“The Money Pit” Movie House Tom Hanks and Shelly Long

The “Money Pit” Movie House:  Howz about a comedy, I think we all need to let out some hardy laughs and endorphin’s   Enter for your enjoyment “The Money Pit” movie house.  It’s an oldie, but a goody from 1986 staring Tom Hanks as Walter and Shelly Long as Anna who are the young couple in love who almost breakup while renovating their first house.

It was filmed in New York and in Lattingtown (Long Island), New York where the real “The Money Pit” movie house is located and where some filming took place.  The address is 199 Feeks Lane Locust Valley, New York.

In an opening scene Walter says he is a conventional kinda guy.  ”A little house in the suburbs, white picket fence, maybe a dog, 2.4 kids, and just to round it out a wife.”  Walter asks Anna to marry him.  Anna is a still skittish after her divorce and asks Walter for a little more time.  Oddly enough they are living in her ex-husbands apartment while he is out of the country, he comes back, and they suddenly need somewhat to live.

Walter gets a tip on a house from his unscrupulous real estate agent who sends them to see a house in the suburbs that is a “million dollar distress sale.”  Here is the house as seen in the The Money Pit movie when Walter and Anna drive up, framing by me. 

“If you want any of the furniture, it’s all for sale!”  Antelope head anyone?

Walter and Anna can’t believe their luck.  Time is short and they have to make up their minds stat.  While watching the movie over the years I had not noticed the rooftop balcony fencing before and am thrilled to see it now.

And the scam works.  ”They bought it!  Way to go.  SOLD.”

Nice close-ups to see details of the entrance to Money Pit movie house.

The Money Pit mattress pit.

It all started with the stairs.

Fix one step and put your foot through the next.

Remember the disgusting plumbing!?!

The stairway starts to crumble.

Okay, so they have stairway problems, along with plumbing, and the front door frame fell apart….

And the roof is leaking just a tad.

Then the kitchen electrical wiring starts a fire…

and the fire sends their dinner flying through the house and it lands in the bathroom where it pops up “done.”

The bathtub falls through the floor.  Yet another hole in the floor.  Walter laughs uncontrollably like a maniac at this point.

Never fear the Shirk Brothers are here.  It’ll be done in two weeks is the ongoing (joke) estimated time it will take to complete the job.

Those Shirk Brothers sure can work up a storm.  Note the little half-moons on the black shutters.

This scene hands down makes me laugh every time.  Tom Hanks is the funny man who dominates the movie.

Walter collapses the scaffolding scene was so cleverly done and is a joy to watch every time.

The house is finally done and it’s amazing.

Walter and Anna are living separately in the house at the point when the house if finally finished due to a fight about Anna sleeping with her ex-husband Max, of which she did not actually do, but was led to believe by shallow ex-husband.

They agreed to put the house up for sale, but Walter says….

“This is the step, this is our step where it all started.”  ”You slept with Max and I don’t care.”  Anna: ” I didn’t sleep with Max.”  Thank goodness.  After all that work it is nice that they get back together and get to live in the house.

The house as seen in the movie after it’s completed looks wonderful with the flower boxes under each window.

Laughing at me is allowed because I only just now made the connection that in the opening and closing scenes of The Money Pit the older man getting married and then on his honeymoon is Walter’s father in the movie.

You may recall that at the end of the movie this same older man and his young wife are seen in Rio de Janerio buying a beautiful house from the same unscrupulous real estate scammers that sold Walter and Anna the money pit house.  How the heck did I not make the connection all these years?  This movie house is the Villa Vlzcaya at 3251 South Miami Avenue, Coconut Grove, South of Miami and is often seen in other movies -per On Location

The real The Money Pit movie house today is breathtakingly beautiful.  I was reading that this house style is called Federal and the name is gleaned from the era in America around 1780 through 1815.   The real house from the movie The Movie Pit was built in 1906 for HW Warner.  Then when William McNair owned the house, it was called Northway House.  It is located in Lattingtown, New York. -wikpedia

During the filming of The Money Pit, the house was owned by Eric Ridder Sr. who was a gold medal winner in 1952 as a member of the American yachting team. – wikpedia

Lattingtown, New York is in the Long Island Sound area on the south side, so I don’t know if it was hit by Hurricane Sandy.

~THE END~

For a Birds Eye View of the real The Money Pit house click here.

Sources:

Wikimapia.org for the real The Money Pit house today.

Wikipedia

On Location

More of my movie houses are under TV & Movie Houses here.