Before "sustainable living" was all the rage on Instagram, Bryan Cranston was rummaging through a 1940s beach house in Ventura County and transforming it into a home that generates its own power. The Breaking Bad star and his wife, Robin Dearden, sold that house, known as Three Palms, for $5.45 million in April 2021, accepting an offer just two weeks after it went on the market and $455,000 above its $4.995 million asking price. For a generation of people who may not yet have envisioned owning a home, let alone creating a home from the ground up, the tale is not so much about celebrity real estate chatter, but more about a question that directly impacts our futures: is it worth it to go green on a house or is may be a hobby of the wealthy with a famous face?
From a "love shack" to a LEED Platinum showpiece
In 2007, Cranston and Dearden purchased the Mussel Shoals property for $2.5 million, when it included a modest single-story home. Rather than simply renovating it, they demolished the existing house and built a new 2,450-square-foot, three-bedroom, four-bathroom residence. The finished house featured polished concrete floors, floor-to-ceiling glass on the Pacific-facing side and a solar array on the roof. It was marketed as a net-zero-carbon-footprint home, with its energy-efficient systems and solar generation designed to balance its energy use.
