I Lived in the Home Alone House: 3 People on What It’s Really Like to Live in a Pop Culture Famous Residence

When you’re watching a movie or TV show, it’s not just the characters that drive the story. The location plays an equally important role, and in some cases, an outsized one. Who doesn’t remember the idyllic English cottage that Amanda Woods (played by Cameron Diaz) rents in The Holiday? Or the iconic shot of San Francisco’s Painted Ladies in Full House’s opening credits?

Of course, though, finding that just-right location goes far beyond simply identifying the perfect home. “It is part puzzle, part hero’s journey,” says Tonya Hartz, a location scout who has worked on projects such as The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The X-Files, Smallville, and Watchmen. “And when the planets align and the universe conspires and you find that impossible place, there is a deep and quiet satisfaction that makes the sleepless nights, screen fatigue, driving in circles, extreme weather, and caffeine loops all worth it.”

The famous house from *Home Alone*, located in a Chicago suburb, has seen a steady stream of visiting fans for decades since the film’s 1990 release.

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When Hartz is tasked with finding the elusive setting that will help define a project, she first dives into the script, getting a sense of the location before researching properties intensively and contacting municipalities to ask whether they can film there. “A location must meet an overwhelming checklist of elements,” Hartz tells AD, such as a good establishing shot, a street where the rest of the homes visually align well, the right architecture for the character’s socioeconomic status, oversized rooms for lighting and film gear—and enough space outside for 75 to 200 personal film crew cars to park. “Most times, the location is the proverbial needle in the haystack. Where others melt under the weight of a location’s specifications, good location scouts rise to the challenge.”

But then, Hartz explains, she must convince the homeowners to work with the project. “Are they okay with 75 to 150 people—strangers—invading their property for an extended period? Are they okay living somewhere else for a week or a month?” she says. “If allowed inside, I get to know the owners. I begin building the relationship that I hope will last for years. I hear their stories. I see how they live. I photograph their space. Can we disrupt this life?”

In some cases, that life disruption goes far beyond the filming phase—for many of these houses that have become überfamous, avid fans have tracked down addresses to pay a visit. They come from all over the world, creating a distinctly unique experience for the homeowners who live there. The curiosity (and, let’s face it, the nostalgia factor) has even spawned recent documentaries like The House From…, directed by Tommy Avallone, which takes you inside some of the most famed homes in our pop culture lexicon.

So what is it really like living in these homes? We spoke with three homeowners whose houses you might be familiar with to see what it’s really like when the home you live in is the star of the show.

When John Abendshien and his former wife, Cynthia Demps, moved into the Georgian Colonial at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois, in 1989, they’d already had a few brushes with film scouts. They’d previously been approached about using one of their former homes as a set location for Uncle Buck; while neither their former house or the home at 671 Lincoln Ave were a fit for that movie, it wasn’t long before the same scout dropped by with director Chris Columbus to pitch them another movie: Home Alone.

The Georgian Colonial that was used to film Home Alone

“When we agreed to let Home Alone be filmed in our house, we were happily clueless; we had no crystal ball, no inkling of what lay ahead,” writes Abendshien in his forthcoming memoir Home But Alone No More (to be published in November 2025), which he shared exclusively with AD. Having just recently retired, Abendshien dove headfirst into writing a memoir about his time owning what’s come to be known as the Home Alone house. “I believe that I truly have an interesting story to tell and one that people seem to be eager to hear more about,” he tells AD. “I have shared from this human perspective why I believe that the film has become so popular globally, and why this house—what I describe as “an inert pile of bricks and sticks”—resonates so much with people from all over the globe.”

This Winnetka, Illinois, Georgian Colonial style dwelling appears in the classic 1990 film *Home Alone*.

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Abendshien, his former wife, and their young daughter lived in the house while the movie was filming, spending months shoulder-to-shoulder with the set crew and the likes of Catherine O’Hara and Joe Pesci. But staying in the house came with caveats about where they could go in their own home. “We commandeered our master bedroom suite, which included a snug sitting room with a fireplace and a sunroom/study, all safely removed from the main set,” Abendshien writes. “Sure, a few people might have thought we were nuts for staying at the home. But Jackie [the location scout] assured us the studio was cool with it, as long as we kept a low profile and stayed off the sets and out of the camera.”

When the movie was released in late 1990, no one could have predicted how much of a holiday juggernaut the film (and the house) would become, especially since it was released to lukewarm reviews. “Onlookers pressed their noses against our windows, wandered through our backyard, turning our private space into a public exhibit,” Abendshien writes. Fans ranged from looky-loo gawkers who paraded down Lincoln Avenue in their cars, straining for a passing glance, to teens trying to recreate certain scenes in the movie. “The tipping point came one night in that winter of 1991,” Abendshien writes. “I stormed outside, following the telltale tracks in the snow, only to find a pair of teenagers in costumes that were an uncanny homage to Harry and Marv, the Wet Bandits themselves. There they were, pointing up at the third-floor window—the same window Kevin used for his zip line escape in the movie—while a third kid documented their reenactment with a camera.”

A visit to the home is a popular tourist activity for fans of the film.

Eventually, Abendshien came to appreciate and even welcome the tourists, asking them where they came from and why they’d come so far just to see a house in Winnetka. After 23 years, the couple decided to sell their home, not because the fan pressure had driven them out, but for a much more common reason: They were empty nesters. “In 2012, after much hemming and hawing, Cynthia and I finally decided to sell the Home Alone house,” Abendeshien writes. “By then, we were empty nesters, rattling around in a house with more square footage than we needed, and footing the bill for property taxes that I thought could fund a small country.”

Most recently, the Georgian Colonial—which has undergone extensive renovations that doubled its square footage—sold for over $5 million in 2024. Abendshien knows the roller coaster that is living at 671 Lincoln Ave. “I can only hope that the new occupants can just ‘let it breathe’ and experience the iconic fame of the home not as a negative thing, but as a gift—a gift and a joy that can be shared with others,” he tells AD. “Having recently met the new owner, I believe that they are fully into this perspective—and that they are truly looking forward to the adventure of it all.”

In the mid-1980s, a little-known director named Tim Burton was getting ready to make a follow-up movie to comedian Paul Reubens’s live performance The Pee-wee Herman Show. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure follows Pee-wee as he sets off across the country to find his bike, which was stolen from in front of his house. The home, bright red with quirky props dotting the front yard, actually belongs to Bill Young, whose parents purchased the South Pasadena residence in the mid-1970s. “It was very affordable back then,” Young says.

Bill Young in front of his family home, which was used to film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure

Young says his family was surprised when location scouts came knocking on the modest family home. “They explained that everything will be shot outside, and they wanted to dress up the front and backyards and paint the house,” Young explains. “Even knowing that, we couldn’t believe it when they painted the house a firehouse red. They even built a small enclosure to reveal Pee-wee’s bicycle inside.” According to Young, plenty of cast and crew were working around the house, but the neighborhood stayed pretty quiet during filming. “I think that’s because no one knew who Pee-wee was,” he says. “Production only took a few days, and they painted the house back to the original color.”

After the movie was released in 1985, viewers began to discover the house. “Many fans had come to take selfies in front of the house,” Young says. “They all were cool about it and didn’t disturb us. One even left a little souvenir of a hand-painted rock on the fence.”

Paul Reubens in Pee-wees Big Adventure

Today, Young and his family still own the house, but no longer live in it—they rent it out full-time. As for their tenant? They enjoy the occasional Pee-wee Herman reference: “This last Halloween, our tenant dressed up as Pee-wee, and everyone loved that,” Young says.

Starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, Friday is a buddy-comedy movie that came out in 1995 and ended up spawning a trilogy. Fans of the movie might recall Ice Cube and Tucker hanging out in front of a specific house in Los Angeles, which owner Sharon Jones purchased in 1998 right before the second installment was filmed.

During the film shoot, Jones and her family stayed in their home, which was modified slightly to fit the filmmaker’s vision. “They wanted a specific aesthetic, so they asked us to let the grass die and even brought in fake bushes to match their vision,” Jones explains. “The crew handled everything themselves, including bringing in props and modifying the house for filming. After they wrapped, they restored everything exactly as it was—they even repainted the house back to its original blue.”

Sharon Jones on the porch of her home. A sign details rules for visitors.

When the movies came out, the home’s location was pretty anonymous, so Jones and her family didn’t initially have a swarm of fans dropping by, except for the occasional visitor here and there. But that changed quickly when the home was featured in a Google commercial and social media picked it up. “Fans started showing up at all hours—yes, even nighttime—sometimes even stepping onto the porch uninvited,” Jones shares. “To manage the crowds, we began setting specific visiting hours and adding props to recreate the movie’s atmosphere. Over time, the house took on a life of its own, and we decided to fully embrace its legacy.”

Today, Jones says she enjoys meeting the fans who come by her home. “The best part is meeting people from all over the world—whether they’re die-hard fans or individuals who have a deep personal connection to the movie,” she says. “Being able to share this piece of film history with others has been an incredible experience.”