|
|
Quote:
|
Well, you could always use the new version as a set for a Lady Gaga music vid. I can easily visualize her coming down that staircase in an aluminum foil ball gown.
Cheers, Earl |
Quote:
The owner took a silk purse and turned it into a sow's ear. Oh, imo there was nothing depressing about the original dark wood stain. Its of an era. The new ''lightened look'' is depressing. Its now reminiscent of the smelly tobacco stained Bunker Hill flop houses. The once elegant entry and parlor now look like a decrepit tenement.....congratulations. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4497/...2fe354_z_d.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4497/...2fe354_z_d.jpg |
Quote:
Well, apparently the seller couldn't find a well-adjusted buyer with a deep understanding of his soul who happened to like the heavy style (appreciation of which I wouldn't say necessarily made for superior taste, not by a long shot). At least--none came along who had deep enough pockets to pay for all the nostalgia. There was a reason that the architecture of the Higgins-Verbeck house was considered hopelessly dated within less than a decade of its construction on Wilshire Blvd. Eastern and Midwestern transplants liked the familiarity of the architecture early on--this house was a last Victorian gasp of busy domestic design overstuffed with dusty antimacassared furniture and bric-a-brac--and soon came to understand that practically the whole point of having moved to SoCal was the weather--so they began to let the light in. Enter the Green brothers etc. Unfortunately, this house has too much going against it besides its impractical architecture. Maybe someone will get it at an eventual auction and move it still farther west. (It wouldn't be the first time a Wilshire-corridor house was moved twice.) There seems to be no great hurry to sell the place--take an overpriced $4 mil house in a bad location in an aging neighborhood, do a $1.98 makeover, and mark it up to $9 mil? Strange. |
Quote:
Yup, quite a few without looking at the exterior. Interior wise this dwelling was an interior design abortion from the git-go. Obviously an attempt to emulate much larger and more luxurious homes of the era. A mess, including what is possibly the fugliest fireplace I have ever seen. Then we come the first photo that indicates what we are seeing may not be 100% original to the 1902 construction. Lighting fixtures appear to be more consistent with a 1930's conversion to some sort of office use evidenced by a dated door closure device on the front door. As for the so called upgrades I think you may have given more effort credit than due. I'll suggest nothing was striped but was given a sufficient spray coating of something like Zinzer's 123 to allow latex based paints to stick to the old finish. Flooring looks like the markdowns of Chinese crap from Lumber Liquidators. And then comes the question of when the electrical and plumbing were last addressed. Unless the land this mess sits upon is valued at the $4 million price, there is no use that could justify the price. Glad it's not mine to worry about! |
Quote:
|
Speaking of houses...
Here are two I don't believe we have seen on NLA. The first is one of Mary Pickford's earliest homes, a bungalow at 5218 Sunset Hollywood. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...923/c5UDoB.jpg new movie magazine 1931 The second is one of Norma Shearer's early homes at Highland and Franklin Avenue. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...924/GS68Vt.jpg new movie mag. 1931 Here is the complete article. New Movie Magazine 1931 http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/8W1AYS.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/6sVWBz.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...923/FbPorY.jpg from archive.org |
Quote:
I can't recall how many times I've seen people jump on to a fixer upper or trying to restore a 100 year old house that in reality didn't end up being a worse money pit than owning a boat. A number of years ago a friend bought a modest late 1930's home on N. Curson three or four doors off Hollywood Blvd. that was in desperate need of modernization, which it didn't get. It was livable. She lived in the house for three or four years and sold it to some damn fool for over $1 million and moved back to Chickasha, Oklahoma. She still owns the theater on Vine that is currently known as Avalon. Now somewhat of a problem area thanks to the State Law prohibiting new construction within 300 feet of a known fault line. |
:previous:
So Xorin Balbes (currently domiciled in the Sowden House) struck again did he? I'm not really up with the doings of the latest Southland charlatan, but here's Your Mama™'s take on one of the celebrity house-flipper's other projects. Folks with more money than sense flock to the pretentiousness, but all his projects, of whatever era, end up looking pretty much the same. The "award-winning architectural conservator" explains the virtue of utter banality here While Oprah details the "design wizard's" 8 steps to your own "Soul Space" (also the name of his best-selling book). LA's survived worse. I'm actually surprised that the Ebell or that museum in the old Scottish Rite temple (both just steps away) didn't snap up this square footage for some kinda annex before Balbes got his mitts on it. If you can stand it, Zillow's got 42 pix of the property (omg, that meditation room, or whatever it is, is enough to make one scream). I can't bear it, this much beige makes me feel like I'm being smothered in oatmeal cookie dough: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d9...U=w868-h578-no Balbes got the house for $3,190,000 (previous owners were asking $6,500,000 back in 2014). Balbes is now asking $8,999,000. Even if he threw away a million dollars on the upgrades, he'll still make a profit....if it sells at all. ETA: Balbes did the interior of the little black & gold building (Morgan, Walls and Clements, 1929), formerly a Security Pacific Bank branch, at 5209 Wilshire. It is, as you probably guessed, beige: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ti...Y=w642-h501-no Temple-Home (projects) There's a sucker born every minute and no one knows it better than Xorin Balbes, former president of Global Vision for Peace and 15 other companies over the last ten years, all now defunct. He seems to have finally found his niche: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6w...U=w455-h489-no temple-home |
Quote:
|
Quote:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/AT...w=w935-h237-no Re this, the estimable--to say the least--John Bengtson has a great new post: https://silentlocations.wordpress.co...rel-avalanche/ |
Quote:
Thx for the "Then and Now" e_r. That was fun. |
Quote:
|
Thx for the great follow-up on e_r's post Tourmaline.
And check out those pepper trees: Quote:
|
looks like a mud dauber/wasp nest wrapped around the base of the pepper tree :previous:
what is it.....just dirt? |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Thanks for posting all those interesting pics this afternoon Tourmaline. -much appreciated buddy.
_ I don't believe we have seen this before. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/vvFMzW.jpg Los Angeles, the Old and the New (J. E. Scott, 1911) hathitrust Sixth Street, 1903 "The building up the street was the first four-story building erected, and the occupants advertised they were over the line in high rents." It appears the bungalow on the right is about to be moved. ...and I'm curious about the large building on the opposite corner. Is it an old hotel or a house? (and what is that rising above the roof?) __ hmmm...could that be one of J.B. Hunter's tamale carts out on the street- and what's the other transient business on that corner, a peanut stand? (at first I thought it was a trolley car that had jumped the curb) __ OK I've asked too many questions. (if I hadn't..I would have asked about the four-story building down the street ;)) I have no idea what building they're talking about. |
Quote:
ETA: Quote:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wT...w=w372-h638-no variety |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 1:50 AM. |
|
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Prev