(Bloomberg) -- Christopher Kennedy Lawford, a nephew of John F. Kennedy and a son of movie star Peter Lawford, was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Los Angeles, and spent much of his professional life in the city. So when he began to look for a property in LA in 2013, he knew what he wanted.
โEverything I do, I do in my area,โ he says. โI don't leave the West Side: I don't go east of the 405, and I don't go south of the 10.โ He considered living in Malibu for โabout four seconds,โ he says, but settled instead on Brentwood, in the hills above Sunset Boulevard.
He bought a small plot of land (about .32 acres) for $1.3 million at the end of 2013, and told a friend at Tatum Construction โthat I have $600,000ย [to spend on] a house,โ Lawford says. The house took less than a year to build, and Lawfordย moved into it in 2014.
Four years later, he's selling the finished product for $2.85 million, having listedย it with Simon Beardmore of Sotheby's International Realty.
The Building
The home covers about 1,720ย square feet. The house is a single-story rectangle, with rooms arranged in a line.ย
The kitchen and living area are at one end of the house, while the bedrooms are at the other; one bedroomย is currently used as an office. โIt's a very manageable house for one person or a couple,โ Lawford says.ย
The house has three bathrooms, the largest of whichย has a massive plate glass window and โa giant tub,โ he says. โIt's got a great view all the way to the ocean.โ
The house is relatively small, but it's built with accordion-glass doors that open onto a large deck, giving it a spacious feel. โThose doors wrap around the whole house,โ Lawford says. โWhat someone else could do is make the porch area, which is about 500 square feet, into another room.โ
In a continuation of the home's indoor/outdoor feel, a spa area stretches off the living room, with a large hot tub and a nearby, refrigerated plunge pool. Next to both is a sauna.ย
The Property
The house is surrounded by vegetation. โI was looking to wake up and not know I was in LA,โ he explains. โI've brought in giant bambooย and surrounded the house with foliage. So it's hard to see any of my neighbors, but I've got a great vista.โ
Behind the house, the driveway goes up a sharp incline to reach the road, which Lawfordย considers a benefit. โThe steep driveway might dissuade some people from buying it,โ he says. โBut I like the drivewayโ I consider it a moat, and I'm at the bottom of it, where no one can get to me. LA is a really crowded place, and when I got home, I wanted to feel like I wasn't around a lot of people.โ
Lawford, who gives speeches about addiction and recoveryย and writes books, splitsย his time between this house and a residence in Maui. โI live in this house about two months a year,โ he says. โIt hasn't had a lot of wear and tear.โ
He's selling the home, he says, for variety's sake: โI like to vary my climate and I don't get that in LA and Maui,โ he says. โI'm trying to find a way to get to Vancouver, as long as I can get out in the winter time.โ
He's not, however, desperate to sell. โI don't have to sell,โ he says. โIf I get my number, I'll sell it. If I don't, I'll give it to my kids.โ
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To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Rovzar at crovzar@bloomberg.net.
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