Thursday, September 6, 2007

Usher's Suburban Atlanta Manse

SELLER: Usher
LOCATION: Merriweather Woods, Alpharetta, GA
PRICE: $1,995,000 (increased from $1,950,000)
SIZE: 8,022 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Luxurious owners ste on main, exquisite detail thruout, terrace, features hair salon, exercise rm, fam rm w/ custom bar, billiard rm & bdrm. Recording std & guest.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama has never cruised the streets of Buckhead or Alpharetta, Georgia in our big BMW, so we really don't know what we're talking about when we say that we do not understand the pull suburban Atlanta seems to have on a myriad of rich and famous, particularly those from the music set. We imagine all the Georgians will proudly tell us that the better suburbs of Atlanta are filled with lush and lavish estates that rival those in Beverly Hills and Bergen County, NJ, only with much cheaper price tags.

Case in point is the suburban pile of hip hop crooner Usher. Yesterday, Your Mama received a call from Southern Sam, our man in Atlanta, who let us know that Mister Usher has put his Alpharetta mansion on the market for $1,950,000, a modestly priced abode given given just how rich this man is.

If we are being honest, and you know we always are, Your Mama confesses that we do not know practically anything about this Usher person, and we would easily fail any test that required we hum a few bars of any of his songs. What little we do know about this man, we have learned in the glossy tabs, so you know it's salacious and has little to do with his talents. All Your Mama knows about the 28 year old singer is that in late July 2007, he canceled his tremendous and expensive wedding at the Southampton spread of music mogul L.A. Reid just hours (hours!) before he was scheduled to wed a gal named Tameka Foster, a much older 37 year old mommy of three who also has Usher's bun in the oven.

Had we been invited to the nuptials, and strangely, we were not, Your Mama would have been one irritated guest after trucking our self all the way to the damn Hamptons in the humid heat of the summer only to be turned away at the gates with our lovely gift of a custom made and overly expensive fondue set. Now babies, Your Mama does not think that anyone should get married if they get the cold feet, but this Usher thing was some rude shit, especially since the couple ended up getting married just a few weeks later in a big ceremony in, surprise!, suburban Atlanta. Your Mama would NOT have forwarded that fondue set to Atlanta, we can tell you that.

According to a recent article on a website called Access Atlanta, the Usher residence occupies a large corner lot in a subdivision called the Country Club of the South, which appears to be a gated golf course community of tightly packed mansions. According to property records, Mister Usher paid $1,200,000 in December of 1998 when he purchased the property from none other than L.A. Reid, who quickly took his money and decamped for seaside Southampton, NY

The 8,022 square foot grey stucco mansion includes 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms according to the listing information. Also included on the property is a guest house, in ground swimming pool, den, office, recreation room, media room, music studio (natch), and a hair salon. A hair salon? Now babies, we know that the rich and famous ahve to be walking the red carpets and looking their absolute best just to go to the dman 7-11, but isn't a home hair salon just a little extreme for a man that could prolly cut his own hair with a good set of Wahl clippers?

Unfortunately, Your Mama really has very little nice to say about this house and it's decor. We are not fond of the faux Beidermeier/Versace cabinet work in the living room and the curved satin couch is just so wrong we don't even know what to say about it except that it really belongs in the dressing room of an aging Broadway diva who brings her cats to the theater. The dining room as a whole is just awful, but we do like the red carpet, and probably out favorite item in all the photos would be that strange planter with the gold hands that act as feet...now children, you might disagree with Your Mama here, but we think that thing is so crazy it's good.

Clearly the newly married couple need a larger home to accommodate their growing brood of brats and the necessary nannies that will be required to keep the kids in check while daddy Usher tours and mommy keeps pushing out babies. The question now is do they stay in suburban Alpharetta or pack their Louis Vuitton for another of the many upscale suburban Atlanta developments?

Sources: Access Atlanta, Show Buzz, People,

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

The exterior looked promising, but the interior is just plain odd. And ugly. I'm sure it fits somewhere, but certainly not in this house.

PS From what I have read, Mama Usher is not too thrilled with the new Mrs. Usher and may have had sumptin to do with the postponement. Now there's a good start to a marriage!

Anonymous said...

CCOS is home to many of the ATL's rich, famous or wannabees. Usher is regulary seen in the Buckhead area, which tends to be older money....

Anonymous said...

I'm all over the map on this one MAMA.Let me start by saying that I may be alone on this one...but Mr.Raymonds'(his last name) home is only slightly smaller than Mr.Maguires' HP dwelling...yet is reasonably priced...nicer looking(exterior-wise)...and in a nicer 'hood.If memory serves me correct-this home was featured on MTV CRIBS & has a rather nice pool out back.In what may be possible in at most three cities in this wonderful nation of ours-CCOS may be considered a Black Beverly Hills.Indeed the older money does live in Buckhead-and there too you will find some of the "kinda' old money" pioneers of the entertainment biz.(Isaac Hayes)..as well as some wealthy Black folk who made their money in ANYTHING BUT entertainment.(law,medicine,construction)
That being said-his pad still has a whiff of McMansion about it.His mama is right about the new Mrs. Raymond.But when you're young...and mama has been running your life and career all these years...I'm guessin' he wanted to show her he could make an adult decision.Nice goin' kid.

Anonymous said...

Usher & Kobe Bryant should be in contact with someone about the train wreck of a reality series their respective divorces are gonna almost REQUIRE.

Anonymous said...

i believe the satin couch is for having sex on.

my mother Lynne advised my husband Heather Poe to wear his dark satin pj's and i my white satin empire-waisted peignoir and that we use Issac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul on the stereo, to well, improve the quality of heather's erections by a factor of two.

it worked for her, it worked for us, and i imagine it works for Usher!

Anonymous said...

Nothing special here.

Just looks like a LARGER track home.

Anonymous said...

It's NOT track. It's tract home.

Anonymous said...

the house is blah, as is his music, hee hee.

Just wanted to add that many (most?) African American women have their hair done weekly or twice weekly and it can take hours each time, so it's sort of common for a wealthy black family to have an in-house salon so their hair stylist can come to them and they can sit in the privacy of their own home for those 2-6 hours straight while getting their hair done each week.

Anonymous said...

Usher prefers the company of men.If you know what I mean.

Anonymous said...

What horridly fugly home. Seems to me that CCOS is not a place anyone with old school Atlanta money would be caught dead in. Too noveau rich.

Anonymous said...

Soul Pole wrote: "In what may be possible in at most three cities in this wonderful nation of ours-CCOS may be considered a Black Beverly Hills.Indeed the older money does live in Buckhead-and there too you will find some of the "kinda' old money" pioneers of the entertainment biz.(Isaac Hayes)..as well as some wealthy Black folk who made their money in ANYTHING BUT entertainment.(law,medicine,construction)"

Hey Soul Pole, you pretty much hit it right on the nail. Momma said that she didn't understand the pull and appeal of why some of the rich and famous are being attracted to suburban Altanta. What you wrote pretty much sums up the appeal. In many instances it's the Black Beverly Hills of the south.

Anonymous said...

Alpharetta couldn't be any lamer if it tried.

Of course, I'd rather have an STD than live in Atlanta, even if I were given a house in Buckhead.

Anonymous said...

This house sucks. There is not a single nice thing I can say about it. I am a southern girl and even I am baffled by the desire to live in these McMansions outside of Atlanta. I would rather an outragesouly overpriced penthouse in Buckhead before moving to the Atlanta burbs. One positive thing I can say about Atlanta and its draw to the wealthy is that you obviously get the biggest bang for your buck there and the quality of life is not that bad. Relatively fresh air, open spaces and plenty of trees. Plus no paprazzi stalking. And if one wanted it, they could get a lot more acreage than you could find in LA.

Anonymous said...

Mama you have been making my nerve condition act up and i'm most disturbed by the lack of basic interior design skills shown in so many of the recent postings.
What's wrong with everybody?It's not like there aren't lots of fabulous things to buy here in LA.Where do they get all this crap?

Anonymous said...

I guess there's plenty of crap to buy in Atlanta too.

Anonymous said...

hmmm looking at those interior photos I'm guessin Atlanta has itself a big ole Levitz....

Anonymous said...

RE: Tobey Maguire Buys Hancock Park Mansion.
Just got off the phone with Tobey’s publicist who after speaking with him, categorical denies that he has bought this house. Publicists wouldn’t lie would they?? Over to you Mama

From cynical bastard

Anonymous said...

OH I do love SugarHoney's and Sister Mary's comments, an wholly concur. As for me... "well land-sakes" and other such southern bell colloquialisms go a ringin' in my head just at the thought of this homage to Southern Comfort (!) and new money. If I'm not mistaken, the furniture is from Italia 2000... that place on Ventura Blvd I used to see when I had the Discovery serviced in Encino years ago. I believe the style is called Haute Pimp, or is that Gigilo Chic? As for Atlanta... there's a reason why property is cheap there. The south SUCKS! Who in their right f*cking mind would choose to live in someplace that still flys the Confederate flag? Oh, yes. Let me pay $1.9 to watch a cross being burned on the front 40 from the comfort of my own sateen sofa (or I suppose they say couch) -

Anonymous said...

We say divan down here in these parts instead of couch or sofa.

Anonymous said...

Is this the same neighborhood as Whitney and Bobbaaaayyyyy's house?

Looking at the living room, all I can think is how the poor maid has to climb all up on top of that ugly garish wood and dust it.

Anonymous said...

If it please the court, I had the misfortune of growing up with a father who hailed from FW TexASS. And from his side of the family, I can agree that there are all kinds of people everywhere. (But not "everywhere" has the Confederate flag a blazin' in the wind).

Anonymous said...

hey hippie, you sound like a biggot, which is contradictory to all the legit hippies i love. and the flag has nothing to do with what you are implying, (its just an easy target).
i would suggest that you can find that mindset everywhere, (w/o the flag)
hint...don't be so hard on your folks, whole different era, can't hold previous generations to our progressive ways.
i say, back to the wacky world of unreal estate

Anonymous said...

oops, last sermon was caveman

Anonymous said...

Mama, Alpharetta is mostly icky McMansions sprawled among the few remaining old weekend equestrian estates of Atlanta's old money. Proper Atlantans live in the lovely old neighborhoods like Midtown, Inman Park, Virginia - Highlands, Morningside, Druid Hills or Buckhead. Though now Buckhead has become very nouveau with lots of tear-downs replaced by tacky stucco castles, the city is a lovely place to live with a fun, young and vibrant night life. Just make sure you're away at you're summer place in the Hamptons or on the Vineyard during July and August. The humidity can make the ice in a lady's cocktail melt faster than a gal can chug! And I prefer a dainty sip, of course.

Anonymous said...

mama would you please find dallas austin's house in ATL on this season mtv cribs and give us the interior details and exterior specs and location. i'm coming into some money and i gotta have it or some of the elements in it.

Anonymous said...

The south is not all bad Hippie Canyon. Take it from a hippie lovin' black chicka from Alabama. Atlanta does have its charms, specifically the neighborhoods that $2 Cocktail pointed out. Every now and again I see that Confederate Flag flying off the back of someones F-150, but more often than not I see Roll Tide.

Anonymous said...

Now I could go for some real Biedermeier. This Usher house and most of these Atlanta mansions are not attractive to me in the least.

lilkunta said...

@layler
AfrAm get their hair done 3x a week? No wonder there hair falls out! That is TOO MUCH heat on the hair!
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Layler said...
September 6, 2007 8:32 AM

the house is blah, as is his music, hee hee.

Just wanted to add that many (most?) African American women have their hair done weekly or twice weekly and it can take hours each time, so it's sort of common for a wealthy black family to have an in-house salon so their hair stylist can come to them and they can sit in the privacy of their own home for those 2-6 hours straight while getting their hair done each week.

Anonymous said...

Usher'sfirst
Keep hating on his house I knew him before he became who he Is, back when " she likes it my way" was playing so all you quit hating!
Don't buy it or look at it then dang,
Usher'sfirst...

Anonymous said...

lol shut up, I live right across the road from CCOS, the houses range from 700,000 and up. I almost moved there and im not even rich. also, if you dont like alpharetta, then stfu because we don't hate black ppl nor are we all black.

and yeah alpharetta got SWAG.

Anonymous said...

i live in CCOS and usher literally lives right down the road.. his house is just very modest. alpharetta doesnt hate black people.. daats ridiculous. but usher has been renovating his house and Justin Bieber moved into CCOS.. heard he bought ushers house.. we see usher a lotttt.. he goes to the starbucks near our house and stufff. hes nice so stop hating. just because hes modest unlike some stars who have to have a hugeeee house doesnt mean shit. whenn he was marries he lived in my brothers friends in neighborhood right across the street from him and now just his ex wife lives their with her kids. it was a hugeee house and the neighborhood have very few housessss. leave usher alone.

Michelleushersnextwife said...

I love his home. Unlike all these other r&b stars out here. Its rediculous how there homes look. I believe that yes he has money,but seems as if he just wanted a fab house for him self not the world. So go Usher. I give u much love on all life has in store for u.

Unknown said...

Decent house not to big not to small