SELLERS: Bob and Naomi Odenkirk
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,499,000
SIZE: 2,882 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: With his career in overdrive, veteran Tinseltown writer/actor/producer Bob Odenkirk has put his spiffed up mid-century modern house in the affluent hills above Hollywood’s Bronson Canyon on the market with an asking price of $2,499,000.
Mister Odenkirk got his showbiz start in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a writer on a slew late night chat and sketch comedy programs including “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “The Ben Stiller Show,” and “Saturday Night Live,” the latter two of which earned him Emmys for his efforts. In the mid-90s he co-created and co-starred with David Cross in the high-larious sketch comedy series “Mr. Show with Bob and David” for which he was nominated for four more Emmys. Mister Odenkirk has a resume about a mile long but he is, most certainly, best known by today’s television viewing audience for his role as the charmingly sleazy and buffoonish Saul Goodman on “Breaking Bad,” a plum role that landed him a spin-off, the hotly anticipated “Just Ask Saul.”
Property records show Mister Odenkirk and his part-time producer wife, Naomi Odenkirk, acquired the, street-hugging hillside house in May 1998 for $675,454 and digital marketing materials show they had it worked over by accomplished and much-published architect Linda Brettler who happens to be married to “Mad Men” creator/writer/producer Matthew Weiner. Current listing details show the Odenkirks’ colorfully re-mastered and essentially single-story residence, located at the tail end of a short and narrow cul-de-sac with sprawling views down the canyons and over Hollywood, was originally built in 1950 and is currently configured with three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in 2,882 square feet.
A patchwork-y stained glass door opens to a small but proper entrance hall that makes a sharp right turn into a generously lengthy combination living/dining room with low-profile fireplace, a slightly vaulted ceiling and a row clerestory windows. At one end of the room a library niche has built-in bookshelves and desk area — there’s another small separate office elsewhere — and at the opposite end, where there appears to be a Heywood Wakefield dining room set with leopard print seat cushions underneath a trio of three small Sputnik-style light fixtures, a long, zig-zagging wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
The galley style kitchen, open to the dining area over a chest high snack counter, has rustic flagstone tile flooring, boldly turquoise cabinetry which many who claim great taste will hate but that Your Mama rather adores, some sort of seal grey solid surface counter tops, and the expected suite of high-grade stainless steel appliances.
Transom-topped pocket doors separate or join the two guest/family bedrooms with large windows, wood flooring and a vaulted ceiling that allows for each bedroom to have a full-height loft area. Honestly, chickens, Your Mama would have given old lady MacPhereson who lived across the street from us a sponge bath every day to have a bedroom with a full-height loft so we count the Odenkirk children some lucky devils. The master suite has an expressive, Mondrian-esque wall treatment behind the bed, a matching built-in dresser off to the side and a much less colorful bathroom with double sink vanity, soaking tub and a separate, over-sized glass-faced shower with convenient built-in bench.
Huge windows and doors in the dining area and the kichen lead out to a spacious concrete terrace that’s cantilevered over the steep slope below the house and steps up to a minimalist-minded ramada with canyon and city lights views.
Your Mama’s brief and unscientific research turned up evidence that in late 2010 Mister and Missus Odenkirk purchased, out of foreclosure, an early 20th-century Craftsman-style fixer upper near the mouth of Bronson Canyon for $675,000. The property has since been spruced up though it seems highly unlikely this fairly modest house will be their next home.
listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty
