Let’s face it. When you love houses as much as we do, our curiosity sometimes gets the best of us. We might find ourselves in some awkward situations now and then. I know I can’t be the only one! So I’ll confess to a few of my embarrassing moments in house peeping if you’ll share some of yours in the comments. Deal?

#1. The Time I Couldn’t Resist Checking Out a New House Down the Street.

We used to live in a neighborhood where new houses were being built all around us. Some people complained about the mud and the noise, but I loved watching them go up and seeing how they turned out.

One time I was walking past one of them and noticed that the construction workers had left a first-floor window open. Like, wide open. I walked over and casually looked inside. No drywall yet, but the house was huge with soaring windows and a wooded view. Curiosity got the best of me and I couldn’t resist (you guessed it) climbing in.

As soon as I found the big master bedroom and luxury bath, I heard a couple of people coming up the stairs behind me. I was trapped. When they caught me, I tried to lighten the moment by asking, “Did you climb through the window, too? Ha-ha.” “No,” they said, “we have the key. It’s our house.”

After that awkward moment, they gave me the tour of their new place and told me what kinds of finishes they chose for each of the rooms. Best. New neighbors. Ever.

#2. The Time I Tried to Take a Photo of My Childhood Home.

One day my mom and I decided to go by the old house I grew up in. It looked totally different than we remembered, so we snapped this picture of it (above). That was easy enough, but then we were curious about the backyard.

We knocked on the door to ask permission to go around back and get a photo, but no one answered. So we walked around the side, only to find that a big fence had been erected. Just as I was climbing up on an old log in an attempt to get a shot of the back of the house over the top of the fence, I heard, “Can I help you?”

It was a neighbor who thought we were up to no good. We quickly explained that we used to live there and just wanted to see how it had changed, then got out of there as fast as we could. We just hoped he wasn’t taking down our license plate as we sped away…

(I have a painting of my old house the way it looked when I lived there on my About page. It looked so much bigger back then!)

#3. The Time I Went to an Open House to See How They Decorated.

Surely I’m not the only one who has gone to an Open House in their own neighborhood just to get a look inside? Well, I convinced my husband to go with me to one because it has the same basic floorplan as ours, and I was dying to see how they decorated it.

Imagine our embarrassment when our neighbor himself opened the door. Turns out the Realtor had the flu, so he was hosting the Open House for her. I was totally busted.

Now it’s your turn to tell all. Has your “house curiosity” ever gotten you into an awkward situation?

Are You Hooked on Houses? Take This Quiz to Find Out!

“A tree house should never overpower the tree in which it is built. It should sit lightly in the branches.” –Jeanie Stiles

Have you ever dreamed of having a treehouse in your backyard? Jeanie Stiles and her husband David did, so they designed one for their children, beginning with this sketch. They say it was inspired by The Hobbit, but it reminded me of Winnie-the-Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood. Can’t you picture Owl peeking out from one of those windows?

I wrote about this treehouse back when I first started blogging and liked it so much that I wanted to share it again now that I actually have some readers who will see it! It was featured in Architectural Digest (with photos by Billy Cunningham), which explains:

Protected from weather and adults, the kid-size interior forms a cozy hide-away, inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, a favorite of the children’s.

My kids would love this. So would I! I’d be sneaking up into that treehouse every summer afternoon with a book in one hand and a glass of lemonade in the other.

“Where did Mom go?”

“Did you check the treehouse?”

P.S. Thanks for all of your sweet birthday wishes yesterday! It was fun reading them all last night when I got home. You made my day!

After posting about the Father of the Bride house recently, several readers asked if it was the same house used in the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It is in Pasadena near the FOTB house and does look a lot like it, but it’s not the same one. Here’s the house used in Mr. & Mrs. Smith:

And the Father of the Bride house (interior photos here):

Hollywood loves these kinds of houses. It seems to be the Classic American House. In Mr. & Mrs. Smith, it worked really well to have John and Jane Smith (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) living in such a traditional home. It was an effective cover for who they really are: paid assassins.

When you step inside the traditional home, the interiors are a complete surprise–just like the characters who live in them.

The Two-Story Entry:

The Living Room:

Jane balances on the arms of a chair to adjust the new drapes:

The Dining Room:

A photo of them filming in the dining room (from the Special Features on the DVD):

The Kitchen:

Angelina’s character, Jane Smith, reminds me of Bree Hodge in “Desperate Housewives” (Marcia Cross). She’s a woman who is in complete control of her home, preparing gourmet meals that hit the table precisely at 7:00 each night. Meanwhile, her personal life is in a shambles. For one thing, her husband doesn’t know she’s in the same business he is, and the secrets have driven a wedge between them.

Mrs. Smith has a double oven in the kitchen. The lower one opens to reveal her stash of weaponry. How cool is that? Also cool: the tile on the wall around it.

2/11 UPDATE: I just received an e-mail from artist Shelley Brown who tells me she painted the “Eggs” painting in the kitchen. For more information about her work, you can contact her at srbrown25@gmail.com.

The Master Bedroom:

The sets were designed by Victor Zolfo, who also worked on films like “The Case of Benjamin Button,” another Brad Pitt vehicle. He receives fan mail from all over the world from people who love the rooms he created for this movie. And I can understand why.

It’s hard to imagine this movie with any other combination of actors. Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp were originally cast as Mr. and Mrs. Smith. When Depp backed out, Pitt was brought on board. When Kidman dropped out, Gwen Stefani and Catherine Zeta-Jones were reportedly considered for the role.

Another bit of trivia: Brad Pitt had to leave the Mr. & Mrs. Smith set for three months to film Oceans 12.

The Master Bath:

Upstairs Landing:

The Back of the House:

Destroying the House (look away now if you’re squeamish!):

I found the destruction scenes hard to watch. At the end of the movie, Angelina’s character tells their marriage counselor, “We redid the house together.”

I found some of these photos on the Internet, but none of the sites mentioned the original source. The exterior shot at the top of the post was taken by a fan who tracked it down in Pasadena and posted it here (I’ve been corrected–he’s the grandson of a neighbor, not a fan). The rest of the photos are ones I snapped while watching the movie. All rights to the images belong to 20th Century Fox, which distributed the film.

As we all know, “Mr. & Smith” led to a divorce (Brad and Jen’s) and the creation of Brangelina (Brad and Angelina). Five years later, the couple has six children, including the twins Knox and Vivienne shown here in a People spread about them.

To read more about the Super Couple, check out the French Chateau they stayed in last summer and their $60 million rental on Long Island.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to all of the others I’ve featured, from  “You’ve Got Mail” to “Something’s Gotta Give.”

A few months ago I wrote a post about the movie Twilight. Since then I learned more about Edward Cullen’s contemporary house. According to an interview that architect Jeff Kovel of Skylab Architecture gave to Design Tavern, it was built as a spec house and bought by the director of footwear design at Nike, John Hoke: “Following a cover story in a northwest architecture publication,” Kovel says, “the Hokes were approached by a film location scout, a little film called Twilight.”

Twilight producers thought it was the perfect setting for the Cullen family of cool, “we-glitter-in-the-sun and look-like-supermodels” vampires–although many fans have complained that it didn’t look anything like the old white Victorian described in the novel.

I personally loved this house and was thrilled to find more photos of it on the Skylab website, as well as at Home-Designing.com and Design Tavern. Here’s how the house looked in the film:

And “in real life” (minus all the trees that were added in post-production):

The staircase, as seen in the movie, with Bella (Kristin Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson):

And the full view:

A view of the kitchen from the film, with the Cullen family using it for the first time to prepare a meal for “the human” (Bella):

And what it looks like empty:

The eat-in part of the kitchen, which we didn’t get to see in the movie (I assume these are the Hoke children who live here):

We got a peek at the room on the other side of the kitchen in the movie:

I was excited to see a full view of it:

You can read an interesting interview with the architect Jeff Kovel at Design Tavern and see even more beautiful photos of the home there. I’m not sure, but based on the trailer I saw for the sequel New Moon, it looks like the Cullens were filmed in a different house for it. It’ll be hard to top this one!

UPDATE: They did use a different house in New Moon. It’s on the market for $3.3 million, and you can take a tour of it here. To see photos of Bella’s house, check out my original Twilight post.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to more, from “Father of the Bride” to “You’ve Got Mail.”

So. I was determined not to read Twilight last year when everyone was going on and on about it. I’m not really into Young Adult novels or vampires. But I finally decided I might as well see what all the fuss was about. Fast-forward two months later and I had read all four books in the series, seen the movie, and bought the soundtrack. Please don’t judge me.

I thought it would be fun to take a look at both Bella’s modest home in Forks, Washington, and the contemporary, light-filled house Edward’s family lives in.

Bella’s House

Bella Swan–seriously, that’s her name–has moved from Arizona to live with her father Charlie, the police chief of a small town in Washington where it rains all day, every day (Kristen Stewart and Billy Burke).

Upstairs hallway and bath:

Entry hall and stairs:

Kitchen:

From the kitchen, looking into the living room:

As I’m sure you know, even if you haven’t read the books or seen the movie yourself, Bella falls in love with one of the vampires who goes to her new high school. At first he is tempted to kill her, but he restrains himself. And good thing, too, because he soon realizes he’s in love with her.

Here Edward (played by Robert Pattinson) and Charlie wait for Bella to come downstairs:

Edward Cullen’s House

When I read the books, I couldn’t wait to see the movie because I wanted to see Edward’s house. I like the movie version of the house, although it isn’t how I imagined from the book’s description:

“The house was timeless, graceful, and probably a hundred years old. It was painted a soft, faded white, three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned.”

Inside, however, it was described as being surprisingly contemporary:

“It was very bright, very open, and very large. This must have originally been several rooms, but the walls had been removed from most of the first floor to create one wide space. The back, south-facing wall had been entirely replaced with glass…. The walls, the high-beamed ceilings, the wooden floors, and the thick carpets were all varying shades of white.”

Edward brings Bella home to meet his vampire family. But don’t worry–they call themselves “vegetarian vampires” because they try really hard not to eat people.

Edward’s family uses the kitchen for the first time to prepare dinner for Bella as a “Welcome to the family” gesture:

We only get this little peek into the next room, which I assume is the living room:

Jasper hangs back, worried that he’ll find the smell of human blood too tempting. I don’t understand this because he goes to the high school every day and is surrounded by humans then, right? Let’s just say this is the kind of movie/book you can’t think too hard about or all the logic begins to unravel.

I got a kick out of the wall of graduation caps. They have “matriculated many times,” as Edward explains, so it’s sort of an inside joke with the family. (They’re all eternally teenagers, you see. But why they bother going through high school again and again, I have no idea. Get a job already!)

Edward’s bedroom, which is really just a room, since there is no bed. Apparently vampires don’t sleep. Like, ever. At least not in the “Twilight” series.

He tries to get her to dance with him to Debussy, but she says, “Um, I can’t dance.” He throws her on his back and leaps out of the open door with her instead. We get this little glimpse of the side of the house as he jumps to the nearest tree:

Later, Edward plays “Bella’s Lullaby,” a song he has composed for her. Instead of a real room in the Cullen house, they appear to be hanging out in a ’90s music video.

The Cullens are really into cars. I mean, really into them. Here’s their garage:

Edward watches his brothers and sisters go, as they take Bella and run (a non-vegetarian vampire is after her–long story):

Final scene, at Bella’s prom. They’re dancing in the gazebo, back together again, safe and sound, and all is right with the world…or is it? (Dun-dun-dunnnn! Cue the sequel, New Moon, filming now.)

For those of you who can’t get enough of the books, you have to visit author Stephenie Meyer’s website to read the rough draft she posted of a novel she started called Midnight Sun, which is basically Twilight from Edward’s point of view.

UPDATE: I found photos of the actual houses used for the Cullens in both Twilight and New Moon (different houses were used for the movies). You can see them in these posts:

“Twilight” Revisited: the Contemporary Home Used for the Cullens

You Can Buy Edward Cullen’s House House from New Moon

Bella & Edward’s Honeymoon Hideaway in Brazil

]]> http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/05/24/bella-edward-living-in-the-twilight-zone/feed/ 42 http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/04/28/personal-day/ http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/04/28/personal-day/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:59:20 +0000 hookedonhouses http://hookedonhouses.net/?p=7052

It’s my birthday, so I’m taking a personal day. I’m leaving my computer and the stacks (and stacks) of work I have to do on it behind. Dave is taking me out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants and to see a movie. Then maybe I’ll get my bike out, tie on a cape, and perform a few tricks for old time’s sake (“Look, Ma, one hand!”).

I’ve been tagged for a million of those “100 Things About Me” types of memes and never participated because this blog is about houses, not about me. But since it’s my birthday, just for fun, I’ll at least try to list ten.

10 Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I’m related to the actor Jack Lemmon–my great-grandma was a Lemmon–but I never met him.

2. I always wanted to be a magazine editor when I grew up. I drew elaborate plans and layouts for the magazines I was going to create someday. I guess having a blog isn’t too far off!

3. I’ve written several novels, but they never leave my computer. (And never will, so don’t even ask.)

4. I have published some of my short stories, though.

5. I used to teach writing workshops and I loved it.

6. I got married when I was in college and was way too young to know what I was doing. It worked out anyway.

7. I was told I would probably never have children, but I have two of them. (Sometimes doctors are wrong.)

8. I’m an INFJ on the MBTI. (I love all that personality-typing stuff.)

9. I used to have a “mommy blog” called “Mom-a-Rama,” but I couldn’t keep up with it. Apparently I had less to say about motherhood than I do about houses!

10. My family calls me “Julie Rae.” I only started going by “Julia” after college, figuring it would make me sound more professional. I’m still “Julie” to anyone who knew me before that.

Now tell me something about you that I might not know! I love learning more about my blog friends.

P.S. I just checked to see what I wrote last year on my birthday and realized I wrote about myself then, too. If you aren’t totally bored with me yet, you can find a few more “fascinating facts” about my life and see a picture of me as a young ballerina here.

Welcome to another Movie Monday, when I feature the beautiful homes used in television and film. With due respect to the fine actors in the 2008 version of “Brideshead Revisited,” the hauntingly beautiful Castle Howard was the true star of the movie for me. Castle Howard is considered to be one of the grandest private residences in England today. Brideshead novelist Evelyn Waugh visited it and is said to have used it as his inspiration for the ill-fated home in his book. I couldn’t take my eyes off it and was always peering around the actors, trying to get a better look at the walls and statues and staircases behind them.

Emma Thomson as Lady Marchmain

Here are some of the photos I took from the movie of the castle, which is a castle in name only since it was never used for a military function. This great arch is just the beginning of the long drive to the castle:

When they drive over the hill, through the arch, Charles Ryder sees Castle Howard for the first time. “You LIVE here?” he asks his friend Sebastian.

The Great Hall’s painted arches and dome are pretty spectacular for a family home:

Photo by David Foster

Julia (Hayley Atwell) brings Charles (Matthew Goode) to Brideshead, where he’ll spend the summer with the family. Charles comes from a modest background and is quickly seduced by the family’s privileged lifestyle:

The home has its own private chapel. In this scene, Charles Ryder, who is an atheist, watches the devoutly Catholic family reciting their evening prayers:

The movie was so dark it was hard to get a good look at the chapel. I found an amazing photo gallery of the home by a photographer in the U.K. named David Foster, who was allowed access by the Howard family to these rooms. You can see much more detail of the chapel in his photo:

Foster also photographed a bedroom that is much clearer than anything I could get from the movie:

The turquoise drawing room:

The china landing:

The Long Gallery:

The Crimson Dining Room:

The Temple of the Four Winds, one of the two “garden buildings” on the estate, where the characters spent a lot of time hanging out and drinking:

The grounds are extensive. Castle Howard sits on 10,000 acres. When you go for a picnic in the garden, it’s best to bring servants to carry your refreshments for you:

The family gathers in the patriarch’s bedroom as he dies. Despite living “a life of sin” outside the Roman Catholic Church, he accepts a priest’s last rites and makes a sign of the cross. Evelyn Waugh said he witnessed something similar when one of his friends died, and the experience inspired him to write the novel (as a former English major, I feel obligated to share literary trivia like this with you):

The Great Fireplace:

By David Foster

The house looks so dark and cold in the movie that it almost gave me chills to look at (you can see it looks much brighter and warmer in the photos by Foster). Brideshead seemed more like a museum or old church than a home–which is somewhat the point of the film.

When the war starts, the British army takes over Brideshead. I’m always fascinated by how the great homes became military headquarters during war time. The movie shows the soldiers carefully covering all of the priceless paintings and statues as they took it over:

Ironically, Charles is stationed there during the war–the house he had once been willing to do almost anything to have:

The famous Atlas fountain:

The Rose Garden (another lovely photo by David Foster):

I love learning about the history of houses. Castle Howard took about 100 years to build, beginning in 1699, and the Howard family still lives there (much of the home is open to the public for tours, however). This picture of the home was published in 1819:

The 1981 Brideshead television miniseries that Jeremy Irons starred in was filmed at Castle Howard, too. To watch a clip from the miniseries that offers some beautiful views of the stately home and its grounds, click here.

You can visit Castle Howard’s official website for more information or David Foster’s online gallery to see more photos.

(I’m joining Fifi’s Fashionable Fridays blog party today. Check out what everyone else is talking about!)

If you’re hooked on houses from movies and TV shows, click here to see the list of the ones I’ve featured before or to suggest ones you’d like me to feature in the future. The most popular so far? The houses from:

• The Family Stone
• Gone with the Wind
• Brothers & Sisters
• Entire list

We’re traveling while the kids are on Spring Break this week, but I’ll check in whenever I can get my hands on some Internet access (wish me luck!). While I’m gone, don’t forget to enter the Not So Big House book giveaway at HomeDigz. Every time you leave a comment at HomeDigz between now and April 15, you earn another entry!

By JULIA @ HOOKEDONHOUSES.NET

One million visits. Can that be right? I just double-checked my stats because I still can’t quite believe it. In its first 11 months in the blogosphere, Hooked on Houses has already had over one million page views! I’m not sure how that’s possible, but I’m grateful. Very grateful. So I just had to take a moment to say thanks to all of you who have been such loyal readers. Thank you for reading my posts, linking to them, Stumbling them, telling your friends about them, and commenting on them day after day. You make all the hard work worthwhile!

I hope you’ll continue hanging out here with me in 2009. Here are a few things I have planned for the new year:

1) I’m starting a new series called “Movie Mondays.” Each Monday I’ll feature a house from a film I like or that you have requested. You guys have given me so many great ideas for movies and TV shows to write about that covering them all should keep me busy until 2010. (Coming up next Monday, by popular demand–Jude Law’s character’s house in “The Holiday.”)

2) I’m resurrecting “Hooked on Fridays.” Starting next week, I’ll post Mister Linky each Friday. If you write a post on your blog that day about something you’re hooked on–something family friendly, of course, and in some way related to houses, decorating, organizing, or homekeeping–then you can link up here with us! Sound good?

3) Finally, I’ll be featuring a Fantasy Open House Week later this month with photos from the Indianapolis Home-a-Rama home show. You gotta love a good Home-a-Rama, and this one didn’t disappoint. You won’t want to miss a single house!

Thanks again for being here. I hope you know I don’t take a single one of you for granted! -Julia

P.S. I was interviewed by Jill at The Good Life for Less. Hop on over there if you want to see what I had to say about my life as a blogger. And maybe leave a comment if you don’t mind, so it looks like some people were actually interested in what I had to say. Thanks! I knew I could count on you.

Remember when I told you that my next-door neighbors created their own version of this Halloween scene from Martha Stewart Living, prompting my daughter Lily to complain that we need to be “more creative with our decorating”?

Well, I got a picture of it for you Friday night when Lily and her best-friend Annabelle, whose parents are those wonderfully creative and crafty people who make me look like a Halloween loser, were out trick-or-treating. Here they are, dressed as Little Bo Peep (Annabelle) and a fairy riding a unicorn (Lily):

I have to note that Tony (our neighbor) is so artistic that he drew this freehand instead of using a template. Someday maybe they’ll let me show you the playroom he designed for his three girls. They love it.

(Check out this post to see how sad Lily was when Annabelle was on vacation for one whole week this summer.)

Jake, my 13-year old, declared that he was too old for trick-or-treating, but he came up with a fun costume anyway. He used black electric tape to make a big spider web on a white shirt and then attached this giant furry spider to the back of it. There’s a “fly” trapped in the web on the front.

After Halloween was over that night, Lily sighed and said that trick-or-treating should really go on for more than just one day. She’s thinking five would be good. Yeah, I’ll see what I can do about that.

I told you how Lily decorated our house within an inch of its life for Halloween (see pics of her decorations here). Well, today she started the Thanksgiving Blitz. There are pictures of turkeys everywhere. She has also informed me that we need to put “a big giant turkey on the porch.”

Last, but not least, I want to announce the winner of the Blog of the Month, chosen from all of you who participated in my Hooked on House Tours blog party last week. Drumroll…

I hereby declare that the Blog of the Month Award goes to A Day in the Life of Ramona! A link to her blog will be displayed in my right sidebar throughout November. I hope you’ll visit her site and say hello.

These two photos were featured in her House Tour during the blog party. If you missed her stop, you have to check it out. She’s one of the most creative bloggers around (and one of the nicest, to boot!).

Thanks to everyone who made the Hooked on House Tours blog party such a success. I enjoyed every one of your tours and loved how much variety there was for us to see! Check back later this month for your chance to win Blog of the Month in December!

Check Out:

• The Pretty Pink Teepee Lily Would Love to Get for Christmas
• Smart Landscaping Tips for Families Who Love Sports
• Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe I’m Drooling Over

When I started this blog on a whim back in January, it was intended to be my fun little hobby. An escape from all of the professional writing I do in my day job. (This photo was the first one I posted on the blog, from one of my favorite old neighborhoods in St. Louis.)

Fast-forward 9 months and the blog has gotten bigger than I ever imagined. To be honest, it went from an occasional side hobby to a project that is sort of taking over my life and making it difficult to get other things done. It’s gotten harder to juggle my paying gigs with blog upkeep.

My husband and I have been talking about it and came to the conclusion that something had to change. Either I needed to back off on the blogging or start accepting ads for my site so that I could justify all the hours I spend working on it.

If you know me, then you know that I love blogging. Just the thought of giving it up made me too sad to consider it for long. So I decided to go with Plan B: start accepting ads.

I hope you understand that I didn’t make this decision lightly. I held onto my no-ads policy as long as possible, but I’m hoping that this will make it possible for me to spend more time focusing on the blog. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please let me know. My relationship with my readers is the most important thing to me!