SELLERS: Kerry Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,695,000
SIZE: 3,855 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: After only a few brief weeks on the open market with an asking price of $2.695 million, “Scandal” star Kerry Washington’s Hollywood Hills mini-compound is in escrow and about to be sold to an unknown buyer for an unknown amount. The Emmy and Golden Globe nominated television and movie veteran, named in 2014 by Time magazine as one of their most influential people in the world, and her husband, retired NFL player turned actor and producer husband Nnamdi Asomugha, purchased the Cahuenga Pass area property only about 1.5 years ago for $1.865 million from comedy actress and voiceover staple Nicole Sullivan (“Mad TV,” “King of Queens,” “Family Guy”).
It’s an arduous, booty-busting hike up several flights of exterior steps from the street to the front door that opens to a pill-shaped central foyer with a tightly curled staircase. (For the record, a gated driveway swoops up to a motor court that’s just about the same level as the house so breaking a sweat hauling groceries and baby strollers up the front steps is not required.) Originally built in the mid 1920s, cosmetically refreshed by the Washington-Asomughas and generously described in listing details as a “French County Compound,” the main residence has crisp white walls and dark chocolate wood floors that flow from the foyer into a roomy step-down living room with television surmounted fireplace and a couple of slender, arched display niches set on either side of a picture window with open canyon views. The dining room, which has also canyon views through a large window on one wall and opens to a stone-tiled courtyard terrace through folding glass doors on the opposite wall, links through to an unfortunately compact galley style kitchen that includes high-cost stainless steel appliances, some sort of slab stone counter top, and a rather puny dining space tucked into a windowed bay with panoramic view. Upstairs there are three guest/family bedrooms plus a master suite with sitting area that offers a distant view of the iconic Hollywood sign, a marble-tiled bathroom, and a celebrity-style dressing room lined with built-in wardrobes and clothing storage.
The main house shares the .69-acre hillside property with a fitness room/yoga studio with bathroom perched atop a street-level two-car garage as well as a separate and self-contained one-bedroom and one-bathroom guesthouse with full kitchen and, in the living room, floor-to-ceiling corner windows with expansive canyon and city vistas. The mini-compound’s recreational amenities include a variety of terraces set amid lush gardens and rolling lawns, a half-court basketball court, and, up on a plateau above the rear of the main house where it takes advantage of a over-the roof-tops views, a swimming pool and adjacent entertainment cabana. Listing details show the entire property is decked out with a comprehensive home automation system that controls everything from heating and cooling systems, A/V equipment, which listing details show includes seven flat screen televisions, electronic window shades, and what we can all be assured is a kick-ass security system. Some of the nearby home and estates are owned by flame-haired insult comic and television personality Kathy Griffin and much in-demand Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker.
Though they continue to own an unassuming contemporary residence wedged into a sardine-packed neighborhood about half a block from the ocean in the low-key but high-cost Manhattan Beach community that was acquired per property records by Mister Asomugha in April 2010 for $2.85 million, this property gossip presumes the couple will, if they have not already, acquire another, probably even more impressive and private residence in one of the better, more expensive Los Angeles zip codes.
Listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty
