While the house from Home Alone may not be filled with dangerous booby traps IRL, living in the iconic movie residence came with its own set of challenges.
Former resident John Abendshien opened up about his and his family’s experience living in the Illinois home in his upcoming memoir, Home, But Alone No More, which hits bookshelves in November. In an excerpt published by Architectural Digest on Tuesday, May 27, Abendshien quipped that he and his ex-wife, Cynthia Demps, were “happily clueless” when they agreed to let their home be used for the 1990 Christmas movie.
“We had no crystal ball, no inkling of what lay ahead,” he wrote, per AD. The exes were previously approached about using their former home for the 1989 movie Uncle Buck. Upon moving into the Home Alone house that same year, they were contacted by director Chris Columbus about using the home’s exterior as the McCallister family’s residence. (Interiors for the house were filmed on a set built in a local high school gym.)
The then-couple lived in the house while Home Alone filming took place. And though they encountered the likes of cast members Catherine O’Hara and Joe Pesci, Abendshien wrote that he, Demps and their young daughter “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.”
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He added, “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.”
Following the film’s release the following year, Abendshien said nosy fans turned their residence into a “public exhibit.” He reached a “tipping point” when he encountered two teens dressed similarly to Harry (Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), a.k.a. the Wet Bandits, outside his home.
“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,” Abendshien shared.
Over time, Abendshien’s views on his home’s tourists softened, and he and Demps put the house up for sale in 2012. “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,” he wrote.
The Home Alone house reportedly sold for $5.5 million back in January. Abendshien shared some words of advice for the home’s new residents with AD on Tuesday, telling the outlet, “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. 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.”
Built in 1921, the Winnetka, Illinois, home features five bedrooms and six full bathrooms, per Zillow. The property was previously transformed into a Home Alone–inspired Airbnb in December 2021, allowing fans of the movie to experience a one-night stay in the McCallisters’ actual house.
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