Thursday, September 20, 2007

Alex Band Flips Out in the Outpost Estates

SELLER: Alex Band and Jennifer Sky
LOCATION: Outpost Drive, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,995,000
SIZE: 2,668 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Outpost Estates, highly detailed 1920s Spanish Hacienda with courtyard entry. Gated double lot with park like grounds. Vaulted beamed ceiling living rm with orig. leaded glass windows. Spacious formal dining room, charming kitchen with antique stove and breakfast room. Single level floor plan featuring large master with luxurious bath and French doors opening to the pool. Walled and gated with motor-court and amazing rolling lawns, gardens, fountains, and dramatic observation terrace.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: These very young dudes from the rock band The Calling, which all reports say is on hiatus while members pursue solo careers, certainly seem to have made a lot of money for a band most people have probably never heard of. Or maybe it's just Your Mama who has never heard of them?

Not too long ago we discussed the West Hollywood property of another of the co-founders of The Calling, Aaron Kamin, who has been trying to sell his N. Kings Road house, which happens to sit di-rectly across the street from the house Paris Hilton recently sold to a couple of attorneys from Texas.

And now, the other co-founder of the little known band, the aptly named youngster Alex Band, has put his expensive house on the market. Your Mama is all perplexed and confused, and we are wondering, who are these 20-something year old brats that are living up in $3,000,000 houses? A little research tells Your Mama that Alex Band, who is flipping his gorgeous piece of property in the Outpost Estates section of Los Angeles, comes from a Hollywood family with enough money to own a castle in Italy. And he has an ack-tress wifey named Jennifer Sky who seems to have a fair number of credits on her resume. But more importantly to the band members' pocketbooks, they have written several songs that have been used on television and film soundtracks, which is perhaps where they've made their real money.

Property records indicate the couple only purchased the property, which covers two lots, in March of 2006 for $2,705,000, which means that after they pay their real estate fees and closing costs, they'll be lucky to get out with the pennies they put in to buying the property.

Your Mama has a lot of positive feelings about this property, which sits just up the road from the house that Jason Priestley sold to girlfriend Jill Marie Jones. But before we gush about how much we like this property, let's just say that as much as Your Mama loves the houses up in Outpost Estates, Outpost Drive, the main thoroughfare though the neighborhood scares the bejeezis out of us.

For all the children who have never driven up or coasted down Outpost Drive, let Your Mama educate you on the geography. Outpost Drive starts down low off of Franklin Avenue and climbs the hillside in a constant and fairly steep grade until it reaches Mulholland Drive at the crest of the hill. What this means is that it requires a damn tank of gas to haul the big BMW up to the top of the hill, and while no gas is used to coast down the hill, ev-er-ee-bodee in that neck of the woods knows the breakneck speeds at which all the hair brained daredevils coast down the hill in their mammoth Range Rovers and Yukons. Do not, we repeat, do not let your precious pooches anywhere near that road without putting them on a leash. Probably shouldn't allow your children in the street either, but Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter are less concerned about your 7 year olds than we are with our own long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly.

Anyhoo, Mister Band and Miz Sky's single story Spanish style house has a lot for Your Mama to love, including the tile roof, white washed exterior walls, modestly sized, if unusually shaped swimming pool, gorgeous wood floors, the excellent wood beamed ceiling in the living room, and wonderfully terraced grounds that climb the hillside for amazing views. Now of course Your Mama would need to strap a breathing apparatus to our back to get up to the sky high observation terrace, but if the Dr. Cooter were to haul up a big bottle of chilled gin, it just might be worth the effort.

Yes, we'd lose the flesh colored paint in the dining room, and the kitchen needs some real appliances rather than that low brow dishwasher that looks like it was bought at Home Despot, on sale. But otherwise this is the sort of property Your Mama likes best, modest, private, and in a solid and unpretentious neighborhood.

Your Mama would like to thank The Rolling Stone for once again tipping us off to another fantastic celebrity house. Children, you should all thank The Rolling Stone too for his many and gleeful contributions to our little blog.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful house. I'm sure the dining room looks MUCH better in person. Orange walls never photograph right.

Thanks to Rolling Stone and Mama.

Anonymous said...

Very nice. Love the landscaping. Love the terraces. Love the ceiling in living room. Hate the kitchen though.

Anonymous said...

Oh my! I now know what happened to the kitchen I grew up with! It's now on Outpost Drive!

Wasn't a fan of it when I was a child, still not a fan.

I love Outpost though. It is such a great neighborhood with really cool houses, and tree, and personality.

Anonymous said...

Nice little place.
Just needs some paint for the interor in places, new furnishings and a kitchen remodel.

Anonymous said...

Nice pad.If there is a cool thing about the entertainment biz these days...it's that it has become sooo "nichified" that you can rake big stamps and still be unknown.David Beckham anyone?Like that Outpost Dr. area.Marvin Gaye once lived up there.

Anonymous said...

You obviously live in a cave or are very musically deprived if you've never heard of The Calling. They had the biggest single of the year in 2002. The song "Wherever You Will Go" broke all sorts of Billboard records and was on the charts most of the year. They've also played to sold out crowds all over the world. But I guess being a real estate stalker doesn't give you much time to listen to music ;)

Anonymous said...

Never heard of Mr. Band or the Calling, but Jennifer Sky is a hottie! She was the hot blonde chick that was all over Mr. Jennie Garth in a couple of episodes of his awesome but short-lived TV show Fastlane a few years back (she's the one he had the hot sex with in the pilot if anyone but me remembers...)

Anonymous said...

Wow!! What a nice house and as others have said the landscaping is very nice.

Anonymous said...

The only thing this house would need is a revamped kitchen. Gut it out and design something else.

Anonymous said...

nice place! i really like the Outpost neighborhood. I'm live in the Bay Area, but I came down last week for my birthday weekend and my friend and I would walk her dog down Castilian and La Presa Drives...you can't even tell its like 2 seconds away from the madness of Hollywood blvd.

Anonymous said...

LOL! I thought I was the only one who referred to Home Depot as "the Home Despot"!

Anonymous said...

Talk radio host and famous misogynist Tom Leykis lives on Outpost Dr.

Blow me up, Mama.