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1313 mockingbird lane texas6/8/2023 "But they really use it as a storm shelter. "They call it 'Grandpa's dungeon,' " says Deborah Kurtz, a TV producer who recently visited the McKee home to tape a segment for an HGTV special on hidden rooms, set to air in early 2007. Another secret space in the home includes a trapdoor in the living room floor. In a feat of engineering, the staircase actually lifts up to reveal the living quarters of Spot, the Munsters' pet dinosaur. ![]() At the top of the staircase stands a suit of armor the homeowners found at a local antiques store they recently commissioned a craftsman to build a revolving platform for the piece. 1 project in the house that I made sure we got right," was created by local artisan Frank Ramirez. The oak staircase, which Sandra McKee calls "the No. Of particular note in this space: a secret passageway that originates behind the bookcase. She is currently replacing the portraits on the wall with landscapes, which are more faithful to the Munsters' decorative vision.Įddie's room, meanwhile, serves as prop storage for these empty-nesters, who have three children and eight grandchildren. The crushed velvet bedspread came from the Linen Source, and she made the velvet canopies on the bed herself. "When I think of Lily, I think of purple," she says. the master suite), Sandra McKee gravitated to aubergine and plum. Julie Law, owner of the Painted Lady in Waxahachie, is responsible for other trompe l'oeil ("trick the eye") effects throughout the house.īecause the TV series was shot in black and white, the McKees had to improvise on color selection. ![]() This year, Mitchell, also the artist behind the faux paintings on the fireplace in the kitchen, plans to donate all of the dead flowers that will adorn the house during the Halloween season. The candelabra that sits on the mantel of the non-working fireplace (another chore on Charles McKee's list) was a present from Ray Mitchell, owner of the Snapdragon, a Waxahachie floral shop. (She won the harp in the room on an eBay auction, too.) Once it arrived, she and her husband fit the shell with a contemporary (and working) set. ![]() Sandra McKee then found a non-working vintage TV on eBay, her favorite online shopping site. Though the McKees built the electric chair themselves, a pal in Pennsylvania constructed a clock on a stand that's the twin of the Munsters' own. While Charles McKee did the handiwork, a network of friends and fellow fans helped transform the interior into the image of the TV residence. ![]() Before breaking ground, she watched all 70 "Munsters" episodes with an eye to design and decor she sketched out the rooms and the exterior from the architecture to the landscaping by herself. She approached the project from the start as a hands-on venture. The results are impressive: a two-story, 5,825-square-foot structure that boasts a Victorian-style exterior, hydraulic staircase, dungeon that doubles as a storm shelter, plus secret rooms and passageways.īuilding Sandra McKee's dream home, which sits on two acres of land, proved nightmarish in some respects (contractor woes), but she and her husband, owner of a local plumbing company, triumphed over their early travails by doing much of the work themselves. Rising up from the plains stands a monument to the macabre, a shrine to the spine-chilling, and, most of all, a sanctuary celebrating the unshakable spell certain TV shows seem to cast.Īs longtime fans of "The Munsters," the '60s comedy that followed the antics of a family of friendly fiends, Waxahachie, Tex., residents Charles and Sandra McKee have spent the past four years building a replica of the fictional home that stood at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
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