Pulled out to sea in Laguna
Crowning a promontory overlooking Laguna Beach, this exotic estate runs the gamut in resortstyle comforts. Contemporary interiors dressed in notes of Bali style appeal to a wide palette, with chef’s and catering kitchens, a glassed-in wine cellar and a recording studio.

Spears looks to push the B-side
Sliding walls of glass invite indoor-outdoor entertaining and open to a wide covered patio with an alfresco dining room, a fireplace and a circular wet bar. The swimming pool spa was redone during Spears’ ownership and has abeach entry, a spa and a cascading waterfall feature.

A little bit of Mayberry by the sea
But before the Methodists put it on the map, the Palisades cycled through a number of different identities, none of which stuck: resort town (done in by the land bust of the 1890s), candidate for the site of L.A.’s new port (lost out to San Pedro) and primary home of Thomas Ince’s movie-making empire (nudged aside by Culver City).

Bird Streets action may signal a takeoff
So far this year, we’ve seen more than 20 home sales of $10 million or more, only a slight uptick from the previous year, plus just a handful of $20-million-plus sales. Safe to say, the market for higher high-end homes in the Greater Los Angeles area has yet to cut loose in 2016.

Selling stigmatized properties
That’s normal in Los Angeles, one of the nation’s fastest-moving markets. But this time, the wave of interest wasn’t sparked by the home’s impressive location, on a hillside overlooking downtown L.A., nor was it for its asking price of $2.75 million. Instead, the lookyloos were drawn by the home’s grisly past.

Life on Carolwood Drive, a.k.a. Easy Street
Listed at $150 million, the more than 2-acre estate is rubbing elbows with the priciest behemoths of the Westside residential real estate world. The nearby Playboy Mansion notched the top spot with a $200-million asking price. The Danny Thomas estate in Beverly Hills is being marketed at $135 million.

The logic of the island corner sinks in
The Atlanta designer says that although the concept is a natural space saver, the sink can also be used in kitchens with generous square footage. Recently, he installed a lengthy island that was 11 feet long by 5 feet wide and put in two corner sinks, “one on each end, and there was all that space in between.