Monday, 4 March 2013
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $787,000
SIZE: 672 square feet, 2 bedroom, 1 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama knows we're probably gonna take some flack from some of the children for discussing this itty-bitty micro-compound in L.A.'s quickly gentrifying but still boho-chic Silver Lake area rather than having a go at Mary-Louise Parker's (re-)listed 10-room residence in lower Manhattan for the third time in a year—Your Mama discussed the Gramercy Park duplex in September 2012 when it was listed for the second time—or the nearly 10,000 square foot Atlanta (GA) mansion that Allen Iverson lost to the gaping maw of foreclosure or even Zsa Zsa Gabor's somewhat bedraggled estate in Bel Air that was, after a long slog on the open market, recently put into escrow by an as yet unidentified buyer.
However, this one's for us because, well, because Your Mama has a special affection for petite but well-planned residential spaces and—as it turns out— the unusually Lilliputian home is owned, as per property records, by multi-talented musician Orpheo McCord who shakes his proverbial money makers for one of our fave bands. Quite like the not quite famous reality tee-vee producer we discussed earlier today, Mister McCord's is hardly a household name, especially for—say—gangsta rap fans or Top 40 followers. He is, however, the marimba playing percussionist and occasional vocalist of the arty-farty L.A.-based musical collective known as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros,* a 10-plus member band that hasn't risen to pop music mass consciousness yet but one that Your Mama—thank you very much, as if anyone cares—likes more than a little bit.
Property records indicate Mister McCord acquired his Silver Lake micro-compound in February 2007 for $665,000. The eensy-weensy main house, perched high above street level single car garage on a downright puny .06 acre parcel, was originally a 1920s Spanish bungalow but was re-worked—so our online research reveals—by the folks at Design Built, Inc. into an airy if highly compact and very contemporary cottage with two bedrooms and one bathroom efficiently wedged into what the L.A. County Tax Man shows is a microscopic 672 square feet.
Obviously this is not a house in which to raise a big family but for a single person or an in-synch couple this is really no more—or less—than is required for a comfortable urban lifestyle. Indeed, Your Mama would live here in a heartbeat, especially since it's walking distance to the hipster swarmed Sunset Junction shopping and dining area where a person so inclined can pick up a $38 pound of extra special coffee beans at Intelligentsia, snag a cute little knick-knack for your b.f.f. at ReForm School, purchase some hardcore fetish wear at Rough Trade—that last one is a maybe NSFW link, children—and finish up a damn fine steak frites at perennially popular eatery Cafe Stella.
The main, open plan living space, indisputably tiny and arguably even a bit cramped, is finished with high gloss wood floors that also horizontally clad one entire wall in a more modern take on wood paneling. Aluminum framed floor-to-ceiling windows face south for maximum solar exposure and open to a small deck with over the roof-top sky views.
At the back of the main living area that a compact, galley-style kitchen has lustrous custom cabinetry, quartz slab counter tops, (middle-grade but perfectly adequate for this price range) stainless steel appliances and a cleverly cantilevered breakfast bar that separates the kitchen area from the living room. A glass door makes a convenient exit from the kitchen to a supermodel slender deck that runs along the back side of the house.
A sliding wood panel separates the living room from one of the bedrooms that listing photos show has a built-in walnet—or maybe it's teak—wardrobe cabinet/dresser and another full wall of aluminum framed south facing windows. Listing photos show Mister McCord—or perhaps a property stager, we don't know—has sparely furnished to room as a home office.
The master bedroom—if it can properly be called that since it's hardly if at all bigger than the office/bedroom and doesn't have an en suite facility—opens through a floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors to that supermodel slender deck that wraps around the side of the house and steps down towards the entry gate.
At the back of the house, planted terraces stair step up the steep hillside to a larger, more entertainment friendly deck where the architect/designer installed a privacy fence of horizontal wood cladding that mimics the wall in the living room. A few more steps up is a detached, flexi-use ancillary structure that currently houses a simple two-room recording studio but could easily be used as a writing room or other home-based office situation, a yoga and meditation suite, a fitness space and aerobics studio, bathroom-free guest quarters or any other thing a person might imagine.
We're not sure if his decision to sell his bantam abode in Silver Lake is related but property records show Mister McCord—who previously owned a home in the remote, cedar-scented San Jacinto Mountains town of Idyllwild, CA—recently spent almost $800,000 on a charming but woefully dated hacienda style house with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and an in-ground swimming pool in a Ojai, CA.
Not that anybody gives a toxic dump's worth but besides Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros also others on regular rotation on Your Mama's music box right now include Linda Ronstadt, The Black Keys, Broken Bells, Miike Snow, Julian Doré, Robert Plant and Allison Kraus' 2007 album Raising Sand, the Alabama Shakes, Jack White's Blunderbuss and—always—a little Nina Simone for good measure.
*Just for your musical edification, puppies, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have been touring for a couple of years, they're hardly a stranger to the public eye—they were on Letterman for chrissakes—and there is no such person named Edward Sharpe associated with this band.
listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty
