In celebrating on closing on our first house, and shortly after (I’m actually talking hours) beginning work replacing some old wiring resulting in a mess (it could be much, much worse), we opted to watch an old classic on homeownership and the pitfalls of that glorious title, The Money Pit.

Walter Fielding Jr. (Tom Hanks) is a lawyer working for some odd musicians, some of which dressed very poorly in drag, and is dating Anna (Shelley Long) and trying to talk her into “making an honest man out of him,” but as she was married before to Max (Alexandar Godunov) and has since divorced, she has a sour taste in her mouth of marriage and says she doesn’t need a piece of paper from the state of New York for them to be together. Or maybe she’s just afraid of commitment?

Times are good for the couple. They stay in bed all day and live in a huge, fancy apartment in New York City together for free, and live the good life. This is until Anna’s ex-husband, without warning, comes back from Europe and wants the apartment back, leaving them homeless and in a search for an apartment in New York, which should take them months. Walter contacts a Real Estate Agent friend of his and they begin their search with lofty goals of an inexpensive New York apartment, in other words, a dream. Finally their bumbling agent coerces them into taking a look at something too good to be true: a million-dollar mansion on the market for $200,000. What could they lose?!

The house is a dream come true, of course. It’s owned by an odd old lady whose husband is being extradited by Israeli Intelligence for being in cahoots with Hitler, and she supposedly needs all the money she can get. The house is perfect, she tells them, a few problems but really they’re just quirks of an old home! But she needs to know by the close of business tomorrow, so of course, they’re pressured and take it. The day they move in begins well, Walter is repairing an old creaky stair and Anna is putting things away. Small things begin to go wrong, then the next thing they know the entire staircase comes crumbling down? So what is a couple with no money to do? Hire the cheapest workers they can find, of course, who keep ensuring them it’ll be all fixed up in 2 weeks! But one thing after another begins happening with the lemon they have purchased until it’s basically just a shell.

I will say this is not Hanks’ best work, but it does have it’s moments. Especially during the kitchen wiring fire when i just knew there would be a knob & tube issue…the same original wiring we’re currently replacing is torching their kitchen! So it was an appropriate watch for us. My favorite part is after they have been climbing up and down a ladder (staircase fell down) with buckets of water (sewage or some unknown slim comes out of their faucets) to fill the bathtub and the tub falls through the floor and shatters below them, Walter just stares down at the ruins and laughs hysterically for about a minute. I know the feeling! And Anna is just too sweet, dealing with all of the nonsense with grace and much better than I would!

I kind of know how he feels.

I think this is a must-see, not only for someone doing renovations on their house, but just a homeowner in general. Every piece of real estate is a money pit to some degree, and although one would hope not as extensively as the Fieldings’ but when you love an old house it just becomes part of the process.