of the house in the series. The $120,000 house was constructed for use as the grand prize in a contest known as "The Simpsons House Give Away", sponsored by Pepsi, Fox, and the homebuilder. The contest was announced on July 10, 1997. The rules of the contest stipulated that the winner either accept the house or a $75,000 cash payment. In addition, the winner of the house, if they chose to occupy it, was contractually obligated to repaint the exterior in accordance with the local homeowner's association rules. Contest entries were included on various Pepsi products and 15 million were submitted nationally. The winner was Barbara Howard from Richmond, Kentucky. Howard chose not to accept the house, instead taking a cash payment per the contest rules. In 2001, after most of the details relating to the television series were removed, the house was sold by the builder to another owner. The house, located in a subdivision that was permanently named "Springfield South Valley Ranch", took 49 days to build and was unveiled to the public on August 1, 1997. Construction on the house was nearly complete by July 1997, and by September 1997 thousands of people were lining up to see the finished product. During the time it was open to the public in August and September 1997, more than 30,000 people visited the house, including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Design The Simpsons House was designed by Kaufman and Broad homebuilders. The idea for a replica of the Simpsons house was first conceived when game designers were working on 3D visualizations at Fox Interactive for the video game The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield. In preparation for the project the design team viewed episodes of The Simpsons to use as a guide for the home's design. Dozens of episodes were viewed so that the design was drawn directly from the animation. Early on it became clear that the cartoon house was not structurally sound; in the show the home has no load bearing walls. The finished replica, however, met all building codes. The architects focused their efforts on Bart's bedroom and the television room, making sure those rooms were as close to the reality of the series as possible. One of the challenges architects faced was the constantly changing nature of the onscreen house. For instance, the bay window has changed shape through the years. When it was constructed the four-bedroom,