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Arts & Entertainment

'A Very Brady Renovation' Turns The Brady Bunch's Valley House Into What You Already Thought It Was

Seeing this shot will make a certain theme song run through the heads of everyone who saw this show. (Courtesy HGTV)

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While they never explicitly said where the family lived, the house from the classic TV sitcom The Brady Bunch is totally located in the Valley.

That famous design, however, was only used for exterior shots of the house. The insides of the of the Brady home existed as sets on Paramount Studios' Stage 5.

But now it's 2019 and nothing makes sense so HGTV has renovated the real thing.

The actual house's guts now (nearly) match its television insides.

Naturally, there's a show documenting the changes, A Very Brady Renovation, and it debuted Monday night. You can stream it for free online.

Showing how much we as a people deeply care about pop culture, HGTV shot more than 9,000 hours of footage of the process. That includes everything from the house going on sale to demolishing much of what was there before, renovating, and getting all the details just right.

The pilot episode features such delights as the Brady kids all joining in with sledgehammers to take apart the existing house.

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Don't give those Bradys any heavy machinery. (Courtesy HGTV)

With such a big project, they knew they might need some help getting through red tape, so the first episode shows them getting Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's office to throw their support behind the project. They brought back all six of the TV Brady kids to be part of the show, alongside HGTV stars from across their shows, including the Property Brothers -- it's a home improvement Avengers.

The house wasn't big enough to hold everything from the show, so they added 2,000 square feet to the house. They still wanted to keep its iconic street view intact, which meant adding a two-story addition on to the back -- and putting Greg's "attic" bedroom in the basement rec room.

Here's a tour of the house from before the HGTV crew went to work:

The HGTV stars broke into teams to renovate the home over different episodes. The different areas they focused on were:

  • The entryway, living room, floating staircase, and dining room
  • Overhauling the front exterior
  • Recreating the orange and green kitchen, along with the family room
  • Creating the kids' bedrooms, Jack-and-Jill bathroom, and making the backyard into the TV version
  • Dad/Mike's den
  • Greg's attic
  • Alice the maid's bedroom

One mystery we can settle: yes, there will be a Greg bedroom -- but it's going to be his later attic room. The show decided to largely stick to the season 1 design, before Greg's short-lived psychedelic takeover of Mike's den.

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They turned to the people for authenticity, crowdsourcing vintage furniture and decor. The show even set up a command post, renting the house next door to run things, including going through set photos to help pick out just the right items. Some of those specific touches include the living room couch and credenza, Greg's attic radio, the front door handles, and other Brady family trinkets.

"HGTV left no stone unturned, creating a perfect replica of the home down to the horse statue next to the staircase and the stuffed animal giraffe in the girls' bedroom," HGTV President Jane Latman said in a press release.

HGTV knows that this renovation is their moment -- in addition to the main show, there's an after show, a behind-the-scenes show called Building Brady, and Sunshine Upcycle, which shows how retro fixtures that didn't make the cut are used for new projects.

Watch the first episode's after show below:

They also have a contest that ends Wednesday afternoon offering a Brady Bunch dream: the chance to live in the house for six nights, from Dec. 9-15. For those not in the area, they get roundtrip airfare for themselves and, befitting the show, six guests. They'll also get an L.A. tourist experience and $25,000 cash. If you want to squeeze in before the contest closes, submit a 30- to 90-second video showing why you deserve this prize.

Now, which iconic SoCal TV house should get the A Very Brady Renovation treatment next? We're rooting for the mansion from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but we're open to other ideas (and an investor who will make our TV dreams come true).

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