Friday, September 18, 2009

January Jones Snags a Fixer in Los Feliz

BUYER: January Jones
LOCATION: Ambrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,020,000
SIZE: 2,200 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Savor this sunny '20s Mediterranean villa on one of Los Feliz's most picturesque streets. Large rooms, high ceilings, French windows and doors lend a note of graciousness throughout. Full-width living room with fireplace; spacious dining room and kitchen; over-scale master bedroom suite plus 2 family bedrooms all on second floor. Landscaping to delight the avid gardener. Mostly flat lot affords play area too. Updated. Det. 2-car garage with long driveway.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Back on the first of September, Mister Big Time ran one of his "Which Celebrity's House Is This?" posts about a property in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, CA which had been sold for $1,020,000 in late July of 2009. Given the way the deed was filed, he suspected the property had been purchased by someone notable.

We soon received a covert communique from our practically omniscient informant Lucy Spillerguts who whispered in Your Mama's big ear that the modest house located on pretty but not particularly fancy Ambrose Avenue was purchased by actress January Jones who, the children may recall, works her fine thing as the beautiful and neurotic yet cunning Betty Draper on Mad Men. Before Miss Jones landed her plum gig on Mad Men and got nominated for a Golden Globe, she starred in a number tee-vee programs (Law & Order) and movies (American Wedding, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) but was perhaps best known as a model who mixed it up with high profile men like Ashton Kutcher, Jim Carey, and Josh Groban.

Just as reported by Mister Big Time, property records indicate that Miss Jones paid $1,020,000 for the 1920s quasi-Mediterranean and listing information points out the house measures 2,200 square feet and includes 3 bedrooms and 2.5 poopers.

Now children, before y'all start tearing ruthlessly into the day-core, let's keep in mind that Miss Jones did not buy the slip covered furniture, the silly, patterned plates hung willy-nilly on the walls in the kitchen or, thank jeezis, that deeply disturbing neon and corrugated metal monstrosity in the dining room. It's hard for Your Mama to imagine that someone actually spent time and energy conceiving and making that hot mess, but they did. Your Mama would rather have a root canal than work on such a thing, but all things being fare, we're pretty sure there are any number of people who are pretty sure the way we spend our spare and creative time is inexcusably without merit.

Anyhoo, "artwork" choices of the seller aside, looking strictly at the bones of Miss Jones' new house and remembering that not every celebrity has the financial wherewithal or burning desire to live in a super slick crib above the Sunset Strip or a damn palace in Beverly Hills, it's not hard for Your Mama to see that a smart architect and a nice, gay decorator could easily work out some of the kinks and tease out a sweet if undistinguished little house here.

The living room runs the full width of the house and has lovely wood floors, a stone fireplace, and a full wall of large windows that look to Your Mama's untrained eye more Craftsman than Mediterranean. The blond wood floors continue into the decently sized dining room large enough accommodate a few friends for Thanksgiving dinner and once the kitchen and laundry room are reconfigured, remodeled, opened up to the back yard and perhaps even expanded, we're sure it will no longer resemble the cheap ass kitchen in the dumpy domicile in which Your Mama and our finely feathered friend Sheila Sinn lived during the last days of our lackluster college career.

A detached two car garage sits at the back of the property begging for a second floor guest house to be tacked on to the top and the flat backyard pleads, "Please put me out of my misery and tear out all this brickwork and all these random plants and replace me with a swimming pool and some drought tolerant Jay Griffith gorgeousness."

We'd bet almost everything we have that once Miss Jones and her peeps complete working over her new house we'll see her lushly photographed lounging in her boo-dwar for the glossy pages of InStyle or some other publication that elevates pretty celebrities to deities who know all there is to know about romance, fashion and interior day-core. But that's really another beef for another day, ain't it children. Today we'll refrain from getting up on our soap box and simply wish Miss Jones a happy new home and tell her to be sure to let Your Mama know if she needs the names a few few nice, gay decorators who can work her interiors like nobody's bidness.

12 comments:

www.CelebrityDigsHQ.com said...

Hey RealEstalker,

We love your blog and pull stories from it often! You're site is listed on our blog as one of our favorite sources.

We also love January Jones in Mad Men! As for her house, you are right to point out that she's not responsible for the "daycore." Still not sure about the bones of this house being all that great. But we sure do see a lot of potential for that front door. Love the fretwork!

Best,
Celebrity Digs HQ

Anonymous said...

It always makes me wonder why anyone would post a pic of the laundry room on a listing when one would think and hope there were other more "important" rooms they could have shown pics of.

Madam Pince said...

Mama, there's nothing I love more than a fixer-upper, and I think Miss Jones snagged a great one!

Anonymous said...

they should pay her more money so she can afford a nicer place.

Kissyface said...

"Savor this sunny '20s Mediterranean villa on one of Los Feliz's most picturesque streets."

What?

Love Ambroase. Ambrose is a very nice street, and especially good for trick-or-treating on Halloween! Nice house. Love the house. But, Mama: This is a nice enough house, but it's no Mediterranean! Every bone in its revival body was dug up well north of the Apennines! This house could have been presented as an "American colonial revival" in Cambridge, Mass. in 1925 without anyone raising an eyebrow.

Salt box shape. No tiled or hipped roof. Not one arched door or window. Shallow eaves. No rusticated beams. No real or faux balcony or balcony-gesture other than, perhaps, what looks like rear deck. No courtyard. No wrought iron detailing other than Home-Depo security grates. English colonial style wood spindles on the stairs. No clay pavers (brick walkways).

Or is wood paneling on what looks like the not-original-to-the-house front door and stucco walls now enough to make a house a "Mediterranean?" In Los Feliz!!? Is that little ambiguous bas relief on the front supposed to pass as Manueline detailing?

Again, I'm not knocking the house. It's a nice house on a nice street. But "Mediterranean?" Please.

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Good for her! She strikes me as an artsy type that would love a fixer-upper to decorate.

sirvan said...

Wow! Whatta price.. This house is really gallant. I love it.

Anonymous said...

Hey Celebrity Digs HQ:

>>>>> BUY AN AD or go away.

NewYorkQueer said...

I'm thinking this was bought for the ner do well brother/screen-writter to live in. Seems that kind of a stash house where you put someone you are responsible for but have no idea what to do with. I can practically smell the desperation of past tennants seeping out of the walls of those ordinary rooms. Mental confusion and a generous weekly stipend would go along way to explaining the current "art" collection being displayed.
Just an aside on Misha's cottage. I would rent it just to roll around in that boys sheets even knowing he is straight as they come. Of course Nureyev and I did meet on a few memorable occassions but that is another story for another time.

Anonymous said...

I find this totally strange..being a Los Felizer, there are many great houses here that are better fixers or already done...also, for security, this isn't a good choice.

Anonymous said...

Let's talk nice, gay decorators in LA - who would you recommend for this place? Discuss.

Anonymous said...

OMG! I love this house, where do I sign up?