The current owner and his wife bought the “uninhabitable shell” in 1996 for $450,000. He called the renovation “jolly hard work” that involved living in a temporary cottage with small children for more than a year. When he bought it he did not know he had purchased England’s oldest private home. He thought it was only “800 years old.”

In 2003, Country Life magazine named the five-bedroom, three-bath property England’s oldest private home (royal palaces and castles were excluded from the survey) after it was able to date some original features to the first half of the 12th century.  Former residents include Bishop Geoffrey of Constances, a guest at William the Conquerer’s coronation. The home also belonged to the Earl of Gloucester, who came from the “same family” as Gloucester in “King Lear.”

Here is part of the official listing from DPE:

Saltford Manor House is located in the West Country, 100 miles from London, between Bath and Bristol. The house was featured in Country Life magazine The Oldest House in Britain as well as in British press articles. Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances, the first owner of this historic property, stood next to William the Conqueror at his coronation on Christmas day 1066. It was owned by King John and Henry 1’s eldest son commissioned the Norman window, modeled on a window in Hereford Cathedral, in the main bedroom. On the ground floor, exquisite details abound; massive honeyed-oak beams, a Norman arch and Cotswold flagstone.

The Gap-Toothed NY Giants Superstar Michael Strahan bought a loft in Tribeca in 2008 for $1.635 million.   The 2,000 sq ft condo has 2 smallish bedrooms and 15’ ceilings.  It’s rumored that the place was barely used so it’s re-entered the market for $1.85 million.  Even the listing photos are the same from the last time the unit changed hands.  Hmmm?  It makes us wonder if he ever moved in at all.

The 2 bedroom / 2 bath apartment is in the Tribeca Space building at 25 Murray Street. 

Joel Schiff has a number of culinary preoccupations, but one of the more persistent is his desire to establish "The Museum of the Hearth and Kitchen."

No such institution currently exists. But much of the would-be museum's future collection is stuffed into Mr. Schiff's 850-square-foot one-bedroom East Village apartment, where, in lieu of standard décor, the space is dominated by waffle irons, skillets, bread pans, coffee roasters, chocolate pots, broilers and other antique or obscure pieces of cast-iron cookware that Mr. Schiff has accumulated living here for the past four decades. The few bits of furniture—a couch, some bookshelves—seem to function as spots to rest cast iron.

Asked the size of his collection, Mr. Schiff said he no longer knew. "I stopped counting 10 years ago at approximately 7,000 pieces," he said.   WSJ

Gosselin house for sale

The now-divorced couple took a loss on the 5-bedroom Elizabethtown, Pa. They paid $246,000 for the home in 2006.

The news comes the same week that Jon Gosselin and TLC reached a settlement that lets the entire Gosselin family remain under contract with TLC. The network had filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the reality TV dad, and he filed a counterclaim, alleging TLC hurt his career by banning him from making other TV appearances.

Roy Lichtenstein: 1923 AD - 1997 AD

The apartment Ms. Lichtenstein bought was a renovated sponsor unit with marble bathrooms and Viking and Sub-Zero appliances in the kitchen. Melissa Stricklin, the agent who handled the sale, said the apartment went into contract within a month of being listed at $1.895 million. Ms. Lichtenstein also owns a home in Southampton.

25 Central Park West

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick with their kids

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are the proud parents of 3 children.  With both parents co-managing a family of five while simultaneously working non-stop in show business, it’s no surprise that they want a lot of room to play.   In true celebrity fashion, it’s just been reported that they quietly bought another ocean front house in the Hampton more than one year ago.  The new home is adjacent to their other two houses.  This allows them to create a large private compound.  They bought their first two homes in Amagansett for $4.6 million and $2 million. The latest was also the most expensive, costing $5.8 million.

The couple, whose twin girls were born to a surrogate in June, may soon be spending more time in the area. Broderick is shooting an NBC pilot about an author hired to run a Hamptons newspaper.

Here are some photos of one of the houses which appeared a couple of years ago in Elle Decor.

The toys genius and Long Island University graduate has signed a contract to buy Ponzi King Bernie Madoff's 4,000 square foot penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side.

The sales was forced by the Feds to help repay victims of Madoff's $65 billion scam.  The apartment, at Lexington Avenue and East 64th Street, was recently listed at $8.9 million, $1 million less than the original asking price.  The sales price has not been recorded yet with the city so we are unsure of the final dollar figure.  Reports indicate that the three-bedroom, four-bath duplex with a wrap-around terrace went for just under the asking price.

Here are some of the apartment photos that were taken by the Feds a few months ago.  Clearly they don't have the photographic eye of a realtor.  

a good NY real estate agent would have never released this photo

 look at the cheap garbage can

this looks stuffy and old

more of the same: stuffy & old 

clearly the gardner stopped coming a long time ago

don't forget to pack the wine

this is better than 99.9% of the city's apartments but I still expected more

could someone puts some sheets on the bed

a bike in the bathroom? Really?

Hugh Grant Shopping for an ApartmentHugh Grant

54 Bond Street

The star of 300, Gerlad Butler has toured the penthouse apartment too.

Sadly, Hugh probably doesn’t have a spare $32 million laying around for NY real estate.  We would be surprised if he even has the $15.45 million for the penthouse.  That might be good news for super hunk Gerard Butler

who has also be showing some interest in the listing.

The building was built in 1874 and has also been the home to a long list of celebrities from year ago including Pearl Bailey, Helen Hayes, Lauren Hutton, boxer Jake Lamotta and sex kitten Jane Russell. 

Developer Adam Gordon bought the building $15 million in 2007.

The penthouse has two full eat in kitchens and 1,277 square feet of outdoor space, including a roof deck and a terrace.

See it here: 54 Bond St

roof top kitchen

the second kitchen is located right off of the roof top terrace

the roof top terrace

the living room at 54 Bond Street

We are unimpressed by the master bedroom.

For $15 million we'd like a nicer master bathroom

Annie Leibovitz

David Bowie and wife, Iman, who sold their Central Park South apartment a few years ago didn't flinch at the $11 million price when they recently toured the place.   Annie is an artist.  She has done an amazing job redoing the barn complex and grounds.

In 1996, Leibovitz paid $2.3 million for the property located in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Rhinebeck.  It was once part of the Astor family’s 3,500-acre estate, called Ferncliff. In 2002, Leibovitz paid an additional $635,000 for an adjacent 7.8-acre parcel.

The property includes a pond, a mix of meadows and woodlands, stone barns and a former creamery. Others with homes in the area include financier George Soros, hotelier Andre Balazs, and Rolling Stone magazine’s publisher, Jann Wenner.

It’s a sleepy little town and no one pays attention to celebrities.  That’s why they like to come to Rhinebeck. Rhinebeck’s official appraiser pegged the value at $5 million, according to a 2009 Dutchess county tax report.

The Astor provenance also adds value, said Hill. The barns used to be a winter refuge for 375 Angus bulls, according to Brooke Astor’s autobiography “Footprints.” Her husband Vincent Astor bred and sold them for as much as $300,000 each. He proposed to Brooke in Ferncliff and wooed her with a cattle-call horn and a ride on his miniature railway.

“They wanted a cute, vintage, cottage-type of property,” says Anne Maegli of Atlantic Beach Realty Group. The original owners of the 1966 house were still living in it and everyone really hit it off together.

The couple already own a condo in the East End, which they will try to sell when the market improves.