Morning Morsel: Will Ferrell

Nobody loves a celebrity-owned home more than the well-dressed editors over at Architectural Digest. In the March (2012) issue not only did they publish a fawning article about the Beverly Hills mid-century modern Sir Elton John had worked over but good by Million Dollar Decorator Martyn Lawrence Bullard, they also have an article and cache of photographs of the New York City pied-a-terre owned by actor/comedian/screenwriter Will Ferrell and his Swedish auctioneer wife Viveca Paulin-Ferrell.

Mister and Missus Farrell—who live primarily in Los Angeles behind the electronic gates of semi-secluded Hollywood Hills compound they purchased in early 2006 from chat show queen Ellen Degeneres for nine million bucks—scooped up their nearly 2,699 square foot Greenwich Village loft in May 2010 for $4,200,000.

The bi-coastal couple hired designer/decorator Shawn Henderson to do up their Big Apple digs and do them up but good he did. He ripped out all the nonsense but retained the good stuff like the original rough-hewn wood beams on the ceiling, replaced the kitchen and bathrooms and painted all the walls white white white to harness sunlight and set off a small but serious collection of contemporary artworks—think Sol LeWitt and Roy Lichtenstein. The deft decorator created several sitting and dining areas including one centered around a minimalist fire box and flat-screen t.v. and furnished with a Hans Wegner Papa Bear chair and a grouping of variously sized boulder-like poufs and pillows that ought to remind anyone who knows a damn thing about decoratin' history of legendary California decorator Michael Taylor.

photo: William Waldron for Architectural Digest

Morning Morsel: Macauley Culkin

Ever wonder what the inside of former child star turned ironically-inclined arteest Macauley Culkin's 5,100 square foot Manhattan loft looked like. Frankly, Your Mama hadn't either until we ran across this eye-popping partly-pictoral nugget in the art/fashion/culture publication Bullett and is it ever a ding-dang urban hipster-dipster doozy of a place.

photo: Kelsey Bennett for Bullett

To Shovel or Not to Shovel? Here's the law in Ohio

This is an article posted on "Ohio Insurance Institutes" website:

As far as Ohio law goes, homeowners don’t have a legal obligation to shovel sidewalks due to a natural accumulation of snow and ice, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try to maintain them.


In December 1993 the Ohio Supreme Court upheld this law when a guest attempted to sue a homeowner in Franklin County for a slip and fall outside of the homeowner’s house.

In the case Brinkman v. Ross, the court ruled that you are walking at your own risk when Mother Nature calls. The case stemmed from a visit by the Brinkman’s to the home of the Ross’ in February 1989. Ms. Brinkman slipped outside the Ross home breaking her ankle. She sued her hosts in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. The court threw out the complaint, indicating that it had long been established that Ohio homeowners are not obligated to remove natural accumulations of snow and ice.

The decision was reversed in the court of appeals, saying that if a homeowner knows of a hazardous condition and invites guests to visit, there is an obligation to at least warn them. The case then went to the Ohio Supreme Court where the judgment was overturned.

It’s up to your guests and other pedestrians to assume that due to the nature of Ohio winters, there’s always a risk of a slip or fall due to the natural accumulation of ice and snow.


Local snow removal ordinances

Local municipalities may invoke snow removal ordinances. If your city or township has an ordinance that requires residents to keep walkways free of snow and ice, then you have a responsibility to maintain your sidewalks. Some Ohio cities with snow removal ordinances levy fines for not removing snow in a timely manner while others issue warnings.

However, a local ordinance does not automatically implicate a homeowner if someone slips and falls on their uncleared property.

Examples of local snow removal ordinances/requirements
Below are links to information and/or ordinances for a handful of Ohio communities. The Ohio Insurance Institute suggests checking with your local municipality on any snow removal policies or requirements. Many provide this information online.

• Centerville

• Dublin

• Forest Park

• Fairfield

Morning Morsel: Courtney Sale Ross

According to the property gossips at the New York Post, philanthropist Courtney Sale Ross—the very rich widow of former Time Warner CEO Steve Ross—has floated her 5.5 acre Georgia Pond fronting estate in East Hampton on the market as a so-called pocket listing with a $75,000,000 asking price.

High end property watchers will recall that Miz Sale Ross sold her 20-plus room duplex co-operative apartment in New York City at the very high-nosed 740 Park Avenue last year for $52,500,000 to money manager Howard Marks who himself recently unloaded his fully renovated and landscaped 10-ish acre ocean front compound in Malibu (CA) for around $75,000,000.

aerial image: Bing

Afternoon Tidbits and Links: Elton John

Have a delicious look-see via Architectural Digest at what Million Dollar Decorator Martyn Lawrence Bullard did to the glassy, low-slung Beverly Hills (CA) contemporary that music industry icon Sir Elton John and his man-friend/baby daddy David Furnish bought last year for $7,250,000.

Sir Elton and Mister Furnish may have two young sons but they still live a globe-trotting rock star lifestyle and maintain a handful of decadent, high-maintenance digs around the world including in Atlanta, Georgia; in both London and Windsor in the U.K.; Nice, France; and Venice, Italy.

photo: Roger Davies for Architectural Digest

Afternoon Tidbits and Links: Celebrity House Calculator

The folks over at Movoto created a fun little calculator that allows all us regular folks to figure out home many of our own—ahem—modest houses will fit into the celebrity-style mansions of a handful of famous people such as Rihanna, Tom Brady and Kim Kardashian.

photo: Movoto

Afternoon Tidbits and Links: Another Nine Figure Asking Price

On the heels of the spine-tingling—and record breaking—news that Bay Area financier Tully Friedman sold his nearly nine acre Woodside (CA) estate to multi-billionaire Japanese businessman Masayoshi San for $117,500,000 along comes a much larger and far more storied 47.4-acre spread in nearby Hillsborough with an toe curling asking price of $100,000,000. 

Although the largely wooded estate, situated about 20 minutes south of San Francisco, has been owned by the family of it's current shepherd, Christian de Guigné IV, for the last 150 years, the opulent and downright correct Mediterranean villa was originally designed in 1916 by the esteemed San Francisco architects Walter Bliss and William Faville. The existing residence currently weighs in with seven bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms—plus half a dozen or more staff rooms, a ballroom and a flower arranging room—in about 16,000 square feet of decorative decadence dreamed up and done done done by decorator Anthony Hail.

As the always on top of things kids at Curbed noted, there's a bit of a twist: 75-year old Mister de Guigné the Fourth wishes to retain a life estate on the property, a stipulation that would allow him to occupy the main manse for the remainder of his life. Now, children, let's get real. What bazillionaire buyer willing to drop anywhere close to a hundred million damn clams is gonna go for that sort of thing?

listing photo: Sotheby's International Realty