For the last three years, “How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor has been embroiled in an ongoing legal feud with his next-door neighbors over a big deck dispute. The Hollywood Hills legal battle, fairly mundane at first, eventually escalated to involve restraining orders and sordid accusations of a half-naked Radnor terrorizing the neighbors and their contractors. In a classic only-in-L.A. twist, reality TV personality Audrina Patridge — former owner of the house next door — testified against Radnor last month.
Though the matter remains tied up in the courts, Radnor has already taken personal steps to solve the dispute. Last year, he quietly paid nearly $3 million for a larger and decidedly more private property in Los Feliz. It’s the sort of move that Barney Stinson might call “Legendary.”
Located in a particularly celeb-stocked neighborhood pocket, Radnor’s new 1920s Spanish-style home has a wee bit of Hollywood history. In the mid-aughts, it was briefly owned by “Morning Show” director Mimi Leder and “Star Trek” actor Gary Werntz. The married couple sold the property to “Lost” actor Kiele Sanchez and her then-husband, screenwriter Zach Kiele, and the property subsequently passed to a non-famous woman before Radnor secured the deed.
Walled and gated for privacy, the vine-covered villa features a front courtyard accented with a gurgling fountain, crunchy pea gravel and tropical plantings. Inside the house, there’s an impressive double-height entryway with a hand-stenciled coffered ceiling and staircase adorned with colorful vintage tiles. Throughout the home, original architectural details abound — arched doorways, original tilework and stained glass windows.
A step-down living room offers an imposing stone fireplace and an alcove bookcase; the adjacent formal dining room opens directly to a central courtyard that’s enviably private and contains plenty of space for alfresco dining or lounging. Upstairs, the master suite has hardwood floors, a covered balcony and a spa-style bathroom with built-in soaking tub, steam shower and decidedly ’80s-reno look.
The somewhat dour kitchen has also clearly undergone renovations over the years and now features grey stone countertops, medium-grade stainless appliances, pocket lights and a backsplash of faded grey-green tiles. And while the quarter-acre property has no pool, it makes up for it with mature landscaping, a “hidden hammock retreat” up in the backyard’s terraced hillside, per the listing, and through-the-treetops views of Griffith Observatory.
Presumably Radnor will soon opt to sell his more modest Hollywood Hills “starter” home — much to the delight of his neighbors, no doubt — but as of this publishing, the property is not currently on the market.
Patricia Ruben of Sotheby’s International Realty held the listing; Vahe Jordan of Prime Estates Realty repped Radnor.