Willem Dafoe's Rubber House

SELLER: Willem Dafoe
LOCATION: County Road 2, Accord, NY
PRICE: $850,000
SIZE: 1,949 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: The rubber house is a local landmark and one of the few examples of true modern architecture in the area. It was commissioned and built for the late choreographer Eugene Loring. Inspired by the enormous boulders and rock outcroppings on the meadowed acreage, soaring walls of glass bring light and nature indoors. The third floor tower is the quintessential spot for writing or gazing and the space that was the dance studio is a great room that's ideal for entertaining.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama briefly discussed this house back in October of 2007 after a weekend visit to some good friends who have a sweet spread in upstate New York. Little did we know that less than a year later, owner, Oscar nominated and much in-demand actor Willem Dafoe (Wild at Heart, Mississippi Burning, Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3) would put his wetsuit wearing weekend getaway in Accord, NY up for sale with an asking price of $850,000.

The Dafoe property sits on relatively brisk and bizzy two lane County Road 2 in a little traveled area of Ulster County that isn't so far from Woodstock, where hippies dressed in eye popping tie-dyed clothing and stinking of Patchouli oil still gather to beat bongos in the town square and roam glassy eyed through the streets while weekend tourists and city sophisticates glide by and gawk from their fancy foreign cars. 'Tis true.

Anyhoo, Mister Dafoe's nutty neo-prene clad house, located in a rural area where dead deer can often be seen hanging from trees, was built in the early 1980s for noted choreographer Eugene Loring who went to meet the big dance teacher in the sky shortly after the house was completed. The house's unusual exterior cladding of neo-prene makes it both a local landmark, an architectural anomaly and a hot topic of residential design conversation all up and down local Highway 209.

Records Your Mama accessed for the Dafoe digs were slim on information but it appears that Mister Dafoe owned this house for some time with his ex ladee friend of 20-some years, respected experimental theater queen and arty-farty actress/director Elizabeth LeCompte. That is until Mister Dafoe traded in the mother of his son for a sexy Italian filmmaker chick 20 years his junior whom he married in March of 2005. At that point Miz LeCompte quite wisely quit claimed the 6.8 acre property over to Mister Mid-life Crisis.

According to property records, the unusually articulated rubber wrapped residence measures a modest 1,949 square feet with 2 bedroom and 2.5 bathrooms. Listing information gives the place 2,025 square feet, which is close enough we'll call it even and move on. The road side landscaping is pleasantly au natural and the front facade presents an aggressive, unfriendly and even hostile black jumble of interlocking shapes that scream, "Back off, buster!" Your Mama happens to like a forbidding facade that appears a little less inviting. We're sure that says far more about our psyche than we care to admit, but it is what it is.

The interior spaces carry a distinct 1980s vibe with pipe railing and teal colored walls but they are also much warmer and more friendly than the exterior would indicate. Through the front door one is immediately presented with open spaces, soaring ceilings, tall walls of glass and long views of the gorgeous meadow at the rear of the property. Your Mama is definitely not down with any of wall and ceiling colors seen in the photos. In fact we'd love to see the interior spaces whited out and stripped of the cockamamie country cute furniture because we can imagine a more pared down palette would allow the stunning vistas to appear as living paintings through the windows...much like what's happening in the black tiled bathroom.

Property records indicate that in addition to this upstate retreat, Mister Dafoe also owns several pieces of New York City real estate including a fifth floor unit in Wooster Street loft building, where he once lived with Miz LeCompte (and probably she still resides. Anyone?). In June of 2005 he spent $606,000 on a co-operative unit in a giant apartment complex on the Lower East Side's Grand Street that is co-owned with his adult son Jack and a few months later, in September of 2005, he forked over another $1,600,000 for a place on Perry Street in Manhattan's West Village, where we presume he camps out when in New York City.

As for his upstate situation, well, Your Mama has heard from a local real estate bizzy body that the intense and acclaimed actor who famously appeared stark nekkid and simulated oral sex on Madonna in the naughty film Body of Evidence, is looking to purchase another hideaway in the High Falls area which, as the crow flies, isn't far from the House of Rubber he's looking to unload in Accord.