I Toured the ‘Brady Bunch’ House and It Did Not Go As Planned

Nostalgia, it turns out, has a dark side

To make “A Very Brady Renovation”, HGTV bought the 1959 house used for the exterior shots, gutted the interior, and renovated it to look exactly like the Brady home. Photo courtesy of, and picturing, the author.

Six years ago, my mom and I met for lunch in my hometown of Edison, New Jersey. I had some time before my train back to New York City, so I suggested we drive by our old house, a 1961 suburban ranch my parents bought for $45,000 in 1971 when my mom was pregnant with me. We parked across the…