Where serenity can be found
During the three years that architect Michael Mekeel worked on this house in Los Feliz Oaks, he couldn’t help but notice that the noise and traffic of the city seemed a world away.
“Whenever I’d get up here, it was always quiet because the foothills catch the wind,” he said.
Mekeel named the Spanish-style house, completed in 2007, “La Serena.” Perched atop a knoll overlooking the Los Feliz hills, the house is set back from the quiet tree-lined street and has a long winding driveway. Most of the homes in the hilly, upscale neighborhood between Los Feliz and Hollywood are English- or Spanish-style homes built in the 1920s and 1930s.
La Serena was designed to mimic the era’s Colonial Revival estates, complete with thick walls, tall beamed ceilings -- 10 feet in the kitchen and dining room, and 18 feet in the living room -- terra cotta tiling and walnut floors. French doors and large windows flood the interior with natural light.
The kitchen, which Mekeel and architect Frances Offenhauser designed specifically to avoid a typical appearance, has a fireplace, sliding door pantries and custom Douglas fir woodwork that matches that of window frames throughout the house. At first glance, the refrigerator and dishwasher appear to be wooden armoires, but in fact open up for functional use.
The living room doubles as a screening room, and blackout screens can be pulled over all the windows. A large arched window frames a view of the Los Feliz hills.
Upstairs, the master bedroom has views of downtown Los Angeles, and a peek around the corner of the terrace offers a glimpse of Griffith Observatory.
Wrought-iron light fixtures and an old-fashioned bathtub in the master bathroom help create the feeling of an older home.
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To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, send high-resolution color photos with caption and credit information on a CD and a detailed description of the house to Lauren Beale, Business, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012. Questions may be sent to homeoftheweek@latimes.com.
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Quietly tucked away in the hills
Location: 2480 Wild Oak Drive, Los Angeles 90068
Asking price: $3.45 million
Size: 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths in 4,500 square feet
Lot size: 15,870 square feet
Additional features: There is an infinity pool and garden space to install a spa. Mekeel designed the star-patterned, hand-colored tile in the three upstairs bathrooms. The large sundial in the front courtyard with hand-designed tile is also a Mekeel creation.
Around the neighborhood: In the first quarter, 37 single-family homes were sold in the 90068 ZIP Code at a median price of $858,000, according to MDA DataQuick. That was a 10.9% price drop from the first quarter of 2008. Last week, 167 single-family houses were listed for sale in 90068, ranging from $434,900 to $14.95 million.
Open house: Today from
2 to 5 p.m.
Listing agent: Barry Sloane, Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills,
(310) 786-1844
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latimes.com /realestate Home of the Week Check out more photos of this and previous homes. Quietly tucked away in the hills