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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
The Real OC
We here at LAist enjoy reading The Los Angeles Times Real Estate section. Sometimes, it provides a glimpse into lifestyles we can only imagine.
Take for instance, this recent story about impossibly high-end homes by Shawn Hubler entitled "In L.A. real estate, $10 million is the new $1 million."
The following details sound like they came right out of a script by the TV producers of "The OC":
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"Built just two years ago for the owner of a commercial plumbing business who lived in it for only 18 months before he sold it, the house came furnished down to the last lampshade by Fari International, a high-end building and design firm with a cult-like following in Orange County.
Big, plush sofas and chairs fill the family room; the walls are covered with rich wood paneling and marble insets. When 13-year-old Taylor politely greeted a guest at the tall, beveled-glass doorway, she seemed tiny next to the massive floral arrangement anchoring the entry hall.
Michelle Rhodes, who grew up in Riverside and met her husband in high school, said the place had taken some getting used to after what she described as their old "Martha-Stewart-meets-the-Brady-Bunch" neighborhood...
In the new house, she said, their children could play hide and seek in their own wing and ride up and down in the built-in elevator. The home theater raised sleepovers at chez Rhodes to a whole new plateau. And if it still was thisclose to the estate next door, it nonetheless had the feel of a mansion.
'Mom! Mom!' 8-year-old Ashley's small, disembodied voice crackled at one point over the intercom from the kitchen. 'Can I have one of those small apple things?'
Outside, all was quiet, save for the security patrol truck, which cruised every few minutes past the newly minted palaces. Some lots are still vacant and occasionally, the children said, they have seen coyotes.
'I have yet to see another person,' 16-year-old Matt laughed. 'I think we're the only ones who live up here.'"
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Sigh. Where's the messed up, skeletal-girl-next-door with an alcohol problem, social climbing mother and bankrupt dad when you need her?
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