SELLERS: Mark Peel and Daphne BrogdanLOCATION: S. Lucerne Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,299,000
SIZE: 3,966 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Meticulous Mediterranean in prime Windsor Square, blocks from Larchmont. Gracious center hall plan generous living rm w/fpl & frml din rm. Fam rm w/ built ins, surround sound & access to back patio. "Renowned Chef's" kitchen w/every amenity, eat in banquette & office nook. Formal breakfast rm, maids/office down. 4 beds & 3 remodeled baths up. Master opens to canopied terrace. New garage plumbed for guest house. Wi Fi system throughout. Lush landscaping.
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: While Your Mama is working our phone lines and burning up the internets trying to confirm some real estate dirt on a few big name famous folks, let's step back and discuss a lesser light in the lexicon of celebrity. A little poking around on the interweb leads us to the house of Los Angeles based celebrity chef Mark Peel and his stand up comic/tee-vee hostess wife Daphne Brogdon who have recently hoisted their Hancock Park house on the market with an asking price of $3,299,000.
The award winning chef Mister Peel owns a highly regarded and kinda pricey restaurant called Campanile as well as a less expensive bread emporium/café called the La Brea Bakery while his ladee-wife writes a successful mommy blog called Cool Mom and gets paid to skewer celebs for their fashion faux-pas in both T.V. Guide and Star Magazine.
Property records show the couple purchased their S. Lucerne Boulevard property in March of 2008 for $3,100,000, which means, obviously, that the property is being flipped just 12 months after being purchased. A few flicks of the well worn beads on our bejeweled abacus shows that Mister Peel and Ms. Brogdon are looking at quite possibly losing a chunk of change once they pay out the considerable real estate fees.
Records also show the architecturally dignified house with a pleasantly symmetrical front facade was built in 1920 and measures in at 3,966 square feet. Listing information indicates there are 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Four of the bedrooms and three of the (renovated) bathrooms are located upstairs and the remaining bedroom and bathroom are, apparently, located on the first floor. This bed/bath set up means there is no powder room and that dinner guests are faced with the indignity of sharing the first floor pooper with overnight guests, or even more upsetting, the live-in. Now listing puppies, in smaller homes with just one or two bathrooms, this sort of bathroom double duty is necessary, but we find it almost inexcusable in three-plus million dollar digs.
Your Mama knows that some of you children are going to self-righteously point out that his house isn't really in Hancock Park proper–it's actually in an area called Windsor Square–and that others of you will get yer panties in a kerfuffle and start whining about how you think Hancock Park (or Windsor Square or whatever) is not safe after dark and that homeless people poop on front lawns. Your Mama says, "Pshaw!"
Hancock Park (or Windsor Square or whatever) may not be as dee-luxe or expensive as the better parts of Bel Air or Beverly Hills but that does not make it some sort of a ghetto where dope pushers stand around on the corners and people sell microwave ovens out of the trunks of their beat up Impalas. Besides, some of the better zip codes in Los Angeles have been plagued by burglaries the last few years. Do you hear that children? Plagued.
Anyhoo, the Peel/Brogdon house sits on a mid-block lot on S. Lucerne Boulevard that measures just over a quarter acre and which listing information labels a "meticulous Mediterranean" style affair. Your Mama is just too worn out to argue with that designation. The center hall plan includes a wide entrance hall which is pleasingly devoid of decorative artifice other than the light colored and shiny herringbone wood floors, a grouping of small artworks, and a petite crystal chandelier. The flesh colored walls, on the other hand, kinda make Your Mama's flesh crawl.
The large formal living room, which has also, unfortunately, been slathered with flesh colored paint, includes a wood burning fireplace, glistening wood floors, light fixtures that look original to the house (or at least authentic to the time period), and a couple of gigantic beige ultra-suede sofas sitting on a white deep pile shag area rug that would give our house gurl Svetlana siezures trying to keep clean. The formal dining room has French doors leading to the front terrace, a beige rug, beige wallpaper printed with birds and branches and what appears to Your Mama to be a 1940s-ish dining room table and chairs that make us go weak in the knees.
Being the home of a renowned chef, the wood floored kitchen has quite naturally been did over with every amenity a cook could want and includes a full suite of high priced quasi-commercial stainless steel appliances. The simple white cabinetry sets off the large, vermilion colored work island that features a stainless steel counter top where meat can be hacked up and cleaned up without fear of contamination. We note with some glee that the microwave has been given its own cubby next to the fridge, something that is done too infrequently in the kitchens of rich people. The kitchen complex also includes a built in breakfast nook with a lovely Heywood Wakefield table and chairs (not pictured) and an office nook where the house gurl can comfortably organize the coupons and sneak onto the internets when the ladee of the house is upstairs performing her morning toilette.
The adjacent family room includes a simple coffered ceiling, a fab row of arched French doors leading to the rear terrace, and a wall of custom cabinetry for stashing the flat screen and all the boxes and accoutrement that come along with sophisticated tee-vee watching nowadays. Your Mama would like the children to note that the Peel/Brogdons have actual books on the shelves, something that always warms the cold cockles of our snarky heart. The couple have chosen to furnish the room with a cozy looking steel grey velvet sectional sofa with clean lines, deep down cushions and too many pillows. Opposite the sofa, at a conversational distance, sits a bent wood armchair that may or may not be an Alvar Aalto design; It's close, but there's something funky happening with the front of it that makes it look like it might be some kind of high-end recliner from Lazy-Boy, right?
The master bedroom, a not entirely successful study in grey day-core, includes some glammy decorative moments such as the mirrored bedside tables and mauve tufted silk dressing chair. French doors open to a large private terrace that is partially covered by a canopy and which surely makes for an excellent spot to lounge around in the late afternoon but still be able to make sure the nanny isn't angrily over-pushing the kiddies on the back yard swing set. The Master bathroom appears to have been renovated with a eye towards the house's original design and has Tiffany blue cabinetry topped with spider veined Carrara marble, white honeybee tile on the floor, a soaking tub with room for two and a seamless glass shower enclosure. The walls have been painted the palest of blue and a couple of windows flank the pedastal sink, which are, you know, appreciated after last night's Indian dinner.
The back yard includes a large terrace for dining, entertaining and nood sunbathing. While there is a large expanse of lawn for the kiddies, there is not currently a swimming pool. Although we do recognize that not everyone enjoys swimming in chemical-ized water, Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter do and would never consider owning a house of this magnitude in Los Angeles without an inviting cee-ment pond. The garage, which listing information indicates is newly built, has been plumbed for a guest house and a Wi-Fi system has been installed throughout the property, a technological extra which Your Mama loves because sometimes it would be damn nice to sit under a tree in the shade while we type our fingers to the nubbins.
Listing information indicates that the house is already in contract after less than a month on the open market, so bully for Mister Peel and Miz Brogdon as they move on to their next home.
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