It’s equal parts jokes and joists

Reality TV has brought comedy to real estate. Adam Carolla, host of a new Comedy Central talk show, will find out soon if he can get more than $1 million for his old boyhood home.

The Valley Village traditional is featured in the TLC reality series “The Adam Carolla Project,” which airs in 13 episodes. The asking price is $1,049,000.

During the show, whose fifth episode will be shown this week, Carolla, 41, paid his father $739,000 for the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with leaky pipes and a decaying roof.

“It was a total fixer,” said listing broker Karen Misraje of Sotheby’s International Realty, Sunset Boulevard.

The comedian took the San Fernando Valley house down to the studs with a construction crew “of unemployable idiots,” as he described them. One preferred to do masonry work in his bare feet.

Leading the crew in renovating and expanding the 1,668-square-foot house, Carolla, who was once a carpenter, hammered out jokes and advice while taking the audience behind the scenes.

By the filming of the 13th segment, the 1937 house was ready for its close-up. There is a newly redone, enlarged master-bedroom suite, a great room, a gourmet kitchen, a family room with a fireplace and a new saltwater pool. Central air conditioning and heating were added.

Carolla wired the house for plasma TVs, a security system and room-to-room data networking. At the rear of the garage, he created a room that can be used as a home office, gym or workshop. The house has a lawn for playground equipment.

In early 2006, Carolla will replace Howard Stern in Western radio markets, including L.A., of Infinity Broadcasting. He was co-host with Dr. Drew Pinsky of the nationally syndicated call-in radio show “Loveline.”

Carolla’s new Comedy Central talk show is “Too Late With Adam Carolla.”

Pitcher winds up in Orange County

L.A. Dodgers pitcher Derek Lowe has sold his Beverly Hills-area home for $5.9 million. The veteran right-hander, 32, has moved to Orange County.

The Westside home has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms in 7,200 square feet. The Italian-style villa, built in 2001, also has a breakfast room, library and master bedroom suite with his-and-hers baths.

Lowe, who helped the Boston Red Sox win their first world championship since 1918 last year, signed a four-year, $36-million free-agent deal with the Dodgers in January.

The injury-plagued team didn’t make the playoffs.

Barbara Tenenbaum and Judy Hanauer of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.

Into heavy metal -- floors, that is

Who knew that “very rock star” was a home style? That’s how real estate agents are describing the Los Feliz home just purchased by rocker Butch Walker, a solo artist on Epic Records who also has worked with Tommy Lee and Pink.

He paid close to the $2.1-million asking price for the single-level house, built in 1962. It has three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in about 1,800 square feet.

So what exactly is “very rock star”? Burnished metal floors, walls of glass, 8-foot-wide sliders, a pool, a spa, a deck, city-to-ocean views and a long driveway. There is parking for up to eight cars.

The singer-songwriter-guitarist was in the group Marvelous 3 in the late ‘90s. He is also Avril Lavigne’s producer. Walker has a cult following from years of touring.

Jana Jones-Duffy and Fred Holley of Coldwell Banker Previews represented him in his purchase.

A Silver Lake Schindler: sweet

It took a cross-country move by its owners to bring this Silver Lake house, designed by Austrian-born architect Rudolf M. Schindler, on the market.

The relocation involves Connie Butler, curator at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, and her husband, artist and Art Center College of Design instructor David Schafer.

Butler accepted a job with New York’s Museum of Modern Art as chief curator of drawings for the Robert Lehman Foundation. As a result, she and Schafer listed their Schindler home at just under $1.9 million.

The three-story, 2,300-square-foot house, built in 1938 and updated, has three bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, an office and views of Silver Lake reservoir from every level.

Crosby Doe and J.R. Davidson of Mossler & Doe, Beverly Hills, have the listing.

Kilroy was here, and here and here

Actor Steve McQueen’s Palm Springs estate is the latest in a string of residential jewels being collected by Michael J. Kilroy, a Palos Verdes Peninsula businessman.

Kilroy, 42, bought the desert home for $2.5 million. The split-level house, built in the ‘60s, is a post-and-beam, 4,500-square-foot plan on an acre with a pool, guest apartment and reception lawn.

Kilroy had his eye on the property for years, as he already owns the John Lautner-designed Elrod House next door. The Elrod House was featured in the James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever.” McQueen died in 1980 at age 50.

“I was looking at the Steve McQueen home and realized that it is the only house that could impact mine,” Kilroy said, referring to the Elrod.

He may use it as an annex to the Elrod and may build on a vacant 1-acre lot that was included in the sale.

Kilroy also owns the Jack Benny estate in Palm Springs and the Loretta Young compound in West Hollywood.

Stefan Bishop of Ethan L. Smith Realty Services, Palos Verdes Estates, represented Kilroy, and Debbie Toohey of Coldwell Banker, Palm Springs, had the listing.

To see previous columns on celebrity realty transactions, go to latimes.com/hotproperty.