LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,195,000
SIZE: 3,730 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It should come as no surprise to the children—at least not to any of them who give a hoot about the frivolities of celebrity real estate—that famously fickle house flipping designer/decorator and veteran Bravolebrity Jeff Lewis has put his own, freshly rehabbed residence in the artsy and affluent Los Feliz area of Los Angeles on the market with an asking price of $3,195,000. What is a bit of a surprise, at least to this jaded property gossip, is that the perennially itchy footed Mister Lewis owned the house two whole years before he shoved it back on the market for almost twice what he paid.
Armchair psychiatrists who have seen any or all of the six seasons of his reality program Flipping Out* can plainly see that Mister Lewis has a tetch of the OCD. This might—or it might not—explain how it came to be that this is actually the second time Mister Lewis has owned this particular house. The peripatetic property flipper turned decorator purchased the hillside house the first time in March 2004 for $1,265,000. He spent an unknown but, no doubt, substantial amount on a full-scale renovation and sold it just over two years later, in June 2006, for $2,795,000 to a couple of fellas who by the fall of 2010 had lost the house down the ugly abyss of foreclosure.
Without—so it appeared on Flipping Out, anyways—giving his live-in man-friend, Gauge Edwards, a hunty-how-do-you-do Mister Lewis seized the opportunity to acquire the property for a second time in July 2011 when he snatched it out of foreclosure for $1,625,000. Much ado is made on the sixth season of Flipping Out about how much money Mister Lewis blew through on the remodel. It was supposed to be a spit and polish job but once the ball started rolling, he his mister went hog wild and the planned light renovation became an extensive and expensive overhaul that included the painstaking and pricey installation in the circular formal dining room of a downright decadent, hand-cut black and white marble floor laid in a geometrically glam, match booked herringbone pattern.
The two-story 1937 Tudor was originally designed and built in 1937 by esteemed architect Wallace Neff on a .36 acre hillside graced with what listing information describes as "commanding breathtaking city views." In its current configuration, according to online marketing materials, the house has three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and three fireplaces in 3,731 square feet.
The house co-mingles original architectural features, such as diamond paned and leaded glass windows, with much more modern-minded features and conveniences, such as the open concept kitchen and family room that Mister Lewis created in the course of his first renovation in the mid-2000s. The well-equipped galley style kitchen connects to the family room over a large center work island and the most recent redo by Misters Lewis and Edwards added a separate and fully outfitted, booze hound friendly four-stool wet bar.
A quick comparison of current and previous listing photos suggest Misters Lewis and Edwards are also responsible for, among many other things, the high gloss ebony finish on the hardwood floors in all three of the bedrooms—a murderous finish for anyone, like Misters Lewis and Edwards, with pets—as well as the solid wood panelling hedonistically applied to the walls of a long corridor and a narrow staircase.
The master suite occupies its own wing on the upper level with a sitting area, fireplace and a spacious spa-style bathroom with free standing soaking tub and steam shower for two plus and an "Immense" walk-in closet "reminiscent of the finest retail stores."The exposed brick wall behind the bed seems out of context and is a decorative convention Your Mama thinks is really better left to industrial-edged loft apartments.
In addition to the trellised, red brick lounging terrace set atop the street-level two car garage, several more (herringbone pattern) red brick dining and lounging terraces surround the house and step up the planted slope at the rear of the property. There's a small swimming pool and inset spa, a lounge area with fire pit, a sunbathing shelf, a small patch of grass for the pooches, and what listing information calls a "state-of-the-art outdoor kitchen."
*In addition to his starring duties on Flipping Out, Mister Lewis produces and co-stars with his long-time assistant (and verbal sparring partner) Jeni Pulos Nassos on the eponymous Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis and he's the sassiest of the permanent panelists on Property Envy, Bravo's newest addition to their growing line up of real estate related reality programs.
listing photos: Partners Trust