11776 Laurelcrest Drive, Studio City, CA 91604

Thirty-nine steps to the front door. The current owner counted them once and never forgot. Partly because of the climb, partly because of the Hitchcock film he loves. The 39 Steps, 1935. The seller calls it a great movie. He's right. This house is its own kind of great. A mid-century hillside home where the architecture does what the best mid-century work always did. It gets out of the way and lets California in. Walls of glass. Soaring ceilings. The kind of indoor-outdoor flow that makes you forget where the living room ends and the hillside begins. The view is the kind you stop talking mid-sentence to look at. When asked what he loves most about the house, the seller didn't hesitate. "The views are what sold it to me. But, and I'm not joking, I will miss the stairs. I use them so often I don't notice them anymore. Without them, I will not be as fit."Inside, the gourmet kitchen anchors the main level. Built for someone who actually cooks, with the kind of finishes and flow that make...