Unreal estates:Looking for a unique home improvement?...
Unreal estates:
Looking for a unique home improvement? Michael Chan, architect to the rich and famous, can tell you about a few.
Chan’s L.A.-based firm recently finished a closet for an entertainment celebrity that has a runway lined with mirrors, the kind you’d see in a fashion show.
Another concept is the “gift-wrapping room,” one of the first of which was installed in Aaron and Candy Spelling’s mansion in Holmby Hills (we hope no presents have been ruined by the couple’s leaky roof). Chan says that such “packing rooms” (his term) are now “very common.”
And, too, one’s cars need proper care. Not so long ago, Chan noticed a Thousand Oaks residence that has an automated carwash in the garage.
“Nothing surprises me anymore,” Chan added.
The architect recalled stepping into the backyard of a client’s estate overseas and asking, “What is this?”
He was told he was looking at “two 747 simulators” for the owner’s children.
RUN INTO THE GROUND: Scott Dewees of West Hollywood snapped a photo of a permanently parked jalopy. It was turned into a sort of planter by residents Bob and Sandy Valenzuela of Altadena.
BUT WHO’S FROM CULVER CITY? Hank Rosenfeld of Santa Monica has written “a practical guide and post-yuppie lamentifesto” for the 1990s titled “Women Are From Venice, Men Are From Mar Vista.”
His thesis, Rosenfeld explains, “is that “women ARE the sea, but men can only see it from here, longing to break beneath their waves, as it were. Also, I play softball in Mar Vista and wanted to honor that male activity. . . .”
THIS SECURITY-MINDED ERA: Eddie Cress of L.A. saw a sign at a shop that warned, “Protect your bagels--put lox on them.”
MAYBE IT’S AN APRIL FOOL’S JOKE: The Friday issue of the San Gabriel Valley’s Herald Tribune displayed a Page 1 headline that said, “Spring Forward This Sunday for Daylight Savings Time.”
Actually, you shouldn’t spring anywhere until April 6.
FAMILIAR FACES TO BETTORS: While wagering on the ponies at Santa Anita, writer Don Page noticed that the racetrack’s program listed among the day’s special guests the San Bernardino Bankruptcy Court.
“Our seats were right next to theirs,” Page said. “I think it’s a nice public service by Santa Anita to have the Bankruptcy Court there because a lot of us go to it anyway.”
miscelLAny:
We’re taking a week of vacation in order to make some home improvements, including the introduction of running water. See you April 8.
