This is going to be a long post. You are now fore-warned. But I believe for Twilight fans, the content is going to be well worth it.
Some background information in case you are new: I love the book Twilight. They are making it into a movie. It is being filmed in Oregon and Washington.
You can imagine my shock when I discovered that they are filming in my area {panic attack begins}, and get this . . . . the set is literally across the street from a place I visit several times a week!!!!!!!!! {eyes buggin' out of my head} Just a few days ago I heard vague rumors about them filming here, but no real details (apparently I need to start subscribing to the local paper - because it was all in there). I thought no way, no way . . . they cannot be coming to our little po-dunk town. So imagine my shock (once again) as I'm standing outside this "location" and Paige points out the semi-truck and crew people just across the street! That's when the eyes started buggin'. And the mind starts racing -- I've gotta get up there and somehow I've gotta ditch my kids. Luckily, Scott was working from home (he got a flat tire on the way to work) so he was able to lend a most appreciated helping hand. Paige found a place to ditch her kids too. She swung by my house and picked me up and we began our Twilight adventure.
Here's the semi truck that was parked on the road
We started walking up the hill, a small secluded little street, and there are crew members here and there laying cable all over the place. One man working off to the right says, "There will be more to see tomorrow." Really. He informs us that they are going to be filming the next day starting at 7am and going for 12-14 hours. You can guarantee that we will be back. So we make it to the end of the road and there it is . . . . Charlie's house.
How they ever found this house in this little town and decided it would be perfect for the movie is just amazing to me. And I agree, it's pretty perfect.
There was a truckload of evergreen trees that they set up around the yard -- I guess to make it look more lush. There were also guys up on a lift trimming the trees in the front of the house.
How totally cool! We sighed and made our way back home to relieve the sitters and feed our kids lunch.
Scott was still home and I was getting the itch to go back. But there are responsibilities to take care of. So I made lunch, folded laundry, ironed, cleaned the playroom, and put Anna down for a nap. And got his approval to jet out again.
Recently I had seen photos of this house on a message board AND pics of the interior of the house. During my break at home I started wondering, what's keeping ME out of the house? Why don't I just ask? So I arrived at the location and in phone tag discovered that I had just missed Paige (she had also come back). With a little pep talk to "be brave for the both of us" I headed up the hill. Took a few pictures. There were a few more crew members unloading boxes from the back of a truck and taking them into the garage.
Can I just say that this is a very weird thing to do? To walk into an area where you know you don't necessarily belong, everyone knows you must be some crazed-fan so they are looking at you, and just plain feeling a little awkward and self-conscious. Anyways, there were two men standing in front of the house so I decided to just ask them: "Would it be okay to take a peek around the house or is that not allowed?" The guy looked at the other guy who kinda shrugged his shoulders, "I guess it's okay." Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!
I walked oh so carefully up the stairs, feeling like I might damage something, and just wanting to be inconspicuous. As I went through the door and left into the kitchen I had my phone in hand, almost whispering, "Paige, guess what? I'm in the house!" It didn't take long for her to decide that she needed to be there too. So I walked through the entire house which was pretty much completely furnished and staged for the movie.
As I said, the house was staged but there was quite a big of mess & clutter around as they were doing the final touches -- paint and stuff. It looks like the movie people really spent some work to fix up the house for the film -- new paint in every room, repainted kitchen cabinets, etc. And I assume the homeowners just had to move out for a while. I think I spotted the homeowner outside by her car, leaving. She called to me, "You brought your camera today?" I talked to a man doing touch-ups upstairs and he said that this was a good day to be visiting the house because tomorrow when they start filming everything was going to be closed off.
{Okay, so later in the day we found out that they beefed up security around the house because supposedly some people had gotten in, taken pictures, posted them on the internet, and the homeowner was feeling her privacy was being violated. I swear it wasn't us. We asked permission, everyone we talked to said it was okay, and no one tried to stop us. But in respect to her concerns I won't post pictures of the rooms in the house, the layout, etc. What I will post are some pictures of the set details -- things that obviously do not belong to the homeowner and are meant just for the movie.}
When Paige arrived I did a second go through of the house. One of the coolest things was seeing all the details that were specific to Charlie and Bella. Lots of childhood and baby pictures of Bella in picture frames through out the house. 
Lots of fishing paraphernalia on the walls. 
Police certificates and badges in Charlie's room. 
Bella's childhood artwork in places (a set designer, I assume, was painting a clay piece while we were there that said "I love you daddy". 
An Auto Trader type magazine open on the dining table (because Charlie was looking for a car for Bella), bills scattered everywhere, and giant black police boots sitting on some newspaper having just received a new shine and buff. And there was this mug by the recliner in the family room that said "I left to P - don't move this" (or something like that) and I swear, I vaguely remember that specific detail from the book! Please tell me if you remember it too.
On the front steps
See the smidgen of the guy on the right? And the black and white cooker thing on the step? He had about 3 of these and was stirring a thick white goo. He told us that he was the special effects guy and he was working on creating patches of ice for the sidewalk. This was going to be for a scene during the freak snow/ice storm. If you remember, the next morning there is black ice on the high school parking lot and Bella almost gets crushed by a van and Edward saves her. They already shot the crash scene somewhere else.
While there we also spotted 2 pages of the script laying on Bella's bed! I took a photo, but I'm not sure that it would be appropriate to post it. The scene it describes doesn't even take place at the house. It's at First Beach where Jacob is telling her about the treaty with the "pale faces". Nothing surprising or revealing in it -- pretty much straight from the book.
We left with a spring in our step and plans to return the next day.
Around 6:30pm I learn that a semi trailer hauling a beat up 50's red truck and a silver Volvo has been spotted on the highway.
At 9:15pm I got a call from Paige who has made another visit to the set, where the trailers are all set up now, and she has made friends with Jason the security guard. He gave her the okay to bring a friend down. So he escorted us through the aisles of trailers as we oogled over the character names written on masking tape and stuck on the doors.
We asked him if maybe he could arrange to be the guard on the set area the following night. We'll see if we're so lucky.
And while we were there the wardrobe trailer pulled in
