In an off-court pass of sorts, reality television personality Scott Disick has sold a contemporary-style home in the Beverly Crest area to Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook for $4.65 million outside the Multiple Listing Service.
Disick bought the residence, rebuilt and expanded by the Stewart-Gulrajani Design Team, last year for $3.699 million, public records show.
The two-story house, designed for indoor-outdoor entertaining, features glass doors and windows and a saltwater swimming pool. Views take in the cityscape, canyon and Santa Catalina Island.
Within the 4,095 square feet of open-plan space is a living room with a wall fireplace, a dining area, a den and a sleek kitchen with a wide island/breakfast. The master bedroom has a walk-in closet, a rain shower and a soaking tub for a total of five bedrooms and six bathrooms.
Glass doors open off the main level to an outdoor lounge, a sun deck and swimming pool with a spa. Walkways, fountains and formal landscaping complete the third-of-an-acre setting.
Disick, 32, is the longtime partner of TV personality Kourtney Kardashian. Their relationship is often the subject of storylines on the series "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," in which they both appear.
Westbrook, 27, has deep ties to Los Angeles, having starred at UCLA and before that at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale. The four-time NBA all-star is in his eighth season with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Mayor tidies up his portfolio
Los Angeles Mayor Eric...
Read more: Scott Disick keeping up with NBA star Russell Westbrook
Have a comment on this article? Share on Facebook!
By Alan J. Heavens
(TNS)—Where does the time go?
Just when you finally get the central air-conditioning working well enough to make the house comfortable, cold weather threatens to show up.
Here are some ideas that might help cut your energy costs this winter, courtesy of Sunnova, the solar-power company:
- Does your house really need hot water when no one’s home? Probably not. Consider installing a timer on your water heater, to turn it off when you’re not there.
- Use cold water instead of hot when washing clothes. The EPA’s Energy Star program says almost 90 percent of the energy consumed by washing machines goes to heating the water.
- Put electronics—your computer, for example—in sleep or hibernation mode when you’re not using them.
- Unplug certain electronics and appliances to avoid their consuming “phantom power,” which means they’re still sucking in energy from the outlet even though they aren’t in use.
- Cut as much as 50 percent of energy consumed to prepare a meal by putting a slow cooker and microwave to work, rather than a range and oven.
- If you are going to use the stovetop, match the pan size to the diameter of the heating element, to eliminate wasted heat. A 6-inch pan on an 8-inch burner can waste more than 40 percent of the energy delivered by the appliance.
- To improve refrigerator efficiency, consider one with a bottom freezer, keep the fridge between 36 and 38 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer between zero...
Read more: Your Place: Ways to Hold Down Winter Energy Costs
Have a comment on this article? Share on Facebook!
By Nick Caruso
One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is gawking at tawdry, awkward and straight up weird holiday decorations. I can’t help it. There’s so much fun to be had rubbernecking at tacky decorations! I blame my strange fascination on this guy:
But there can be lessons learned in witnessing the good, the bad and the tacky. Lessons for all of us, like how not to decorate your home for the merriest, jolliest season of them all! I’ve searched high and low for some of the strangest and most repulsive holiday decorations around, and here’s what I found:
The Holiday “Tree”
This might be how the holidays are celebrated in Hawaii, but if your home is located within the continental United States, you probably want to avoid a tropical feel. It’s going to look really silly if/when we are “blessed” with some frosty white snow. (Someone, please explain this to my neighbor…in Connecticut.)
The Clark Griswold Home
Guess this homeowner never heard of the saying “less is more.” Have we learned nothing from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? And think of that electric bill! (We thought energy-efficiency was in this year!) If your home looks like this, you probably have a fire hazard (or 10) on your hands. Yikes!
The Can of Christmas
So much for taking the commercialization out of Christmas. An ornament of my favorite sodamixer isn’t my personal favorite choice for ornamenting my...
Read more: The Good, the Bad and the Tacky: Holiday Decorating Don’ts
Have a comment on this article? Share on Facebook!
By Nancy Brachey
(TNS)–Plants that were just there through the year suddenly get important in December. That’s when we look to our landscape for ways to make the house look festive.
You may be surprised at how much is out there that is useful and beautiful. Evergreens with leaves that are broad and shiny or light and feathery.
Berries that are yellow, orange or red. Crazy looking seed pods and woodsy pine cones. The well-stocked garden should provide some of these things to use for winter decorations indoors.
Use them to make a plain evergreen wreath of magnolia leaves or cedar branches or a more extravagant centerpiece with candles and ribbon for the dining room.
Many of our most popular evergreens such as aucuba, pine, magnolia, ivy and cedar as well as the bright berries of holly, pyracantha and nandina make excellent choices for these projects.
As a beginner, you should start simply, perhaps by covering a mantel or table top with short branches of pine and magnolia leaves accented by pine cones and candles. Do this as close to your party or Christmas as you can so that the greenery will look its freshest then.
If you have an elegant or rustic vase, consider filling it with evergreens of varying shape, texture and color. Then pop in stems of holly berries or nandinas. Because the stems are in water, they will last a few weeks. Aucuba cuttings will even start to produce roots in a vase.
I know that not all of you...