Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Ashley Jensen and Terence Beesley Re-List at a Loss



SELLERS: Ashley Jensen and Terence Beesley
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,589,000
SIZE: 2,512 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: During the 2008-2009 renovation of a hillside house in the upscale Oaks section of Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood, house flipper turned reality tee-vee star cum interior decorator Jeff Lewis installed a new deck that crossed the property line between his house and the one next door owned by Scotch-born Extra and Ugly Betty actress Ashley Jensen and her Brit-born thespian hubby Terence Beesley.

While blond Miz Jensen and bald Mister Beesley may not be the most householdy of names in Tinseltown, real estate watchers in Los Angeles are very well acquainted with the ex-pat pair due to their public wrangle and tangle with the occasionally confrontational Mister Lewis who has, let's just say, a well-honed flair for the dramatic.

Mister Lewis claimed the border crossing was a mistake; Miz Jensen had a hissy fit and said it was intentional. (Who does something like that intentionally?) He offered her ten grand for an easement to the encroachment and she, on the advice of "experts," demanded $100,000. He got huffy–we just love it when Mister Lewis gets huffy–and counter-offered $30,000 to make it all go away. She filed a restraining order against him.

Natch, he issued a press release that cast him as the victim in the decking debacle and claimed he "never threatened either of them with physical harm, nor was I abusive or verbally threatening to either of them." Mister Lewis went on to somewhat surprisingly state he had "never even met Ms. Jensen."

In April 2009 the Hatfields and the McCoys found their way to a resolution that had Mister Lewis pay Miz Jensen and Mister Beesley $30,000 for the offending and offensive encroachment. Mister Lewis issued another high-lariously cat-clawed statement that said, "I'm happy Ms. Jensen has returned to Earth, removed the restraining order, and insisted we settle our boundary dispute for my original offer of $30,000." Not one to miss an opportunity to pound the final nail into the coffin–or, depending on one's point of view, to beat a dead horse–Mister Lewis' statement went on to state, no doubt with some tongue in cheek, "She reported she's done this in an effort to be 'neighborly.' Unfortunately, that ship set sail six months before the three ring circus and the $50,000 in combined attorneys' fees," he said. "I look forward to the next neighborhood barbecue."

Suh-nap!

Anyhoo, at the time of the deck dispute Mister Lewis had his city-view home on the market with an asking price well in excess of three million clams. He had a devil of a time unloading the white elephant that eventually sold in October 2010–about 2.5 years after it first appeared on the open market–for $2,325,000. No doubt Mister Beesley and Miz Jensen were ecstatic when Mister Lewis decamped the Oaks for a rental residence in West Hollywood. (Mister Lewis has since bought a house in Los Feliz where he plans, according to what he said on the most recent season of Flipping Out, to settle down and raise babies with his exceedingly well groomed and much younger man-beau/business associate Gage Edward.)

Whatever glee they may have felt by Mister Lewis' exit at stage left appears to have been short lived since Miz Jensen and Mister Beesley put their own house, a two-story mid-century modern on .47 acres, on the open market in February 2011 with an asking price of $1,999,000. By August the price tag had dropped to $1,775,000 and yesterday it tumbled to $1,589,000.

Listing information shows Miz Jensen and Mister Beesley snatched the property up for $1,650,000 in May 2007, the tail end of the inflated peak of the real estate bubble that has since burst. A few quick flicks of the well-worn beads of Your Mama's bejeweled abacus indicates that even with an unlikely full price sale Miz Jensen and Mister Beesley are looking at a $61,000 loss not counting renovation and carrying costs, legal fees, and real estate commissions.

Listing information shows the house, located up a shared private drive near the tail end of a gated street, has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms in 2,512 square feet of interior space. A narrow entrance hall joins the front door to the open plan main living/dining room that centers on a massive stacked stone fireplace in the living area. The airy living area has seal grey stone tile floors, a vaulted ceiling, and glittery city and sunset views through a wall of west-facing floor-to-ceiling glass panels and sliding doors.

The formal dining area connects to the eat-in kitchen colorfully outfitted with blood red lacquered cabinets, charcoal grey counter tops of indeterminate material, and a bevy of stainless steel appliances that include a built-in coffee and espresso machine. A four-stool snack counter separates the kitchen from the family room area (with fireplace) and the glassed-in breakfast area with vaulted ceiling that spills out to a narrow balcony through a wide bank of sliding glass doors.

The main floor master connects to the terrace that surrounds the swimming pool though a wall of windows and sliding doors and includes a double-sinked facility with glass enclosed shower cubby. A floating staircase in the main living area climbs to the second level where two additional bedrooms with pitched ceilings and stone tile floors share a second single double-sinked bathroom with separate soaking tub and shower.

In addition to the courtyard at then entry, the slender balconies that run along the back of the house, and the concrete terrace that wraps around three sides of the infinity-edged swimming pool with inset sap there's a tree-shaded gravel pathway that connects to a gently curved, pergola-shaded deck with canyon and city views.

Your Mama would like the children to note that listing photos shown here are from when the property was first put on the market in early 2011 with Sotheby's. Current listing information with Prudential California shows a more pared down, possibly partly staged, and certainly less than perfect day-core. Make of that what you will.

Several online reports indicate that in addition to their no longer wanted Los Angeles home, Miz Jensen and Mister Beesley also own a flat in the swanky Holland Park area in West London as well as a little house in Italy's Umbria region.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Snap, Crackle, Pop! Mr Lewis let loose on these crazyed owners.... Loves the drama... loves the settlement... love the slaps heard in the neighborhood when Lewis got his hissy out on the crazy neighbors. 1.5 Sold.

Kisses.

Anonymous said...

Scotch-born !!! It should be Scots born. The other is a drink.

angie said...

Remarkable restraint on Jeff's part, especially for him, even though he's technically 'at fault' here.

I think it's fitting that Ms Jensen and Mr Beesley appear poised for their front door to smack them in the backside on the way out financially.

Very interesting article Mama, merci bien!

Anonymous said...

'It should be Scots born. The other is a drink.'

Or indeed 'Brit-born' like her husband is described ...

Anonymous said...

Dayum Gurl! Funny thing is I know who the Reality Star Jeff is but not a clue on the owners of this house are... Merciness the drama from the lady of the abode. Jeff is laughing to the bank and they are well... not laughing. Oops, I bet they are focusing on "restraint" not "restraining" at this point in the game OOPS POOPS.

Oh Yes.

1. Great Pool and VIew
2. House though = Tragic

Anonymous said...

Is it just me, or does that house, at least from the outside, look like it's a standard cookie-cutter 1960's suburban bi-level?

Anonymous said...

Into the empty glass, he stared, knowing that his life pursuits had left him curiously unfufilled.

Anonymous said...

The cliff beckoned. Yes, he told himself, maybe I will...

Anonymous said...

Although Mama occasionally dips down into what is probably the top 5% of Americans wealth and income wise, most of the time she lets us know the real estate ways of the top one tenth of one percent of Americans. This serves several interests: those who want to ogle and envy; those who want to critique; and also those who want to despise and detest. I quite like doing the latter since living in a palace while millions upon millions of others can't even afford a hovel to call their own is in itself detestable and worthy of hatred. You can't really hate the super rich until you see how pampered they are. This blog allows one to do that very conveniently. I wonder if it helped the Occupy Wall
Streeters to find the places in NYC where they staged their protests. Keep up the good work, Mama.

Anonymous said...

@ anon 10:12 - I don't think Mama profiles anyone who isn't in the top 2% for income or wealth since it takes more than $250k of yearly income to be ahead of 98.5% of households. The 5% folks are somewhere around $200k/year. Hardly celebrity status and thus, unworthy of the effort to ogle, envy, despise, detest or critique. Just sayin'.

I agree with anon 7:26. Jeff is having a good laugh. The pool is nice, but instead of suing Jeff, they should have hired him. The house is tragic.

Lady J

Chatty Charlie said...

My god...carpeted stairs + glass railing + stone fireplace? I want whatever drugs their interior designer was smoking, it must be some really good stuff~

Pudenda Shenanigans said...

I know Ms. Lewis has uberfans here, and I am certainly one as well, but I'd need more info before completely passing judgment on their skiff. I mean, how much of her actions had to do with the TV show production going on next door? How much was overhype from Ms. Lewis? How much was simple misunderstanding? A restraining order could have been requested just to be positively sure that he wouldn't come over for a confab with a cameraman in tow. I know *I* would consider it under the circumstances. Most of these things are far less one-sided than the one side you've heard from would have you believe.

Having said that, I just clicked on the Prudential link from the posted article. Apparently this house was reduced to less than $1.5m as of 10/21. Ouch. And there's an Open House scheduled for this Sunday.