Sold Stuff: Family Guy Producer Buys in the Pennsylvania Countryside

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, June 26, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

Kara Vallow—producer of Family Guy and American Dad—has bought a 54-acre estate in bucolic New Hope, Pa. According to Curbed Philly, Vallow has once been characterized as a "snarky female from Philadelphia," but even Peter Griffin would be at a loss for snarky words about Twin Creeks Farm: there's a stone main house with pine floors, beamed ceilings, and stone fireplaces, as well as a detached barn, a carriage house, and a pool with waterfall. Plus, the landscaping includes everything you'd ever want from a home in Bucks County: stone walls, gardens, ponds, patios, the feeling of charm, the twinge of yesterday, a hint of yore, and so on. The property was most recently listed for $2.599M.

· 6117 Lower Mountain Road, New Hope, Pa. [Bucks County Estates]
· "Family Guy" Producer Buys $2.6 Million New Hope Estate [Curbed Philly]

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Globe Trotting: An Immaculately Kept Vineyard in the Bordeaux Countryside

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, February 16, 2012, by Rob Bear

Located in the famous winemaking region of Bordeaux, the Château De Seguin has been owned by the Carl family since 1973. Their company, Carl Wines, supplies French wine to the American food emporium Trader Joe's, not the most glamorous of buyers, to be sure, but this magnificent property makes up for any shortcomings with the wine. Set on 430 acres of rolling countryside—230 of which are planted with grapes, including Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc vines—the château itself is a two-story white structure with pointed turrets that is dwarfed by the enormous stone winery next door, which houses the cavernous cellars. The property also includes a wine museum, reception rooms, and various outbuildings for storage, while a picturesque swimming pool and immaculate period interiors keep the owners happy with their $14.6M purchase.
· Château De Seguin [Christie's]

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House of the Day: A Pre-Glass House Modern in the Connecticut Countryside

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, September 30, 2011, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Falls Village, Conn.
Price: $3,450,000
The Skinny: Built in 1932 in the bucolic countryside of northwest Connecticut, this early modernist masterpiece was commissioned by the celebrated muralist Ezra Winter, who painted large-scale paintings on the walls of Radio City Music Hall and the Library of Congress. Winter's former compound sits at the heart of an 82-acre tract of private land, with a studio and house totalling 6,600-square-feet. The painting studio is a cavernous space, with 30-foot ceilings, 24-foot windows, and a mezzanine library. The accompanying four-bedroom house boasts 13-foot ceilings, radiant heating, and the original wood-paneled study. This sounds like the ideal country estate, but the history of the property does have a tragic turn: Winter took his own life in the woods here in 1949.
· Earliest Modernist American House in Falls Village, CT [Klemm Real Estate]
· George Rogers Clark Memorial (third item from bottom) [NPS]

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