Daily Archives: October 13, 2014

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s getaway home in Palm Springs selling for $2.2 million | Waccabuc Homes

Frankly, my dear …

A Spanish Colonial estate well-known among Hollywood film followers has come on the real estate market in Palm Springs’ coveted Old Las Palmas neighborhood for nearly $2.2 million.

It was the home of Clark Gable, the heartthrob in “Gone With the Wind,” and the American film actress he married in 1939, Carole Lombard.

Restored to its glory days, the Gable-Lombard House near O’Donnell Golf Club is still in the hands of a Hollywood luminary: film producer Joel Douglas, the younger brother of actor Michael Douglas and son to mid-century movie idol Kirk Douglas.

The Douglas family calls the estate Casa Del Corazon.

“It’s a beautiful home with a rich history and a wonderful feel,” Realtor Gregg Fletcher said of the rose-colored gem at 222 W. Chino Drive.

Fletcher calls the home one of the finest historic properties he has represented in the Palm Springs market.

“It’s got provenance,” he said. “There’s real pride of ownership in this house.”

To Joel Douglas, a co-producer of the 1980s action-adventure rom-com “Romancing the Stone” and its sequel, “The Jewel of the Nile,” Casa Del Corazon lives up to its name: “It is the House of the Heart,” he said.

“It’s been a grand old home that’s worthy of attention,” Douglas said.

The half-acre estate, laden with banana plants, decades-old palm trees, rosebushes and flowering vines, looks like a set from a Hollywood movie in the Golden Age. The home has unique details, from its weather vane to the mission bell in a portico near an iron gate.

The four-bedroom home, filled with movie posters, pictures of celebrities and fine artwork, is open and bright and has been restored such that it retains its architectural design elements.

 

 

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http://www.pe.com/articles/douglas-751854-home-lombard.html

This Minimalist House in Queens Packs in Three Apartments | Cross River Real Estate

flushing_comp.jpgPhotos by Michael Moran/New York Design Hunting

If one had to guess where this pared-back residence would most likely exist, probably every city in minimalist-loving Japan would seem more likely than the truth, that it actually sits in the far reaches of Queens, New York. As architects Devin O’Neill and Faith Rose reveal in the latest issue of New York Design Hunting, the structure’s exterior form, with its compact shape and noted dearth of frill, is actually inspired by the Levittown-style more typical of the surrounding homes. While the edifice is an outward nod to its neighbors, the internal design has nothing to do with the New York architecture of old. O’Neill and Rose were working off an incredibly specific challenge from the client: figure out how to coherently accommodate three branches of a family into one single structure.

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/10/13/oneil-rose-architects-flushing-family-home.php

Did Mr. and Mrs. George Clooney Buy This English Manor? | North Salem Homes

clooney2.jpgClooney and Alamuddin via Getty

It looks like lawyer, activist, and author Amal Alamuddin and her actor husband George Clooney now own a 17th-century Georgian manor on a 5.5-acre private island in the English village of Sonning-on-Thames. Ever since the two were married at the end of September, rumors have been flying about a “luxurious, well decorated, and super-private” home they bought in Berkshire county over the summer. Now, the Real Estalker hears that they actually purchased their own hunk of rock in the river Thames, which was last listed at the equivalent of about $12M.

Take the tour. >>

“Island in the stream / That is where they are / No one in between / Clooney and his wife” is how a Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton duet modified to be about this piece of property gossip might go. The couple’s rumored new home, the 8,948-square-foot, Grade II-listed Aberdash House, is no longer featured on UK property site Rightmove, but a cached listing shows a doric-columned 10-bedroom manor with a fully modernized interior.

According to an old Wall Street Journal piece about the property, it was purchased by a banker named Omar Bayoumi in the late ’90s, who was drawn to it by “the romance and exclusivity of owning the largest residential island in the Thames,” as well as “the beauty of the house and grounds.” To augment that beauty, Bayoumi filled it with a bunch of high-tech rich person stuff, including a gym, a “spa complex,” and an entertainment room outfitted with “invisible speakers and an iLight lighting system using John Cullen fittings.” (Fun fact: There are also 14 CCTV cameras installed throughout the property.) In its state of decoration, a very large portrait of a cat was displayed in the living room, which evidence that a complete house with wall hangings will look more attractive than a house with plain walls (more info, more details).

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/10/13/george-clooney-buys-private-island-mansion.php