Making of The Notebook House

How Did Noah Repair the House for Allie? The exterior of the house is white with blue shutters, of course. But it needed more than a paint job to bring the building back to life. During renovations, the third-story porch was rebuilt. This high deck has great water views. However, the second story porch was torn off the front of the house. In the movie, it shows that Noah hitched this railing to his pickup truck and drove forward to tear it down. This left the two-story columns on the front of the house uninterrupted. From the main entrance, the foyer leads to a central staircase and two front rooms on either side. This staircase is where, on their first visit to the house, Noah says that the previous owner had proposed to his wife on these steps. The renovations made the stairs safe for walking. One of the front rooms became the dining room after renovations. When the young couple visited the house for the first time, this candlelit room had a neglected piano, cobwebs, and a blanket on the floor. When Allie returns after the renovations, the piano is still there, but now there's a fire in the fireplace and a handmade dining table where Noah and Allie share a meal. The side porch has the porch swing where Noah reads to Allie on a summer evening after they reunite. This side door leads to the kitchen which is off of the dining room. We don't see the kitchen on screen, but we know that after dinner with Martha, Allie cleans up the dishes and watches out the kitchen window while Noah says goodbye to Martha. Upstairs, Noah gave Allie the painting room she wanted. The windows overlook the water, and the easel is set up with a canvas. Since some parts of the movie were filmed at other locations, many viewers have commented about the architectural discrepancies of the room. On-screen, the view out of the window shows a covered porch with circular columns where she goes outside to paint. This discrepancy between what we see on-screen and what we know about the actual house had us guessing where exactly the painting room is located within the house. Even though some "movie magic" was used during filming, this is the location where we'd put the painting room if we were doing the home renovations. Upstairs is also the master bedroom. When Allie wakes up after their night together, Noah has left a series of arrows on the floor directing her to the painting room. When she leaves the bedroom, she runs down the hallway and to the left. This told us that the placement of the bedroom was on the opposite side of the house as the painting room. Some of the biggest changes to the house were the structural renovations that Noah needed to do to make the house livable and safe. Years of neglect meant the house had cracked walls, tilting windows, a leaning chimney, and other signs of foundation damage. With a location so close to the water, the house may have even been flooded at some point. Repairs included a new roof, replacing electrical systems, adding plumbing, stabilizing the chimney, leveling the foundation so the doors and windows work, refinishing the floor, and of course, adding a fresh coat of paint. Noah also updated the landscaping around the house. The overgrown brambles and fallen trees were cleaned up and transformed into a tidy yard. Not only does this help give the house an attractive finish, but the updates help contribute to the longevity of the structural improvements and prevent any additional foundation damage or roof problems from fallen tree limbs.