SELLER: Fred Armisen
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $949,000
SIZE: 1,456 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Though he only purchased the property just over two years ago, quirky and nerdily bespectacled show business hypenate Fred Armisen put his crisply remodeled and sparely furnished 1927 Craftsman-style bungalow in a quiet, out-of-the-way pocket of the hipster-chic Silver Lake neighborhood up for grabs at $949,000. Property records show the six-time Emmy-nominated actor-writer-producer-musician, briefly married to “Top of the Lake” actress Elisabeth Moss (2009-2011) and currently coupled with Emmy-nominated “Orange is the New Black” actress Natasha Lyonne, purchased the clapboard-sided bungalow, which backs up to a little-known green space/hiking trail that until 1955 was part of the historic Red Car trolley line, in January 2014 for $763,000. In addition to co-creating, writing, producing and starring on the political correctness skewering and Peabody Award-winning sketch comedy program “Portlandia,” the Mississippi-born and Long Island-bred “Saturday Night Live” alum currently serves as the band leader and comedic foil on the New York City-based late night chat show “Late Night with Seth Myers” and he co-created, co-exec produces, co-stars in and writes for the praised and panned documentary film parodying mockumentary series “Documentary Now!”
Online marketing materials show Mister Armisen’s hardly inexpensive yet remarkably humble by Hollywood standards residence occupies a positively picayune .08-acre hillside parcel and measures 1,456 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms plus what listing details describe as “ a huge, finished bonus space” and a detached, street-level two-car garage. The completely and “carefully refurbished” residence mixes vintage and period-appropriate hardware and handcrafted light fixtures with modern-day creature comforts like integrated heating and cooling systems and an energy-efficient tankless water heater. A secured, street level gate opens to an exterior stairway that makes a long, derrière firming climb to a tiny but charming porch where the slightly and somewhat disconcertingly off-center front door opens directly in to the main living space, an open-concept combination living/dining/kitchen with medium-brown stained white oak hardwood floors, stark and largely art-free white walls, and a smattering of mid-century-modern-minded furnishings set off by a tomato red rug. The compact but well-arranged kitchen, open to the living/dining room over a snack bar peninsula clad in reclaimed barn-wood, features slab marble counter tops, grey-grouted white subway tile backsplashes, and a combination of steel-blue and white Shaker-style cabinetry. Two guest bedrooms, one set up in listing photographs as a den and the other as an office/music room, share a marble-tiled hall bathroom and the minimally furnished master bedroom at the rear of the residence has its own marble-tiled bathroom as well as a walk-in closet and French doors that lead to the lower, grassy level of the two-tiered backyard. An upper-level deck would appear to have a lovely if not exactly thrilling over-the-rooftops view of the surrounding hillsides.
Word of Mister Armisen’s future real estate plans have yet to surface but this property gossip has to wonder if they include Miss Lyonne and/or New York City. Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?
Listing photos: The Agency
