LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,495,000
SIZE: 2,636 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Over the years Your Mama has toiled and typed our fingers to the bloody nubbins discussing the (often capricious) real estate activities of famous folks we've come to discover some fairly reliable markers and patterns.
For example, we learned that Tinseltown types—as a generalized group—frequently have a powerful attraction to Buddha statues, regardless of whether they practice or know anything about Buddhism. We've also figured out when a property goes up for sale on the open market as being owned by a celeb it's pretty much a slam-damn-dunk, take-your-money-to-the-bank gare-uhn-tee the celebrity isn't much of a celebrity and/or Your Mama ain't never heard of said celeb home owner.
Case in point, a mini-estate just south of Sunset Boulevard, in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, CA, that just hit the market as "Celeb Owned" with an asking price of $3,495,000.
Natch, we bit the "Celeb Owned" bait and five seconds spent poking around the property records turned up evidence the property in question is owned (by a trust controlled) by a 30-something year old actor we've never heard of named Jensen Ackles who is married to actress Danneel Ackles, née Harris. We'd never heard of Missus Harris Ackles before today either but, for what it's worth to anyone, she ranked #72 on Maxim magazine's 2010 Hot 100 list,
Anyhoo, just because we couldn't pick him out of a line up if our next bottle of top-shelf gin depended on it does not mean Mister Ackles isn't a successful, working actor with legions of fans, which he is. As a youngster, he spent a few years in the late 1990s on the soap story Days of Our Lives where he earned three Daytime Emmy nominations. Since then Mister Ackles has worked frequently and steadily on boob-toob programs that include (but are not limited to) Dark Angel, Dawson's Creek, and Smallville. For the last seven years, he's starred with Jared Padalecki on a sci-fi program we've never heard of nor seen called Supernatural.
Like her hubby, Missus Harris Ackles has also worked steadily since she first appeared on a soap story (One Life to Live) in 2003. Her list of subsequent credits include roles in Joey, One Tree Hill, Friends With Benefits and a couple of those silly, money-making Harold and Kumar stoner comedies.
Property records reveal Mister Ackles acquired the .29 acre property in September 2009 for $2,435,000. Current listing information shows the single-story main house measures 2,636 square feet—modest by celeb standards—with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. A renovated, semi-Tuscan-style two-story, detached guest house offers significant additional living space.
Listing information from the time of the 2009 purchase suggests Mister Ackles (along with, one imagines, input by Missus Harris Ackles) has made a number alterations and improvements that include exterior paint; new flooring in the voluminous foyer; and a complete kitchen redo; a swimming pool overhaul with new tile work. The guest house was also fixed up with a darker, more dramatic color palette.
The shiny wood floors continue into the over-sized dining room (with well-stock bar and sitting area) as well as into the recently renovated, galley-style kitchen outfitted with dove grey Shaker-style cabinetry, top-grade, commercial-style stainless steel appliances, shimmering tile back splashes and a two-seat snack and booze bar.
Behind the guest house, tucked into the tight point of the triangular-shaped parcel, Mister and Missus Ackles maintain a raised-bed kitchen garden (and orange tree). We can only hope they have more luck than Your Mama has keeping critters from snatching tomatoes off the vines before they get quite ripe.
listing photos: Keller Williams Studio City