Jen’s House from “Dead to Me”

The Grim Cheaper and I admittedly become obsessed with a lot of shows.  But it is a rare occasion (at least as of late) to find ourselves consumed by a series filmed entirely in L.A. (Bosch and Brooklyn Nine-Nine notwithstanding).  Darn runaway production!  So I was ecstatic to discover the thrilling, hilarious AND locally shot Dead to Me.  A few sites from the new Netflix original I recognized immediately, like The Warehouse Restaurant which masked as Dana Point eatery Point Bliss, where Bambi (Olivia Macklin) worked.  Other spots I set about tracking down as soon we finished binging it.  At the top of my list of to-find places was the supposed Laguna Beach abode where widow Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) lived with her two sons, Charlie (Sam McCarthy) and Henry (Luke Roessler), and new BFF, Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini).  Fortunately, it was a snap to pinpoint.

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While plowing through the series’ ten episodes (which the GC and I did in just two days), I noticed an address number of “3847” visible on the curb in front of Jen’s house in several establishing shots.  I had an inkling the pad was located somewhere in the Studio City/Sherman Oaks/Encino vicinity and hit pay dirt when I entered “3847,” “house” and “Sherman Oaks” into Google.  An address of 3847 Deervale Drive was kicked back and, sure enough, it was the right place!

Aside from the front door which was painted bright yellow for the production, the Cape Cod-style dwelling looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen . . .

. . . right down to the script on the mailbox.

In real life, the charming property boasts 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 4,909 square feet of living space, a kitchen featuring Carrara marble and Caesar stone counters, a breakfast nook, French doors throughout, multiple fireplaces (including one outside), a formal dining room, a media room, a butler’s pantry, a pool, a spa, and a covered backyard loggia.

The 1960 pad, which was heavily remodeled in 2010, last sold for a whopping $2.5-million in January 2011.

Only the exterior of the home appeared on Dead to Me.  All interiors were filmed on a studio-built set.

Said set was modeled very closely upon the residence’s actual inside, as you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS images from the 2011 sale above and below.  In fact, the home so closely resembles its TV counterpart that at first I thought filming had taken place on location there.  Upon closer inspection, though, I noticed a few differences.  In the actual kitchen, for instance, there is no spacing between the windows and the upper cabinets that frame them, but the set windows are surrounded by a perimeter of wall space.  And while the actual home’s real life lower cabinets are made up of drawers, the set’s aren’t.

Other than that, though, Jen’s kitchen is a dead ringer for that of the actual house.

As is the breakfast nook area just beyond it.

The living room set also closely matches the actual living room, though I am unsure why production added that odd yellow window-like insert to the otherwise sleek built-ins.

Lacking wallpaper, curtains and a shelving unit, the home’s dining room is much less ornate than its television dupe, though its shape, layout and wainscotting are the same.

Jen’s master bedroom also bears a similar layout and window/French door schematic to that of the actual house . . .

. . . though her bedroom’s side wall has a cut-out, which the real residence does not.

While the interior of 3847 Deervale was not utilized for filming, its backyard was.

The pool got a lot of airtime . . .

. . . and the outdoor fireplace made an appearance in the pilot (although it was closed off with white cabinet doors and a television installed above it for the shoot).

Shockingly, the guest house where Judy lived is not a real element of the residence.  Much like the Cohen family’s pool house on fave show The O.C., the structure was a just a façade built for the production in the area adjacent to the pool.

The spot where it was constructed is home to a patch of grass in real life.

As was the case with Jen’s residence, the interior of the guest house was a studio-built set.

Jen’s pad is not the only Dead to Me location to be found on Deervale Drive!  The property belonging to her neighbor, Karen (Suzy Nakamura), aka the Mexican Lasagna Lady (who Redditors have some interesting theories about), is right next door at 3869 Deervale.

It, too, looks much the same as it did onscreen.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Jen Harding’s house from Dead to Me is located at 3847 Deervale Drive in Sherman Oaks.  Karen’s home from the series is right next door at 3869 Deervale Drive.