Craftsman

"Survivor" host Jeff Probst has sold his Los Angeles home for its asking price of $900,000. The three-story Craftsman has a treehouse-like ambience perched on a half-acre with mountain and canyon views. The 1,597-square-foot house, built in 1918, includes three bedrooms and three bathrooms plus a detached office, according to details at Realtor.com. Among exterior features are an outdoor living room, a three-tier waterfall and an eight-person spa. The Emmy-winning host and producer, 48, bought the Gene Autry estate in Studio City for $5 million before putting this house on the market in late April.

Actress Maria Bello has sold her Craftsman home in Venice for $2 million. The house went into escrow seven days after it came on the market and sold for 8% above the asking price of $1.85 million. Built in 1915 and set behind gates in a walk-street area, the house is a charmer --  painted blue with red doors and windows and yellow accents. Features include a wood-burning fireplace, a front veranda, three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. There is a lawn, patio space and a single-car garage.

This Pasadena compound, with a house, guesthouse and separate guest studio set in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, was built with a craftsman's eye for detail and a passion for nature and art. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, the main house was designed by owner Larry Lenander and his wife, Alma Thomas. Rebuilt from an 1887 Victorian home, it was renovated from the studs up in 2002 and transformed into a modern Craftsman. "I'd been in construction for a long time and wanted to do our version of a Craftsman," Lenander says.

Actress Maria Bello listed her Craftsman home in Venice for sale at $1.85 million and within 10 days it was in escrow. Built in 1915 and set behind gates in a walk-street area, the house is painted blue with red doors and windows and yellow accents. Features include a wood-burning fireplace, a front veranda, three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. There is a lawn, patio space and a single-car garage. Bello, 45, has been on the TV series “Touch” (2012-13) and “Prime Suspect” (2011-12)

The Calgary Flames' Craig Conroy has sold his Manhattan Beach home for $1,965,000, according to the Multiple Listing Service. The Craftsman-style house, built in 2005, has hammered stainless-door handles, wood-encased windows and vaulted ceilings with beam accents. A family room flows into a kitchen with a breakfast nook. The house, with 4,230 square feet of living space, contains five bedrooms and five bathrooms. Conroy, 39, retired earlier this year to become a special assistant to the Flames' general manager.

Artemesia, a Craftsman featuring English Arts and Crafts interiors, was restored and updated over a 25-year span. At the heart of the Hollywood Hills home is the original Murray Harris pipe organ, which has been appraised at $1.1 million. Location: 5771 Valley Oak Drive, Los Angeles 90068 Asking price: $11.995 million Year built: 1913 House size: Seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, 13,290 square feet Lot size: 1.8 acres Features: Six Batchelder-tile fireplaces, hand-blown art glass panels, coffered ceilings, mahogany details, billiard room, ballroom, two master suites, terrace, air conditioning, security system, gated, carriage house, gatehouse, rock waterfalls, aquatic gardens, native landscaping.

Abbot Kinney was putting the finishing touches on his new community called Venice of America in 1905. Gondoliers navigated the specially built canals, camel rides were offered along the seaside, and the pier was lined with games and attractions. Kinney's great hope was that the spirit of creativity that drove his vision of Venice would flourish. It has, but the aging bungalows and cottages from that era have just barely survived. Yet owners who care about history have lovingly restored some of them rather than tear them down.

Centered on a century-old Moreton Bay fig tree, this neo-Craftsman looks at home among the historic estates of Pasadena. Wood beams, floors, built-ins and ceilings continue the contemporary take on Arts and Crafts architecture inside. The details Location: 335 W. Bellevue Drive, Pasadena 91105 Asking price: $2,895,000 Year built: 1991 Architect: Gilbert Lee Hershberger House size: Five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, 5,532 square feet Lot size: 20,790 square feet Features: 18-foot entry and living room ceilings; built-in shelves and window seat in library; office; elevator; two-bedroom upstairs guest suite includes a second kitchen, dining area, living room and bathroom; 1,012-square-foot basement.

Simon Helberg , one of the five central characters in the ensemble comedy "The Big Bang Theory," has listed his Los Angeles home at $849,000. The restored two-story Craftsman, built in 1910, is entered through a deep-set front porch with a swing. Period features include leaded windows, built-in cabinetry and wood floors and trim. The main house contains a fireplace, a den, five bedrooms and two bathrooms. Guest space above the detached garage has a kitchenette and a bathroom. An additional office with a bathroom sits next to the garage.

PETERSBORO, Utah - By any measure, Vean Woodbrey looms large. Dressed in denim bib overalls, he stands 6 feet 4, weighs 275 pounds and wears size 16 shoes. His children - all 16 of them - jokingly call him Sasquatch because of the cartoonish spread of his footprint. So do many of his 70 grandchildren and great-grandkids. And then there is the 7-foot-tall wooden giraffe he's carving inside his home workshop in this farming town near the Idaho border. He runs a gnarled hand along the figure's neck, wiping off the sawdust that covers everything like an early season snow.

This Craftsman estate in Eagle Rock has been the site of events for 500 to 1,000 guests, including a presidential address by Ronald Reagan. Once the Western home of Milo Bekins, who for decades headed the U.S. moving company started by his father and uncle, the compound includes an outdoor stage, a stand for musicians with electrical hookup and three guesthouses. Location: 1554 Hill Drive, Los Angeles 90041 Asking price: $3.598 million Year built: 1925 Living space: nine bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, about 8,500 square feet Lot size: 2.81 acres Features: Two sitting rooms, a dining room that can seat 40, a pub, a billiards room, a gym, a greenhouse, a croquet court, a football/soccer field, a swimming pool About the area: In the third quarter, 48 single-family homes sold in the 90041 ZIP Code at a median price of $470,000, according to DataQuick.

Alan Poul, executive producer of "The Newsroom," has parted with his house in the Hollywood Hills for $993,000 and purchased another one nearby. Poul's Midcentury Modern-style home sold for more than the asking price of $989,000. The remodeled house features city and mountain views, built-in art and bookshelves, a fireplace, French-style doors, a balcony, three bedrooms, three bathrooms and 1,784 square feet of living space. He paid $750,000 for the property in 2002, public records show.

It's fitting that Hillary Danner is raising her son and daughter in a century-old Arts and Crafts home in the Sycamore Grove area of Highland Park. Built in 1904, the timber-and-stone residence has a grand staircase, a huge covered porch and a curious pedigree, a hint of which comes in the giant "La Boheme" inscription on the wood panel of the living room fireplace. PHOTO GALLERY: Hillary Danner's "La Boheme" house The inscription has special meaning to Danner, who grew up in a 1869 Victorian home in Englewood, N.J., that was restored by her parents, actor Harry Danner and opera director Dorothy Danner.

PETERSBORO, Utah - By any measure, Vean Woodbrey looms large. Dressed in denim bib overalls, he stands 6 feet 4, weighs 275 pounds and wears size 16 shoes. His children - all 16 of them - jokingly call him Sasquatch because of the cartoonish spread of his footprint. So do many of his 70 grandchildren and great-grandkids. And then there is the 7-foot-tall wooden giraffe he's carving inside his home workshop in this farming town near the Idaho border. He runs a gnarled hand along the figure's neck, wiping off the sawdust that covers everything like an early season snow.

Grammy-winning singer Sheryl Crow has listed her compound in Hollywood Hills West at $15.95 million. The 11-acre property includes a Spanish Revival main house, a 1909 Craftsman, a cottage built in 1885, an infinity-style swimming pool and a pergola with a fireplace and barbecue. The main residence, built in 1914, features a two-story foyer with wrought-iron stair railings, a step-down living room, original Spanish tiles, beam ceilings, a library, a wine cellar, a music room, four bedrooms and 31/2 bathrooms.

The annual Craftsman Weekend celebration organized by the preservation group Pasadena Heritage has some fresh offerings this year, including a tour of a Swiss chalet-style home in Altadena and a stroll through a neighborhood with Victorian and Craftsman homes in Glendora. The three-day event opens Oct. 19 and will include lectures, workshops and bus and walking tours. The highlight is the Craftsman House Tour, composed of five privately owned homes designed between 1911 and 1916, including the 1912 Lemon House, shown here, designed by the Foss Designing and Building Co. That tour is scheduled for Oct. 21. The Glendora tour is scheduled for Oct. 19. Tours of the James Allen Freeman House on Oct. 20 will be led by master woodworkers James and John Ipekjian, who renovated the home.

When costume designer Jo Davis considered expanding her Spanish-style cottage in Santa Monica, she quickly decided that it made more sense to build a new house than fix up the old. She commissioned a local architect, Jeff Sulkin of Sulkin Studio, who shared her love of Craftsman bungalows and traditional Japanese design.

Susan and Derek Pippert live in a classic Greene & Greene home in Pasadena that has always attracted plenty of admirers. But the old frontyard? Not so much. Only after the couple replaced that ho-hum rectangle of grass with a painstakingly detailed, Craftsman-style landscape did the garden do justice to the house. The Pipperts once deemed Arts and Crafts homes too dark and dreary for their taste. But with three stories and more than 60 windows, the bright and cheerful 1906 chalet-style Craftsman known as the John Bakewell Phillips house changed their minds.

Artemesia, a Craftsman featuring English Arts and Crafts interiors, was restored and updated over a 25-year span. At the heart of the Hollywood Hills home is the original Murray Harris pipe organ, which has been appraised at $1.1 million. Location: 5771 Valley Oak Drive, Los Angeles 90068 Asking price: $11.995 million Year built: 1913 House size: Seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, 13,290 square feet Lot size: 1.8 acres Features: Six Batchelder-tile fireplaces, hand-blown art glass panels, coffered ceilings, mahogany details, billiard room, ballroom, two master suites, terrace, air conditioning, security system, gated, carriage house, gatehouse, rock waterfalls, aquatic gardens, native landscaping.