Work continues on house from 'A Christmas Story'

The man who owns the house bought it in an eBay auction.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The man who bought the house featured in the classic holiday film "A Christmas Story" said the two-story duplex near downtown is being renovated and should be ready to open as a museum next year.
Fans of the 1983 movie have already taken advantage of tours being offered while Brian Jones, 29, of San Diego, and his wife work on the restoration. More than 600 people visited during the Thanksgiving break, and hundreds more have come through in the last two weeks, curator Steve Siedlecki said.
Jones, a former Navy man with a degree in aerospace engineering, bought the house for $150,000 in an eBay auction and flew to Cleveland for the first time last December, heading directly to the house.
"It's just a great, all-American movie that combines all the endearing parts of Christmas," Jones said. "People can relate to it."
He anticipates opening the museum next Thanksgiving.
"A Christmas Story," based on the writing of Jean Shepherd, who died in 1999, centers on the childhood of Ralphie Parker -- a bespectacled boy growing up in the 1940s -- and his quest to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.
The film features lots of snowy Cleveland, including a trip to the now-defunct downtown Higbee's department store where Ralphie visits a malevolent Santa.