ANYONE who has seen "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," the classic 1948 comedy about the nightmares of homeownership, can readily recall favorite scenes. Remember the Blandings's difficulty in digging a well? Or the time they (Cary Grant and Myrna Loy) locked themselves in Muriel Blandings's dressing room? And no actress has ever described paint colors with as much panache as Miss Loy, when she requests that the kitchen walls be the shade of "unsalted butter." Benjamin Moore Paints uses such scenes in its current print and television advertising campaigns. When construction began in 1939, Mr. Hodgins anticipated a budget of $11,000 for his dream house. But the completed project ultimately escalated to a total of $56,000 -- which translates into roughly $2.2 million today -- a sum so inflated by his misconceptions that it nearly drove him into bankruptcy. He was forced to sell the house two years later, and went on to write two popular books about his experiences: "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," and the story of his family's brief residency, "Blandings Way." The book sales restored his fortune, and when he received $200,000 for the film rights to the original book -- provided by his New Milford neighbor, the producer Dore Schary -- Mr. Hodgins tried to buy back the house back, but to no avail. Nearly 50 years later, Mr. Hodgins's loss is once more proving to be another family's gain. The composer and author Stephen Citron and his wife, the biographer and novelist Anne Edwards, bought Blandings Way in 1980, when they too were trying to escape from the craziness of Manhattan. They were most impressed with the house's superior construction. "We're both passionate, and angry, about the loss of excellence in today's world," Ms. Edwards said. "Hodgins refused to compromise, no matter how tough times were financially."

Hodgins, Eric