Remember when Jennifer Aniston sold her 10,000 square-foot Mid-Century Modern in Beverly Hills for $38 million earlier this year, saying she wanted to live in something cozier? Looks like she meant it.

First she bought two apartments in NYC to convert into a 2,700 square-foot duplex. Then she fell in love with actor Justin Theroux, and the couple rented this 2-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills. I love that she’s living in 1,700 square feet when she could afford 17,000.

Any fans of the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation” out there? It took me a while to warm up to the show, but now I never miss an episode. Justin Theroux had a funny role as Amy Pohler’s too-good-to-be-true love interest in the second season.

He was so clean-cut and businesslike on that show that I didn’t realize that was the guy she was dating at first. I was all, like, “Jen! Why didn’t you tell me he was on Parks & Rec? I thought you were dating some random bearded dude on a motorcycle!” When he shaved his beard recently, I finally recognized him.

They didn’t want to buy a place right away, Us Weekly reports, so they’re renting this fully-furnished, $3 million house for (gulp) $17,500 a month. Apparently they got a deal–it used to be $20 grand. Once again, I note how glad I am to live in one of the fly-over states where you could lease a lovely house like this for under $2,000.

The house is reportedly owned by a film location scout, which may be why it’s so easy to imagine a movie being filmed here. A rom-com, most likely.

The kitchen has kind of an odd, triangular shape to it.

Those top shelves look way high. I’d never be able to reach them!

The guest bedroom:

Love all the vaulted ceilings in the house, and the french doors in the master bedroom:

There’s a garage on the property that was converted into additional living space, too:

Like it? You can read more about the house and see the rest of the photos at Realtor.com. Photos of Jen’s just-sold mansion here.

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Hi, my name is Lily! My mom told me I could write this post because I’m a big Taylor Swift fan. I wrote a biography about her for my 3rd-grade assignment last year. Here’s a picture of it–it’s in the shape of a microphone, if you’re wondering. It has facts about her life and how she became a star:

Let’s look at her house now! It’s in Nashville, Tennessee.

It’s got 5,601 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths. It cost $2.5 million. That sounds like a lot of money to me!

The house was built in the 1930s. It’s called the Northumberland Estate. I love this staircase. And the mirrors on the wall are beautiful!

She’s a musician, so she’ll need this piano:

This fridge is HUGE!!! One of those is a freezer probably and one of those is a fridge probably, so wow, she has a lot of room for food. Did you know her favorite dessert is cheesecake?

The chandelier is beautiful. I wish I had one of those for my own dining room.

Taylor’s favorite is white, so I wonder if she’ll paint this room white instead of black?

This is Taylor’s bedroom, I think.  I love the windows!

My favorite song by Taylor Swift is called “You Belong with Me.” You can watch the video of it on YouTube.

Wow. That sunroom is beautiful. I’m pretty sure it’s a sunroom, anyway. Our sunroom isn’t that fancy!

Oh, my gosh, I wish I had a pool like this!

Did you like her house? I did! You can see the rest of the photos at Casa Sugar, or check out more Celebrity Houses here.

Note from Mom: Thanks to Lily for taking over my blog for the day. She did a great job! Here’s a photo of her (and Maizie) heading to the bus stop on her first day of school last week. She has her own invitation-only blog that she works very hard on for her friends to read. She says she wants to be a professional blogger and a rescue-pet foster mom someday.

9/2/11 Update: A little birdie tells me that Taylor may have bought this house for her mom. Isn’t that nice?

When I got an email from my friends over at Architectural Digest saying they had snagged Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s mega Malibu mansion for the September cover, I couldn’t wait to see the photos. It’ll be out on magazine racks near you August 9th, but here’s a sneak peek at the house tour.

The 25,000-square-foot adobe-style house was designed by architect Stephen Samuelson, with interiors by Judith Lance.

Jada told AD: “For Will and me this home was always a spiritual endeavor. We’re very earthy, organic people. We wanted to create a family retreat, something made by hand and as natural as possible, something that ties back to the land.”

This is labeled as the living room, but it looks like an outdoor kind of living space, doesn’t it? I thought it was a long covered porch at first.

Will says he was inspired to build a house like this after seeing Gene Hackman’s adobe-style home in Santa Fe. (Hackman was his costar in the late 1990s thriller Enemy of the State.)

This is the “bedroom terrace:”

The “Today” show ran a segment about the AD article on Tuesday and showed more of the house. These are just some small screenshots I took while watching it, but they give you an idea of how some of the other rooms in the house look (you can see editor Margaret Russell’s interview here):

It’s interesting to read the comments on various message boards about the property now that the photos are coming out. The recurring theme seems to be “Way too big!” One person questions why any family–even a famous one–would need a place “so obnoxiously huge.”

Obviously, the Smith family has privacy issues and entertaining needs that most of us don’t, but it’s hard for us regular folk to imagine feeling at home in this much space. I might need a map to get back to my bedroom at night (maybe some of those helpful “You Are Here” floorplans they have posted in malls).

Here’s the bird’s eye view of the estate that gives you a better idea of just how massive this place is, sitting on 150 acres:

I think the rooms look pretty comfortable and “human sized,” though, despite the overall size of the estate. What do you think?

For more information, visit Architectural Digest or grab the new issue when it hits stands next week. (Photos by Roger Davies and Art Streiber.)

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P.S. Whenever I see a photo of Will and Jada’s daughter Willow, her catchy “Whip My Hair” song starts running through my head. Now I’ll be humming it all day…

Katie Couric, who just left her post as anchor of the CBS Evening News, prettied up her Hamptons house with some help from her sister Clara, who’s a landscape architect. (Isn’t it cute how they wore matching blue sweaters for the photo shoot? And, is it just me, or does Clara look a little like Arianna Huffington?)

Turns out Katie has a dog named Maisy like I do, but hers is allowed to sleep on the bed:

Read the article and see the photos at Cottages & Gardens. See more celebrity house tours here. Happy Friday, everyone!

At the beginning of the drive to Katharine Hepburn’s estate in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, a hand-painted sign politely requested potential lookiloos to “Please Go Away.” If that wasn’t enough to convince them, a “Keep Out” sign was tacked below it. Gotta love it–especially when she posed next to them with flowers and a big grin on her face.

The film legend died at the age of 96 in 2003; her home sold a year later to Barbara and Frank Sciame for $6 million. They renovated it and just put it back on the market for $28m. Here’s how the house looked then:

And here’s how the house looks today, after the extensive renovations:

The waterfront estate had been in the Hepburn family since 1913. The house was built in the late ’30s and Katharine did little to update it over the years. Well, everything has been now. It has been so updated, in fact, that it looks like it could be a brand new house.

The Sciames bought the property as an investment but they say they fell in love with the house and spent summers here. I can see why! I wouldn’t mind having this as a summer home…

Here’s a photo of Hepburn in the kitchen. This little glimpse inside the house gives you an idea of how much work the new owners did to it.

Here’s that same kitchen today, and it’s pretty unrecognizable as the same one:

The renovated pantry:

In this bedroom, it’s all about the view:

The house has 6 bedrooms in all…

…and 7.5 baths.

So much of the house is so white that I wish there were more signs of warmth like there is with the wood around this fireplace. I imagine things were a lot warmer and darker before. (Note the books they have on the coffee table about her.)

The house has over 8,000 square feet. One of my favorite spots has to be this screened porch overlooking the water:

Those of you who remember the houses and sets from movies better than the plots in them probably thought of the Hepburn Estate as it was portrayed in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Aviator, right? I remembered loving it when I saw the film back in ’04. I watched it again today to snaps some photos and compare the two.

Here’s how the Hepburn house looked in the movie when Howard Hughes (played by DiCaprio) and Kate Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) pulled up the long drive:

Sadly, a hurricane destroyed the original house shortly after Hepburn and Hughes broke up in 1938. It floated away in the water while the Hepburn family watched it from higher ground. Foundation bricks and a claw-footed bathtub were all that was left of it. They rebuilt this house in the same spot, but higher off the ground. (Source.)

This is the only room of the house that we really get to see in the movie. Boo. Hiss. I wanted to see more.

I kept trying to get a better look at the kitchen over Cate Blanchett’s shoulder. When she ducked under the table at one point, I snapped this photo:

According to the listing, the property has its own private dock and beach, with “a pond opposite side securing privacy.”

You can read more about it and see more photos at The Daily Mail and the listing. Thanks to all of the readers (and fellow Hepburn fans) who emailed, FB’d, and Tweeted me about this listing. You guys rock.

P.S. I loved both Katharine Hepburn and her country house in the classic comedy Bringing Up Baby. You can see my post about those sets here.

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Emily Giffin is the bestselling author of the novel Something Borrowed, which was turned into a movie starring Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin earlier this year. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I read several of her novels and enjoyed them. When I heard that her traditional Southern home is on the market in Atlanta, you know I had to take a look!

The listing says, “Price available on request,” but does mention that it was recently reduced by $100k. UPDATE: Zillow lists it at a little over $2 million and has a few additional photos.

The ceiling in the family room and all of the woodwork is gorgeous:

Even better–this photo she posted on her Facebook page of her “messy room” with the kids watching TV in here (love it!):

There’s a mention on her FB page that she’s had an offer on the house, so it may not be on the market much longer.

I love this breakfast nook with the fun light fixture and the back staircase:

The house has 6 bedrooms and 5.75 baths

The back of the house:

It was recently featured in BHG’s Garden, Deck & Landscaping magazine, which included this photo of her by the pool with her cutie-pie kids:

Now if I could just write a bestselling novel and get it made into a movie, maybe I could afford this place! Check out the entire slideshow at CasaSugar and see the listing by The Bayne Group for more information. To learn more about Emily Giffin and her novels, visit her website. (Thanks to Nicole for the link!)

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Kate Hudson, who’s engaged to Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy and expecting a baby with him, just bought the historic 1935 Tudor Revival next door to her long-time Pacific Palisades home in California. Word has it she paid $5.3 million and plans to use it as a guest house. I’m hoping to get my invitation to stay there soon. Hey, Kate, I’ll be happy to babysit!

The 7,014-square-foot home has 5 bedrooms and 6.5 baths. Plenty of room for visitors if that’s what they plan to use it for.

Since starting my Movie Mondays series, one of the most requested movie houses was the blue Craftsman bungalow from the Kate Hudson comedy You, Me, & Dupree. Kate’s mom Goldie Hawn and stepdad Kurt Russell live nearby, so when I’m not there to help out with the babysitting, I’m sure they’ll lend a hand.

BTW, I featured the ’40s bungalows from the movie that Goldie and Kurt met on here: Swing Shift. I also love the little yellow house Goldie moves into in Housesitter.
There’s a sweet little playhouse tucked in the backyard. Kate says she has a feeling the baby will be a girl, so I imagine it’ll get a lot of use in years to come!

7/11 UDATE: She had a baby boy and named him Bingham Hawn Bellamy. “Bing” for short.

Visit CasaSugar for the rest of the photos and more information about the house. Since it has sold, I’m not sure how much longer the listing will be up.

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Courteney Cox gives a tour of her newly renovated home in Malibu: Elle Decor.

Speaking of Courteney, check out the sets from her sitcom “Cougar Town.”

Top search of the week: The Duggar Family home (“19 Kids & Counting”).

I want this Red Nautical Lantern for my sunroom: Caron’s Beach House.

This Vintage Cow Chalkboard made me smile: Timeless Settings.

I think these Steel Globes are fun, too: Greige.

What do you think about the fur-rugs-on-furniture trend? Design File.

Luxury house plans to daydream over: The Plan Collection.

Former MLB  player Jay Buhner selling his 80-acre ranch: Listing.

Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. Have a great weekend!

Dennis Quaid was born and raised in Texas. Now he’s selling his Pacific Palisades property in California and heading back to the Lone Star State where he and his wife Kimberly, along with their twins Thomas and Zoe, can live closer to extended family.

Quaid bought his California home in 1999 for about $1.8 million and, after transforming it into an “equestrian estate,” he’s selling it for $13.9.

The main house has 8,400 square feet with not only a master suite, but 7 additional bedrooms and 9.5 baths.  The barn has a corral and private horse trail with access to the Will Rogers State Park.

“Dennis Quaid is here!” Every time I see him now I think of the hilarious hidden-camera segment he filmed for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” where she had him announced his presence to everyone in Starbucks and then make demands in the third person. “Dennis Quaid wants a coffee!” (You can see the video here. Cracks me up.)

I just watched The Rookie again with my family and we were cheering him on as the middle-aged man who gets a second chance at pitching for the big leagues. Also loved him as the sales exec who gets pushed aside for a younger employee in the movie In Good Company.

He was reportedly cast as the Reverend Shaw Moore in the updated version of Footloose. Should be interesting!

The house was featured in Architectural Digest in 2008. Here’s how the dining room looked then:

I’m guessing that a lot of their personal items have been removed and replaced with furniture to stage the house. The family room as it looks in the listing:

And the same room shown in Architectural Digest:

This bedroom is lovely, but I’m a little confused by the missing light fixture and the desk sitting at an angle in front of the fireplace:

Here’s how it looked in AD–with not only the light fixture, but a piano, too!

The master bath:

You can see the rest of the photos in Architectural Digest. Read more about the house on Zillow and see the listing here.

Does this remind anyone else of the wonderful horse ranch Dennis Quaid’s character had in The Parent Trap? I loved that one. You can see photos of it here.

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Oprah-approved designer and fledgling talk show host Nate Berkus is selling his 3-bedroom condo in the historic Chicago Gold Coast neighborhood for $2.39 million (it was originally listed at $2.65m but was recently reduced). It’s in a small, “vintage” 12-unit building built in the late 1920s, and was featured in Elle Decor.

Because “The Nate Berkus Show” tapes in New York, he’s been spending more time out there than in Chicago these days. He mentioned his small one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood on “Oprah” back in 2008.

His listing agent, Katherine Chez of Coldwell Banker, says, “It’s more sensible for him to move some of his assets to New York.”

The kitchen still has its original metal St. Charles cabinets, and I have to say I love that they weren’t ripped out anywhere along the way. With the desk-like table and schoolroom chairs in the kitchen, though, it gives off the vibe of a teacher’s lounge in an old city school, doesn’t it?

The condo was first renovated in the 1940s by architect Samuel Marx, and the original fireplace and paneling that he installed are still intact.

Zillow reports that Nate just bought a $3.35 million co-op in NYC. It doesn’t look like his style to me, so I wonder how he’ll Berk-ify it? You can see the photos here.

This room was shown as a study in Elle Decor:

But it’s a bedroom in the listing photos:

Public records show he bought the nearly 4,000 square-foot condo in 2003 for only $500,000, but Crib Chatter insists that must be a typo. They believe it was actually $1.5 million.

Some of the improvements Berkus made include a kitchen backsplash with the white subway tile he’s always touting on his talk show, new hardwood floors, and a rehabbed master bath that has a custom English tub.

Have you been watching The Nate Berkus Show? The best thing about it has been getting to see some of my favorite bloggers on it in his “House Proud” segments.

I was looking forward to his much-hyped tour of Oprah’s house in Montecito, but it turned out to be just the tea house and the rose garden. For an entire hour. I kept waiting for them to move on to the actual house, but they never did. (You can see photos of the tea house on Nate’s website and read Curbed’s thoughts on that show here.)

I’ve seen a lot of snarky comments about the decorating in this condo, and I’m kind of surprised by how much everyone’s hating on it.  What do you think? Are you loving it, hating it, or somewhere in between?

You can see the rest of the photos at Elle Decor, get more information on the listing, and read more about it on CBB. You might also like Curbed’s post about 5 Chicago Condos Designed by Berkus.

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