Here’s the Story: The Renovated ‘Brady Bunch’ House Could Be Yours, If You Can Pay the $5.5M Purchase Price
For only $5.5 million dollars, you could buy one of the grooviest houses in pop culture history.
The house that was used for exteriors during the run of The Brady Bunch is up for sale. For decades, that house only matched the iconic Brady bungalow on the outside, as all the interior scenes were shot on a soundstage at Paramount Studios. But in 2018, the HGTV network won a bidding war for the property, and with the help of some of the cast, the property underwent an extensive renovation to make the inside of the home appear just as it did on the show.
After buying the property, located at 11222 Dilling Street, in 2018 for a mere $3.5 million, the network gave new life to the facade while gutting the interior. The network crew put in a lot of work to achieve verisimilitude with the show house. The work included adding a second story to the home, and when it was all done the network had faithfully recreated the show’s living room, kitchen, bedrooms, back yard and even the attic that until then only existed on Stage 5 of Paramount Studios.
The process was chronicled in 2019 event series A Very Brady Renovation, with the network recruiting Brady “kids” Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen, to work alongside HGTV talent and crew, as they did the renovations required to bring the fictional home into the real world.
Cast and crew members also scoured prop houses and resale shops in order to furnish the home with original (or as close as could be had) decor and design elements. The show proved to be a ratings bonanza for the channel, attracting 28 million viewers across its four week run in the fall of 2019.
HGTV invested an estimated $1.9 million into the renovations, which included the addition of the floating staircase and the orange and avocado kitchen that were in the background in so many of the show’s scenes. All told, the crew added 2,000 square feet to the original footprint of the home to make reality and fiction match. The house has since been used in HGTV specials, but has not been occupied since then.
The Brady Bunch show ran for five seasons, but remains a cultural icon to many even after more than five decades. For those too young to remember, the ABC comedy revolved around a blended family of eight, their live-in maid and occasional pets, and ran from 1969 through 1974. The orginal show was followed by sequels, a variety hour, TV movies, and satirical feature-film remakes, and has inspired countless pilgrimages to the address at 11222 Dilling Street. It has been dubbed ‘the second most-photographed home in America’ by some, trailing only the White House.
The sale price covers not only the home, but much of its made-for-TV contents, including the green floral living room couch and a 3D-printed replica of the series’ horse sculpture. If you are interested, and have $5.5 million to burn, the home is being listed by Danny Brown at Compass Realty.
The listing reminds potential home-buyers that the “fireplaces and some appliances/fixtures are decorative only” and indicates that there will be no open houses or previews. So, if you think you want to move your overlarge family and trusted maid into this one-of-a-kind home, you’d better make an appointment soon.