SELLERS: Vincent Herbert and Tamar Braxton LOCATION: Encino, CA PRICE: $3,000,000 SIZE: 7,817 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It seems we’ve been stuck out in sub- and exurban Los Angeles, CA most of the week yimmer-yammering about celebrity real estate blah blah blah. Although we’re certain some of the children wish we would, rather than shift the geographic gears we’re going to stay put instead with a discussion on the Encino, CA mansion recently put on the market for $3,000,000 and owned, as per property records, by Vincent Herbert and Tamar Braxton. That’s pronounced Tay-mar, okay? She’s a sassy, smart-allecky and sometimes antagonizing R&B singer probably best known as the youngest sister of Grammy-winning songstress Toni Braxton. Missus Braxton-Herbert is, howevuh, does not live entirely in the shadow of her older sister, she’s a woman on her own showbiz trajectory who has made a record or two, sang some badass back up on Lady Gaga’s anthemic single Born This Way and currently stars–if that’s what one does–on the cacophonous Braxton Family Values reality program that was recently picked up for a 13-episode second season. He’s a rather rotund but baby-faced, award-winning music industry executive and producer whose worked over songs for chanteuses such as Toni Braxton, Destiny’s Child, Whitney Houston and JoJo. He currently presides over Streamline Records, a division of Interscope Records and the home label for the new Madonna Lady Gaga. A pulmonary embolism–the fancy name for a blood clot in the lung–recently landed Mister Herbert in a New York City hospital after he collapsed in mid-October. He has since returned to Los Angeles, l’chaim. Property records show Mister Herbert and Missus Braxton-Herbert only purchased their Encino mansion just over two years ago in September 2009 for $2,600,000. The pancake-flat .42-acre parcel, tucked into a leafy, not-glitzy neighborhood directly behind the Encino Commons business and entertainment district, hosts a gated mansion built in 2007 and described in current listing materials as an “Elegant & Sexy Spanish Hacienda meets Tuscan Villa.” The pastiche-y two-story pad measures in at a beefy 7,817 square feet and contains a total of 6 bedrooms and–depending on where in the listing one looks–either 5.75 or 6.5 bathrooms. A deep, paver-stone tile driveway stretches back from the street to a three-car attached garage with contemporary frosted glass and aluminum doors. The arched front door, set into an arched doorway set into a shallow courtyard, opens into an airy, double height entrance hall finished with a poo-poo platter of not entirely harmonious materials: mottled caramel-colored (and oddly shaped) Spanish tiles on the floor; buttery yellow stucco walls in the dining room; a long arched colonnade fashioned from used bricks; a swooping curved staircase with wrought iron banisters and vibrant orange tile accents on the risers. Formal living and dining rooms are available for guests, holidays and other moments when a person might want them but far more interior space was devoted to less formal family quarters that include a state-of-the-art 12-seat home theater/media room plus a family room with full-size wet bar that will make hooch hounds gasp with anticipation, French doors that connect to the outdoor entertainment areas, and a fireplace (unfortunately) flanked by arched and mirrored niches outfitted with matching library tables topped with sprays of white orchids. As if the all-too-ubiquitous orchids where not decoratively cliché enough, the person responsible for decorating this room visually multiplied the orchids with the massive mirrors placed where there more better be bookshelves filled with actual books and cherished mementos of the homeowner(s). Anyhoo, we digress. Archways join the family room to the eat-in kitchen with its semi-circular breakfast nook. We’re going to ignore the white orchids in the window behind the delicious copper farmhouse sink on the far wall and instead focus on the massive, multi-purpose center island with two-stool snack counter, vegetable sink, second dishwasher and coppery granite counter top that plays off the green granite counter top that extends out for some distance on either side of the delicious copper farmhouse sink. There’s also a walk-in pantry and temperature-controlled walk-in wine cellar. Listing information explains the “master retreat” includes two over-sized walk-in closets and a “Glamorous,” mostly brown and beige en suite complete with custom tile work, glass-lined steam shower that juts our like a peninsula into the the bathroom, and a separate sunken jetted soaking tub set into a window-lined semi-circular niche. The fully landscaped, wall/fenced, and secured grounds encompass meandering paver stone patios and walkways, a semi-permanent cabana that promotes outdoor living, a built-in barbecue center, a few free-form patches of grass, a built-in fire pit, and two waterfalls that tumble into an amoebic swimming pool with elevated circular spa. The children will note that with the touch of a remote control button a God damn rotating television pops up from a fake boulder at the water’s edge. It’s not much of a surprise really that Mister Herbert and Missus Braxton-Herbert have hoisted their Encino mansion on the market given that they’ve already purchased their next, much larger and far more expensive home (shown below). Property records reveal in early September (2011) Mister Herbert and Missus Braxton-Herbert coughed up a considerable $6,900,000 to obtain an 11,747 square foot French Country-style faux-chateau perched on a low rise in the guard-gated and star-studded equestrian community of Hidden Hills, CA. Listing information for the Herbert’s new home in Hidden Hills shows there are a total of 5 bedrooms and 6 full and 2 half bathrooms, a grand(iose) double-height entry with twin curved staircases and inlaid marble floor, formal living and dining rooms, a paneled library, colossal center island kitchen with a disturbing cornucopia of elaborately carved corbels, a wood-paneled home theater with 125-inch screen, pub/game room with hand-carved wet bar. The titanic second floor master suite encompasses a vast bedroom/sitting room with vaulted and wood-beamed ceiling, wood floors, fireplace and a wide bank of wood-framed glass doors that slide open to a private balcony. There’s als a custom-fitted walk-in closets/dressing room and a cavernous crapper with twin sinks, a plunge pool-sized jetted tub with fireplace, and a silly (and tacky), over-sized circular glass shower enclosure. Other amenities include an elevator, safe room, a total of at least 5 fireplaces (many with elaborate carved stone mantelpieces), direct-entry garage space for four luxury cars, a large fountain in the front yard and a somewhat slim but mostly flat back yard with a petite swimming pool with raised spa surrounded by an expanse of lush green lawn, various shaded porches and patios for escaping the scorching southern California summertime sunshine, and long views over the tree tops to the rugged mountains that encircle the San Fernando Valley. Some of Mister Herbert and Missus Braxton-Herberts’ new neighbors include Jennifer Lopez, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne who have their estate listed at $12,999,000, Melissa Etheridge, Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife and baby momma Denise Richards, former desperate housewife Nicolette Sheridan (who bought her house from Melissa Etheridge), Bruce Jenner and Kris Kardashian, and–for a few more days or weeks anyway–pop superstar Britney Spears who will soon move house from a elephantine leased mansion in Hidden Hills to a significantly smaller but still massive mansion in a guard-gated golf community in Thousand Oaks. listing photos (Encino): Re/Max Olson & Associates listing photos (Hidden Hills): Re/Max Olson & Associates Continue reading here: Vincent Herbert and Tamar Braxton Buy and List
