A house and a little contest.

Today we went to see a house. When I say we, I really mean I was the one who wanted to see this house and Eric and the girls were just along for the ride.



I was so excited to see this house that I was actually a little giddy. Eric laughed out loud because I was sitting in the car grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

The house, and more than four acres of yard, are surrounded by a giant rock wall. (I've never seen a wall in the pictures and it really made my gawking challenging!) We had to drive past the house and then turn around and wait until there were no cars coming so we could drive by again and linger in the front for a couple moments.



This is a house that I've seen in pictures many, many, many times. I've seen pictures of this house decorated for holidays. I've seen pictures of this house filled with people for parties. And I've seen pictures of countless decorating projects within its walls.

And it's because of those pictures that poor Eric has gotten roped into more than one project.

I saw a picture of the house with pumpkins, with perfectly-round holes, decorating the steps for Halloween. I convinced Eric to help me drill holes in pumpkins for the front of our house. This is not a project I would reccomend. A drill plus a pumpkin equals an enormous mess. There is no way to keep the pumpkin goop from flying everywhere and even though I did this on the patio, I was picking up pumpkin guts for weeks.

It was a picture of the Thanksgiving table at this house that sent Eric and I on a many-hour jaunt in search of fall leaves. We lived in Arizona at the time where fall leaves are hard to come by but we drove and drove until we found some.

I saw this house all decked out for Christmas and especially liked the trees in the yard filled with glittering balls of small white lights. My sweet husband made me dozens of similar balls out of chicken wire wrapped with lights that get put in our trees each year for Christmas.

The house was purchased in 1975 for $50,000. (An additional two-acre parcel of land was later purchased for an additional $40,000.) It sold several years ago for $6.7 million -- a bargain since the asking price was closer to $10 million. Not a bad investment huh?

I'm guessing that you've likely seen a picture of this house at one time or another too. Do you recognize it?

So, here's the contest . . . What is the name of this house? (Yes, it has a name.) What city and state is it located in? And, who used to own it?

You can leave your answers in the comment section. So it's fair, I won't publish the comments until after the deadline. Everyone who answers all three parts correctly will be entered into the drawing for a great prize. (I'm not sure yet what the prize will be but I promise it will be something good!)

You have until Monday, August 16 at 12:00 midnight to enter.