Monday, January 14, 2008

Eric Mabius In Topanga

SELLER: Eric Mabius
LOCATION: Canon Drive, Topanga, CA
PRICE: $1,495,000
SIZE: ,891 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Charming 1930s walled and gated Spanish Hacienda surrounded by lush grounds and flowering gardens. Four bedroom three bath main house with exposed beam ceilings and hand plastered interiors. Gourmet kitchen with stainless appliances and travertine floors & designer baths with decorator finishes. Pavered outdoor patios & grassy lawns plus detached guest studio/art room/gym.

YOUR MAMAS UPDATE: Upon further inspection, we have determined and figured out that Mister Mabius actually sold this house back in March of 2007. So it's current decor and etc. DO NOT reflect his or his interior designer wife's taste. We goofed kids...So we've changed up the discussion to reflect.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Eric Mabius may best be known for his current gig on the surprise television hit Ugly Betty, but the hairless hottie has a long resume that precedes his work as a rich and entitled stud muffin opposite Miss America Ferrera. He was once an unknown actor in cult favorites like Welcome to the Dollhouse and I Shot Andy Warhol who went on to bigger and better gigs on The O.C. and The L Word. Now he's an international heart throb with screaming teenage gurl fans who earned a buff bodied spot on People Magazine's 2006 list of sexiest men alive.

Along the way he got married to an artist/interior designer named Ivy Sherman that he met while still in high school, made a mini-Mabius, and bought and bunked down in a small house up in the wilds of Topanga. According to property records Mister Mabius purchased this .38 acre property on Canon Drive with it's purdy little hacienda style house back in March of 2002 for just $635,0000. Oh children, remember the good ol' days when you could find a decent house in LA for under a million smackers?

Give Your Mama a moment because we are breathless with nostalgia thinking back to those days, now only a wisp of memory, may they rest in peace.

Anyhoo, according to records, Mister Mabius actually sold this house back in March of 2007 for $1,209,000. Records indicate that Mister Mabius' former tile roofed residence measures a modest 1,891 square feet and listing information reveals that four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a gourmet kitchen have all been squeezed into the space and a detached structure houses an art room/gym where Miz Sherman surely got creative and Mister Mabius kept his stomach flat and his biceps bulging.

Here's what we like about the house in it's current state: The cozy but not tiny rooms, the high, beamed ceilings, the white plaster walls, and the easy flow from the inside to the outside. We appreciate the monochromatic and soothing color palette and we L.O.V.E. that his looks like a house in which people actually live as opposed to an over decorated tableau designed to look like someone lives there comfortably. The upgraded bathroom is not very exciting, but it is attractive and we always appreciate a separate shower so that we don't have to haul ourselves over the edge of a tub in order to wash. Your Mama can imagine whittling away warm afternoons on the large paved terrace reading all the glossies and the tabs while the Dr. Cooter mixes gin and tonics and our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly frolic on the lawn.

But it's not all perfect. We can live with the light staging that was done for the photos–although seriously people who keeps a vase of flowers at the foot of the bed?–but all those antlers hanging on the walls make Your Mama a mite squeamish. We adore the travertine floors and the bookshelf full of cookbooks in the kitchen, but the layout is a wee tight looking and we would have preferred to see a slightly upgraded appliance package. And whatever message of cuteness that "VINO" sign is meant to transmit falls on deaf ears here. Ugh. Someone surely made a million dollars selling those things, but we'd gladly pay them a million dollars to recall them all.

Sink a swimming pool out back and Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter could live happily ever after in the in hippie heaven that is Topanga Canyon. We'd gleefully tolerate all the crystal wearing nature nuts and alternative healers who drive Jaguars and eat expensive organic food at the Inn of the Seventh Ray, and we'd spend evenings at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, a lovely outdoor amphitheatre where Shakespeare is alive and well and where Your Mama once spent a long afternoon burning sage and chanting as part of a very colorful and creative pal's wedding ceremony.

The only real problem we have with this place is that it's on the Calabasas side of the mountains, which means a dash to the market for terlit paper or a quick trip to the bank lands you in the bizarre world of The Commons at Calabasas where large lipped Lisa Rinna owns a boo-teek called Belle Grey. Now don't any of you people over in Calabasas take offense and send Your Mama all sorts of uglee hate mail extolling the virtues of Calabasas and/or Miz Rinna's leviathan pucker. You want to live up in your big ass tract homes, drive Hummers and shop in malls everyday? Well go on with your bad selves. That is your prerogative as a well-to-do citizen of Amurrica. But that particular world of suburban wonder is just not Your Mama's cup of tea. We're a geographic snob. We can't help it and we won't apologize for it. So, much as we love this little house, we'd love Mister Mabius' former cute casa even more if it sat closer to the Malee-boo side of the mountains.

We haven't a clue where Mister Mabius moved his family and well toned torso. But we have heard that he currently lives in the Santa Monica Mountains (as a commenter noted) and also that he's holed up in Hollywood apartment, which sounds strange. So Your Mama does not know what to think. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the Nov. 2007 issue of Instyle magazine - they have an article on Mabius and his house he lives in now in the Santa Monica mountain - it's a multi-level "abstract Italian villa" - that's what he calls it anyway. So guess that's where he moved to....

so_chic_darling said...

"abstract Italian" I don't like the sound of that,most of Mama's children know just how much I detest the so called Tuscan style,that in reality looks so cheap and not like anything ever seen in Tuscany.
I would like some pictures of this new style so that I can deconstruct it tick by tack.
It's time to make another call to the Italian consulate to see if there's anything they can do.

so_chic_darling said...

Having said that I find his old house very charming despite it's location.

Anonymous said...

It looks very cosy and liveable on the inside. Modest, yes, but that is no bad thing; its nicely done. I concur with our Mama that a pool should be added to the property to make it more desirable. What kills it for me, though, is the steep stairs from the drive up to the front door. No amount of dramatic landscaping can make the upward struggle with armfuls of shopping worthwhile.

Flora

Anonymous said...

Topanga is in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's probably the same house...

Anonymous said...

I dig the house, but not so keen on Topanga...it has its bohemian charm, but getting anywhere is an event, even when massive boulders aren't blocking Topanga Canyon Boulevard for weeks at a time.

And completely off topic: Is there still a Good Earth in Calabasas? Or maybe the better question is if there's still a Good Earth anywhere...

Anonymous said...

anon 8:58, I thought the same thing except the poster said "multilevel" which doesn't sound like this particular Santa Monica Mountains home.

Anonymous said...

Blandly staged so I won't hold it against it but this is just a little too rustic for me . . . and no pool? Pseudo Spanish/Mediterranean/Whatever is just not for me.

I'll pass, thank you.

Anonymous said...

. . . unless, of course, Eric came with the house.

;-)

Anonymous said...

It's not the same house - I have the Instyle magazine and the house is very contemporary and it's a 6 acre spread.

Anonymous said...

The problem I always have with this architecture is tiny windows. Why cut such small openings, when such great views are beyond? I respect and support stylistic integrity, but sometimes a little creative license isn’t a bad thing. Not such a huge deal in the canyons as it is when bitsy windows restrict ocean views; a sin worthy of flogging if you ask me.

The other thing, especially way up there, is snakes -- sunning in the daylight or resting in the dark. I would not go outside without up armoring in wrists full of jangling cloisonné bracelets, a hand full of keys … and playing a kazoo.

Anonymous said...

Sandpiper, know any good tunes you can play on the kazoo on Mama's show?

Anonymous said...

You know...I haven't really seen that many snakes in So Cal. We had a lot more of them in the southeast. Maybe all the hungry critters running wild in the SM mountains keep the snake population down? But I can identify with wearing loud jewelry at night so the skunks and coyotes know to go in the opposite direction.

Anonymous said...

The only "critters" we need to avoid in my neck of the woods are Jehovah's Witnesses.

luke220 said...

Sandpiper,
The windows are small to block the sun's rays and to keep the home as cool as possible. These homes were built before central air was popularized. And smaller openings for the snakes to crawl into.

Anonymous said...

LGB, I can play "Heart and Soul" on the piano. Can I play that on the show?

Mama, when are you going to tell us more about the show?

Anonymous said...

Sunny, we can do a duet!

But we'll have to angle the piano right to show off our lederhosen.

Anonymous said...

Luke - You're right and I now know reason for little windows. You're funny, too.

3:00 - I've been overly warned by friends up there. No snake bites or skunk attacks to date. :)

Little buddy - I can destroy any tune on my kazoo. Pick one for me.

Anonymous said...

"Stardust", Sandpiper, "Stardust" - what could be more appropriate?

Anonymous said...

PCH, no Good Earth here in CaliB, but lots of Hummers, botox and Gucci. I've lived here for 10 years and it has changed dramatically. The Commons is SCARY! I dream of moving everyday, but have one kid left in Calabasas High School, home of no child left without a BMW.
Love this little Topanga house.