Tuesday, November 26, 2013

John Fogerty Buys Hidden Valley Estate

BUYER: John Fogarty
LOCATION: Thousand Oaks, CA
PRICE: $8,950,000
SIZE: 13,053 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Late yesterday afternoon, deep into our second top-shelf gin & tonic (extra lime, please) Your Mama heard word from tireless real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak that guitar legend and veteran rock 'n' roll VIP John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival fame and fortune, dropped $8,950,000 on a spacious estate in Thousand Oaks, CA, a sprawling and affluent community about 20 miles over the Santa Monica Mountains to the tip of Point Dume in Malibu and just about equidistant between downtown L.A. and Santa Barbara.

Property records show the 20+ acre Thousand Oaks estate was acquired in May (2013) with the very same somewhat oddly-named trust that owns the 13,476 square foot, faux-Tuscan mansion on three gated and landscaped acres in Beverly Hills (Post Office) that Mister Fogerty and his Missus, Julie, had on the market as a whisper listing over the summer (2013) with an asking price of $23.5 million.*

The roomy estate—it looks like the sort of place that would have been given a name, doesn't it?—sits amid an impressive group of similarly sized estates in a small, gated enclave in the Hidden Valley area of Thousand Oaks, the same swanky and bucolic locale where Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi DeGeneres sold their 26-acre horse-oriented compound for nearly $11 million to luxury t-shirt tycoon (and budding real estate baller) James Perse. Listing information described the Fogerty's Thousand Oaks spread as a "Rustic Mediterranean Estate" but we're not exactly sure what's rustic about this extensive estate other than the rolling mountains that surround the otherwise manicured grounds that include vast amoebic swathes of well watered lawn.

The mostly one-level H-shaped residence** was designed, as per digital marketing materials, by North Hollywood-based architect and Mediterranean macmansion specialist Ron Firestone and completed, as per property records we peeped, in 2004. There are seven bedrooms—one more queenly than the next—and 7.5 bathrooms—one more ebulliently garnished that the last—in 13,053 square feet of interior space outfitted, as per listing details, with pecan floors, wood-beamed ceilings, five fireplaces, a 500-bottle wine closet, and remote-controlled window shades and lighting system.

Other features of note include: an irrigation system with a private water well and a 22,000 gallon cistern; a 12-car garage—the seller had a portion of it set up as an—uh—man cave; a salt water swimming pool and spa and a nearby cabana with pool equipment and bathroom. There are at least a couple fountains and at least one of those pergola-folly things fashioned from a domed, wrought iron cap placed carefully atop classical carved stone columns.

To be honest, children, Your Mama does not even have the will power to (dis and/or) discuss this house, either its faux-Old World and liberally pastiched architectural bones or all its baronial decorative opulence and festooned frippery. We are absolutely certain that all the heavily pasamenteried drapery and all the carved and tassled furniture, the tapestries, and bedazzled accessories cost an absolute fortune and we also understand that different people have different visions and versions of what constitutes luxury, good taste, and regal comfort. But, children, the obsessively ornamented day-core seen in the listing photographs of this house just makes Your Mama feel like we need a damn nerve pill. We just feel like, big as the damn place is, we'd suffocate in a house like that. So, rather than go through the torture of a (too) long and over-detailed, pre-holiday hoozy-goozy of a discussion of the house and property, let's let y'all ponder on and opine about the not entirely tongue-in-cheek listing copy Yolanda Yakketyyak wrote for the property:

Have you been wanting a house that speaks to you on an emotional, not simply architectural level?

A house that single-handedly defines America yet deftly blends our diverse cultural heritage into every block and beam? 

A house with an awe-inspiring Feng Shui-ed layout that single-handedly provides you with the courage and the tenacity to take the reigns of your destiny and step out from the shadow of darkness that blankets our generation?

Your prayers have been answered.

Mee-ow.

Anyways, in addition to their old digs in Beverly Hills (that they would like to sell) and their palatial new piece of the property pie in Thousand Oaks Mister and Missus Fogerty also still own a much more modest, 1,890 square foot house on a twisting, celebrity-lined street in the Beverly Hills Post Office area that they picked up in November 2008 for $1,385,000.

*The Fogerty's Bev Hills mansion, which they appear to have custom built on land they acquired in 2002 for $2.9 million, no longer appears on The Agency's website but, as far as Your Mama can tell, the property has not been sold. Make of that what you will.

**Listing details describe the house as "single level living except" for the "hundreds of feet of storage plus storage facility on the third level under the main floor area" and the "upstairs granny flat or media room that might also be suitable for a live-in domestic or an underachieving adult child.

listing photos: Shawn Cordon for Keller Williams

31 comments:

Maggie said...

Omg i wish that was mine

Lonely Wolf said...

this looks awesome, omg :)

i have never saw real estate malta such great

Anonymous said...

FYI, Hidden Hills and Hidden Valley are different places. Fogarty bought in the latter. Hidden Hills is actually in LA county, between Woodland Hills and Calabasas, and is home of several Kardashians.

Father Dowling said...

Do you mean Hidden Valley?

GoodWillHumping said...

Really? I think it's garish and pretty much hideous. The land is nice, but the house....urp.

Anonymous said...

The Frank Lloyd Wright antidote. And the Yiddish word is: ongepotchket (excessively gaudy and overdone)!

Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

P.S. Warning to Mama: Watch out for your BFF YY; her mastery of English closely approaches your fine writing skill!

Petra's said...

EWWWWW

Anonymous said...

Fogarty rocks....glad to hear he still has the money to live the good life. Many of his rock-n-roll peers blew through their dough....

Anonymous said...

That Spanish Colonial nextdoor seems better:

http://www.rodeore.com/neighborhoods/newbury-park-homes-for-sale/p/listings/2700-white-stallion-road-thousand-oaks-ca-91361-8813000237/

But it might be hideous on closer inspection.

Anonymous said...

Madame Maloof sends her approval

Your Mama said...

Yes, of course. We meant Hidden Valley. The Bloody Mary must have gone straight to our head.

Anonymous said...

Fogerty.

Sandpiper said...

Mama, per your listing excerpt, I'm convulsing.

If I'd written that tripe in school the professor would call security to haul me away for a drug test, which would test really-really high, then yank my ID and boot me off campus.

lil' gay boy said...

Unless, of course, my fine feathered friend, you had the (mis)fortune of having Rand Paul as a professor...

...in which case you would have passed with flying colors –– while he, natch, published your work as his own.

After looking at Ron Firestone's website, for some strange reason the only word I can channel is bludgeon ––– and the horrifying thought that his work makes Landry's look spectacular.

Sandpiper said...

Too funny, LB. I was thinking the Firestone/Landry connection too. Like lock those two in a room together and see which one comes out alive.

Those two are zero degrees of separation.

Anonymous said...

I bet they just bought the house for its bones. There's no way anyone would live that garishly. I'm sure they'll get rid of all that crap and open it up to that VIEW!

Anonymous said...

Yuck!! At least Jaime Fox is his neighbor.

Anonymous said...

Nice readers out there: please know that thirteen of these posts are the product of one troll.

Anonymous said...

i have been reading your blog since day 1 i really love it i have two things to say: is y.y for real? second..its the ugliest house ever posted in here or anywhere

Anonymous said...

Nice readers, make that fourteen posts by the troll.

Anonymous said...

I don't even count 14 negative comments here so which are the 14 comments by the same so-called troll? And how does this person know they're all the same "troll and what's does this person this the so-called "troll" is doing? Is a troll anyone who makes a negative comment?

lil' gay boy said...

...sshhhh... the trolls can't find you if they don't hear you...

Sandpiper said...

Little Buddy,
Here's a P.S. on the previous FLW post if you have another3:35 minutes "[you'll] never get back". Note the custom toothbrush holder and next generation of pots and pans management.

OK -- I'll stop now, but this video was tooo much fun not to share.


lil' gay boy said...

Pompous fool, our Mr. Massarro; sad to think that with a better architect than Heinz, and more Wrightian materials, he could have had a work of art that most likely would not have cost much more.

Wright favored Red Tidewater Cypress for his wood, and his stonework was unparalleled when laid in thin slabs to mimic an oucropping (usually sourced at the site).

The floors have ripples (not the glass-like texture of the adjacent cottage), nor does their finish flatter the traditional Cherokee Red he stained them with.

I like to think the toothbrush holder would have amused him, the kitchen pot boulder horrified him, the copper fascia might have gotten a thumbs up, and the skylights too, although he would have been finished them with his stunning art glass (he was never a big fan of direct sunlight). But the ultimate insult is carrying the conceit of the in situ boulders too far; even Wright had the good sense to shave off the bulk of the one that forms the hearth of Fallingwater.

Sandpiper said...

Little Buddy, you revved me up all over again! Can't say for sure but read somewhere the plans never went past a few renderings because the owner couldn't swing FLW's estimates. If so, it may not have reached a formal floor plan. Who's to really say. Let's see how it shakes out.

On an up note, the main page for that cannibalized FLW video also has a clickable link to a beautiful video on Falling Water with priceless history. If you didn't catch that, hope you do! Spectacular.

Anonymous said...

This could have been good, and then it went really really bad. About 10 good dumpsters would be a great start to getting this house back on track.

Anonymous said...

The Fogerty's are definitely gutting this whole house!

Anonymous said...

Frippery. One word said it all.

Jim in Tampa said...

If it had a horse or two, it could be a Hidden Valley Ranch.

John Jennings said...

Green energy is really safe for both the environment and our budget. Therefore many people switch to this energy source.

Anonymous said...

Redecorating people. Redecorating. It can be done. Relax.