On the Market: Now's Your Chance to Purchase One of the Very Few Pieces of Celebrity Real Estate in San Francisco

× 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, July 20, 2012, by Sally Kuchar We gave you the heads up on Wednesday that Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin and his husband Christopher Turner would be putting their home on the market this week, and here it is in all its glory. The couple is moving to Santa Fe. The 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,606 square foot shingled Craftsman/Edwardian-style abode was built in 1906. Mr. Maupin picked it up in 1993, when he purchased it for $615,000. He's asking $1,198,000. The Parnassus Heights location is perched high atop San Francisco, so the home has views galore of downtown, Marin, and the Bay. It was in this home that Maupin wrote three New York Times bestselling novels. Maupin's most autobiographical novel, The Night Listener, published in 2000, is largely set at 27 Belmont Avenue, as described in this excerpt:

Out of habit I approached the house from the sidewalk across the street, where I could see it in context: three narrow stories noticed into the wooden slope. Its new cedar shingles were still too pallid for its dark green trim, but another season or two of rain would turn them into tarnished silver. I'd be eagerly awaiting that. I'd wanted the place to look ancestral, as if we had lived there forever.

Want to see it in person? There's an open house on Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4PM.
· Author Armistead Maupin is About to List [Curbed SF]
· Armistead Maupin Sells in San Francisco [The Real Estalker]
· 27 Belmont [Redfin] 27 Belmont Avenue, San Francisco, CA

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PriceChopper: Colorful Castro Victorian Gets Hacked To Pieces

× 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, January 19, 2012, by Sally Kuchar Was: $939,000
Then: $899,000
Then: $849,000
Then: $799,000
Now: $750,000
You Save: $189,000

This Victorian condo on 16th and Sanchez just can't get a break. It was originally listed for $939,000 and has since chopped off almost 200K from its asking price and is now a short sale. What's worse: The current owner bought the place back in 2007 for $900,000. Do the math, people. The 3-bed, 1.5-bath, 1,555 square foot top floor condo's broker babble states that "the unit has 1 full bath plus a 1.2 bath, not shown in tax records." Readers, we'd love to hear your thoughts on why this pad hasn't been able to secure a buyer. Let us know in the comments! Monthly HOA dues are $231.19 and there's 1-car parking in the garage.
· 3487 16th Street [Redfin]

3487 16th Street, San Francisco, CA

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Toys 'n' Games: Guy Builds World's First Lego Greenhouse Using 100K Pieces

× 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. Wednesday, September 21, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Photo via Co.Design

Oh, Lego: wherever will you go from here? You've conquered classic American architecture and climbed the world's tallest building and now you're playing a part in global agriculture. The world's first-ever greenhouse made entirely of Legos has debuted at the London Design Festival, where industrial designer Sebastian Bergne has used 100,000 pieces—50,000 clear ones for the roof and walls and 50,000 brown ones for the "soil"—to form the translucent structure. Impressive, right? It gets even better: Bergne told Co.Design, which first covered the story, that he threw the project together "in just one night, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m." Jeez, now you're just making us feel bad. Over here for more mindblowing photos.

· Lego to Immortalized Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House [Curbed National]
· Lego Announces Newest in Architecture Series: Burj Khalifa [Curbed National]
· A Greenhouse Made of 100,000 Legos [Co.Design]

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