Remember the adorable bungalow in the 2005 romantic comedy Must Love Dogs starring Diane Lane and John Cusack?
Lane’s character Sarah was a preschool teacher who was miraculously able to afford a house like this, which, according to Realtor.com, is worth over a million dollars today.
But, hey, that’s okay with me because the reality of her living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment would not have been nearly as much fun to watch!
The real bungalow where they filmed exterior shots is on Elizabeth Street in Pasadena, California, while the interiors were sets created on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Take a look!
Diane Lane’s House in “Must Love Dogs”
The movie, based on a fun novel by Claire Cook, is about fortysomething Sarah, a divorced preschool teacher who is looking for love with lots of (unwanted) help from her family.
The Kitchen
The movie has an all-star cast, including Christopher Plummer as Sarah’s dad (love him!), Stockard Channing as his girlfriend from the trailer park, Dermot Mulroney as the guy who looks like Mr. Right, and John Cusack as the real deal.
Sarah has filled the built-in shelves between the dining room and kitchen with colorful pottery and Fiestaware.
According to Redfin, the real house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 1,874 square feet.
The Living Room
If you look at the photos of the real interiors you can see a similarly tiled fireplace to this one:
The Dining Room
Elizabeth Perkins plays Sarah’s sister Carol:
“Must Love Dogs” House: Possible Floor Plans
A reader named Paul sent me the floor plan he worked out for the first floor of this house.
He says his wife told him she wanted to live in a house like this someday, so he put this together for her.
Thanks, Paul!
See how the house at 1181 Elizabeth Street in Pasadena looks today and learn more about it:
Redfin, Streetview, Home Shoot Home, and I Am Not a Stalker.
Visit my Houses Onscreen page to see the others I’ve featured, listed from A-Z.
Love the house but I can tell you after spending 25 years in early childhood ed., there are no preschool teachers I know who could afford to live in that house without a spouse bringing in the money! I enjoy your site and all the great homes you find to share.
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I really love this movie! The kitchen is my favorite room, it is so cozy.
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I love craftsman bungalows, If I was single or even a newlywed, I would love this house. I’ll have to watch the movie again to investigate.
Thanks for sharing!
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What about Sex and the City or Failure to Launch? I love that one!
I’ve been house hunting for over a year now. I’d love to find a charming bungalow like this. However, they are limited in my area for some reason. I’m holding out for the “right one.”
I love these posts! 🙂 I haven’t seen the movie, but I think I need to now. Love that house. So funny about her being a preschool teacher and living in that home. Try maybe with 3 roommates and a second job. 😉
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I adore the houses that you feature. We saw Marley & Me recently and the house that they moved into in Pennsylvania was beautiful. I’d love to see more shots of that one!
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Ok…you are going to laugh at me but…Alvin and the Chipmunks has a very cute little neighborhood setting. I have to review that one. I think in Bedtime Stories…Courtney Cox’s house is just adorable. Those are my movie favs right now…can you tell I have too many kids movies at this point 🙂
Janet
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love this house! the porch is my favorite part! i would love to see Monster N Law (with jennifer lopez and jane fonda) i love the openness of the house and the big staircase inside!
Love it! I am saving that picture of the front door to show my husband. I really love it too. And yes, I do see a resemblance between you and Elizabeth Perkins. 🙂
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I really enjoyed watching that movie. It’s so nice to see the house for more than a split second at a time. I love your movie posts! Thanks Julia!
~Kim
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You DO look like Elizabeth Perkins! Really liked this movie, & like the home even more. Dining room was a perfect family setting for a fun time & great meal (: Happy Monday
Great house and all the details!!! My husband always laughs at me because when we are watching a movie I will point something out like, “Did you see that wainscotting…I love that”. or “That paint color is amazing”. I really don’t think he sees those things at all:-)
Love this house, thankyou!! How about showing the Gilmore Girls house – especially the bedrooms. Or perhaps the TV show Once and Again – Sela Ward had a great house – master bedroom and kitchen especially. I’m sure they were just sets and not actual houses but I’d love to see them. Thanks……Dawn
Oh, I never knew there was such a cute cottage in this movie! I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the movie while flipping channels, but never saw her cute house. Thanks for sharing. I love Movie Mondays!! I think I’ll rent this one and look at her cute house for myself.
There is something very charming about the Craftsman style. I think the front porch is key. Love it.
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That house is fabulous. I’m gonna say that was one heck of a divorce settlement! ;-D
Even if you are not a genre fan, in the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Joyce & Buffy had the most beautiful Craftsman bungalow. I was actually watching because I liked it, and it got destroyed more times than I can recall, but darn! That is a fabulous, fabulous place.
Oh, and another Diane Lane movie,”Untraceable”, also featured a stunningly beautiful house. At least in that film, she was a high level agent in the FBI, and could ostensibly afford the place.
People don’t want to see realistic housing in movies and tv. It’s much more fun to see beautiful houses like these. (This is one of my favorites.)
If it seems incredibly unrealistic (as this one does), just make a theory up. Her mother came from money and left each child money for a house or her godmother who never married passed away and left her that house.
I’d rather look at beautiful homes than realistic ones. I live in one of those realistic ones.
I just found your website. I love to look at homes, so I’ll be back. 🙂
Woo-hoo, love this one especially (big surprise)! The front porch is my favorite feature, although I could just eat the whole thing up. Thanks, Julia!
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Great post…this must have been a lot of work to do, thank you for this…I am going to have to watch this movie again. Day off today, maybe today…
Love the bathroom tub scene, and the wrap around porch on the house…there are alot of Arts and Crafts houses in our area of the city, love them much.
Heavens to Murgatroyd! Love, love, love this bungalow! I’ve not seen this movie, but will certainly do so now! Bungalow, schmungalow–these rooms are huge! Is there such a thing as a closet that size in her(Diane’s) bedroom scene? And all those extra niches…the front door design & width…all the buili-ins!! It just seems to me that bungalows and cottages are making quite the comeback as the pendulum swings back from opulent MacMansions to pared-down homes and none too soon I might add. I am going to look at this movie with a discerning eye to see how much artistic license they took with these room dimensions.
I agree with Dawn suggestions, those are beautiful houses. Thanks Julia for this post, it´s incredible bungalow, sure not affordabel for a teacher, but “life it isn´t like movies” WE know that.
Great days the mondays!!!
MLD is probably why I love this little gem in the rough that’s for sale near me.
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Love your blog 🙂
My favorite movie house (aside from Something’s Gotta Give that you’ve already covered 🙂 ) is the house in What Lies Beneath starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfieffer. The house was absolutely amazing, and only a SET! so it’s nearly impossible to find photos. It has the same wonderful beachy feel from the exterior as the house in Something’s Gotta Give.
Another great house to feature would be Nicole Kidman’s house on Bewitched. It is a lovely little shabby chic bungalow!
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I love this house! Thanks for featuring another great house.
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I spied another mac! 🙂 I’ve never seen this one, I’ll have to rent this. This looks like all the homes in my little home town. My mom had a bath tub like that and when she remodeled got rid of it! Gasp!! She totally regrets it now.
Never seen the movie, but love the house. We have a ton of these kind here in Atlanta (and the surrounding older towns). While reading the other posts and suggestions for other movies, I thought about the lake house in “On Golden Pond”. It’s rustic, but I remember liking it. Maybe that’s one you could feature…
I haven’t had a chance to see this movie as yet and now I do! You are so right that teachers need more of a salary to buy a house such as this, Julia. Most are seriously underpaid. It’s so sad. I guess you can tell a lot of my family members are teachers!
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The front door is REALLY great!! And I love the wainscoting and cabinetry in the dining room.
I don’t if it’s the angle or what, but that bathtub looks HUGE!!!
Kelly @ DesignTies
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Maybe her ex-husband was rich and she did OK out of the divorce?
Either way, love this house. The front porch particularly.
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Maybe she was getting a fat alimony check each month?! Yes, this is a GREAT house!! I like both her and John Cusack, so I enjoyed this movie. It was on tv again recently, and I had to watch it…again.
~angela @ peonypatch
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Hi,
I have always been fascinated by houses seen in the movies, especially movies of the romantic comedy type. Have you ever done a post on the house used in the Bewitched movie with Nicole Kidman (Samantha’s house)? I watched that movie several times just because I loved the interiors of that house so much. Love your blog by the way!
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Ha Ha! “Hollywood seems to think that preschool teachers like Sarah earn enough money to own fabulous bungalows like this one” Too funny! I actually have this movie on DVD but have not yet watched it – would have watched it sooner if I knew there was a cute bungalow in it!
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I just found this site and can’t believe I’m not the only one who paying as much attention to the houses in movies as I am the movie itself. I love it!!!!
Do you have pics of “you’ve got mail”?
do you have pics of alvin and the chipmunks?
Some scenes in “Must Love Dogs” were filmed in and around Long Beach, California, including scenes in the dog park and the school. There are lots of houses like that in Long Beach, but I’m not sure that the exterior is here. Long Beach often doubles for Miami in “CSI: Miami,” too.
Love these Movie Monday posts. My favorites are Meg Ryan’s apartment in You’ve Got Mail and Diane Keaton’s beach house in Somethings Gotta Give. I would really love to see Nicole Kidman’s house in Bewitched. That kitchen was to die for!
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Another great movie house to include on this site would be Sally Fields’ San Francisco home in Mrs. Doubtfire. It’s beautiful.
Love this house! I agree that a pre-school teacher could not afford this house, but they do tell us in the movie that she was married and now divorced. So, perhaps her ex-husband was bringing in the big bucks and she got to keep the house! Good thing – she looked great in it!
I always want to see the floorplans of houses I like, this one especially! I have a feeling that these interiors might not be contained in that exterior though, the rooms seem very large. Love the kitchen.
I agreed with Nancy that I wanted to see the floorplan so i did a little architectural detective work and i think i came up with a good idea of the layout. There is still one part of the house that is baflling me. The third picture on your site shows a door and house extension on the right facing side of the house about 1/3 of the way down. Don’t know what that room is nor do they show it in the movie. Any ideas? Other than that, i’d be happy to share the floorplan with anyone. Also, i think the thanksgiving dinner was supposed to be at her father’s house…another charming bungalow. Thanks for the site.
Love this house! I want to live here. And yes, like many of the posts mentioned above, I’d rather see a cute bungalow than a ‘real’ house a pre-school teacher could afford 😉 It is Hollywood after all!
The city of Pasadena, CA actually does an annual tour of ‘Bungalow Heaven’ show casing a neighborhood of (privately owned) bungalow homes. They were built during the Arts and Crafts period of the early 20th century. Well worth checking out. I’ve done the tour.