Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping, Sports

The Real Estalker Mama already ably skewered this one but let’s take a look at the pictures for the home owned by Nascar driver Denny Hamlin. Hamin, a young driver on the circuit, has a rather large bachelor pad on Lake Norman in Cornelius, North Carolina. Hamlin bought the five-bedroom mansion in 2006 for $3.4 million and is said to have spent another $1 million decorating it to its current gaudy standard. The home includes lots of single guy-friendly features like a large home gym , bar area, and a dramatic red and black billiards room as well as huge plasma televisions mounted improbably high above fireplaces. It is clear that a lot of money was spent here on touches like the shiny golden home theater room, gourmet kitchen with adjoining domed breakfast room and the master bed and bath which looks a bit like a suite at the Bellagio. The property includes a pool/spa area, outdoor fireplace, basketball court, boat house and a long dock with a boat lift. This home is listed at $4.9 million.

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
–Celebrity manager Rick Yorn has sold his Brentwood house for $9.35 million.
– Wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin listed his 3,881-square-foot house in Malibu for $3,895,000 originally, it just sold for $2.5 million.
–The home belonging to Kanye West’s mom, Donda West is expected to get another price cut, to $1.595 million. The contemporary home in the Playa del Rey area of Los Angeles was originally priced at $1.945 million and was dropped to $1.745 million at the end of May. The listing is here.
–The Polaroid house, shown above, is located on Malibu’s Carbon Beach, has been home to plenty of A-list parties but with Malibu’s new paparazzi crackdown the home is looking for just one owner. The property has 80 feet of beach frontage and has approved plans to build a 6,000 square foot estate with a beachfront pool and spa as well as the existing home. It is listed at $32 million.

From the NY Post’s Real Estate section:
–Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger is about to list his Plaza apartment for $50 million. The apartment is located in the northeast dome on the 18th and 19th floors of the building and includes four bedrooms, a formal dining room, large living room, library and gourmet kitchen.
–Paul McCartney is looking for a New York City apartment closer to the Upper East Side apartment of his new flame Nancy Shevell.
–Denis Leary’s TV series “Rescue Me” has just signed a six-month lease with Loft 14, the 10-story condominium building at 135 W. 14th St., where taping of their fifth season will begin this month. The lease is for $14,000 a month and the apartment has a real asking price of $2,375 million.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
–Actor Chris O’Donnell has paid an undisclosed amount for a house in Pacific Palisades. The seller bought it last year for $4.675 million. He sold his last house in Pacific Palisades for $5.05 million.
–Jamie Foxx has sold his Tarzana home. It was our estate of the day back in June.
–Nicolas Cage’s Bel Air home is back on the market, this time for $29.999 million. It hit the market last September for $35 million and was later pulled. The listing for the classic home which has been owned by both Dean Martin and Tom Jones is here.
–Glenn Frey has paid $7.75 million for a six-bedroom estate in Hana, Hawaii, on Maui.
–Kiefer Sutherland has paid $8.25 million for a t five-story town house in Manhattan’s West Village.

From the Real Estalker:
–Looks like neither Donald Trump nor the mystery buyer have picked up Ed McMahon’s house. It is still listed at $4.6 million.
–Rumor has it that Cher has sold her Malibu mansion which was listed at $45 million.
–Stevie Wonder has put his home in Los Feliz on the market for $3.2 million.
–Nascar racer Denny Hamlin has put his North Carolina home on the market. It’s our estate of the day later today.
—-via Boston.com, quarterback Tom Brady is a real estate winner. He converted a Beacon Street town house into four condos and sold three of them saving the top floors floors for himself. As a result he earned back more than he paid two years ago for the building. His total proceeds were $7.95 million which is $1.71 million more than he paid for the entire building, according to public deed records.
–via Nashville City Paper, country singer Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn and his wife Barbara are the buyers in Nashville’s biggest home sale of the year. They paid $5.45 million in August for a new house in Forest Hills.
–via the Real Deal, Moby sold his penthouse at the El Dorado, the twin-towered cooperative apartment at 300 Central Park West near 90th Street, for $6.7 million. It was our estate of the day in July of 2007 when it was priced at $7.5 million.
–Dane Cook has picked up a four-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills for $7,078,412.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–Basketball player Allen Iverson has reduced the price on his Villanova, Pennsylvania home by 37%. We will be checking this out as our estate of the day on Monday.
–Basketball player Rasheed Wallace has cut the price on his Portland, Oregon home. It will be our estate of the day on Tuesday.
–Actor Matthew Modine has purchased a condominium in New York’s Chelsea section for $1.7 million.
–Leonard Ross who put the Hearst estate in Beverly Hills on the market for $165 million has taken it off the market. He has decided to keep the home.

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
– A co-op penthouse in 1060 Fifith Avenue has sold for $48,836,000 setting a new co-op price record in Manhattan. Hedge fund manager Scott Bommer and wife Donya. The couple bought the home for $46 million penthouse back in January. The buyer is listed anonymously on the deed as Park View Trust.
–Writer Ian Buruma spent $1,495,000 on an apartment at the Kalahari on West 116th Street. He and Eri Hotta, who taught at Oxford until 2005, closed last month.
–Ben Stiller spent $10 million on a duplex in a prewar orange-brick co-op on Riverside Drive in the West 80s, the same building that his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, have lived in for years.

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After reading about the real estate downturn in Greenwich, Connecticut in a recent issue of The New Yorker, I wondered what effect this will have on homes still on the market, in particular, Mel Gibson’s Old Mill Farm. A quick look at the listing reveals that Gibson, who has had the property on the market for $39.5 million for over a year now, recently dropped the price to $35 million.

The home is one of Greenwich’s treasures. No McMansion, Old Mill Farm is a design by architect Charles Lewis Bowman built in 1926 and is one of the last great manor homes in Greenwich and is significant not just for the architecture but for the fact that it has 77 acres of land which includes formal gardens, a maze, pool tennis court, greenhouse, stable staff houses, log cabin and a pond. The home itself is an Elizabethan-inspired Tudor mansion of 15,800 square feet and the property has 15 bedrooms and 18 bathrooms total. The great hall has a 40-foot cathedral ceiling with a stone minstrel’s gallery, walk-in fireplace and leaded glass ceilings. In this real estate climate, will a $4.5 million price cut be enough or does Mel need to lower the price a bit more?

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I wondered back in 2006, when I first saw today’s estate listed, if it was a bit overpriced. It turns out I may have been right, it has gone through a major price reduction since then. Luxist reader Ryan reminded me of Edge Wood in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is a large six bedroom home which was built in 2002 and sits on the waterfront. It has two docks, three boat lifts and a sandy beach. The compound is over three acres and has more than 21,000 total square feet of space including a large guest house. The home includes details such as a billiards room with a bar, a large art studio and a master suite with a wet bar. It is listed at $16 million, which is less than two-thirds the price it was two years ago when it was listed at $24.5 million.

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We are getting great reader tips lately. This one comes from Luxist reader Ben and is a beautiful modern home in West Vancouver, BC. The home is gated and located inside the Canterbury Estates community. It is up on a hill giving it flawless city, harbor and ocean views. The four bedroom home has more than 7,400 sq. ft of modern space with an an open floor plan. The foyer features an indoor/outdoor Koi pond and waterfall. The copper-leafed custom gourmet kitchen has professional grade appliances and custom edge grain Cherry cabinetry and adjoins a family room with a fireplace. The main rooms open out to the south for the best views.

The upper level is given over to the bedrooms and includes the master suite with a bathroom that includes a tub overlooking the city and a custom-built dressing room with limestone topped island. The lower level has a large games/pool room. media room, exercise gym and private office all opening out to the patio with the swimming pool, hot tub and barbecue center. This home is listed at $6.8 million.

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Let me take the opportunity of today’s estate of the day to remind everyone just how much I love getting tips on outrageous real estate. If you find a luxury property you think I should see, please use the tips form on this site to send in the info.

Today’s estate was referred to me by Luxist reader Chris who rightly thought it would make an interesting estate of the day. Certainly we don’t see homes this lavish in Tampa, Florida too often. The huge compounds usually tend to be on the Atlantic side of the state near Palm Beach or Boca Raton. Today’s home is located inside Avila, a private country club community. The gated home is on over five acres overlooking the golf course, pond and conservation areas within Avila. The compound is over 28,000 square feet of space and with attached guest quarters it has 10 bedrooms. The home is pretty ornate. Outside it has a grand manor-like look. Inside there is a large ballroom, a library paneled in dark wood , 14 fireplaces, elevator, wine room. The grounds include a pool and spa with cabana and basketball court. Obviously a lot of money has been spent here but I question the overall effect. The dark wood, marble and touches of gilding. It reminds me of Villa Versailles in Malibu which is on the market for around the same price in that it aspires to grandeur but seems too overblown to be livable even for those with the most lavish of tastes. This home is listed at $25 million.

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Filed under: Estates, Wealth

The Times of London has come up with a new list of the world’s 10 richest streets based on property prices. The most expensive street on the globe, unsurprisingly, is in ultra-rich Monaco - Avenue Princess Grace, to be exact, where average prices run about $17,000 per sq. ft. It’s a pretty safe bet that anyone with an address there is a millionaire at the very least. In second place is Severn Road in Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak district (above), where the average price is about $11,000 per sq. ft. Here are the rest of the runners-up:
No. 3 - Fifth Avenue, New York
No. 4 - Kensington Palace Gardens, London
No. 5 - Avenue Montaigne, Paris
No. 6 - Ostozhenka, Moscow
No. 7 - Via Suvretta, St, Mortiz, Switzerland
No. 8 - Carolwood Drive, Beverly Hills
No. 9 - Wolseley Road, Sydney, Australia
No. 10 - Altamount Road, Mumbai, India

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Earlier this summer the LA Times covered the story of this home in L.A.’s Beverly Crest neighborhood which is dominated by a 5,000-square-foot swimming pool graced with a towering stone fountain. The fountain was said to be designed by the acclaimed Mexican architectural firm of Luis Barragan and Raul Ferrera.

The current owner, Eugene Leoni and his business partner, Anthony Brent bought the site, including the 4,900-square-foot house planning to use the offices for their real estate projects, put a little money in it and sell it. Instead they turned it into a four-bedroom showcase masterminded by designer Tim Campbell. The fountain, officially Campbell Divertimento Fountain is Historic-Cultural Monument No. 637. Some architectural historians says that Barragán only did one project in the U.S. and this isn’t it but others point to the fact that the names Barragán and Ferrera are clearly stamped on the blueprints dated 1987 and Leoni and Brent have correspondence between Barragán’s office and the home’s previous owner and that Ferrera was the sole designer. The bottom line is no one knows how much Barragán contributed.

But let’s forget the fountain for a moment and focus on the modernist home with it. The home is absolutely design perfect. There is a loggia adjacent to the V-shaped massing of the Divertimento with a summer kitchen. The ground floor is built for entertaining with a game room, long dramatic bar and wine room along with a bedroom suite. Upstairs there is a living room with sleek kitchen, dining room with a large window, and a formal living room with fireplace that leads to the bedroom wing with master bedroom suite and terrace, and two stylish bedroom suites. What’s it lacking? It’s doesn’t have blockbuster views but that’s a small complaint with a home like this. It is listed at $9.95 million.

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Continue reading The Campbell Divertimento, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Estates, Charity, Green, Real Estate Developments

Perhaps a true sign of luxury living is buying land that will be protected instead of developed. You’ll soon have your chance to bid on such a parcel as The Adirondack Chapter of the The Nature Conservancy has announced the listing of 90,500 acres of pristine forestland for sale in upstate New York. The timberland previously belonged to paper company Finch, Pruyn and Co. and, according to listing broker LandVest, “represents the first time in more than a century that these lands have become available on the open market.”

The parcels will be available by sealed bidding in 5 sale blocks in acreage ranging from 1,691 acres to almost 60,000 acres. All are subject to a strict conservation easement, though eventually some of the land will be open for hiking, hunting, fishing and other outdoor adventures. See more images that will make you want to flee your desk upon viewing at LandVest’s listing page.

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Filed under: Estates, Wealth

It seems even the Queen of England is feeling the credit crunch. The value of her official London residence, Buckingham Palace, has fallen by about $100 million over the past 12 months, the London Telegraph reports. The 52-bedroom mansion, which dates to 1703 and sits on 40 prime acres, is now valued at $1.7 billion, down from $1.8 billion in August of last year. The dollar figure was assessed by UK property values database Zoopla, which has also calculated that the Queen’s weekend retreat, Windsor Castle, has dropped about $15 million in value over the same period to $320 million. “The figures highlight that even the Royal Family aren’t immune to the recent property market slump and that larger properties have been effected too,” Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman tells the paper, noting that further decreases could well be in the offing.

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In case you might be feeling a little sad for the end of summer as you head back to work, let’s check out a home with nothing but beach and marshes all around. Today’s home is located in Painter, Virginia and boasts some of the best Chesapeake Bay shorelines to be found anywhere. The property is 450 acres and is totally secluded from the outside world. Ospralia was built in 1992 and has four bedrooms. The 3500 square-foot home has two wings with a bridge connecting them. There are two full kitchens, one gas and one electric and four decks. The home is listed at $3.5 million.

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Gianni Versace’s Miami, Florida home Casa Casuarina has been a private club for years. Now the 1930 Italianate mansion on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach is open for a limited run of public tours. Versace bought the home in 1992 for $2.9 million and since his death it has been a private club and part of the Leading Hotels of the World group offering ten suites. The Casa also includes a mosaic pool, Observatory roof deck and member’s lounges including the Moroccan room, the Caviar Creator Club Lounge, the Polo Bar and the Davidoff cigar bar. Tours of Casa Casuarina cost $50 and are offered at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., through Sept. 30. In homage to Versace, the tours, which need to be booked in advance, will be given by a woman dressed in a Versace gown.

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
–James H. Herbert II, the chairman and chief executive of the First Republic Bank, listed his penthouse at Trump Parc East on Central Park South, shown above, earlier this month for $38 million, nearly four times what he paid back in 2005. The listing is here.
–Real estate investor Keith Rubenstein and his wife Inga have spent $3.2 million on a two-bedroom duplex at 101 Warren Street in Tribeca. The duplex is smaller than the $20 million penthouse he had originally agreed to buy in the building. Rubenstein, his wife and their son, Keith Jr., will stay in the Warren Street apartment for about two years while their new East 62nd mansion is renovated.
–Enrique Norten paid $1.929 million for an apartment at One York Street, the building he designed in northern Tribeca.
–Pete Peterson, the co-founder and senior chairman of the Blackstone Group, and the chairman emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, has bought that organization’s apartment at the Imperial House co-op on East 69th Street, paying the council $3.04 million. Peterson bought the apartment so that Leslie Gelb, the council’s so-called Board Senior Fellow and its president from 1993 to 2003 could continue to live there with his family.
–An apartment belonging to hedge fund manager Vedula Murti and his wife Seema Kalia and designed by Madonna’s designer, Jamie Drake is now on the market for $10.75 million. The couple bought for $7,127,750 two years ago. Check out the colorful listing here.

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–The loft apartment in SoHo where Heath Ledger died in January ins now listed for $26,000 a month. The listing is here.
–Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of England’s Manchester United Football Club is picking up a three-bedroom penthouse in Manhattan House, at 200 E. 66th St.
–Developer Janna Bullock has bought a brand-new apartment at the Plaza for $8.78 million.

From Newsday’s Real LI:
–J.Crew chief executive Millard Drexler is in contract to buy a house in Wainscott for $17 million.
–Quarterback Chad Pennington has gone into contract on his Muttontown home. It was our estate of the day earlier this month.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
–The official sale price on Tom Arnold’s Tarzana home was $1.8 million which was below the list price of $2.275 million and below the amount that Tom paid for the house in late 2006.
-Actor Hamish Linklater who stars on “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and his playwright wife Jessica Goldberg have put their three-bedroom home in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles on the market for $675,000. They have picked up a new home in Los Feliz that had been listed at $1.397 million for $1.362 million. The listing for the home for sale is here.
–The estate of Heath Ledger has sold his Hollywood Hills home for $2.5 million.

From the Real Estalker:
–Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Jessica Simpson’s boyfriend Tony Romo has picked up a home in Irving, Texas that was listed at $699,000.
–Quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen are rumored to have have paid $11.75 million for a 3.6-acre vacant lot in the same gated neighborhood in Brentwood that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lives in.
–via the San Francisco Chronicle, a penthouse in the St. Regis Residences San Francisco is being listed for $70 million. VIctor MacFarlane bought all three (unfinished) pricey penthouse units at the St. Regis back in late 2005 for a reported $30 million which set a record in San Francisco at the time. The property is around 20,000 square feet of space with four terraces and features 360 degree views.
–Rumor has it that Mel Gibson snapped up Tea Leoni and David Duchovny’s Malibu mansion which was quickly on the market for $12 million.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–Hedge-fund manager John Paulson has lowered the price on his Hamptons home by $2.6 million. It is now listed at $16.9 million. He bought it for $12.75 million in 2006. The listing is here.
–Boston Celtics player Ray Allen has lowered the price of his former Seattle-area home to $5.2 million from $6 million. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
–Former Seattle Mariners outfielder Jay Buhner has listed his custom-built home on 80 acres for $12 million, we’ll be checking that one out as Monday’s estate of the day.
–Manhattan’s Spence School, an all-girls, K-12 private school founded in 1892, recently closed on its purchase of a $27 million townhouse directly behind its main East Side building.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
–David Barrett, a producer and director who has worked on episodes of “Cold Case,” “Smallville” and “Bionic Woman,” has bought a house in Toluca Lake for $1.2 million.
–John Cleese has put another Montecito home on the market, this time for $10.75 million. The listing for his Fernald Point beach front home is here.
–Studio musician Jason Sinay has sold his six-bedroom home in the Beverly Hills flats area for $6 million.

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Supermodel Christie Brinkely has had this home, Tower Hill in the Hamptons on the market off and on since 2002 (although I first became aware of it in 2005). Now with a messy divorce behind her, she’s trying her hand at selling it again. The impressive property in Bridgehampton was originally built in 1898 by Dr. John Gardiner and named Dulce Domum. The home is on a 20-acre parcel 200 ft. above sea level. The key piece of the estate is the 50 ft. observation tower which offers sweeping views of the ocean. The 12-bedroom compound includes a main house with multi-level stone terraces, a guest house with a greenhouse conservatory overlooking a botanical nursery, a gunite pool, a barn artist studio with gym and living quarters with a 4-car heated garage. The property includes lawns, walking paths, gardens, tennis courts, basketball court and playground. This estate is now listed at $30 million. It’s lovely but perhaps a bit pricey for a home that isn’t closer to the beach.

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One of the pitfalls of being a sports star is having to sell your old real estate once you get traded. It’s not always easy, we’ve seen Shaquille O’Neal struggle to unload his Miami home for years, Dwayne Wade has had his on the market for a while and the list goes on to include today’s estate the home of Boston Celtics player Ray Allen. Allen used to play on the Seattle SuperSonics and owns this Craftsman-style estate in Carnation, Washington. The five-bedroom home is on nearly 4.5 acres. It’s a rather nice home with vaulted entryways, box beam celings and a casual style. It is a former Street of Dreams Award winning home and includes a master suite with a custom spa, a gourmet kitchen, home theater, office and exercise room. The home has a lot of exterior features too such as a putting green, pool, exterior cabana and a sports court connected with well-landscaped pathways. Allen first listed the home about six months ago at $6 million and recently sliced the price down to $5.2 million.

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[via WSJ Private Properties]
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Continue reading Ray Allen’s Washington Home, Estate of the Day

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In honor of the Democratic National Convention I thought it might be fun to check out a little Denver real estate. Today’s penthouse loft is a full floor unit in the Flour Mill lofts which has views of Coors field. This has to be one of the most interesting loft conversions I’ve ever seen. The space features a circular kitchen with a drop ceiling, oversized brass hood and a pizza oven. The loft has over 5,300 square feet of space. The architect echoed the circular shape and dimensions of the Flour Mill’s storage silos to create a series of circular spaces, Angled walls feature floor lighting and the home features exposed ceilings and brick. The loft is wired with a Denon THX surround sound system and a Lutron lighting system. The north side of the loft is currently used as office space and has three round silo rooms that could be repurposed as a mother-in-law apartment, nanny suite or guest quarters. This side also features a 300 sq. ft. balcony. The south side of the 6th Floor penthouse is given over to the owner’s private quarters. It is listed at $3.25 million. Check out more pictures at the loft’s property website.

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Today’s estate would be a lot to live up to, the cool factor is pretty high. Out of the sleek modern homes perched on Camelback Mountain with views of Phoenix, Arizona, this is one of the best. The three-bedroom home features glass walls which open out onto terraces and a cantilevered pool and submerged Jacuzzi which seem to float above the city lights. The property also includes a 100 foot mountainside waterfall. The mountain comes inside the home in the 16-person home theater which has a rock wall. The home also features a separate catering kitchen, wet bar, full gym with a rockclimbing wall and a two-bedroom guest house. The garage has clear doors to showcase your exotic cars and the property also includes a putting green. A virtual tour with more pictures is here. This home is listed at $9.4 million.

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Continue reading Camelback Contemporary, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

The New York Post reports that Naomi Campbell and her Russian billionaire boyfriend, Vladimir Doronin, the “Donald Trump of Russia,” recently were in her favorite country, Brazil, where he dropped $18.5 million on a penthouse apartment for her in Jardins, the Upper East Side of Sao Paolo. This came after Campbell told him how much she loved the country and “wanted to settle down there.” Glamurama.com says the apartment was a “gift” to the supermodel and the couple will use it as their home in Brazil.

And more news: Campbell, who’s trying to improve her angry, assistant-attacking image, also is focusing on being photographed at charitable events and launching a clothing line through 284, the new label from Daslu. “It’s for strong women. I hope everybody will like it,” she told a local Brazilian paper.

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I’ve got a fun one to show you today. Lioncrest is a 30,000 square foot English Tudor manor home overlooking the James River in Maidens, Virginia. The castle-like home is on over 56 acres that include formal English gardens as well as more rustic space. It looks old but the MLS says it was built in 1995. It certainly aspires to a different age with its large stone fireplaces, stone arches, use of shields and crests and a huge beamed grand hall that could easily be a setting for a scene in Harry Potter. Some of the wood and stone dates back to the 1600s and there is a concrete tiled roof. The huge house includes a tavern area, elevator, library, multi-car garages and a full apartment. The lower terrace level is home to woodworking shop, garden shop, morning room, pub, three wine cellars, rec room, sauna and more. The listing pics don’t show much of the private spaces (the listing says there are nine bedrooms and 10.5 baths) and some are a bit blurry but I bet this is one fun house to tour. It is listed at $15 million.

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This large home in Cotuit, Massachusetts takes traditional Cape Cod style to a new level. The home is on seven acres and has waterfront views. The land includes a pool area and a guest house with a turret and a circular staircase. The shingled home combines rough wood beams and exposed brick with columns and double-height ceilings to create a home that manages to be both cottage cute and a bit extravagant. The listing references a lot of France, pointing out that every room in the house features a chandelier, mostly imported from Paris, the kitchen features a professional eight burner Parisian stove and the master bedroom has glass etched doors reminiscent of Lalique styling. There are four bedrooms total and the home also has a library, fitness area and a wine cellar/grotto. The home is being sold furnished and is listed at $12.5 million.

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Continue reading Cotuit Home, Estate of the Day

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