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Edith Macefield drew national media coverage when she refused
in 2006 a $1 million offer for her 1,000-square-foot house from
an investment company that eventually developed a
131,000-square-foot retail and office center around the home.
She died in 2008 and willed her house to a construction
superintendent she had befriended. He sold the house in 2009.
The house became famous after publicists for the "Up" movie tied
a cluster of balloons to the little two-story bungalow in 2009
to market the Disney-Pixar movie about a curmudgeonly old man
who refuses to sell his home and flies off in the house tied to
balloons.
The movie made more than $700 million at worldwide box offices
and won an Oscar for the best animated movie in 2010.
The company that now owns the boarded-up house owes nearly
$186,000, prompting the auction of the house, Seattlepi.com
reported, adding Friday's opening bid was set at $216,270.70.
None of five interested bidders ultimately placed a bid for the
house at the auction on Friday, making its future uncertain and
leaving it in the hands of a bank for now, newspaper website
Seattlepi.com reported.
On Friday, a handful of people came to see the house, one who
was there out of concern it might be torn down, and a bouquet of
flowers and an assortment of floating balloons were attached to
a chain link fence in front of the house.
A Facebook event page inviting people to "bring a balloon" on
auction day had more than 100 guests who said they were going to
view the house.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson and David Ryder in Seattle;
Editing by Sandra Maler)
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