‘How I Met Your Mother’ Creator Carter Bays Lists Opulent New York Estate
Now that they’ve settled into a nearly $7 million compound in the leafy Los Angeles suburb of La Cañada Flintridge, it’s no surprise that sitcom creator Carter Bays and his longtime wife Denise Cox have made their deluxe suburban New York spread available for purchase to qualified buyers.
With an asking price of $3.95 million, the couple are not expecting a profitable return on their residential investment; even a full-price offer would be only $50,000 more than they paid for the property in 2017 — a relatively insignificant amount that quickly evaporates once realtor fees, taxes, maintenance, and other closing costs are factored into the equation.
Though it’s a mere 35 miles to Manhattan, the near-upstate N.Y. hamlet of Bedford Hills feels like an alternate universe, one where bucolic pastures and rolling hills dot the landscape, where quaint downtown shops and elegant old-world estates visually reminisce to a bygone time of quiet, gracious wealth. So it’s no surprise that the town’s calming vibe has lured many wealthy Manhattanites (and other big city folk) to secure residential footholds in the neighborhood.
Unlike many of the neighboring homes, the Cox-Bays estate does not have a historic pedigree, though the place does an admittedly admirable impersonation of something much more vintage. Built in 1989, the main mansion weighs in at a portly 9,300 square feet and and is best described as a Cape Cod-style house, albeit one that’s been put on mega-wattage growth hormones.
Guests will be awed by the long driveway, flanked on either side by emerald green lawns, and by the home’s multi-gabled and many-windowed façade. Inside are large public rooms decked in traditional decor, including a formal dining room and fireplace-equipped living and family rooms, the latter of which opens to a spacious eat-in kitchen with designer stainless appliances. Medium brown hardwood floors flow throughout the home, into the study and private office, plus the first-floor maid’s quarters and guest suite.
Other spaces include a sunroom and a finished basement currently configured as a children’s playroom/media room hybrid with baby blue walls and wall-to-wall carpeting for comfy floor playtime. There’s also an finished attic done up as a sitting room, while the home’s titanic master suite includes an apartment-sized bedroom with two window seats, a marble-swaddle bathroom with dual vanities, and a walk-in closet.
The 6.1-acre estate includes enormous stone terraces for alfresco dining, a verdant jungle of evergreen trees, and a poolhouse that sits a short pathway walk away from the freeform swimming pool. And above the three-car attached garage, there’s room for a yoga studio or gym, per the listing.
Bays, 45, has been working in the entertainment industry for 25 years, beginning with an MTV internship in the mid-90s. Though he’s written for a multitude of TV shows, including “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “American Dad,” he’s best-known as the writer, co-creator, and executive producer of the long-running “How I Met Your Mother,” which wrapped in 2014.
Mary Dowdle of Ginnel Real Estate holds the listing.
Launch Gallery: Inside Carter Bays' Bedford Hills Estate
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