Monday, March 31, 2014

René Echevarria Lists Vince Vaughn's Former House in Los Feliz

SELLER: René Echevarria
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $4,200,000
SIZE: 3,587 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A well-connected celebrity real estate birdie landed on Your Mama's window sill this weekend to let us know that Emmy-nominated television writer and producer René Echevarria* listed his house in L.A. celebrity-approved Los Feliz area with an asking price of $4.2 million.

Property records show Mister Echevarria purchased the property in the coveted Oaks area of Los Feliz in August 2005 for $4,050,000. The seller was Vince Vaughn who, as far as Your Mama tell, purchased the property way back in early 1999 for $1.575 million.*

Current digital marketing materials show the two-plus story, 1930s-era Mediterranean main house has four bedrooms and three full and two half bathrooms in 3,587 square feet with additional living space in a detached guest house out back by the swimming pool. The property comprises two (as per the L.A. County Tax Man) or three (as per listing details) parcels—one vacant and undeveloped—that combined come to almost three quarters of an acre.

Not entirely hidden but behind gates and set well above the bucolic street. The main entrance is inconveniently around the side and up a long flight of stairs from the compact motor court and two-car garage. The front door opens to a bi-level, double height foyer with terra cotta tile floors and exposed wood ceilings.

Wide tile steps lead down to a roomy formal living room with wood floors, a high ceiling with rough hewn wood beams and, across from a tile-accented kiva-style fireplace set between over-sized windows with wrought iron grillwork, a generous bank of wood-framed glass doors to open spacious dining terrace fearlessly painted an imaginative shade of vermilion.

There are lower ceilings but more of those delicious, rough-hewn wood beams on the ceiling in the elegantly proportioned formal dining room and the wood flooring switches to an appropriate—if not exactly exciting—terra cotta tile in the expensively equipped—if kinda small and snoozy—eat-in kitchen. Wood-framed glass doors similar to those in the living room link the kitchen to a flag-stone paved terrace that spreads out to surround the swimming pool.

Upstairs there are four bedrooms and two bathrooms including a master suite with dressing area and attached bathroom with vintage-type tile work and updated with modern features such as a glass-enclosed steam shower with built-in bench. At least two of the three other guest/family bedrooms have direct access to a private terraces shaded by awnings that may or may not be the exact shade of vermilion as the terrace off the formal living room.

Off the kitchen a trellis-shaded dining terrace has an outdoor kitchen with built-in barbecue and overlooks a vaguely kidney shaped swimming pool with and attached spa. Beyond the swimming pool there's a self-contained guest/pool house with bathroom and kitchenette and tucked back in a quiet and verdant corner of the ground there's an open air pavilion with wrought iron railings and a inlaid terra cotta tile floors.

Mister Echevarria and his missus, Analisa, appear to have left Los Feliz for the affluent Agoura Hills community, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, where property records indicate they recently shelled out $1,783,405 for a spacious if nondescript, 5,348 square foot mock-Med with five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.

*Since the late 1990s Mister Echevarria has carved a lucrative niche in Hollywood writing and producing sci-fi series, mostly for the small screen. His credits include but are not limited to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star: Trek The Next Generation, Dark Angel, Medium, Castle and Teen Wolf). Both of Mister Echevarria's Emmy nominations were for The 4400, a 2004 t.v. mini-series Your Mama has neither seen nor head of before. But anyways...

**As a brief aside...Mister Vaughn has been a regular in all the celebrity real estate gossip columns over the last several year or so. Early in 2013 he de-listed his titanic triplex penthouse pad atop the Palmolive building in Chicago (IL). In April (2013) he and his Canadian (former) real estate agent missus, Kyla Weber, splashed out almost four million bucks for a Beaver Cleaver-style center hall Colonial the in a well-to-do L.A. suburb—that would be La Cañada-Flintridge—and then just a few weeks ago, the couple shelled out another $6.447 million for a 7,000+ square foot quasi-Craftsman-style house in Manhattan Beach (CA).

listing photos (Los Angeles): Keller Williams

6 comments:

Lara Knoerr said...

Absolutely gorgeous, I miss big open spaced homes living in the Mountains and this estate is just above the fold.

Little Miss Smoke and Mirrors said...

Spectacular. Unlike Fleur de Lys.

lil' gay boy said...

Apart from the somewhat "Halloweeny" bathroom, this is quite a stunningly honest Med.

Sandpiper said...

LGB/LB, agreed, but ...

I wouldn't have lead with the exterior shot showing the shellac starved garage doors, so-so concrete job in front of them, and the cracked bottom steps -- with the crack continuing up the adjoining rock wall planter. That stuff's just sloppy maintenance that probably should have been fixed pre-listing. Or, at least, I would have composed the marketing entry shot differently to avoid bringing those problem areas to the forefront.

That minor irritant aside, it is a very, very nice place, Really is.

Anonymous said...

My idea of Southern California, love it..

Anonymous said...

The only problem I have is with the kiddie swing set/slide so close to the swimming pool. That's a no no.