SELLERS: Eva Amurri Martino and Kyle Martino
LOCATION: Sherman Oaks, CA
PRICE: $1.525 million
SIZE: 2,292 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Just a few days after she revealed on her own blog that her husband unceremoniously fired their nanny because she wanted to get funky with her husband, actress and tireless lifestyle blogger Eva Amurri Martino — she would be the daughter of Susan Sarandon and Italian filmmaker Franco Amurri — and her husband — that would be beau-hunky retired professional soccer player Kyle Martino, currently the co-host of the Travel Channel’s “36 Hours” — sold their Sherman Oaks home for $1.525 million, a notable bit above its $1.485 million asking price. Property records show the Hollywood scion and the former midfielder, married since 2011, purchased the property in February 2012 for $1.07 million, and online marketing materials show the residence, built in 1940, measures in at 2,292 square feet, with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.
It’s a long, heart-straining and booty-firming multistory hike from the street level two-car garage to the symmetrical front of the classically shuttered, vine-encrusted and dormer-roofed Colonial that’s privately perched on a steep hillside high above the street. Imagine the heavy-duty calorie burn from dragging groceries and baby strollers up and down all those stairs day in and day out? Anyways, just off the center entry and stair hall, a formal living room with espresso-toned wood floors, wood-burning fireplace and architecturally appropriate 12-pane sash windows was furnished in a moody but whimsically sophisticated manner with paneled walls painted a matte slate gray, an always fashionable chocolate leather Chesterfield sofa and a couple of super-expensive and ultra-iconic Arne Jacobson-designed Egg Chairs upholstered in smooth leather on the inside and with what appears to be clipped faux-fur on the outer shell. The dining room, with six, turquoise Eiffel Tower-base molded plastic Eames DSR chairs around an organically minimal wood plank table top, is a much more simplified situation where lily pad pattern taupe and cream wallpaper hung above a custom dado does most of the heavy decorative lifting.
We note the upgraded solid surface countertops and the timelessly stylish white subway tile backsplashes in the galley-type kitchen that is otherwise a lackluster affair with ordinary white raised panel cabinets, ubiquitous stainless steel appliances, and unfortunately incongruous terra-cotta tile flooring. A short, countertop peninsula divides the kitchen from an informal dining area with cushioned banquette slathered in playfully naughty nude-colored upholstery. The adjoining family room, partly painted a gutsy and, dare we say, fetching shade of orange and furnished with a pillow drowned Chesterfield sofa juxtaposed against a couple of vintage and probably Danish mid-century modern armchairs, has a full wall of built-in bookshelves that are filled with actual books, a fireplace over-mounted by the bust of a bull, and a bank of French doors that open to a tree-shaded courtyard and dining terrace.
A picture-lined gallery on the upper floor leads to a pair of guest/family bedrooms and an itty-bitty bonus room that all have open valley and mountain views and share an upgraded but still pretty basic hall bathroom. (The main floor powder room is also pretty basic but for its riotously colorful floral wallpaper that’s sure to dizzy some and delight others.) The master suite incorporates a good-sized bedroom where, according to her own website, Miz Amurri home-birthed her baby; an unexpectedly spacious private veranda; and a fairly compact bathroom with grey marble-topped uni-sink vanity, deep soaking tub, and a separate shower stall lined with beige, tumbled limestone tiles. A stone staircase climbs from the lush and tropically planted courtyard dining patio outside the family room to a long and slender, wrought iron railed terrace carpeted with drought-busting faux-grass. Listing photos suggest that from the upper terrace, if you look past the house at just the right angle, you can catch a city lights glimpse over the San Fernando Valley.
Listing photos: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
