SELLERS: Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3.988 million
SIZE: 4,379 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms plus guesthouse
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Veteran actors of stage and screen Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams have put their longtime Los Angeles residence up for sale at $3.988 million. Property records show the couple — he, a three-time Emmy winner for his eponymous portrayal of an oddball detective riddled with OCD on “Monk,” and she, currently writing, producing and co-starring with her sister, Lynne Adams, in the Web series “All Downhill From Here” — paid $675,000 in August of 1993 for the certainly stately but slightly short-of-grand residence on a quiet street lined with towering palms near the eastern edge of the historic, well-preserved, and well-to-do Windsor Square neighborhood that borders the even more affluent Hancock Park ‘hood to the west. Current listing details, which make no secret of the property’s celebrity ownership, show the green tile roofed Mediterranean villa was originally built in 1922 on a flat, 0.41-acre mid-block parcel and is currently configured with four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in 4,379 square feet.
A deep, wide and slightly elevated porch extends off the north end of the house to create a porte cochere that adds a bit of structural joie de vivre to an otherwise perfectly symmetrical white brick and grey stucco façade. The wood-floored and chandelier-lit center hall entry is flanked by formal living and dining rooms, the former with carved stone fireplace, the latter with half-paneled walls, and both with elaborate ceiling moldings and narrow-gauge honey-blond hardwood floors. A butler’s pantry links the dining room to the kitchen that includes a long center work island with vegetable sink, a mix of white marble and black granite countertops on both ebony- and bone-colored cabinetry, black-and-white inlaid penny tile flooring, and an unexpectedly colorful tile backsplash behind the range. The adjoining breakfast area has a built-in desk and opens through French doors to the backyard, as does the adjacent 26-foot-long family room that also has a second fireplace, more hardwood floors, coved ceilings, and a window-lined bay that stretches the full 17.5-foot width of the room.
Two large guest/family bedrooms on the upper floor share a vintage-tiled if slightly tired looking Jack ‘n’ Jill bathroom while a third, significantly smaller bedroom has a walk-in closet but, alas, no direct or convenient access to a bathroom. A floor plan included with online marketing materials shows the unlucky occupant of the smallest bedroom must intrusively pass through one of the other three bedrooms on the upper floor to access a bathroom or make an annoying dash downstairs to use the powder room off the vestibule at the back of the entrance hall between the kitchen and family room. This property gossip would turn the cell-sized room in to a decadently humongous linen closet rather than use it as a second-class guest bedroom, but that’s really of no matter since we’re absolutely not in the market for a $4 million house in Windsor Square. The master suite, positioned at the rear of the upper floor for maximum privacy, encompasses a modestly proportioned bedroom with cushioned window seat set between built-in book shelves, a roomy if ho-hum beige ceramic-tiled bathroom, and two walk-in closets, one substantially larger than the other. French doors on the back wall in the master bedroom lead out to a curtain-lined and awning-shaded terrace and a glass door in the bathroom opens to a second terrace completely open to the elements.
The driveway passes under the aforementioned porte cochere at the side of the house on its way to a detached two-car garage at the rear of the property that is topped by a handy-dandy studio-style guesthouse with hardwood floors, white-tiled bathroom, and tiny but complete kitchen. The backyard has expansive terracing for dining and lounging, a secret sunken garden, a Balinese-like gazebo placed in a jungle-like setting, a pavilion-shaded outdoor kitchen, and a saltwater swimming pool and spa. A tiled outdoor bathroom, tucked into an exterior niche between the family room and the kitchen and perfect for soaking wet swimmers, is at least visually privatized with the simple pull of a curtain.
Since the late 1990s, when they bought the property for $750,000, the Adams-Shalhoubs have maintained a 5,506-square-foot residence on nearly six acres near picturesque Chilmark Pond on the historic and — if any of y’all have been there, you know — magically delicious Martha’s Vineyard.
Listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty
