Dasmarka Real Estate

SELLER: Justin Torkildsen
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,150,000
SIZE: 2,274 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: On the 10th of March (2011) actor Justin Torkildsen put his Los Angeles, CA residence in the celeb-packed Outpost Estates neighborhood on the market with an asking price of $1,150,000. Just four very short days later the updated and upgraded 1960s post and beam contemporary was in escrow and on it's way to being sold. Four days, children, four days.

Your Mama freely (and proudly) confesses that we had no idea who this Justin Torkildsen person is until we took to the internets to sort out his professional what's-what. Turns out that a teen aged Mister Torkildsen made a brief splash in the male modeling world in the mid- to late-1990s when he posed for Nautica adverts that appeared on 7-story billboards in New York City's Times Square. In 1999, at the tender and fresh-faced age of 18, Mister Torkildsen secured the role of Rick Forrester on the long-running soap story The Bold and the Beautiful, a revolving-door part that has been played over the years by no fewer than six actors. He worked alongside daytime drama stars like Tylo Hunter, Jack Wagner and Susan Flannery and in 2001 Mister Torkildsen was awarded a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series. He was nominated for the same award the following year but, alas, did not win.

Mister Torkildsen's time on The Bold and the Beautiful came to a close in 2006 and according to his anemic resume on the Internet Movie Database he's barely worked in the entertainment industry since.

Property records show that Mister Torkildsen purchased the property for $995,000 in October of 2002. This was on the heels of his Daytime Emmy award and shortly after he married a gal named Bonnie Binion, a member to the scandal-ridden Las Vegas Binons who at one time owned Binion's Horseshoe casino. We're not sure when Mister and Missus Torkildsen's mutual adoration swirled down the Tinseltown terlit of love but they were dee-vorced in 2008.

Listing information shows the 2,274 square foot mid-century modern has a total of 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a count that includes a deluxe guest suite on the lower level with private entrance, massive brick fireplace and private pooper with steam shower.

The upper level master suite has hardwood floors, a pitched and beamed ceiling and a complete wall of jalousie windows and sliding doors. The children will forgive Your Mama for this: Despite their old-fashioned vibe, we lurv us some jalousie windows. We can't help it and we will no longer feel ashamed of that particular architectural fondness. The master bath looks well-sized for a modestly-scaled residence and includes walls of rectangular-shaped and olive-colored tiles The cabinetry–a magnificent creation in walnut–or is that teak?–that floats off the floor and has a matching walnut–or is it teak?–counter top. Normally we feel iffy about wood counter tops but in this case it's rather striking, in a good way.

Anyhoo, The main living area, wrapped in floor to ceiling sliders (and jalousies), had three distinct zones. A dining area with new-fangled picnic table style dining anchors one end of the long room and the other end functions as a casual and cozy area for things like reading, listening to music, or staring at the boob-toob. In the center a "formal" seating area is arranged around a massive freestanding brick and concrete fireplace.

The star of this show is unquestionably the spare and narrow but well-equipped u-shaped kitchen with it's custom-built walnut cabinetry that floats sexily off the hardwood floor. We're not thrilled with how blond the floor is against the walnut cabinetry but that's fixable and none-the-less we're swooning. Our adoration may or may not have something to do with the fact that Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's kitchen has flat fronted walnut cabinetry that looks very much like that in this kitchen. We might even imagine that it's possible the same architect who did hp our kitchen did over this one too. Stranger things have happened, hunnies.

The too-slim backyard has a couple of small decks that organize the functionality of the different areas and in between a ratty-tatty patch of grass and a long smooth concrete wall where a sheet of waters slips down into a long trough. What might be great back here would be a raised plunge pool for those particularly sweltering days and and spa because although we don't find it particularly relaxing to sit in a vat of boiling water and slug back white wine we recognize that many do.

Your Mama has no clue where Mister Torkildsen plans to go once he vacates the premises but it looks like he's probably going to have to high tail it to elsewhere sooner than expected because after just four short days on the market, the house was put into escrow. That means this house was on the market less than a week. This lightening quick sale will surely spike the beaten down optimism of all those home owners and property purveyors who dearly want to believe the real estate go-go days of the mid 2000s are on their way back. Maybe they are and maybe they're not. Whatever the case, Your Mama has got to get on the road–we've got tickets to the tennis tourney out in Indian Wells, CA–so we're just going to let the children claw each others' eyes out in the comments.

One. Two. Three. Go!

listing photos: Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills North