre lot in the exclusive Brentwood area cost the couple $11 million. Some estimates report the construction project to soar around $20 million. Which is fitting for a home with such illustrious neighbors, “I’ll be back,” terminator Schwarzenegger, who secured the Brentwood family home in his recent divorce and Heidi Klum, German model and television host?

So how does the Mrs., with her official environmental position explain away such a huge home that is sure to use more energy than a neighborhood in Queens during the winter? Gisele explained they made certain the plans included everything to promote the environment, such as the use of solar energy, a rainwater recovery system, energy-efficient lighting and appliances, recycling programs, sustainable building materials and a waste reduction program.

Of course, if they fill up that new six-car garage and use the elevator frequently, much of that savings may go down the drain. The good news is that if they keep the thermostat set at 65 degrees, there won’t be any energy used in the winter in the Los Angeles home. The bad news is summer’s going to be a killer to cool the monolithic mansion and Gisele may have some “splainin” to do for the folks at the UN.

Video of Tom Brady & Gisele Bundchen’s Brentwood Mansion

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david-schwimmer-house

David Schwimmer Lists Los Angeles Estate

[one_fourth]Price: $10,700,000[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 11,336 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 9[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 6.5[/one_fourth_last]


[box] Either times are getting tough or David Schwimmer, former superstar on “Friends,” simply wants some new real estate, which he and his new bride, Zoe Buckman, can call “ours.”[/box]

He’s selling his highly coveted real estate in Hancock Park for a mere $10,700,000. (Can I just put it on my Visa? Or would you prefer a check?) My best guess is the latter since Schwimmer found his new niche as an animal voice for “Madagascar” and those never-ending residuals from “Friends” keep appearing in the mailbox.

While you need to have a private showing to view the interior, but it has to be dynamite since Timothy Corrigan, interior designer helped Schwimmer lay it out after he purchased the property for $5,600,000 back in the spring of 2001. The remodeling was evidently quite extensive considering the real estate market took a nosedive and the price tag of this particular estate almost doubled in value.

Some of the extensive remodeling Schwimmer did to drive up the price tag included a new screening room, a major renovation of the backyard, new air conditioning and heating systems, restoration of the doors, windows and hardwood floors. Listing information shows there is a formal living room and dining room, a den with stone walls and a wood paneled library in addition to the other rooms mentioned.

The two-story L.A. mansion built in 1926 offers the buyer six and a half baths, nine bedrooms and five fireplaces, according to tax records. However, the records don’t indicate whether that counts the guesthouse containing a bed, bath, kitchen and living room. The guesthouse is above the detached three-car garage.

If the interior is anything like the regal exterior, it’s bound to be massively impressive. However, money and size don’t necessarily indicate good taste as witnessed before in other celebrity homes. Maybe after the house sits a few months, Schwimmer will allow photos of the interior so we all can see it up close and personal.

image source: Westside Real Estate

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Kaley Cuoco Sherman Oaks Mediterranean House

[one_fourth]Price: $2,400,000[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 5,233 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 5[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 5[/one_fourth_last]

Fun loving actress from the television sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ’8 Simple Rules’, Kaley Cuoco, has just purchased a dazzlingly beautiful Mediterranean style house, located in Sherman Oaks, California.

This amazing 5,233 square foot home possesses 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and wonderful overall layout, which is reflective of the sensational foyer that provides views of the wraparound railing of the second level.

Hardwood and marble makeup the flooring, with mainly whitewalls throughout, you’ll also find a few lovely brick accents as well. The rooms are all overly spacious with moderately high ceiling and recess lighting galore.

Some of the highlights include, a warlocks kitchen, an enormous master suite with an extra large bathroom. Outback you’ll find a lovely paradise setting with a roomy deck that oversees the nicely sized swimming pool, which is privately hidden behind towering hedges and plenty of mature trees.

You’ll also find an additional outdoor sitting area which is covered, and perfect for some late night cuddle time, as you enjoy the irresistibly warm California nights.

photo credit: mls.com

Kaley Cuoco Sherman Oaks California House Pictures

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Leona Lewis Selling Hollywood Hills Home

[one_fourth]Price: $2,500,000[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Size: 3,946 sq ft[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Bedrooms: 4[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Bathrooms: 4[/one_fourth_last]


UK sensation Leona Lewis has become enamored with the LA scene. Why else would she pay almost $2 million bucks for a home in Nichols Canyon? The songstress must have become quickly disenchanted with Tinseltown or else suffered from severe buyer’s remorse since she realized how much $1,850,000 actually was in American dollars.

That 4 bedroom home has now been placed back into circulation but Leona wants $2,500,000 for this property. Has the housing market suddenly hit an upward swing and she is the only one privy to this information?

While most of today’s buyers are highly motivated to cut prices and sell their real estate it seems that Ms. Lewis wants to recoup the original price and also make a profit of more than $500,000.

The Lewis home does have a certain charm but she may have to ‘sing like a bird’ if she really plans to hold tight to that asking price. By Hollywood standards this is a modest home with a Mediterranean feel that plays well to European sensibilities. In addition to the main residence there is a small two car garage that will accommodate a pair of vehicles and a tiny little building that is being touted as a guest house.

A quick browse through the picture gallery highlights the desirable aspects of this property, and points are scored for the glossy hardwood flooring, high ceilings and tall windows. The wrought iron stairs are also worthy of a second look.

Leona Lewis apparently loves white because there is an abundance of this color that can be seen throughout the rooms. Of course this color scheme works perfectly in the small kitchen and makes it have a thoroughly modern vibe.

Could Lewis be searching for a new abode with a glitzier zip code, or is she mulling a move back to England?

photo credit: Realtor.com

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