$2,500,000 Homes in Oregon, California and Louisiana

By Mike Powell

SANTA MONICA, CALIF.

WHAT: A bungalow with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus an art studio

HOW MUCH: $2,495,000

SIZE: 3,601 square feet total

PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT: $693

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SETTING: This 1920s house is on a narrow residential street a few blocks off Montana Avenue, a tree-lined strip of boutiques, cafes and restaurants that dead-ends at the Pacific Ocean. The area has changed in recent years, with older single-family houses being torn down to make room for new construction or undergoing significant renovations, as with this bungalow. The county light-rail system is to be extended to Santa Monica starting in about 2016, with the nearest stop to this house about a mile and a half away. The beach is two and a half miles away, straight down Montana Avenue.

INDOORS: The stucco bungalow was extensively renovated in the early 1990s by Ruben S. Ojeda, a Los Angeles architect, who opened the house up by adding a second story, skylights and transom windows. It was last renovated within the past year.

The entryway leads into a living room with a double-height ceiling that reaches 22 feet at the roofline; glass doors open to the front courtyard. A second hallway next to the main hallway leads to a bedroom, a bathroom and a utility room, and is partitioned from the living area by frosted-glass pocket doors, inspired by Japanese shoji. Floors throughout are light-colored hardwood, which was also used for window and door frames. The bathrooms are outfitted with 1920s-style pedestal sinks and hexagonal tiles. At the rear of the first floor are an open kitchen and a family room, with two sets of glass doors leading to a porch.

Two additional bedrooms are upstairs. One has a walk-in closet; the other has built-in bookshelves. Both have barrel-vault ceilings and glass doors that open to a terrace overlooking the back courtyard and studio. An alcove in the hallway was built out as an office, with a desk, shelves and other storage.

The two-story studio is behind the main house and connected by a courtyard walkway. It was designed in the early 1980s by Koning Eizenberg Architecture. An airy, hangar-like space, it consists of two 600-square-foot rooms with concrete floors and walls of windows.

OUTDOOR SPACE: Both the front and back courtyards are landscaped with native plants. The lot is about a fifth of an acre.

TAXES: Approximately $31,188 a year

CONTACT: Brian Linder and Scott King, Deasy Penner & Partners, the Value of Architecture, (310) 592-5417 / (323) 828-2049; deasypennerpodley.com