BUYER: William P. "Bill" Foley II
LOCATION: Carpinteria, CA
PRICE: $5,900,000
SIZE: 2,082 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: If Your Mama has told the children once, we've told them a hundred and 87 times: The real estate lives of the rich and/or famous are decidedly different than that of less financially fortunate folks.
Not only does always-working actor and former Brat Packer Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation, Brothers& Sisters, The West Wing) own a substantial estate with a 14,000-plus square foot mansion in Montecito, CA with distant, over-the-tree-tops ocean views, until last September (2011) he and the Missus also owned an ocean side getaway just 6.5 miles away in Carpinteria, CA that they quietly sold for $5,900,000 to title insurance tycoon William P. "Bill" Foley II.
Property records—and the Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial—indicate Mister and Missus Lowe scooped up their modestly-sized but still quite pricey Carpinteria beach house in June 2004 for $5,050,000. They quickly filed permits for a small, 120-square foot addition (we're not sure if that was approved or not) and soon became embroiled in a legal tangle with an octogenarian neighbor over a hedge the Lowes thought had been trimmed too low and as such compromised the overall "privacy and ambiance" of their postage stamp-sized beach-side backyard. Unfortunately, we're not really sure how that matter got resolved either.
Your Mama is also not sure exactly when Mister and Missus Lowe first put their beach front getaway on the (open) market but we managed to dig up clear evidence on the interweb the house was priced well over $7 million. We also found online evidence that Mister and Missus Lowe looked to lease the property as recently as 2011 with an asking price of $20,000 per month.
Online documentation we dug up shows the very narrow lot spans just .11 acres and listing information from the time of the September 2011 sale show the two-story house has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,082 square feet of (remodeled) interior space, most of which appears to be done up in a uniform brown, black and white color palette that's certainly beach-y but a little to cohesive and colorless for our particular beach house taste.
The open-plan, main floor living spaces include a tiny but expensively equipped kitchen, dining area with built-in bench seating and semi-opaque diamond-paned windows and, at the ocean end, a compact living area with flush-mounted flat-scree tee-vee over the white brick fireplace that's flanked by tall and slender, arched wood storage bins that extend almost to the ceiling.
A corner window (with custom-fitted sectional sofa) and glass door in the living area provide glimmering ocean views and lead out to an ocean side brick terrace and deck separated from the actual beach and shore line by a rock revetment presumably installed in order to manage any erosion issues that may (or may not be) a factor that that particular stretch of sand.
A squeezy den at the front of the house on the main floor has a second (river rock) corner fireplace and there's a third (corner) fireplace in the ocean side master bedroom that opens out to a covered veranda with expansive, over-the-rock-revetment breakwater views.
As far as we know, the Lowe family remains ensconced in the Don Nulty-designed and completely Feng-Shui-ed 20-room Georgian-style pile in Montecito tucked away on more than 4 groomed acres they custom built four or five years ago and had photographed for the November 2010 issue of Architectural Digest.
Previous to their current crib the Lowe clan hunkered down in a somewhat smaller 6 bedroom and 5 bathroom house sold in May 2009, as per property records, for $7,600,000 to ex-retail executive Elliot Mayrock and his former publishing executive wife Alecia Mayrock. Before that they owned yet another luxury estate in Montecito, a 5.5+ acre spread with an 11,170 square foot residence sold in April 2005 and now owned, it appears to Your Mama based on property records we peeped, by San Francisco-based billionaire Peter V. Sperling.
If Mister and Missus Lowe own any additional properties—and it's certainly possible they maintain any number of additional homes—we're not aware of it and a cursory bit of research on our trusty lap top computer didn't turn up any readily available evidence of such. Make of that what you will.
BONUS: Last spring (2011) Mister Lowe gave his Montecito neighbor Oprah Winfrey televised tours of both his Montecito mansion and his (now former) beach house in Carpinteria, which he stated is just 18 feet wide.
listing photos: Coastal Properties
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