SELLER: Keegan-Michael Key and Cynthia Blaise
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1.638 million
SIZE: (approx.) 2,600 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Not surprisingly to anyone familiar with what some real estate professionals call the “Three D’s” — death, diapers and divorce being three of the top reasons a home is bought or sold — shortly after it was announced that much-on-the-professional-rise six-time Emmy-nominated actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key filed for divorce from his wife of 17 years, dialect coach Cynthia Blaise, the erstwhile couple’s multi-level home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles popped up for sale at $1.638 million. Property records show the residence last changed hands in October 2006 for $1.255 million, and current listing details describe the approximately 2,600-square-foot, circa-1961 abode as a “Stunning Mid-Century VIEW home” and show the idiosyncratically arranged residence, perched high on a precipitous hillside atop a terraced garden and a towering terra-cotta-colored retaining wall, contains three bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a semi-detached flexible-use space with another bathroom.
For all but the exercise nuts amongst us, it’s a grueling, booty-busting multi-story hike up from the street-level two-car garage, through three separate gates to the main entrance on the middle level of the three-story house. A stained glass accented front door opens directly into the living room that features honey-toned hardwoods; vaulted, beamed and wood-paneled ceiling; tile-faced and television-surmounted raised hearth fireplace; and a wide bank of glass sliders that lead out to a wrought iron railed terrace with an over-the-rooftops mountain vista and oblique city view. We’re just going to pretend we don’t see that brown leather recliner over by the sliders because even though that thing is probably sinfully comfortable, it is also, let’s be honest butter beans, decidedly unsightly.
A mountain view dining room just inside the front door links through to a renovated kitchen with stainless steel appliances, some sort of solid surface countertop on contemporary fixtured Shaker-style cabinets, and a big ol’ noggin-knocker of a pot rack hung above a small, granite topped rolling cart. Sliding glass doors behind the two-seat breakfast bar lead out to a dining deck carved out of the steep, planted hillside behind the house while an opaque, reeded glass door leads to a bedroom with generous closets and somewhat tired looking three-quarter en suite bathroom that less than ideally also serves as the main floor’s only guest bathroom.
The master bedroom, up on the uppermost floor, includes a reasonably substantial and clearly upgraded bathroom with partially tiled walls, one pedestal sink, a two-person soaking tub, glass-enclosed shower space and, even though it’s gauche to mention, a bidet. A guest bedroom/office that’s also on the uppermost floor is nicely roomy and fitted with floor-to-ceiling shelves but, alas, doesn’t have direct or even convenient access to a bathroom. It’s either use the master bathroom or high-tail it all the way downstairs to the en suite in the bedroom just off the kitchen. The residence’s lowest floor, which may or may not be accessible from inside the main house, can be used for a variety of things — guest bedroom, yoga studio, artisanal wine making space, or whatever — and has well-worn Saltillo tile floors, a raised fireplace, small en suite bathroom, and glass sliders that open directly to the swimming pool and spa.
Listing photos: Partners Trust
