A Home for Super Heroes

Posted on March 5, 2014 by mayfairblog

Please click on image for further details.

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty tastes the life of an at home movie star in a beautiful Beverly Hills estate being handled by Hilton & Hyland.

Where does your everyday movie super-hero go home to after spending the day tackling baddies? Is it some sort of fortified apartment with cleverly secreted armoury? Or could it be a Scottish castle protected by miles of moorland and with a precipitous approach? Or could it be a simple house hiding in plain sight? For Hollywood star, Bruce Willis, it has been none of those things.

Home for Willis is a charming hacienda-style house that is perhaps best described as a tennis court estate of almost an acre of prime Beverly Hills. Former owners include Michael Jackson and Lucille Ball. No doubt it is close to a number of other super-hero buddies.

Set behind a high wall and gate – that offer privacy as well as protection – this beautifully appointed home is particularly well equipped to a very high specification. The house provides over 10,000 sq ft of elegant living space including 5 bedrooms, his/her bathroom with large closets and two staff rooms. Of course there is a state-of-the-art screening room for watching the latest blockbuster or re-living derring-do in skyscrapers and airports overrun by terrorists.

Outside are lush and landscaped grounds, the tennis court and inner courtyard. Here then is the antidote to super-herodom. A place to relax and recharge. It’s not far from the studios or from friends in the business. But forgetting all that for a moment this is simply a lovely house. It is grounded. It is not over the top, glitzy or very show biz for that. It is a comfortable, elegant house that anyone would be delighted to call home.

Posted in Hilton & Hyland | Leave a comment

Grand Entrance

Posted on March 3, 2014 by mayfairblog
Please click on image for further details.

Please click on image for further details.

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty re-visits Fort Lauderdale, Florida and finds a very grand house on a very grand canal for sale through Julie Jones at Premier Estate Properties.

The last time I wrote a blog about a waterfront home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida it was about a little Modernist cutie on one of the quiet backwaters. This time I thought I would show what an extra $14 million or so can buy. Actually it buys quite a lot.

Homebuyers often like a corner plot as it gives them so much more frontage. Well this is a corner plot like no other.  The frontage here is about 289 ft. But this is no ordinary frontage. This is Fort Lauderdale Grand Canal frontage. In the world’s capital for super yachts – also known as The Venice of America – it does not get much better. That’s because one can tether up a 160 ft yacht alongside the house and not have it spoil the view from your bedroom – unless that is you would prefer looking at your yacht rather than the rest of Fort Lauderdale.

This is 2 Pelican Drive on the gated Seven Isles Point Estate. 
The award-winning house was designed by architect Rex Nichols and enjoys astounding views down and across the wide Intracoastal Waterway.

When landing at this home from the water one could be forgiven for perhaps feeling a little like a doge reaching a grand Venice palazzo. And if this entrance wasn’t enough, the house continues the sense of grand arrival with its impressive marble foyer and sensational two-story living room with arcing window wall across the waterfront loggia.

In all there are five bedrooms – including a sumptuous first-floor master bedroom suite featuring a sitting room, exercise room, morning bar, plus separate his-and-her spa-style baths and wardrobe rooms. In all the internal space extends to about 15,000 sq ft.

Outside is a pool cabana with changing room and bath and a three-bay garage.

Close to the beach, this magnificent waterside palace is adjacent to Las Olas Boulevard – Fort Lauderdale’s signature thoroughfare – famous for its fine boutiques, galleries, restaurants, and cafes.

So – as we say in the UK – you pays your money and you takes your choice – the small cutie or the large show stopper. Personally I think they are both fabulous in their own ways. That is the thing with real estate. Good isn’t determined by size or cost. It is determined by location, design and personal taste.

Posted in Premier Estate Properties | Leave a comment

Better Than Fiction

Posted on February 28, 2014 by mayfairblog

Please click on image for more details.

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty harks back to a time of real Georgian architecture, the Church and smuggling with a delightful vicarage on the south coast of England now for sale through Phillips & Stubbs.

Despite being built three years after the death of Jane Austen in 1817, The Old Vicarage in Icklesham on the south coast of England can hardly fail to conjure up images of fictional characters from Pride and Prejudice such as William Collins, Charlotte Lucas and of course their benefactor, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Fans of Anthony Trollope also will recognise the comfortable period relationship between nineteenth century English domestic architecture and the Church in this classic house set in the lee of All Saints and St Nicholas, the Norman parish church.

Here is a treasure of a Georgian vicarage with all the style and elegance of that age. The symmetrical three bay front elevation under a parapet wall and mansard roof with two small dormer windows is just the introduction to a particularly elegant interior which is packed with charm.

It is not just the house that delights. Both the situation and the location, close to the lovely enclave of Winchelsea and the ancient town of Rye, seem largely unspoiled by progress. This part of the world remains much as it would have been when smuggling contraband across the English Channel from France was a way of life for the residents hereabouts.

Perhaps the vicars of All Saints and St Nicholas knew about this illicit trade. Perhaps the walls of the lovely vicarage can tell some tales. This house certainly has history but it is also a home for today. It was built in a period when natural light and the fine proportions of rooms were most important. They still are.

With enough bedrooms for five daughters not to have to share, a drawing room perfect for a Mrs Bennet, a quiet study for a Mr Bennet and garden for a Lizzy Bennet, The Old Vicarage offers the ideal chance to live the dream.

Posted in Phillips & Stubbs | Leave a comment

Thanks For The Memory

Posted on February 25, 2014 by mayfairblog

Please click on image for further details

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty takes a look at an iconic estate once owned by one of the greatest ever stage and screen comedians and now on the market with brokers, Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills.

The road to Toluca Lake, Los Angeles from Eltham in East London was a long but fun one for comedian Bob Hope who emigrated to the US through Ellis Island in 1908. But the king of the one-liner came to be as serious about real estate as he was about comedy. At one time Hope is thought to have been one of the biggest private landowners in Southern California.

One of his principal homes, the Hope Estate, is now on the market. It is not difficult to see the English influence in this home of show biz royalty. The elegant house would be as comfortable in the counties surrounding London as in California. To an Englishman the sweeping roof, the deep eves, gables and feature chimneys all suggest the Arts and Crafts movement that was at its apogee around the time of Hope’s birth in 1903. It also brings memories of the designs of British architects such as Lutyens and Voysey. Perhaps the rear elevation is a little more San Fernando than Surrey. But that’s show biz. Hope, sadly, has delivered his last gag but one thing remains at this property besides the aura of laughter – his famous one-hole golf course.

Built for Hope in 1939, the 14,876 sq ft main house was remodelled in the 1950s and sits in 5.16 walled, gated and completely private acres. The list of guests to this home over the years includes presidents as well as stars of film and the golf course.

Upstairs are four family bedroom suites and a remarkable master wing with his and her bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, and a shared study. Below is a formal reception hall and foyer, a vast living room overlooking the grounds, office, family room, bar, billiards room, formal dining room, family dining room, indoor pool and spa, and chef’s kitchen.

Outside are the gatehouse, staff quarters, offices, outdoor pool, patios, motorcourts, sprawling lawns, the one-hole golf course, and pristine gardens.

House, garden, location and provenance all combine here to offer an iconic estate. But it also serves to remind us of a kind, popular, funny and savvy gentleman. Thanks for the memory, Bob!

Posted in Hilton & Hyland | Leave a comment

Stellar

Posted on December 20, 2013 by mayfairblog
Please click on image for further details.

Please click on image for further details.

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty joins a discreet jet-set in a sub-tropical Florida paradise and visits an Itanianate waterfront home with some very famous neighbours.

It was not so long ago that the Florida zip code for Jupiter Island, 33455, represented the area in the whole of the US with the greatest income per resident. Some neighbourhoods in Silicon Valley have overtaken this now but Jupiter Island remains a very important community for those with wealth, style and discretion – especially on the east coast of the US. A certain privacy is afforded here – unlike the more in-your-face Palm Beach just down the road. I had expected a gated community. This was not so. But it is secure. If you can’t immediately see a police officer in a squad car then you’re sure to do so very soon.

Residents here include golfers, Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, and singer, Celine Dion. There is a choice of views to suit most deep pockets – golf course, intracoastal waterway and ocean. For deep, deep pockets you get to see both intracoastal and ocean.

I couldn’t quite make up my mind if the house I visited and on the market with Waterfront Properties & Club Communities, 494 South Beach Road, was more like a Tuscan farmhouse or a Venetian villa. To tell the truth it doesn’t matter.  Whichever it was more like, I liked it. It was a cool marbled, waterside palace fit for a prince or princess of Jupiter.

Outside is a lawn so well tended that your near neighbour, Tiger, could use it for putting practice. Beyond the lawn is the deep water dock for a yacht so large that you could stand at the bow, stretch your arms wide and sing along to that song made so memorable by another of your close neighbours, Celine, in the film, Titanic.

Whether singing, yachting, golfing or just relaxing, there is something for everyone at Jupiter Island. It’s just that you wont make a big noise about it.

Posted in Waterfront Properties & Club Communities | Leave a comment

Doors to the Soul

Posted on December 19, 2013 by mayfairblog
Please click on image for brochure.

Please click on image for brochure.

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty spends some very special moments visiting a remarkable new home of immense warmth and spirit on Longboat Key, Sarasota, Florida.

I sat under the chickee roof beside the pool beside the Gulf of Mexico. Ahead was glassy stillness to the horizon – only interrupted by the odd pelican flying past. Behind me was one of the most extraordinary, beautiful and tactile houses I have ever had the pleasure to visit.

Perched on the beach facing the sunset on Longboat Key, Sarasota, Florida, building has just finished at Ohana. It is the brainchild of brilliant local architect, Guy Peterson, and the construction of Sarasota builder, Michael Walker, and his hugely skilled team of craftsmen. Taking themes from Polynesia, Hawaii, South Africa and other far-flung places, the result is an astonishingly beautiful home formed by three interconnected pavilions and a separate, magical beach house. Peace and serenity rule. I think it would be impossible to be angry or loud here. If Zen could be described in the form of a building then this would be it. Whether the property is best expressed as a house or a small, intimate and very private southeast Asian inspired super-spa, Ohana has soul – lots of it.

You can see all the wonderful pictures of the interior and exterior on the fabulous brochure prepared by the excellent Michael Saunders & Co marketing people – just click on the image above. Better still click here for the superb video.

But what you can’t do, unless you go there, is understand really how Ohana feels. You have to touch this house. You have to feel the pitted coral stone and smooth white oak beneath your bare feet. You have to open your eyes to the detail of the materials that are in total harmony with one other. You have to listen to the silence. You have to finger the deep but smooth undulations of the utterly exquisite walnut doors: I experienced many emotions visiting Ohana but perhaps the strangest was one I had never had before – door envy!

For a thousand years travel has broadened and influenced the minds of house builders and architects. At Ohana this process continues. From across the world ideas and materials combine here in a unity of spirit so vivid that it takes one’s breath away. This is a place for self but perhaps above all it is a gift for family. For family is what Ohana means in Hawaiian.

Posted in Michael Saunders & Company | 4 Comments

Anyone for Coffee?

Posted on December 17, 2013 by mayfairblog
646

Please click on image for further details

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty discovers what some very forward thinking people discovered in St Petersburg, Florida about a century ago.

St. Petersburg, Florida is many things to many people. Okay, yes, there is a brash beachy bit. But there is also a sophisticated beachy bit and a very smart Downtown area on the waterside where yachts bob gently at their moorings. There is a cultural heart with great museums and galleries and then there is Old St. Pete’s where those who really got this place a century ago fully recognised the potential.

Amongst those who understood the possibilities all those years ago was the developer, C. Perry Snell. He built the Granada Terrace section in the Mediterranean style. It was charming then and it is charming still.

The house I went to see there was 2296 Coffee Pot Blvd. Coffee Pot is the name of the attractive Manatee inhabited bayou that this house faces – shaped, of course, like a coffee pot. The lovely thing about the position of this historic house is the openness. No high hedges or fences here. It lets you see Perry Snell’s concept in its entirety and encourages a close and friendly community.

The area is also protected from further development and inappropriate alterations so its integrity is safeguarded.

But come inside. I loved the bookish feel to the house. I loved the arched doorways and I loved the little surprises like the enchanting balcony off the main bedroom where you can watch the world go by without the world watching you.

This is a wonderful, manageable and attractive home in a very lovely part of St. Petersburg. I’m glad I found it and the buyer will be too.

Posted in Smith & Associates | 1 Comment

Kennedy Compound

Posted on December 16, 2013 by mayfairblog
Please click on image for further details

Please click on image for further details

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty takes a look at dynastic retreat in New Jersey – perfect for a small presidential library.

The Kennedy clan’s real centre of business and its family playground was at Hyannis Port, a six acre waterfront compound on Cape Cod along Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. It was bought by Joseph Kennedy Snr and was used by his son, John F Kennedy, as a base for his successful 1960 US Presidential campaign, and later as a retreat from Washington.

So I was surprised and delighted to visit another Kennedy home in a different state. This one is in the Curtis Point community of Mantoloking, New Jersey. It was owned and occupied by John F Kennedy’s niece, Mrs Wynne, prior to the current residents buying it 13 years ago.

Nestled at the tip of Curtis Point with 131 feet of deep water frontage with dock, this bay front house has sweeping panoramic water views.

Although very different from Hyannis Point, 230 Squan Beach Drive has echoes of the old compound. It is a waterfront escape combining style, elegance, functionality and practical life style.  There are landscaped gardens, an expansive stone patio/terrace and a bay front heated pool. A private ocean beach and tennis courts are just steps away.

Inside is over 5000 square feet of living space. The open floorplan includes a dramatic two-storey entrance hall with grand staircase, spacious sunken living room, formal dining room, and a rather presidential library/study – although not perhaps quite large enough to house all the books written about the previous owner’s Uncle Jack.

Posted in Diane Turton Realtors | Leave a comment

Big

Posted on December 15, 2013 by mayfairblog
please click on image for further details

Please click on image for further details

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty bigs it up at Mendham, New Jersey.

They come big in Mendham, New Jersey. Take the State’s Republican Governor and potential presidential runner, Chris Christy. He has a house in Mendham. Some rather cruelly say that his size is his biggest asset. But others who saw and admired the way he handled the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy, that so devastated lives and property in the State, strongly disagree. For them he has a charisma and ability as big as his frame.

Then there was Whitney Houston. She lived in Mendham and was one of the biggest names in show business.

So I was very prepared for 6 Balbrook Drive, Mendham Boro to be big in stature, amenities and appeal. I was not disappointed.

Massive wrought iron gates mark the main entrance to this 5 acre estate with elegant Georgian Colonial style house. It is all very impressive and the accommodation is lavish – just the place for some major parties. Guests would be put up with ease. The master suite is privately situated at one end of the house, while a four-room apartment anchors the other. Between are three additional en suite bedrooms. In addition to the apartment in the main house, there is a four-room, one bedroom apartment above the detached three-car garage, providing room for extended stays by guests or staff.

But I was especially drawn to the park-like landscape surrounding the property and studded with mature specimen trees. An English garden with raised beds and boxwood hedges connects the terrace to a pergola-covered patio. Garden structures dot the landscape, adding visual interest and delightful venues for outdoor entertaining. Guests and owner alike will also enjoy the pool, spa and tennis court. A detached garage near the tennis court has been renovated to function as a catering kitchen for outdoor parties and events.

So here is a big house for a big owner with a big family and a big list of friends and contacts – all ready for some big entertaining. Even perhaps Chris Christy . . .

Posted in Turpin Realtors | Leave a comment

Brumm Brumm

Posted on December 11, 2013 by mayfairblog
Please click on image for more details

Please click on image for more details

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty moves into the fast lane in Clearwater, Florida.

Remember the Henry Ford quote that you could have any colour car you wanted as long as it was black? Well the man who invented the ‘Japan Black’ colour that was used on the early Model T Fords was a chap called Robert Brown. And it was Brown who developed Century Oaks in Clearwater, Florida in 1922.

What is it about petrol heads and this house? Seventy years later Nigel Mansell the British F1 world champion bought the property – selling it on five years later to American powerboat racing champion, Hugh Fuller.

Petrol head or not, you can see the attraction – a green-roofed colonial style house with formal pool in an avenue of palms that leads the eye to Clearwater Bay. It is called Century Oaks after the five ancient trees that grace the gardens. They are estimated to be between four and five hundred years old. When these trees were saplings the Seminole Indians were the only inhabitants hereabouts. Later, the Florida tribe was uprooted to Oklahoma after the Seminole Wars that lasted from 1818 to 1858. In fact Century Oaks is built on the site of Fort Harrison, an outpost used during those wars.

Steeped in American early history and modern social history, Century Oaks is a reminder of the past and also of how magnificent American architecture can be – especially when it is inspired by the grandest of waterside locations. You could say that this house fires on all cylinders but that would be a bit obvious.

Posted in Smith & Associates | Leave a comment