Chris Meloni Does It in the C.T.

BUYER: Christopher Meloni and Sherman Williams-Meloni
LOCATION: New Canaan, CT
PRICE: $4,381,000
SIZE: 8,063 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 3 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: The children may recall that former Law & Order: SVU man-hunk actor Christopher Meloni—who was, dare we say, even more sizzling in the steamy prison drama Oz (1998-2003)—and his lady-decorator wife Sherman Williams-Meloni put their 60th floor Midtown Manhattan condo-crib on the market in March (2012) with, as you'll soon see, an in-hindsight-rose-tinted $12,000,000 price tag.

Mister and Missus Meloni's three bedroom and 4.5 bathroom high-floor Big Apple perch—located in the same, slender, smoked glass tower where Sean "Diddy" Combs recently put his higher floor three bedroom into two bedroom party pad up for sale for $8,500,000 and New Age guru Deepak Chopra has a even higher floor apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms listed for $3,595,000—remains unsold, but with a shrunken but still astronomical asking price of $9,950,000.

Luckily for him and his family, the well-compensated, Emmy-nominated actor—he reportedly took in $395,000 per episode in his last season of L&O:SVU—doesn't need to unload one multi-million dollar residence to acquire another; The hard-charging property gossip gal at the Post revealed today that Mister and Missus Meloni decamped—or will eventually decamp—for the bucolic and affluent enclave of New Canaan, CT where in late August (2012) they dropped $4,381,000 on a fully-landscaped, four-ish acre estate anchored by an unquestionably luxurious but perfectly ordinary two-story proto-suburban mansion with 8,063 square feet of expensively but blandly finished interior space.

Listing information Your Mama easily squeezed out of the interweb reveals the 16-plus room residence was built in 2006 and sits on "one of the highest elevations in New Canaan" with "extraordinary views to Manhattan." There are, according to listing information, total of five bedrooms, five full and three half bathrooms plus four fireplaces, an attached three-car side-facing garage with direct entry into the kitchen's service area, and a convenient pair of typically New England mudrooms.

The double height entry, with under-stair powder pooper, gives way to a spacious, step-down living room with fireplace and semi-circular wall of tall, arched windows that overlook the back yard. A quartet of clustered rooms, situated off the foyer, include a fully-paneled billiard room with built-in wet bar, an also fully-paneled library/media room with fireplace flanked by built-in bookshelves, a somewhat useless southwest-facing sun room with long curved wall of windows, and a secluded office with private half bath and yet another built-in wet bar.

Less formal family quarters are accessed directly from the foyer or through a compact butler's pantry that links the dining room to the expensively equipped but stylistically ho-hum center island kitchen complete with walk-in pantry, wine room, half bathroom, white raised-panel cabinetry and gray-veined green counter tops that are probably granite or marble or some other high-cost material. The breakfast area off the kitchen steps down into a semi-circular family room with fireplace, built-in bookcases and backyard access.

Front and rear stairs connect to the second floor where one guest/family bedroom has direct access to a private bathroom and a second makes use of a roomy hall bathroom. Two more guest/family bedrooms, each with private bathroom, occupy a wing of their own and straddle a sitting room with built-in bookshelves and media center.

Double doors open from the upstairs landing directly into the decent-sized and wall-to-wall carpeted master bedroom with brass-accented fireplace and semi-circular wall of multi-pane windows. French doors lead out to a petite loggia where a spiral staircase twists tightly down to a lower level covered porch off the library/media room and corkscrews up to a small roof terrace with pastoral, if knee-knocking, wrap-around views.

The large but hardly excessive, attached master bathroom has inset marble tile flooring, double sinks, soaking tub for two and separate stall shower. The adjoining walk-in closet/dressing room appears on the floor plan included with marketing materials to be larger than all four of the guest/family bedrooms. This spatial imbalance may (or may not) make it crystal clear to resident children, other family members and/or overnight house guests that their creature comfort ranks lower on the square footage food chain than the Louboutins and John Lobbs owned by the master and mistress of the manor. 

The tree-ringed grounds include long driveway and baronial circular motor court with additional parking around the side by the garage. There are acres of gently undulating lawns, a newly-built six-stall horse or car barn, and a stone terraces that extends off the rear of the house and steps down to surround a free-form swimming pool and elevated spa set into a man-made bank of boulders and mature landscaping.

If she hasn't already Your Mama imagines Missus Williams-Meloni will soon roll up her interior decorator sleeves and get to work on a transformation that will turn this ho-hum house into a publication-worthy showpiece—like their Manhattan apartment, as seen in the March 2008 issue of Architectural Digest. Mister Meloni will do his part to fund his fortunate family's multi-million dollar lifestyle with upcoming silver screen roles in 42 (with Harrison Ford), the next of the never-ending Superman movies (Man of Steel), the comedy They Came Together, and the in-production drama Small Time.

listing photos: William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty