PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

I’m still using this little beast to keep ahead of the curve!

 

Me and my cousins, on this day, exactly 25 years ago!

 

Those kinds of pictures are priceless!

 

Makes it look windier than it actually was...

 

I did some research, and the Newton home is supposed to be in Valley Vista, California; From what I can tell, there is no place called "Valley Vista" anywhere in California either. As stated above, the real house is located in Pasadena, California; More specifically, it is located at 1405 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena, California. All scenes featuring the exterior of the house in both of the original two Beethoven movies were filmed on location; Most scenes inside the house were filmed at studio/sound stage...

The house literally turns 100 this year; Data on Zillow says it was built in 1921! Also according to Zillow, it is 3,143 square feet, and has 5 bedrooms; Looking at exterior pictures of the house (no interior pictures exist that I am aware of ), this seems about right...

However, Zillow also says that the house has only two bathrooms; This makes little sense given the house's size! I'm guessing that the house has at least two full bathrooms on the second floor and one half bathroom (powder room) on the first floor; The house is revealed to have a basement in the second film (uncommon in Southern California), and the basement plays a central role in the plot during the first part of the movie. The basement is unfinished, and I'm guessing this was just a set on a sound stage somewhere in LA; I think it is entirely possible that the house has a basement, but I have no way of knowing for sure

The home's estimated value as of January 2021 is almost $2.7 million, which seems about right for a large 5-bedroom in the LA suburbs; According public records listed on Zillow, the house was last sold for just $645,000 in October 1987! This was a lot of money for a house in 1987, and is hardly cheap by today's standards in most areas, but the Beethoven house cost less in 1987 than my parents paid for their current house in 2016! Considering that the Beethoven house was purchased by its real-life owners over 33 years ago, I think it's safe to say that the mortgage has long since been paid off; Can you imagine? The house has gone up in value by more than TWO MILLION DOLLARS!

Obviously, a house built in 1921 would not originally have central A/C; In that part of California, some houses to this day still do not have central air, but I'm guessing that even in the late 1980s a house costing almost $650K would have been retrofitted with central air years prior; So yes, I am pretty sure that the house was outfitted with central A/C at some point prior to 1985. At over 3,100 square feet, I'm guessing it has two units, one for the first floor and one for the second floor; A gas stove can be seen in the kitchen scenes (supposedly on a set, but likely based on the real kitchen), and most houses in that area have gas heat, so I'm guessing it has zoned forced air gas heat.

I haven't seen either of the original two Beethoven movies in probably five years, but even in the mid-2010s, the interior decor is not particularly outdated; The inside of the house was actually a set, as stated above, but the kitchen for example was very nice even by 21st century standard (the movies took place in 1992 and 1993, respectively)!

CLICK HERE to see the Zillow page for South Pasadena home that portrayed the Newton residence in the first two movies!

 

The Google Earth Street View Imagery is from February 2019; Look what I found parked in front of the house next door to the Beethoven house!

 

Nope. I hate snowplows...

 

More patches; Two of them came with free Smarties!

 

99% sure I killed the snowblower; Runs great and still moves under its own power, but the auger drive seems to be getting weaker and weaker...



My dad is open to the idea of buying a new one though!

 

I binge-watched the first two Beethoven movies last night and realized that the kitchen is different in both movies, not just in terms of decor and finishes, but layout as well; In the first movie, the layout is much simpler and the kitchen seems smaller, featuring fairly new appliances. The kitchen in the first movie is very standard, like what you’d find in just about any home in America built from the 1960s to the present day, and not a 1921 colonial in SoCal...

The kitchen in the 1993 sequel is much larger and of a significantly different layout, and I believe they shot the movie inside the actual house rather than on a set. For starters, it features a cooktop and a separate wall oven, rather than the gas range seen in the first movie; The stove and the dishwasher in the first movie are black, whereas the dishwasher is white in the second movie (it’s hard to tell what color the cooktop is).

On top of that, the wall oven in the second movie is not a modern double oven or microwave/oven combo measuring 27” or 30”, but rather an old (1980s at the newest) 24” single oven. The 24” ovens are no longer installed in new construction homes, but at least one company (General Electric) still makes them as direct drop-in replacements for older units that fail. Considering that the house was built in 1921, this kitchen is much more believable as the actual kitchen; Even though the oven is old, the kitchen is not outdated by 1993 standards and in fact looks downright classy!

The oven is white with black and chrome trim, and may be a gas oven rather than electric; Only 24” wall ovens are available with gas as a fuel source, and all other sizes are electric-only.

The kitchen in the first film seems to have gray speckled Corian/solid surface countertops and clearly has off-white cabinet; The countertops in the second movie are white, but it is hard to tell what kind they are. The cabinets in the second movie are also white.

 

The children’s bedrooms differ in the two movies, not just in decor but in size and layout; As stated above, I believe that they filmed the interior scenes in the first movie on location...

 

My neighbor is gonna let me borrow his Cub Cadet machine; However, I gave my dad an ultimatum...

Either help me buy a new snowblower or pay a guy with a snowplow, because I am not shoveling snow again!

 

My next door neighbor got a very expensive snowblower as a gift in late 2019 or early 2020; However, we got pretty much no snow that winter and he decided he wanted a riding mower instead. He couldn’t afford the entire price of that new John Deere, so he traded the snowblower for the Deere...

His family does not have a pickup truck, so he paid me $20 to haul the snowblower to Home Depot. He had not picked out a tractor yet, and Home Depot delivered the Deere, so he did not need Charlie and his Tacoma Moving Service to bring that back home.

Recently, our HOA decided to include lawn mowing in its annual services, negating the need for even a push mower, much less a John Deere that costs as much as a decent used car! Now, my neighbor is seriously regretting getting rid of the snowblower for obvious reasons, and plans to sell the tractor to buy another snowblower!

My neighbor is presently using my other neighbor’s Cub Cadet to clear his driveway, and then I will use it; After that, I will top off the gas and return it to my neighbor.