Before and After: A successful Hollywood remake

Like a Hollywood star who gets a bit of work done in her older years, so it is with the Spanish-style home that once belonged to late actress Betsy Drake.

Drake, the third wife of Cary Grant, had been living in London when she died last year. Her Westwood home was then put on the market.

The house was purchased in March by George Gonzalez, a real estate investor, for $1.325 million. He set out to restore and resell it but bristles at the term “house flipper.”

“A flipper is someone who just comes in and paints, but my name goes with every house that I do, so I’ll spend the money to do it right,” said Gonzalez, who has undertaken many similar projects over the last three decades, including a restoration of the Jack Anderson house in Ontario.

Drake’s three-bedroom, two-bathroom house had good bones, but overgrown landscaping, a roof in need of attention, and dated fixtures and appliances meant it was in desperate need of a makeover.

“It was like a time capsule,” said Robert Silverman of Magno Realty Group, who represented Gonzalez in the purchase and is now the home’s listing agent. Post-renovation, the house is back on the market for $2.199 million.

To enhance the home’s curb appeal, Gonzalez replaced the boxwoods and grass with a drought-tolerant landscape, a terra cotta-colored concrete walkway and a new driveway. He also designed a bubbling fountain made of hand-painted tiles made by third-generation Los Angeles ceramic artist Jose Nonato.

The backyard now has a new wood fence backed with a blocked stucco wall and a wall fountain with custom peacock decorative tile design by Nonato in place of overgrown ficus trees and decrepit chain-link fence.

Inside, Gonzalez opened up the large wood-beamed space by removing a wall between the living room and dining room and staining the home’s original floor a lighter blond. In the kitchen, Gonzalez brought in Viking appliances and nixed the strange green glass cabinet handles for elegant clear ones.

To give the home more storage space, Gonzalez enlarged it by about 300 square feet, which accommodated a walk-in closet plus a luxurious bathroom that has three shower heads, a steam shower, a standing bath and a separate room for the toilet.

“Your whole family can shower at the same time,” Silverman said.

Gonzalez also expanded the guest bedroom’s closet space and added built-in niches in the hallway for extra storage.

Wrought iron from Revival Antiques in Pasadena and Nonato’s tile work throughout the home keep it grounded in the past, while a Nest thermostat, Sonos speakers and a nine-camera security system give it a modern touch.

Gonzalez put in just over $500,000 for the renovations, which took five months to complete.

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