Sunday, September 30, 2012

Happy Fall Y'all - Kitchen Pumpkin Decor


This scarecrow is so cute.  I actually bought him for our backyard, but once I got him home, I propped him up in the corner that enters our kitchen... and I decided to keep him there :)

The Fall decor in my kitchen was really easy to throw together.  I just bought a few real pumpkins, then found the Burlap lined wire basket, the pie sign and the little wood pumpkin crate on sale at Michaels for under $20 total.

A major no no to many people are the use of silk flowers.  Oh no, no faux :)  Many swear that they will only use fresh flowers.  But that does get pretty expensive.  So yes, I did use silk flowers... Please don't hold it against me.  I am okay with them if they are a good quality.  Although I should mention that I do use only fresh flowers when they are at the dining table. When people sit close to them, it becomes obvious when they are faux!  I had gotten the silk Fall leaves, flowers and floral picks at an after season clearance sale and I like to be able to use and re-use them.  I put a mason jar in the back corner for the flowers.  I popped the floral picks into a few places (wherever I thought they looked good).  The scale I already had from a prior thrift store trip... and the chalkboard I had previously DIY'd for $3.


I did not take the time to do fancy chalk art (although I probably should).  For now I just put a cute little saying on it.


 I love the way the fall colors pop off of my dark backsplash wall.




How do you feel about the use of silk flowers?  I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Happy Fall Y'all...


Shared on the following sites:  Fox Hollow Cottage, Funky Junk Interiors, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Friday, September 28, 2012

Kevin James Throws It Down in Delray Beach

BUYER: Kevin James
LOCATION: Delray Beach, FL
PRICE: $18,500,000
SIZE: 26,509, 8 bedrooms, 9 full and 3 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Thanks to a brief note from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial—and a previously overlooked report by the intrepid peeps at the Palm Beach Post way back in mid-August (2012)—Your Mama has learned that Emmy- and Razzie-nominated stand-up comedian, sitcom success and low-brow comedy movie superstar Kevin James shoveled out some serious, unambiguously Tinseltown-A-lister type of loot for a humongous house in the somewhat unexpected and out-of-the-way Delray Beach, FL.

In late August (2012) Mister James and his part-time-actress wife and baby momma Steffiana De La Cruz shelled out $18,500,000 to purchase an honest-to-goodness, ding-dang celebrity-style doozy of a (sort-of) oceanfront residential compound in Delray Beach that sprawls across two lots that total 1.85 acres. The Palm Beach County Tax Man shows the main mansion has 12,808 square feet, as does listing information easily conjured out of the interweb. Listing information we peeped also states—it should be noted—the actual living spaces encompassed by the entire "Mediterranean Revival estate" spans a far more substantial, real estate baller-sized 26,509 square feet with a total of 8 bedrooms and 9 full and 3 half bathrooms.

Does it seem surprising or odd to any of the children that Mister James—a man whose professional shtick is pretty much summed up by portraying stupid but lovable middle class straight guys—can afford to acquire and maintain an estate of this magnitude? For chrissakes, the 2011 taxes alone, even after an 11.3% reduction, came to a nauseating $240,492, according to public records. Believe it or not, booter beans, that's a hefty and even prohibitive annual tax nut for a just-regular-rich person, especially since the taxes don't cover the—likely to be exorbitant—costs associated with property insurance, staffing and security, landscaping upkeep and swimming pool maintenance. The utility bills—we can only to imagine—could probably choke a middle class Clydesdale and quickly drive a run-of-the-mill millionaire to the poorhouse.

Luckily for Mister James, he's not just a run-of-the-mill millionaire. See children, for his Showbiz efforts and talents he is extraordinarily well compensated and, more importantly to his future working opportunities, Mister James pretty much mints money for movie studios. In 2007 it was reported his salary for the final years of the now heavily syndicated sitcom King of Queens was upwards of $400,000 per episode, and possibly as much as $500,000 per episode for the final season. That's a lot of damn chicken scratch, you know. Rudimentary calculations on our bejeweled abacus indicate the professionally charmed Mister James very well may have hauled in over four million clams just for the abbreviated 9-episode final season. And that's not counting the piles and miles of greenbacks, one imagines, he earns in residuals. Not bad work if you can get it, right?

Since King of Queens went dark in 2007 Mister James has steadily built his professional reputation as a comedic movie star who can deliver prodigious profits with a handful of starring roles in sophomoric, fart-humor movies like I Now Pronounce Your Chuck & Larry, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Grown Ups and Zookeeper. Your Mama freely confesses that we've never seen any of these movies so we can't and won't speak to their quality as cinematic entertainment but we can tell the children that hordes and swarms of people paid good money to see them. Just those four movies, according to Box Office Mojo, have a total of $810,648,293 in worldwide box office receipts. The residuals from non-theater revenues must also, one imagines, boggle the brain.

Now it makes perfect sense that Mister and Missus James can afford a Wall Street fat cat-priced residence, right?

The nearly two acre lot isn't directly on the beach but sits across the street. The location allows for plenty of direct and oblique ocean vistas from the house, for sure, but, unless there's a a tunnel we don't know about, actually getting to the beach requires a mad dash across a probably not usually very busy two-lane road and a trek across a short stretch of rolling dunes.

The cavernous formal living room, with massive fireplace, lighted built-in display niches and soaring beamed ceiling, has three, exceptionally tall arched French doors that open out to an ocean side loggia. The baronial formal dining room has yet another massive stone fireplace as well as a series of arched French doors separated by tall, Macedonian stone Doric columns.

Other spacious and luxurious entertaining spaces include a mahogany-paneled billiard room with inlaid stone floors and built-in wet bar, an adjoining, carpeted "club room" with another fireplace,  and a bookcase-lined library with—you got it—yet another fireplace.

The colossal and expensively equipped eat-in kitchen has an undulating, barrel-vaulted brick ceiling, all the top-grade appliances money can buy, both butler's and storage pantries and a walk-in fridge/cooler. The nearby family room contains—yep—a fireplace, built-in bookshelves and a trio of towering arched French doors that connect to a second outdoor living loggia that overlooks the swimming pool complex.

Upstairs five family/guest bedrooms each have access to a private bathroom and share a separate playroom/den. The house-sized master suite has a column-encircled entry vestibule and a behemoth bed chamber defined by a rather monolithic wood fretwork panel. The suite opens privately to a deep covered terrace with fireplace and ocean view. The suite is complete with an adjoining meditation lounge, a pair of "wardrobe rooms" and a titanic bathroom with his and her areas plus a free-standing, egg-shaped soaking tub set on an inlaid, free-form bed of stone in the center of the room.

The luxury appointments and accouterments extend down into the extensive finished basement area where, according to listing information, there are staff quarters, a wine room, a game room, a fitness room, and a professional-style spa with hydrotherapy tub, massage area, shower space and steam room.

In addition to the sumptuous main house, the double-gated, resort-like seaside estate contains several motor courts and parking areas, an underground 8-bay garage, fairway-like lawns, stone pathways that meander through lush tropical gardens, several shaded porches and loggias for escaping the relentless south Florida sunshine, a slightly sunken sport court with viewing platform and a separate guest house that overlooks the saltwater swimming pool and semi-circular spa. A monumentally-scaled, stone-columned poolside cabana is outfitted with a colossal carved stone fireplace, pool bath and summer kitchen.

In addition to his dee-luxe new digs in Delray Beach, Mister James still owns, according to our resources, two homes in the, like, oh-muh-gawd, ur-suburban Los Angeles community of Encino (CA), both of which he bought before he was married. In May 2002 he dropped $1,450,000 on a 5,386 square foot mock-Med mini-mansion in an itty-bitty gated enclave just a couple blocks north of Ventura Boulevard and in August the following year he forked over $3,200,000 for a far more substantial 10,042 square foot mock-Med mansion with 7 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms tucked privately up a shared drive and behind gates in the foothills a few blocks south of Ventura Boulevard. Your Mama does not know an oscillating fan from a palm tree so we really can't say what plans Mister and Missus James have for their west coast abodes but as of this morning, based on our brief and unscientific research, neither home appears to be on the open market.

listing photos: via Zillow

Our DIY Painted Pumpkins

Every year in the fall, I love to put out my painted pumpkins! I have been doing these topiary pumpkins for a few years now, and they are still going strong! They are artificial pumpkins that I decorate with paint and sponge brushes. Through the weather changes, they need some touch ups every now and then. Here is what the front porch looks like this year:







What I love abnut these pumpkins, is that I can keep them up throughout the fall season, including Thanksgiving! When I change out the wreath and take off the spider/webs, it becomes a great festive porch for the entire season! I love decorating for this time of year, and I smile when I pull into the driveway. To see what the pumpkins looked like last year and for the full DIY tutorial, go HERE.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Liquor, Mags, and Books on Wheels: A DIY.

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Since I found my chair and ottoman, I’ve been frequenting the same thrift store to see what I can find. I recently found this table and gave it some TLC last weekend. This is what it looked like before:

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As you can see it was not so good looking. With a price tag of $5.00, I figured it was worth the risk to see if I could restore to it to the potential image that I conjured up in my mind. To tackle the project, I first made a trip to Lowes and bought

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two cans of premium Rust-o-leum high gloss white spray paint. I already had that spray attachment pictured. It makes it easier to spray paint and I have more control over the process. The Minwax Lacquer clear satin finish and sealer was purchased at Walmart. However, I am sure one can get that at Lowes or Home Depot too. I chose spray painting over painting (using a brush)because the piece is small and there is less mess and less cleaning up involved. I want to also add that I lightly sanded the piece and cleaned it thoroughly prior to painting. I didn’t prime it because I purchased a Premium Spray paint, but I would recommend priming prior too.

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I also purchased new casters since the piece was missing one. Those were purchased from Lowes.

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I am pleased with how it turned out and I love its versatility. I can use it to store my books/magazines and also, I can wheel my liquor from room to room. Gotta love that! If you have a Harris Teeter(those of you residing in the States)near you, they are having a sale on the Cavit Pinot Grigio!Smile. As you can see, I’m going to need another bottle soon…

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I purposely chose those casters/wheels with a hint of copper because I love how they contrast with the white.  This thrift find was definitely worth the $5 splurge, don’t you think? I am loving the weather right now, so this weekend is sure to be a great one! I hope it will be the same for you too!! Enjoy! XX 

Update: Diddy's Digs

Last week all us celebrity property gossips jawed endlessly over the high-floor, one-bedroom party pad in Midtown Manhattan that rapper-mogul Sean Combs—a.k.a. Puffy Piddle or Diddle Daddy or P. Daddle or whatever—kerplopped on market with a heavy-duty $8,500,000 price tag.

At that time there weren't images included with online listings but we happened to notice today the addition of a treasure trove of jaw-dropping photographs that depict a sassy, supuh-swah-vey pied-a-terre done up pretty much exactly like what Your Mama imagines ordinary, non-VIP club goers imagine the invite-only VIP room of a swank Las Vegas nightclub looks like. Yes? No?

We don't know who's responsible for the chatoyant white lacquer ceilings, the thick, cement-colored wall-to-wall shag carpeting, the cushioned Lucite furniture or the disco ball-inspired column in the living room but it looks to Your Mama like maybe musician turned interior designer Lenny Kravitz done got nightclub-like decorating claws up in there. We're not hatin', we're just sayin'.

Anyhoo, just to recap, the 2,292 square foot spread—set 700-feet above the street with stomach-dropping Central Park and city views and equipped with a state-of-the-art home automation system—was originally designed with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, but two of the bedrooms were re-purposed into a media lounge with deep, black velvet sofas and a piano room with well-stocked wet bar and a glitzy, Lucite baby grand piano.

Mister Combs, who owns homes in Miami (FL), Alpine (NJ) and East Hampton (NY), acquired the sybaritic aerie in 2005 for $3,820,000 and is (allegedly) on the hunt for a much more substantial piece of the Manhattan residential real estate pie.

listing photos: Prudential Douglas Elliman

Chris Meloni Does It in the C.T.

BUYER: Christopher Meloni and Sherman Williams-Meloni
LOCATION: New Canaan, CT
PRICE: $4,381,000
SIZE: 8,063 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 3 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: The children may recall that former Law & Order: SVU man-hunk actor Christopher Meloni—who was, dare we say, even more sizzling in the steamy prison drama Oz (1998-2003)—and his lady-decorator wife Sherman Williams-Meloni put their 60th floor Midtown Manhattan condo-crib on the market in March (2012) with, as you'll soon see, an in-hindsight-rose-tinted $12,000,000 price tag.

Mister and Missus Meloni's three bedroom and 4.5 bathroom high-floor Big Apple perch—located in the same, slender, smoked glass tower where Sean "Diddy" Combs recently put his higher floor three bedroom into two bedroom party pad up for sale for $8,500,000 and New Age guru Deepak Chopra has a even higher floor apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms listed for $3,595,000—remains unsold, but with a shrunken but still astronomical asking price of $9,950,000.

Luckily for him and his family, the well-compensated, Emmy-nominated actor—he reportedly took in $395,000 per episode in his last season of L&O:SVU—doesn't need to unload one multi-million dollar residence to acquire another; The hard-charging property gossip gal at the Post revealed today that Mister and Missus Meloni decamped—or will eventually decamp—for the bucolic and affluent enclave of New Canaan, CT where in late August (2012) they dropped $4,381,000 on a fully-landscaped, four-ish acre estate anchored by an unquestionably luxurious but perfectly ordinary two-story proto-suburban mansion with 8,063 square feet of expensively but blandly finished interior space.

Listing information Your Mama easily squeezed out of the interweb reveals the 16-plus room residence was built in 2006 and sits on "one of the highest elevations in New Canaan" with "extraordinary views to Manhattan." There are, according to listing information, total of five bedrooms, five full and three half bathrooms plus four fireplaces, an attached three-car side-facing garage with direct entry into the kitchen's service area, and a convenient pair of typically New England mudrooms.

The double height entry, with under-stair powder pooper, gives way to a spacious, step-down living room with fireplace and semi-circular wall of tall, arched windows that overlook the back yard. A quartet of clustered rooms, situated off the foyer, include a fully-paneled billiard room with built-in wet bar, an also fully-paneled library/media room with fireplace flanked by built-in bookshelves, a somewhat useless southwest-facing sun room with long curved wall of windows, and a secluded office with private half bath and yet another built-in wet bar.

Less formal family quarters are accessed directly from the foyer or through a compact butler's pantry that links the dining room to the expensively equipped but stylistically ho-hum center island kitchen complete with walk-in pantry, wine room, half bathroom, white raised-panel cabinetry and gray-veined green counter tops that are probably granite or marble or some other high-cost material. The breakfast area off the kitchen steps down into a semi-circular family room with fireplace, built-in bookcases and backyard access.

Front and rear stairs connect to the second floor where one guest/family bedroom has direct access to a private bathroom and a second makes use of a roomy hall bathroom. Two more guest/family bedrooms, each with private bathroom, occupy a wing of their own and straddle a sitting room with built-in bookshelves and media center.

Double doors open from the upstairs landing directly into the decent-sized and wall-to-wall carpeted master bedroom with brass-accented fireplace and semi-circular wall of multi-pane windows. French doors lead out to a petite loggia where a spiral staircase twists tightly down to a lower level covered porch off the library/media room and corkscrews up to a small roof terrace with pastoral, if knee-knocking, wrap-around views.

The large but hardly excessive, attached master bathroom has inset marble tile flooring, double sinks, soaking tub for two and separate stall shower. The adjoining walk-in closet/dressing room appears on the floor plan included with marketing materials to be larger than all four of the guest/family bedrooms. This spatial imbalance may (or may not) make it crystal clear to resident children, other family members and/or overnight house guests that their creature comfort ranks lower on the square footage food chain than the Louboutins and John Lobbs owned by the master and mistress of the manor. 

The tree-ringed grounds include long driveway and baronial circular motor court with additional parking around the side by the garage. There are acres of gently undulating lawns, a newly-built six-stall horse or car barn, and a stone terraces that extends off the rear of the house and steps down to surround a free-form swimming pool and elevated spa set into a man-made bank of boulders and mature landscaping.

If she hasn't already Your Mama imagines Missus Williams-Meloni will soon roll up her interior decorator sleeves and get to work on a transformation that will turn this ho-hum house into a publication-worthy showpiece—like their Manhattan apartment, as seen in the March 2008 issue of Architectural Digest. Mister Meloni will do his part to fund his fortunate family's multi-million dollar lifestyle with upcoming silver screen roles in 42 (with Harrison Ford), the next of the never-ending Superman movies (Man of Steel), the comedy They Came Together, and the in-production drama Small Time.

listing photos: William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty

Fall in Love With Fall

This is my favorite time of year! I love the crisp air, warm sweaters and the leaves turning colors. Why not put together some of my favorite images of fall to inspire us all to decorate for the season?!? Enjoy!




Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest






Source: google.com via Amber on Pinterest




What a pretty season! Make sure to check back later this week to see how I decorated our front porch for fall!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

How to Pick the Right Paint Color

Have you ever had trouble picking paint colors for your walls?  Don't feel bad, because I think we all have!  Sometimes picking paint colors can be difficult even for the best decorators.  Trying to pick a color from a little paint chip is almost impossible to get right on the first try.  The lighting, furnishings and surroundings in a room can completely change the look of a color.  A paint chip is not a large enough representation of what a color will actually look like when it's up in an entire room.   

I admit that I've actually had my husband re-paint a room three times until I got it right.  Since then I've started painting samples on the wall in the room I am working on.  It helps me to get a much more accurate look at the color... It may cost a few dollars for samples, but ultimately it saves time and money, because you don't have to paint, paint and re-paint a room... (sorry honey!).   My wonderful husband, who does all of my painting, probably prefers that I get it right the first time from now on :)


I leave my painted samples on the wall for a few days, making sure to look at them several different times a day (since lighting changes throughout the day, it is best to look at them morning, noon and night) to see and know for sure which you like best.  If you decide you don't like any of them, then it's off to the store for a few more samples.  But at least this way you didn't paint an entire room before realizing that it is the wrong color for you. 

In case you were wondering, in the above posted picture, if I had painted my headboard?  No I did not.  That is not a real headboard.  It is a wall that is painted dark chocolate with trim moulding (casing) around the edge to make it look like a headboard.  Since I am re-doing my master bedroom, this faux headboard is going away... which made it a perfect place to sample these new colors.  

Most paint and home improvement stores now have sample jars available that can be mixed for most of their colors.  These samples are large enough to paint about a 3 foot square on your wall, which is much better to look at than a tiny paint chip!!!


I am working on re-doing my master bedroom.  So, yesterday I got a number of paint samples from Lowe's.  They are less than $3 each and are worth every penny!




The current color of my master bedroom is sort of a baby blue (it is more intense of a color than this picture is showing and it is a bit too blue for me).  I want something with a bit more grey in it.  I want the room to have a peaceful serene retreat feeling (not feel like a baby boy's room).  The top left sample color is "Light Silver Sage" from Restoration Hardware.  I've used this color once before (about 5 years ago) at a rental we used to live in.  I love the color!  The color on the right is called "Linen".  I am loving this color too but I'm thinking about using it elsewhere in our house.  The middle color is the one I've decided to use for our bedroom.  I actually mixed the light silver sage 50/50 with a lighter greyish white sample that I have.  I love the outcome of my mixed color.  I am going to go back to Lowe's to have them do a custom paint match of the color for me.  

Most paint stores have a computer that can take any color and match it for you and mix you custom paint.  Color matching is a free service and a good way to get a specific color that you can't necessarily find on a paint chip.  

Over the next couple of weeks our master bedroom will be undergoing some major transformations... A wood wall treatment, new paint, new mouldings, new beds (yes, I said beds, plural... I will explain that in the future).  Also, possibly new DIY headboards. some fun furniture changes, new lighting and more... I can't wait to share each step of it as we progress.

Looking forward to next time,
Happy decorating!

Iconoclast Comedienne Phyllis Diller's Digs

SELLER: Estate of Phyllis Diller
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $12,900,000
SIZE: 9,266 square feet, 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama knows we're a little late to this particular celebrity real estate rodeo but we figure better late than never in the case of the long-time Los Angeles, CA residence of outlandish and recently deceased comedienne Phyllis Diller that was recently pushed on the open market with a star-style $12,900,000 asking price.

In what may or may not be a coinky-dink, Miz Diller—may she rest in peace—was born and bred in Lima, OH, the same small Midwestern town where that motley group of teenagers on the super-gay hit tee-vee program Glee sing and dance their way through the trials, tribulations and humiliations of puberty, young love and high school. A classically trained musician from her youth—she could tickle and tinkle the ivories with the best of Tinseltown entertainers of her era like, say, Liberace—Miz Diller didn't pursue music as a career, but rather became an advertising copywriter and mother of five.

Sometime in the early-1950s, at a time when polite society considered it ludicrous and downright undignified for a lady to do stand up comedy, a nearly-forty year old Miz Diller did just that; She put on a fright wig and a pair of mid-heel ankle boots and bravely took a totally bizarre but inspired twist into the male-dominated, dog-eat-dog Showbiz arena of stand up comedy. Somehow, in that glowering, buttoned-up climate, she killed it with her punishing parody and and brutal self-deprecation.

She honed her wickedly sardonic, high-camp housewife schtick and distinct, open-mouthed guffaw throughout the 1950s and '60s with regular appearances in comedy clubs and on television programs such as What's My Line and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Her professional salad days came—some might argue— in the late 60s and 1970s when she cut a broad and lacerating swath through one of Comedyland's to-date frothiest heydays of game-changing, cutting-edge comedy.

The iconoclast joker never really laid down her microphone and performed—nay, chewed up the damn stage—well into her eighth decade with her vicious, typically dead pan delivery. She was and will always be one of the greats, a zany but whip smart insult comedy trailblazer and Tinseltown tour de force who paved the way for a slew of funny, sharp-tongued women who include (but are hardly limited to) Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, Kathy Griffin, Chelsea Handler, (newly slenderized) Lisa Lampanelli and Whitney Cummings.

For the younger children who may not be familiar with the comedic stylings of Miz Diller, we offer a few examples of her doing her thing:

Here she pretends to smoke—she never actually smoked— while she verbally slices and dices her faux-husband, Fang, on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969.

Here she is in 1977, as she tears into Fang's profoundly fat—and hopefully mostly fictitious—mother in a five-plus minute barrage of scathing and scathingly hilarious bon mots.

Here she is in 1978, briefly and brilliantly roasting Joan Collins in a pink fright wig, and here she roasts Ronald Reagan in what appears to Your Mama to be the early 1980s.

And finally, here she is, in her late 80s, serving it with razor blade sharpness in a short, but searing dress down of herself in regards to her own advanced age and advancing decrepitude.

Good stuff, kittens, good stuff for sure, but, anyhoo, let's get back to the real estate matter at hand, shall we?

Current listing information states the 9,266 square foot residence sits on 1.23 gated acres with 8 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and was originally built in 1914 for steel magnate/U.S. Senator Lawrence C. Phipps from Colorado for use as a vacation home. A 2002, Ruth Ryon-written profile in the Los Angeles Times reveals Miz Diller acquired the roomy and faintly gloomy, English Country-style manor house in the fall of 1965 and, over the nearly 50 years she occupied the premises, named many of the mansion's 22 rooms.

The ample, vaulted and beamed main living room—dubbed The Bob Hope Salon after her mentor who gave her a large oil portrait of himself that stands on an easel next to a picture frame-laden concert grand piano—has wood floors, a fireplace, and a Gothic, paneled seating nook lined with leaded- and stained-glass windows. There's a second fireplace and some pretty awful swagged gold braid drapery in The Sarah Siddons Room—that would be the formal dining room—and a third fireplace in the wood-paneled and vaulted salon Miz Diller called The Bach Room and used as an memento-filled office. The tile-floored and red-walled room shown in listing photos is presumed by Your Mama to be the loggia mentioned in Miz Ryon's 2002 article in the L.A. Times as a passageway between the front door and the bar.

A room with a pump organ became, of course, The Pump Room; a mirrored telephone closet was designated the John Wilkes Booth—after Lincoln's assassin, natch; and a powder room was christened The Edith Head, after legendary costume designer Edith Head.

Listing information describes the (clearly dated) kitchen with its red brick wall(s) and black and white tile flooring as a "Classic stainless still [sic]," but it was dubbed by Miz Diller as The Scarlet Scullery for its blood red cabinetry. Last week Miz Diller's son, Perry Diller, told the L.A. Times the kitchen was  the "center of their family life" and that Miz Diller was a capable cook who would whip up culinary concoctions she gleefully saddled with unappetizing names like "garbage soup" and "heart burn salad."

We're not sure what nickname Miz Diller gave to her own bedroom—one can only imagine—but some of the guest bedrooms that open off the picture-lined upstairs gallery were, according to Miz Ryon's 2002 article, denominated The Canary Suite for its yellow day-core, The Giuseepe Verdi Suite for its green day-core—verdi means green to the Italians—and The Lincoln Bedroom was once furnished with Lincoln-era things and later used by Miz Diller as an office.

A couple of rooms were given over to Miz Diller's vast collection of beaded and bedazzled costumes and famously extensive (fright) wig collection.

The partly campy, partly Old-School correct and partly perplexing day-core and contents of the house will be auctioned, according to Miz Diller's son, Perry, in an article in The L.A. Times. We don't know if the wigs will go up for grabs but lawhrd have mercy on the auctioneer if they do because Your Mama imagines every drag queen and wig-wearing wacko from Sydney to Singapore will stuff themselves into a tacky beaded baby doll dress, slap on a pair of cha-cha heels and high tail it to the auction house where we should all expect a stiff and shady bidding process that could easily turn into a show-down/ho-down of world record-breaking proportions.

Although we can't be sure, it appears to Your Mama's boozy eyes that there may be a number of fake plants and flower arrangements throughout the residence. Rule No. #8 in Your Mama's Big Book of Decorating Dos and Dont's is emphatic that fake flowers and/or faux-greenery should be scrupulously avoided in all circumstances. No flowers, so the rule reads, are better than phony flowers. However, children, we just can't seem to stick this rule on Miz Diller because, even though we know her eccentric stage presence was a persona and not really her, it just makes perfect sense this wonderful wackadoodle would have fake flower arrangements. Yes? Are we right? They're perfect! They are!! For her!!! And that, hunties, is what real and fearless personal style—as opposed to publication-worthy perfection—is all about.

The house was built around a central courtyard that looks like it's maybe seen better landscaping days and a wide screened porch on the southwest facade overlooks broad if somewhat tired-looking lawns and gardens dotted and shaded with numerous mature specimen trees. The property does not currently have a swimming pool or tennis court. That seemed odd to Your Mama until we figured Miz Diller probably wasn't much into exercise or getting her head wet.

So then, Your Mama wants to know, what do the children think? Will Miz Diller's nearly 10,000 square foot digs be razed to make way for a substantially larger new residence with such new-fangled luxury-living necessities as, say, a fitness studio, panic room and walk-in in humidor, or will someone opt to update and upgrade the existing structure?

1. 2. 3. Go.

listing photos: Bruce Nelson & Associates