Mitt Romney, Real Estate Size Queen

Just as the race for the republican presidential nomination heats up–a vicious competition which promises to be a real damn Mister Toad's Wild Ride–gajillionaire contender Mitt Romney is making ugly headlines in all the real estate gossip blogs as a real estate size queen.



Three years ago the former Massachusetts governor and his wife Ann dropped a pocketbook punishing $12,000,000 for an oceanfront home in affluent (and republican leaning) La Jolla, CA, a pee in your pants gorgeous seaside enclave where well-documented covenants that ran with deeds once restricted property ownership to white folks of European ancestry only; Jews and other minority populations were, quite simply, not allowed. Those archaic property rules and regs were dropped in the 1960s and there are now all sorts of Jewish people and synagogues but the extremely wealthy community remains predominantly white.



Over the years high profile residents of La Jolla have included Gregory Peck, Raquel Welch, Raymond Chandler, Doug Flutie, Ivan Boesky, Andrew Cunanan, John McCain, Margaret Anne Cargill, and Deepak Chopra. Of course, Your Mama is not making any comment or inference about the prejudices or lack thereof of any of these people. We're only stating that they own or owned property in La Jolla. That's it, got it?



Anyhoo, reports out this week, reveal that Mister and Missus Romney have grand plans to raze their 3,009 square foot single-story Spanish-style ocean front residence and replace it with a two-story structure that comes in at a far more elephantine 11,062 square feet. Apparently, the existing house isn't large enough to hold Mister and Missus Romney's immediate family who include five adult married sons and 16 grandchildren.



The modest by multi-millionaire standards residence was originally built in 1936 and later owned by a man named Bob Peterson, the founder of the Jack in the Box fast food juggernaut. Local news stories state that a report prepared on the property came to the conclusion that besides the chain of hoity-toity owners, the house itself–extensively renovated in the mid 1980s–is of no particular architectural or historical significance. We're not sure who prepared or paid for the report.



Listen kids, certainly Mister Mitt Romney, a former financier turned politician, is free to spend his near quarter billion dollar fortune in whatever manner he chooses. However, the man ain't stoopid and must realize that a presidential candidate who pays twelve million bucks to buy a beach house for part-time use and then wants to knock it down to build an exponentially larger and no-doubt lavish mansion seems grossly out of touch with the grim and increasingly drastic economic realities of most Americans.



Despite a desire to balloon the size of their west coast retreat in La Jolla, Mister and Missus Romney have lightened their real estate load the last few years. In early 2009 the power couple took in $5,250,000 when they sold a faux-rustic luxury ski chalet in Park City, UT and another $3,500,000 when they unloaded the Romney family homestead, a 6,400 square foot Colonial mansion in Belmont, MA. The Romney's still own their $10,000,000 lake front summer house in Wolfeboro, NH.



listing photos: Willis Allen Real Estate (top) and Prudential California (bottom)

Taylor Swift Does It Again in Nashville

BUYER: Taylor Swift

LOCATION: Nashville, TN

PRICE: $2,500,000

SIZE: 5,601 square feet, 4 bedrooms 4.5 bathrooms



YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Country-pop singer/songwriter Taylor Swift may only be in her very early twenties but she's amassed four Grammys, seven AMAs, six CMT Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and 13 Teen Choice Awards. She's also already begun to snatch up and sell off high-priced real estate like a property obsessed celebrity twice her age.



In late 2009 the poised young lady dropped $1,990,000 on an airy and very grown up 4,062 square foot penthouse pad at the Adelicia, a newly-constructed full-service building in downtown Nashville, TN. In September 2010 she forked over another $1,400,000 for an historic red brick mini-mansion hard up on a busy road a wee bit south and west of downtown Nashville. Most reports from the time suggested the house was purchased for her family. Seven months later the fresh-faced phenom splashed out $3,550,000 for a quaint mini-compound tucked up into a secluded and bucolic canyon setting in Beverly Hills, CA. Yes, puppies, believe it or not there are indeed pockets of pastoral perfectness right in the heart of dirty ol' Los Angeles.



After some interior renovations and privacy making landscaping projects, the young country queen had a real estate change of heart and flipped the Nashville mini-mansion back on the market with an asking price of $1,450,000. A real estate whistle blower down in Nashville, let's call him A.M. Uhsnitch, told Your Mama that Miss Swift and the Family Swift ultimately found the residence too small for their needs and too crowded on to a too small lot on a too busy street. We're not really sure why these things didn't occur to her/them before they signed on the deed's dotted line but occur to them it did not, apparently. It's also all-but across the street from a middle school, which means there's probably a noisy parade of tweens and titanic SUVS streaming past the house at least twice a day 8 or 9 months of the year.



Anyhoodles poodles, although Miss Swift has yet to unload her unwanted white elephant in Nashville, Your Mama hears through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine that Miss Swift and The Family Swift have already plunked down $2,500,000 for another historic and storied estate just about 3.5 miles due south in the upscale Brentwood 'hood due south of downtown Nashville.



In the early 1930s insurance executive and one-time U.S. ambassador to Denmark Guilford Dudley Jr. bought up large swathes of rural property south of Nashville. Eventually he came to own hundreds of acres of rolling hills and pasture lands encircled by miles of white picket fences where he raised thoroughbred horses. His horse farm homestead came to be known as The Northumberland Estate.



At some point–we don't know when and can't be bothered to find out–The Northumberland Estate was divided and subdivided, some of which became a swanky gated enclave where in the spring of 2008 Oscar-winning Aussie actress Nicole Kidman and her country-pop music crooning hubby Keith Urban spent $3,470,000 for a 10,925 square foot mansion often referred to as the Queen of Northumberland. If the Urban-Kidman crib is the Queen of Northumberland, then the smaller but no less grand mansion Guilford Dudley Jr. built in 1934 as the residential centerpiece of his vast Northumberland Estate is the king.



The Guilford family sold the mansion and it's surrounding grounds, by then whittled down to just 5.69 acres, in September 2004. The buyer, as per property records and previous reports, was Luke Lewis–the chairman of Universal Music Group–and his wife Lauren. The Music City royals paid, according to the records Your Mama peeped, $1,500,000 for the estate. The couple embarked on an extensive and expensive renovation and restoration of the property that played up the 1930s razzle-dazzle glam of the mansion's architecture and elegantly-proportioned entertainment areas and seamlessly married it to modern amenities and conveniences.



A double-gated driveway streaks across a tree-sprinkled pasture and curves up to a scallop-patterned cobblestone motor court in front of the imposing and genteel southern plantation style residence. An ambitious and stately Greek Revival-style columned portico makes an in-your-face grand but still inviting statement that marks the main entrance to the mansion. Listing information Your Mama teased up out of the interweb shows the multi-winged main manse measures 5,601 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. A two-story detached guest/pool house, added in 1964, measures 2,087 square feet and has indoor and outdoor living/entertaining spaces plus 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.



Guests who pass through the palatial portico are greeted in a somewhat tight but opulent entrance hall with black and white checked marble floors, a glitzy wall of smoked mirrors, and a gently curving staircase with scrolled wrought iron railing. The mansion's main rooms include a 31-foot long living room with hardwood floors, vaulted ceiling with custom carved decorative brackets, and a wood burning marble fireplace. The banquet hall-sized foot formal dining room has chestnut-colored parquet floors, a barrel vaulted ceiling with massive moldings, and a wall of floor-to-ceiling paned glass panels and French doors that open the room to a courtyard patio on the backside of the house.



A separate butler's pantry connects to the fully updated and upgraded center-island eat-in kitchen, complete with full-size side-by-side stainless steel fridge and freezer, two dishwashers, honed granite counter tops, custom Shaker-style cabinetry with glass-fronted uppers, breakfast bar, and a desk/workstation. A nearby laundry facility is convenient for washing linens and things.



A boozer-friendly 600-plus square foot sun porch–more grandiosely called a "terrace room" in marketing materials–has a gleaming white Carrara marble floor with black marble inlay and wood burning marble fireplace. Liquor lovers like Your Mama will appreciate the built-in wet bar decked out with a marble counter top and built-in ice maker and mini-fridge. One entire wall of floor to ceiling paned glass windows overlooks tiered formal gardens while another wall has two sets of French doors that open the room to a covered terrace that leads out to the swimming pool.



Cozier quarters include a quite petite office/study with paneled walls and built in bookshelves and a significantly larger den/family room with white-painted paneled walls, built in bookshelves, hardwood floors, gas fireplace and an attached terliting and bathing facility that can also be accessed from the poolside terrace by swimmers and sunbathers.



The master suite claims hardwood floors, generous 10-foot ceiling, wood-burning fireplace, a wall of closets with antique French smoked mirror doors, and a small sitting area tucked into a large bay window with garden view. Besides the mirrored wardrobes in the bedroom, clothing and other persona items can be luxuriously organized in two additional closets, a separate closet for shoes and another for linens. The attached bathroom has a grey and white marble tile floor, dramatic domed ceiling with crystal chandelier, separate soaking tub and marble shower, and a pair of pedestal sinks.

The swimming pool and surrounding terrazzo terrace separate the main house from the two-story guest house (above), done up and did over in a similarly glammy 1930s meets southern traditional manner. The living/lounging area has herring bone patterned hardwood floors, wood burning marble fireplace juxtaposed against pecky cypress wood paneled walls, a kitchenette/wet bar, and floor to ceiling paned glass windows and French doors. A surprisingly glamorous spiral stair with custom wrought iron railing connects the two floors of the guest/pool house that is, let's be honest hunties, larger and much nicer than the homes of most people. Upstairs each of the two bedrooms has hardwood floor laid at a 45-degree angle and a private marble and glass tile bathroom.



A columned covered patio off the pool house overlooks the swimming pool and has a large wet bar with granite counter tops. Although the house is really far too traditional for Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's personal taste in architecture and day-core, we do like that a person is never more than just a few steps from a booze storage cabinet and/or wet bar in this house. A nearby storage room for rafts and water wienies offers utility hook ups so that Paul the hunky pool man can launder the towels without ever having to glide his virtually hairless suntanned body into the main house where our imperious and ever-horny house gurl Svetlana would no doubt climb all over him like a starving monkey on a banana tree.



The walled and gated grounds include a separate electronically gated entrance for landscapers, caterers and other domestic helpers who the owner might not want to darken the drive or muddy the motor court with their pee-cup trucks and beat up Dodge Neons. Well-tended grounds dotted with statues and fountains surround the house and include broad flat lawns, massive and mature shade trees, tiered formal gardens, flower cutting garden and plenty of room for a tennis court and/or vegetable garden should the Swift family desire them.



Additional fancy features of The Northumberland Estate that may have appealed to young Miss Swift and her family include custom landscape lighting, hardcore security system, removable child-proof fencing around pool, integrated speaker system throughout the house and outdoor entertainment areas, and an automatic and integrated bug repellent system in the outdoor entertainment area.



Over the years the house played hostess to scads of presidents and other politicians (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Gore), Tinseltown luminaries (Bob Hope), and any number of country music moguls and superstars (George Strait, Reba McEntire, and the boys from Brooks & Dunn). No doubt with Miss Swift as the new owner, the parade of high profile people who will visit the house will continue unabated.



With a penthouse in downtown Nashville, a house to sell and a house to decorate in an leafy nearby neighborhood and a mini-compound in the canyons behind Beverly Hills, Your Mama imagines young but rich and powerful Miss Swift will keep an army of smart architects in angular eye glasses and nice, gay decorators in Gucci loafers employed for months and perhaps years to come.



listing photos: Fridrich & Clark

Elijah Wood Lists Santa Monica House

SELLER: Elijah Wood

LOCATION: Santa Monica, CA

PRICE: $1,850,000

SIZE: 2,130 square feet, 2-3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (plus separate guest house)



YOUR MAMAS NOTES: The last couple weeks Your Mama has been on an informal and haphazard attempt to clean out some of the celebrity real estate cobwebs on our trusty laptop computer. Today we continue in that vein with a brief discussion of a modest if not exactly inexpensive Santa Monica, CA residence owned by actor Elijah Wood who recently listed the property–as a tear down, dontcha know–with price tag of $1,850,000.



The former child actor (The Adventures of Huck Finn, North, Flipper) hit the Tinseltown jackpot in the late 1990s when he was cast in the enormously popular and lucrative Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Since that sci-fi franchise came to a close in 2003-4, the now 30-year old Mister Wood expanded his move role repertoire with a bevy of small but interesting films that include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Green Street and Everything is Illuminated. The massive music aficionado also founded and runs his own indie record label Simian Records.



Property records show the 2,130 square foot Spanish-style casa–teeny-tiny by today's celebrity real estate standards–was built in 1924 and acquired by a then 18-year old Mister Wood in August 1999 for $1,450,000. Based on previous reports and other online information, the charming but unassuming main house was occupied primarily by Mister Wood's momma and poppa while young Mister Wood set up house the detached guest quarters.



Listing information indicates the two-story main house contains 2-3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms while the guest cottage, detached from the main house but attached to the two-car garage, includes an additional bedroom and bathroom plus a small office area.



A boxwood lined walkway leads to the rotunda entry hall laid with what listing information calls "British brewery cast iron tiles." We're not really sure what those are but presumably they're interesting enough to be mentioned in the listing. The entry gives way to the "formal" living room with its spectacular barrel-vaulted ceiling, over-sized picture window, and wood-burning fireplace flanked by tall paned side-lights. Rich hardwood floors in the living room extend into the "formal" dining room as well as into a main floor bedroom/den that features a second fireplace and French doors that connect to a trellis-covered terraced at the rear of the house. Two second floor bedrooms, both with hardwood floors and tree top views share a single bathroom.



The small-ish kitchen could use a renovation to make it glisten with modernity but currently features vintage cabinetry with glass-fronted uppers, intricately patterned multi-colored tile back splash, butcher block counter tops and high-grade appliances that include a six-burner Wolf brand range. A wide archway connects the kitchen to a small breakfast room with built in buffet/china storage cabinet.



A sizable dining/lounging/entertainment terrace extend off the rear of the house and steps down to a raggedy patch of grass and concrete terrace half-encircled by a low stone wall/bench and curving trellis. The two car garage at the back of the property is accessed by an alley way.



Our brief and entirely unscientific research indicates that Mister Wood has not lived in this house for a number of years. In October 2004 Mister Wood spent $1,200,000 for a modest 1,408 square foot residence in downtown Venice, CA that property records show has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.



listing photos: Keller Williams / Santa Monica

Brad Pitt Officially Lists Malibu Beach House

SELLER: Brad Pitt

LOCATION: Malibu, CA

PRICE: $13,750,000

SIZE: 4,088 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathroooms



YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In March 2005, about the time Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston called off their short marriage and he hooked up with earth-momma/actress Angelina Jolie, superstar Brad Pitt shelled out a very a-list $8,410,000 for a very contemporary and glassy ocean front bachelor pad perched on 1.26 bluff top acres on the rugged but extremely swank Encinal Bluffs area in Malibu, CA.



The well-known architecture buff spent years and millions transforming the 1962 mid-century home into a designer show pad that became Ground Zero for the then still budding affair between Mister Pitt and his current long-time lady-made and baby momma Angelina Jolie.



Starting in 2009 rumors began to swirl and make their way around the celebrity real estate merry-go-round about Mister Pitt–and by extension Miz Jolie–wanting to sell the ocean front estate. As far as Your Mama knows–and we really don't know a damn thing–we were the first property gossip to discuss the rumors back in early February 2009 when we heard from Our Lady in Malibu that Mister Pitt had quietly floated the property on the (pocket listing) market with an asking price of $18,000,000.



More than two years later the property remains in Mister Pitt's bulging real estate portfolio and yesterday it landed on the open market with a much lower–and arguably much more realistic–asking price of $13,750,000.



Listing information shows the low-slung, angular and crisply modern residence measures 4,088 square feet and includes a total of 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Two of the bedrooms, as per the listing, are currently used as offices, which means when the Pitt-Jolies are in residence in Malibu all 78 of their natural born and adopted children have to share a single bedroom.



The primary living spaces have dark bamboo floors and walls of floor to ceiling glass that expose the house to the various courtyards, patios and decks around the house that offer panoramic views up and down the quintessentially dramatic California coastline. The sleek and modern interior areas include living and dining rooms, a family room, and an all-stainless steel kitchen with walk-in refrigerator/freezer.



Listing information shows that the house is equipped with radiant heating but no air conditioning but we're guessing the design of the house and the cool coastal breezes make air conditioning unnecessary. Other features, as per the listing, include covered parking for three cars, three fireplaces (two indoors one outdoors), sound and security systems that we can all bet are the finest money can buy, and a private path/stairs to the sandy and somewhat remote beach at the bottom of the bluff.



The property slopes dramatically from Pacific Coast Highway to the steep bluff that tumbles down to the sand and sea. A heavily fortified gate opens to a driveway that brings cars past a tennis court and lap-lane swimming pool to a tight motor court at the front of the house.



Listing information indicates that plans and coastal approval exists for the addition of a second story designed by architect Chris Sorensen, a Malibu-based architect who specializes in what his website calls "environmentally conscious design solutions."



Although the multi-culti Pitt-Jolie clan spend much of their time in Europe where home base is Chateau Miraval, an 880-acre spread in a rural area in the South of France, they maintain a number of pricey and posh pads state side including a secluded ocean front compound just outside of Santa Barbara, CA, a growing compound in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles and an historic mansion in the French Quarter in New Orleans.



photo (top): Pacific Coast News

photo (bottom): Bing

A Few Links to Keep Y'all Busy

Family matters, a funeral puppies, require Your Mama be away today. Sorry darlins.



1. Art gallerist Larry Gagosian just paid hedge hog J. Christopher Flowers $36,500,000 for the famous and famously large and expensive Harkness Mansion on the Upper East Side. Sound like a lot? It is, but it's almost $15,000,000 than brassy Mister Flowers paid for the huge house in 2006 and every inch of the interiors is still to be done.



2. Actor John Larroquette lists an ugly little in Mellenthin-style ranch house in Sherman Oaks, CA



3. Ruth Madoff, wife of convicted Ponzi putz Bernie Madoff, who used to own a penthouse in Manhattan, an ocean front home in Montauk (NY) and a water front home in Palm Beach (FL) has been found living in a modest condo in Boca Raton, FL. And she drives a Honda Civic that probably cost as much as she used to pay to have her hair dyed.

Alec Baldwin Goes Downtown

BUYER: Alex Baldwin

LOCATION: New York City, NY

PRICE: $12,500,000 (list)

SIZE: 4,137 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms



YOUR MAMAS NOTES: What's old quickly becomes new again in the world of celebrity real estate. Two weeks ago the peeps at The Post reported that Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actor Alec Baldwin listed his long-time home at the high-toned and twin-towered Eldorado building on New York City's Central Park West with an asking price of $9,500,000.



What was not mentioned was that Mister Baldwin attempted to sell the 3 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom spread on the 22nd floor at The Eldorado way back in August 2009 with a much lower asking price of $7,500,000. It doesn't take clicks and flicks of the hard-working beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus to determine that Mister Baldwin and his Real Estate have seen fit to jack up the price by a full two million dollars even though, arguably, the real estate economy isn't all that much better today than it was two years ago.



Anyhoo, at the very same time Mister Baldwin listed his 22nd floor co-operative apartment at The Eldorado he also listed a second 1-bedroom unit with 12-foot ceilings on the ground floor of the building with an asking price of $1,200,000. This unit no longer appears on the open market nor is is mentioned in current listing information for Mister Baldwin's bigger unit upstairs. Make of that what you will.



Mister Baldwin has been on on the house for new digs in The Big Apple for quite some time. Originally his search centered around Upper West Side where he reportedly peeped at numerous fancy pads including places at the troubled Apthorp building and a 4 bedroom spread at The Dakota priced at $12,500,000.



Ultimately 50-something year old Mister Baldwin turned his real estate attentions downtown where his plan, as per all the New York City property gossips, is to buy a new crib where he can bunk in the lap of luxury with his much younger 28-year old lady-friend, yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas.



Within days of The Post reporting on Mister Baldwin's (re-)listing of his Upper West Side aerie, a real estate snitch whispered to the fine folks at Curbed that Mister Baldwin has signed contracts to purchase a duplex penthouse at the newly renovated Devonshire House in Greenwich Village's hoity-toity Gold Coast 'hood. The hulking red-brick pre-war edifice was originally designed by noted and beloved architect Emery Roth who, coincidentally, also designed the geometric Art Deco magnificence that is The Eldorado.



Mister Baldwin (allegedly and reportedly) opted for a 4,137 square foot penthouse pad at Devonshire House that last carried an asking price of $12,500,000. Listing information shows the posh penthouse–with interiors done up and did over by big-time decorator Victoria Hagan–contains 3 sizable bedrooms, each with private (and windowed) pooper. The large master suite, tucked into a oblique corner of the building with eastern and northern views, features an entry vestibule with coat closet–which we love–a windowed bathroom with separate glass-enclosed shower and raised soaking tub, private sitting area/study, and a dressing hall lined with closets.



The main living space pinwheels around a floating staircase and includes a formal dining room, living room with fireplace, and eat-in kitchen with center island breakfast bar plus room for a table, white Shaker-style cabinets, crisp white counter tops and grey-veined marble back splash, deep farm house sink and commercial-style stainless steel appliances.



The floor plan, as marked up in marketing materials, shows a somewhat awkward relationship between the foyer, living room, kitchen and dining room. As marked, one has to go through the kitchen or dining room in order to get to the living room. Iffin this were Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's $12,500,000 penthouse we'd probably make the dining room the living room and the living room the dining room in an effort to promote a more harmonious relationship between the public spaces.



The second floor contains a family room/den with built-in wet bar, windowed bathroom and access to two terraces, a smaller one that overlooks the building's courtyard and a larger one that hangs over tree-lined East 10th Street.



listing photos and floor plan: Stribling

UPDATE: Kim Kardashian Wedding Venue

Yesterday the tee-vee people at Extra reported–and we passed on–that the wedding of booty-fied reality tee-vee star Kim Kardashian and professional basketball player Kris Humphries would take place this weekend on the grounds of a Montecito, CA estate owned by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.



During the broadcast they showed photographs of the grounds which Your Mama immediately recognized as the property Mister Schmidt snatched up in late 2007 for $20,000,000 from comedian/chat show host Ellen Degeneres. The property, with it's stuh-ning 1926 George Washington Smith-designed Spanish Colonial mansion and acres of immaculately groomed grounds, seemed like an obvious and excellent choice for a celebrity wedding that will undoubtedly be packed to the rafters with other celebrities and high profile people.



However, today, much to our confusion, scads of reports have come out with photos provided by the industrious paps at X17 Online that show an entirely different Montecito estate as the chosen location for the Kardashian family wedding event. In fact, X17 Online's aerial photographs show the impressive estate in a frenzied state of preparation.



The, walled, multi-gated, high-hedged and heavily fortified property X17 shows, isn't far from Mister Schmidt's estate and also boasts a magnificent George Washington Smith-designed mansion. A little peeking and poking around the interweb turned up records that show the 10-plus acre estate where Kimmy K. will actually tie her nuptials knot is owned by Frank J. Caufield, a co-founder of a high-powered Silicon Valley-based venture capital concern.



Old marketing materials for the property provided by a snitch we'll call Montecito Mary, reveal that the pristine spread, dubbed Sotto Il Monte, centers around a 15,452 square foot main house completed in 1929 for Kirk Johnson, one of the founders of the First National Bank of Beverly Hills. The Santa Barbara Tax Man shows the Tuscan mansion contains only 2 bedrooms but 6.5 bathrooms. In addition to the main manse there are various barns and outbuildings scattered throughout the grounds that include a guest house, staff quarters and manager's apartment, greenhouse, shade house, a car collector's garage, pool house, gymnasium.



The vast gardens were originally designed, as per marketing materials, in 1927 by A.E. Hanson who took his stylistic cue from formal Renaissance gardens in Italy. The gardens, a complex series of interlocking garden rooms adheres to a rich formality with boxwood lined symmetrical parterres and tree-lined allées. In addition the to pretty and perfect gardens, the meticulous grounds include a north/south tennis court, an indoor swimming pool plus a 25-meter outdoor pool–that photos show will be covered for the ceremony–and great swathes of Gastbyesque lawns that slope down from the rear of the main residence.



Apropos of nothing having to do with the Kardashian wedding fete and feast...In the early Naughts Mister Caufield married a lady named Karen. After not-quite 8 years of marriage, Missus Caufield filed for divorce. Your Mama, who does not know a hole in the ground from a tin cup, does not know if Mister and Missus Caufield reconciled or finalized their divorce proceedings but we did find online documentation that in 2009 a court ruling provided estranged Missus Caufield with $406,504 in temporary spousal support. Monthly spousal support, children, monthly spousal support.



Property records show that Mister Caufield also owns at least two other posh properties in California including a 6,685 square foot mansion in the snazzy Pacific Heights 'hood in San Francisco, CA purchased in the mid-1980s from a now-deceased but once-prominent pediatrician for $1,450,000. Records also indicate that in October 2007 Mister Caufield shelled out another $2,325,000 for a 1,599 square foot penthouse pad in a converted building in the Jackson Square area just north of downtown San Francisco.



The Kardashian clan's home base is Momma Kris's krib in the horsey gated community of Hidden Hills, CA and in February 2010, before hooking up with hunky Mister Humphries, Kim Kardashian dropped $3,400,000 on a 4,000 square foot Beverly Hills bachelorette pad. We have no idea where Miss Kardashian and her soon to be hubby will settle down once they're unified in the eyes of God and government. However, iffin we were the wagering type–and we're not–we'd bet the farm that in Kimmy K.'s case, a new spouse means a new house. We shall see butter beans, we shall see.



photo: Bing