Soap star Rena Sofer and television director Sanford Bookstaver have celebrated their re-engagement — they’re getting married to each other for a second time after splitting up and getting a divorce a few years ago — with the not quite $1.9 million purchase of a newly constructed residence in the quickly up-and-coming, and increasingly expensive, Valley Glen area of L.A.’s sprawling San Fernando Valley. The unpretentious yet luxuriously appointed two-story residence has five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in roughly 3,700 square feet outfitted with a comprehensive home automation system and fortified by a state-of-the-art security system.
Barn-style wide-plank hardwood floors are juxtaposed against a fireplace set into the flat, minimalistic expanse of a flannel-gray stone in the combination living and dining room. The sleek, open-plan kitchen and family room spill out to the backyard through a wide bank of glass doors that disappear completely into the walls.
Fenced and flat, the lushly grassy backyard offers a built-in grilling station and a plunge-size swimming pool and spa alongside an open-air cabana with a fireplace and convenient pool bath. The property was marketed by Avi Barazani at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage; Sofer and Bookstaver were repped by Michelle Schwartz at The Agency.
The re-kindled couple is also in the process of divesting themselves of their separate and no longer needed bachelor and bachelorette pads. About two years ago, Bookstaver, who has directed multiple episodes of numerous series including “Power” and “Chicago Fire,” shelled out just over $1.3 million for a glassed-walled Richard Neutra-designed midcentury modern perched on stilts above a steep ravine in Sherman Oaks that was sold last month for a tetch more than $1.5 million. And, Sofer, with nearly 700 episodes of “The Bold and the Beautiful” under her professional belt, continues to own an unassuming, fully renovated 1940s bungalow in Van Nuys bought about two and a half years ago for $900,000 and available as an off-market whisper listing at $1.2 million.
