Ron Howard Wants to Lighten His Real Estate Load

SELLERS: Ron and Cheryl Howard
LOCATION: Greenwich, CT
PRICE: $27,500,000
SIZE: 17,200 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 5 full and 4 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: The property gossips at The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) announced today that child star turned internationally lauded and applauded blockbuster movie maker Ron Howard and his wife, Cheryl, hoisted their customized compound in swanky and semi-rural Greenwich, CT, up for grabs with an asking price of $27,500,000.

Listing details indicate the bucolic estate spans almost 33 acres within the gates of the high-fallutin' Conyer's Farm enclave where it butts up against scenic, 140-acre Converse Lake, about an hour from Midtown Manhattan. The Howards' secluded compound, their home for two decades, encompasses a 17,200 square foot neo-Victorian main mansion with seven fireplaces, six bedrooms and five full and four half bathrooms plus a separate 2,500 square foot two bedroom Craftsman-style guest cottage.

The grounds are roomy, well-equipped and expensively maintained and the three story, 23-room mansion is sumptuously appointed, unquestionably luxurious and carefully crafted with high quality materials. (Did you see the fully-paneled double-height library/office?) But, in all honesty, and with all due respect to Mister Howard who has more than earned his place in the pantheon of Tinseltown royalty, the day-core seems to this buttinsky property gossip on the grimly ordinary and even a bit stuffy.

Fer chrissakes, the (natural light flooded, step-down) formal living room has matching gold brocade sofas and a harp. A harp! This could easily be the formal living room of couple of pinch-fazed geezers. Nothing wrong we geezers, children. We know some and love some. Shoot, we practically are one. But high-nosed geezer traditionalism as a decorative style just does not vibrate positively with Your Mama or The Dr. Cooter or just about anyone else we know. But that's neither here nor there, so...

Other rooms include a formal dining room with mural covered walls, a den (or something) with a built-in aquarium next to the fireplace, the above mentioned double-height library/office, and a chef-friendly kitchen. There's also a billiard/game room, a gym, a yoga studio and, as one can and should expect of a deep pocketed movie maker, the Howard home has a home theater with a popcorn machine and modern versions of old-timey movie house chairs as well as bean bag chairs for the young and young at heart.

Set up on one of the property's higher points, an idiosyncratic and fully functional observatory silo with a professional grade telescope allows for stay-at-home stargazing. There's an indoor saltwater swimming pool—the Howards are a family of gingers, after all—plus a vast indoor sports complex with a full-sized tennis court, a half-court basketball court and a spa.

The there are formal rose and boxwood gardens, an organic kitchen garden, a greenhouse, barns and paddocks for the ponies and something called an "ivy-draped stone head house." Mister and Missus Howard also keep miniature horses, donkeys, sheep, alpacas, chickens, ducks, dogs, (more than a dozen) cats, fish, a bird and a tortoise, some of which, listing details indicate, may be available for adoption by the estate's next owner.

According to the WSJ Mister and Missus Howard have decided to part with their long-time primary home in Greenwich because all their children have moved out and because they're constantly on the move, shuttling between homes in Paris, Los Angeles—where they own a spacious, ocean view condo in Santa Monica, and New York City. In New York City—as one of the children kindly pointed out and which we did not previously know—the Howards own a spacious apartment in one of the towers of the spectacular El Dorado building on Central Park West and our research indicates they also own one bedroom pied-a-terre in a prime, pre-war building in the West Village that appears to have been offered for lease last year at $5,500 per month.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker

Robert Downey Jr. Adds to L.A. Property Portfolio.

BUYER: Robert Downey, Jr.
LOCATION: Pacific Palisades, CA
PRICE: $2.5 million
SIZE: 1,950 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Although he needs another multi-million dollar residence in Los Angeles area like he needs an angry swarm of bees in his toothpaste, two-time Oscar nominated actor Robert Downey, Jr. has none-the-less shelled out exactly $2.5 million for a picket-fenced and high-hedged ranch-style house in the low-key but high-priced Huntington Palisades 'hood of Pacific Palisades, CA.

This property gossip don't know a shovel from a chaise lounge but the house, expensive by almost any standard but, perhaps, a bit modest for a man of Mister Downey Jr's standards and entertainment industry status, was probably acquired to house staff, friends and/or family. The corner property sits about as close to what amounts to downtown Pacific Palisades as a house can sit and listing details show the angled, single-story abode, originally built in 1947, is currently configured with four bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,950 square feet.

Well-maintained hardwood floors run throughout the open concept main living space that includes a living room with fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the backyard. The adjoining dining area is separated from the kitchen by a short snack peninsula, a double-wide, all-white galley-style situation with raised panel cabinets, white ceramic tile counter tops and higher-grade stainless still counter tops. The wood floors continue into all four bedrooms and both bathrooms appear to have been fairly recently remodeled, the larger with tile floors, a free-standing soaking tub and separate, glass enclosed shower stall.

A detached two-car garage was fitted and kitted by the seller as a recording studio. Frankly, we'd prefer a protected place to park our car but Your Mama can't sing a note or play any sort of instrument so a recording studio would be pretty useless to us. Anyways, that's neither here nor there since we're not the buyers of this property that includes a landscaped garden that wraps around the front of the house and a somewhat squeezy backyard with a concrete terrace that runs the width of the back of the house, a wee patch of grass, and a dark(er) bottom ozone pool with inset spa.

Mister Downey Jr.'s personal property portfolio of residential real estate also includes a contemporary crib in Rustic Canyon—between Pac Pal and Santa Monica—quietly picked up in early 2012 for 3.625 million and a seven-plus acre ocean view compound in Malibu with extensive equestrian facilities (picked up in September 2009 for $13.444 million. In the last several years he's purchased at least two properties on Venice Beach's busy and ever-so-trendy Abbott Kinney, a large and modern, live-work residence picked up in September 2009 for $5.6 million and a smaller and also modern three-story live-work-type townhouse snagged in late 2013 for $3 million. Yolanda swears Mister Downey Jr. also owns a shingled contemporary in The Hill section of affluent Manhattan Beach quietly purchased in July 2011 for $1.92 million and property records do show it connects back to one of his Venice Beach properties.

listing photos: Pardee Properties

Selena Gomez Lists Tarzana Starter House

SELLER: Selena Gomez
LOCATION: Tarzana, CA
PRICE: $3,495,000
SIZE: 6,630 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama would like to thank all the little birdies who chirped in Your Mama's ear today that Disney child star turned angsty and multi-talented young adult Selena Gomez put her starter home in Tarzana, CA, up for sale with an asking price of $3,495,000.

Miss Gomez acquired the property, when she was still a teenager, in July 2011 for $2,175,000.* Current listing details show the rambling, multi-winged residence—let's call it a California ranch meets rustic farmhouse meets a pastiched and more modern version of the same—sits on a gated and fully landscaped .83 acre parcel. The house spans a spacious 6,630 square feet with plenty of room to comfortably house a large family in half a dozen bedrooms serviced by seven full and two half bathrooms.

The house has horizontal clapboard siding on the lower level and vertical board and batten siding on the upper floor. The interiors are "designer done," according to marketing materials, and the center hall floor plan includes a formal living room with stone fireplace, a formal dining room with coffered ceiling, and a butler's pantry equipped and cook-friendly kitchen. An upstairs guest suite, wrapped by a balcony that overlooks the backyard, has a private exterior entry that conveniently facilitates over night house guests squirreling in strangers for—you know—whatever-whatever. (It shouldn't happen but when you got friends like Fiona Trambeau, well, these things happen. Anyways...)

Behind high fences, thick shrubbery and secured gates, lushly planted gardens border well-watered lawns and sweep around charcoal colored flagstone terracing that probably heats up like the dickens in the scorching summer sun. Listing photos show a built-in BBQ situation with sink and what may or may not be an ice maker along with a built-in fire pit next to a free-form swimming pool, an attached spa, a lighted sport court, and a pergola-shaded terrace tucked into the back corner for quiet conversations and contemplations.

Miss Gomez, now 21 and recently rehabbed, has decamped Tarzana for an even larger mansion in a small gated enclave in Calabasas that she picked up a month or two ago for $3.69 million. Before she'd even had the chance to run the dishwasher the first time some moe-ron breached the security and found his way to her guest house or some such craziness. When he got out of jail a few days later the damn fool did it again. They probably ought to keep the fella confined for more than a few days, but what do we know, you know? Naturally, young Miss Gomez subsequently installed additional security measures, probably and hopefully of the high-tech variety that will capture and really hurt a person if they so much as breathe in too close proximity to the property

*For about a hot minute Your Mama thought this house was briefly owned by Jonah Hill but upon further consideration and research that seems not to have been the case. Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

listing photos: The Agency

Thursday Pick Up Sticks

So snitched the long-legged blond at Trulia Luxe Living, new parents John Krasinski and Emily Blunt dropped $2.575 million on a walled, gated and recently refreshed contemporary crib on a double lot high above Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, CA, in which to bring up baby. They already own a gated home above the Sunset Strip and a weekend getaway in Ojai.

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The property gossip lady at the L.A. Times reports today that pop star Pink sold her former home in Sherman Oaks, CA, for $3.218 million. As far as Your Mama knows the Pink-Hart family—she's married to off-road truck racer Carey Hart and they have one small child—reside in Malibu where in the fall of 2011 they paid $11,850,000 for a spacious gated abode in the Point Dume area.

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According to peeps at The New York Post Fashion designer Derek Lam and his partner in business and life, Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann‚ sold their sophisticated, three bedroom New York City duplex for $5.25 million, quite a bit less than the $6 million they originally wanted. (Fun tidbit: Rihanna rented in the building but no longer does.)

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In other low-profile celebrity real estate news, the Observer let the cat out of the bag about actress Heather Matazzaro listing her dollhouse-sized Midtown Manhattan studio apartment for $315,000.

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Your Mama dissed and discussed Detroit Lion Reggie Bush's triple-story party house high above L.A.'s Sunset Strip back in late 2009 when it was listed for $5,099,000. It's since had a makeover—or a make-under, depending on how one looks at it—and, we first read in the L.A. Times, was re-listed for exactly $6,000,000.

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The long-legged blond at Trulia Luxe Living also revealed earlier this week that comedic actress Nicole Sullivan—she starred on MadTV and later popped up on the regular as a dim-witted dog walker on the sitcom King of Queens—listed her quirky mini-estate in the Hollywood Hills for $1.699 million, a bit less than the $1.81 million she paid for it seven years ago.

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In case you missed it, British blues musician Joe Cocker listed his 243-acre ranch in Telluride, CO, with it's downright baronial mansion with an asking price of $7.85 million.

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As has already been reported far and wide, Orlando Bloom sold his house in L.A.'s Outpost Estates—the one made famous after it was burgled by the infamous Bling Ring—in an off-market deal for $3.9 million.