Friday, February 2, 2007

Cox and Arquette Selling Lautner House (redux)

SELLER: David Arquette and Courtney Cox
LOCATION: Carbon Beach, Malibu, CA
PRICE: $33,500,000
SIZE: 4,486 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire a world class architectural estate, The Segal Residence by John Lautner. 80 feet of frontage on Carbon Beach. Call listing agent for details. Pre-qualified clients only.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Oh Dear hunnies, Your Mama has made a terrible mistake. Thanks to a reader who was paying better attention than Your Mama was, we have discovered we have directed the babies towards the wrong house the Cox/Arquette's have recently purchased in Malibu. At first we thought, well, who cares, this is just a blog and we can't always be correct. Then we remembered all the lovely notes, cards, and flowers from the children and thought it would be better to admit, then correct our mistake.

Seems the house(s) purchased are actually next door to the large white place we discussed the other day...So now that we're not loaded on valiums we are going to replace our commentary and photo of the correct properties. Please forgive Your Mama, we all make mistakes.

Oh my, this is such a great house to bring to all the children. We came across this on Media Bistro and are finally getting around to bringing you the details. Not only is it celebrity owned, it was designed and built by a celebrity architect by the name of John Lautner. Now babies, if y'all don't know who Mister Lautner is, please go to the library and check out a nice picture book for yourself to spend a few hours with. This man is a god in the pantheon of contemporary and progressive architects.

Miss Cox and her goofy husband purchased this house on Carbon Beach only a few years ago in 2001 for about $12,000,000. That was a tremendous sum of money for an oceanfront property back then and it created quite a buzz in the bizness and among Malee-booans. But it was the tail end of the celebrity architect craze (think Richard Neutra and the Case Study houses) so the seller was able to fetch top dollar.

None the less, in just about six or seven years, this young-ish Hollywood power couple are looking to make close to a $20,000,000 profit. Now that takes some nerve even in the rocketing Malibu market of late. This very high price is particularly stunning to us as someone in the know in the Malee-boo real estate business tells Your Mama the house is priced significantly over what it should be given it needs a total restoration. See, the Cox/Arquette folks maintained the property quite nicely, but according to our source, the house has "not been touched" since it was built in 1979. And hunnies, that means it needs some updating. Hopefully the new owner with do the work while maintaining the integrity of the original structure.

Anyhoo, Your Mama is a big fan of Mister Lautner and this is one of those rare structures where the swooping roof lines and staggering walls of glass do not give us the vertigo or make us think we're looking at some thing an architect just tried too hard to make "interesting."

We don't really know why the couple is selling the house. Perhaps they are not interested in taking on the necessary restoration. Maybe they just want more privacy. Or maybe it has to do with the house next door that was recently purchased for $18,000,000 and is scheduled to be torn down and replaced with something far more grandiose. Or maybe they just see an opportunity to make ten or 15 million bucks. A few interior shots can be seen here.

Whatever the case, like many of the other properties purchased and sold by the Cox/Arquette duo over the last several years, including their current "town" residence on Wallace Ridge, this property was purchased through their Bring It Trust. Your Mama thinks this is the best celebrity real estate trust name yet.

And as it turns out, they've already purchased their next home in Malee-boo, also through their Bring It Trust. The new weekend house is up the road a piece and offers the couple and their kiddie named Coco far more privacy than the Lautner house. Now, Your Mama does not know much about the new house, but the aerial has the house looking like a 1950's ranch style and according to the property records it is just that: 2,142 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. Your Mama can only assume this architecure buff couple is either going to raze the thing or it has some interesting elements we can't see from the air. Could it be a Cliff May house? That would certainly explain the move from a Lautner. Or are these two planning on building some thing new and fabulous from the ground up with a big name architect?

As it turns out, their purchase also includes the small house to the left...a tiny 750 square foot 1 bedroom house on a single and separate lot. Although the two house do appear to share a driveway, they are separate tax lots. Perhaps this is where the nanny will be staying? Or maybe office space to run their budding television production empire?

Children, there are a few issues we're having with this place. First of all, we were hoping for a heated swimming pool. There seems to be room and we're hoping the Cox/Arquettes will indeed add that luxury soon.

We are also concerned about the hike down the bluff. This hillside does not look Your Mama friendly and we see ourselves possibly slipping and sliding all the way down. We think it would be best if we do not take our valiums before starting down the hill. We are hoping the green roofed shack near the beach is a storage area. With a hill like that to climb Your Mama can not be wrassling with our tote bag filled with the cocoa butter, a Danielle Steel novel, the Fiji water mister, sun hat, towels, radio, pill bottles, and all the other necessaries for having a nice day at the beach. This little shed would be a perfect place to stash the equipment.

We just hope that precocious Coco child does not think it's cute to be running Your Mama up and down that cliff while we're babysitting.

Sources: Media Bistro, Curbed LA

5 comments:

NatD said...

I saw this in People yesterday, and immediately logged on to your site to see if you had any info. Low, and behold, Mama didn't dissapoint the chilluns'.

Much love for Mama!

xoxo

Anonymous said...

FYI your showing the wrong house. The aerial photo you used is the next door neighbor at 27450 PCH

Your Mama said...

Okay darling, we think we've got the correct properties now...Thank you so much for alerting us to our prescription drug addled mistake.

Anonymous said...

Paul Allen owns the white house next door.

Anonymous said...
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