Most builders have a particular vision in their heads when they are designing a house – now, it doesn’t matter if they are recreating the home of someone important, or just replicating house from a TV show or the movies – some people have this knack for taking their inspiration, very, very seriously! They almost turn into their everyday reality!
Here’s a list of homes/houses which are inspired by people, politics, pop culture, and believe it or not, most of them are up for sale!
Inspired by the Movie HALLOWEEN
Location: Hillsborough, North Carolina
Year Built: 2009
Price: undisclosed
Square footage: 1,900
Bedrooms / baths: 3 / 2.5
The home of Kenny Caperton and Emily Currier, The Myers House is located in North Carolina. Caperton can be duly accorded the honor of being a lifelong horror fan who’s favorite slasher movie is ‘Halloween.’
Caperton got his inspiration for building this replica after he saw the real house where the movie was filmed in Pasadena, California. The idea was to draw up a plan to recreate the house without the aid of the original blue prints. Anyhow, the 1970s décor and appliances (as in the original film) weren’t duplicated – instead a more rustic/Victorian interior style with vintage Halloween items and memorabilia as accent pieces was adopted.
Inspired by the Movie Up
Location: Herriman, Utah
Year Built: 2011
Price: TBD, but “should be below $475,000”
Square footage: 2,800
Bedrooms / baths: 4 / 3.5
The inspiration for building this house came to a third generation homebuilder, Blair Bangerter while watching the Pixar film, ‘UP’. During watching the film he realized that the starring house was so planned out that it could be built in real life.
After he got the necessary permissions from Disney/Pixar, Bangerter got down to building the fiction, turn of the century style house and well – what came out of this effort can be seen in the 65th Salt Lake Parade of Homes with a bunch of balloons attached to the roof!
The recreated house has been replicated down to minutest details like furniture, wall murals etc. According to Bangerter, ‘Many dedicated sub-contractors and suppliers who worked on this one-of-a-kind home have enthusiastically added their expertise to get the details right.’ He goes on to explain how more than once the workers could be caught using portable DVD players on the construction site, reviewing the details as they looked in the movie to successfully replicate them.
Inspired by the White House
Location: McLean, Virginia
Year Built: 1995
Price: $4,650,000
Square footage: 12,020
Bedrooms / baths: 6 / 8
Who doesn’t want a house like this one – The White House is unquestionably the most desired house, no dispute! As can be expected, there are numerous replicas that exist of the Nation’s First Home. The best one though is located in Atlanta, Georgia.
The seller of this house is an unnamed Engineer who wanted to pay tribute to the country that generously took him in – this according to a blog on the Washington Post website.
This replica of the original White House is built to the specs of the original White House blue prints but on a one fifth scale. This house has also been used as a stand-in for the original white house in the movie ‘Independence Day’.
Inspired by the TV Show the Simpsons
Location: Henderson, Nevada
Year Built: 1997
Price when new: $120,000
Square footage: 2,182
Bedrooms / baths: 4 / 2
Well, the real life version of the Simpson’s (fictional) home was built as a contest prize. The look of the house has been toned down to conform to the regulations of the housing tract’s homeowners’ association, though originally the exterior and interiors of the house were done in the cartoon’s bright colors and it contained around 1500 props.
The winner of the contest chose to take the cash prize of $75,000 instead of moving into this house. After the house was opened to the public for a month and a half, some 30,000 lookie-Lous including the Simpsons creator Matt Groening toured it, the house was de-Simpsonized and sold.
Inspired by the Virginia Governor’s Mansion
Location: Eads, Tennessee
Year Built: 1999
Price: $800,000
Square footage: 7,999
Bedrooms / baths: 5 / 5 full, 1 partial
A replica of Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion, this colonial style home is built on four acres, with a lake view; it features a fireplace in its master suite, a cook’s kitchen with huge island and dual stainless refrigerators, and a brick patio with an outdoor fireplace.
Inspired by Snow White’s Cottage
Location: Los Angeles, California
Year Built: 1976
Price: $1,175,000
Square footage: 1,896
Bedrooms / baths: 2 / 2.5
Hardly would there be a person who would not have been fascinated at some point by the famous Snow-white and her seven buddies. This woody cedar cottage was originally designed by and built for Adriana Caselotti, who provided the voice of Snow White in the 1937 Disney animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Here in this house, you may find some features you will probably never find listed for another house – ‘restored wishing well, and dwarf bridge’…!!! Also, included in the purchase price is an original painting by a Disney Studio Artist.
Inspired by the Vision of Katherine Hepburn
Location: Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Year Built: 1939
Price: $28,000,000
Square footage: 8,368
Bedrooms / baths: 6 / 7.5
Everyone knows Katherine Hepburn. And everyone knows that a strong willed enigma as her required no other inspiration than herself to create this amazing estate on the Long Island Sound, now on the market.
Katherine Hepburn had a vision of her dream home and had a model version built using a set of building blocks from FAO Schwarz – the plans were further drawn from there.
She lived on the estate’s 3.4 acres until the time of her death; she also ensured that 3 additional acres surrounding the grounds would be forever protected from development.
The current owner of the house is renovating and the process includes raising the house five feet to protect it from the water.
Gardens Inspired by Versailles Palace
Location: Thousand Oaks, California
Year Built: 2009
Price: $19,995,000
Square footage: 16,000
Bedrooms / baths: 7 / 11
The Gardens of Versailles, for those who have seen them, remain, a thing of beauty so marvelous that often words are not enough to capture their brilliance – they embodies the manicured French Style and are protected by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. There are very few modern mansions that have an elaborate planting scheme(s) as this one as they take after their famous Versailles predecessor.
Inspired by Monticello
Location: Alpharetta, Georgia
Year Built: 2002
Price: $9,250,000
Square footage: 13,043
Bedrooms / baths: 9 / 10
Inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, this lakeside mansion is situated in Georgia on 60 acres worth land. Monticello was designed by the third US President himself, and it was inspired by the neoclassical principles of the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.
There may be no dome in this version but it shows much of the same careful symmetry, scale and proportion of Jefferson’s deign. Also, this imitation includes more than a few extras that the original probably did not have – a media room, walk in closets or his-her master baths.
Inspired by the Movie Home Alone
Location: anywhere
Year Built: none, yet
Square footage: approx. 4,000
Bedrooms / baths: 4 / 3 whole, 2 half
This ‘famous’ house, of the fame of the movie ‘Home Alone’ (1990) went on sale this year. The huge attention bestowed upon the house encouraged a certain Brandon Smith of Southgate Residential to draw up plans for people who wanted to have their own McAllister houses built.
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