Home Sweet House

I’m a nut for old movies. There are those who’d say I don’t need to qualify the “I’m a nut” statement, but this is my blog so I will. My list of favorite old movies has many subsets and categories including one with only four members . It is the subset whose members are movies with houses I absolutely and totally adore.

All That Heaven Allows - a ‘woman’s’ movie from the 50's with odd cinematographic colors, but with an old mill that is turned from a wreck into a freaking masterpiece. It is the space for which I would spend years taking classes in carpentry in order to rehab if I owned the old mill and had the money.

Christmas in Connecticut - a fun holiday movie with a woman who writes a cooking and homekeeping pre-Martha Stewart column in a magazine without knowing how to boil an egg or make a bed. Her stretching of the truth concerning her abilities snowballs until she is put in the position of entertaining a war hero on her perfect farm in the country. It is this perfect farm I adore. There is a huge room for entertaining, bedrooms galore, a front staircase and a back staircase for sneaking down into the kitchen for a late night snack as well as the coolest den ever. And every room except the kitchen has a wood burning fireplace. Since the house exists in Holly-world and not the real world, fires burn in all the fireplaces all the time.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - the first of my two ghost movies to make the house list. Gull Cottage with all its nooks and crannies, turrets, window seats, fireplaces, outdoor balconies and old paintings.

The Uninvited - my favorite ghost story as well as my favorite movie house, Windward, is from this wonderful little gem of a movie. All of the houses in this movie are great, but Windward is the best. Tall ceilings, wide floor to ceiling windows, carved wooden trim, a sweeping staircase and fireplaces, including one in the bathroom. Candles, firelight and wonderful tall oil lamps with etched shades, too, because this house does not feature electricity. And Windward is haunted by not one, but two ghosts. What more could I ask for in a house?