How I Met Your Mother: The Main Characters’ Homes, Ranked

The proceedings in sitcoms mostly take place inside closed doors and How I Met Your Mother was no exception. Most of the action happened in locations such as McLaren’s Pub and Cafe L’amour. The homes of the main characters also served as key locations for the development of the plot.

With the exception of Barney, most of the gang kept moving around to new homes. This helped in eliminating monotony as viewers were treated to fresher residential areas from time to time. But not all the homes were appealing. While some were brilliant, others were hated by the characters as much as they were disliked by fans.

10 Lily’s First Apartment

Lily lived at the Queens apartment for five years before she got engaged to Marshall. She rarely stayed there, which proves she didn’t consider it a nice home. This became clear when two months into the series, she took Robin to see it only to find out it had been converted into the Chinese Restaurant—The House of Dumplings.

Apparently, she hadn’t been at the apartment for three months. During that time, her landlord died and an eviction notice had been slipped under her door. With no landlord or anyone left to cover the lease, the apartment was converted into a restaurant.

9 Apartment 5D

Apartment 5D, as revealed in Season 5’s “The Rebound Girl,” is the place Marshall and Lily moved into after they get married. They left Ted’s apartment and moved into Apartment 5D which they felt was a more suitable place to start a family. It was located in Dowisetrepla, New York.

However, there were many things wrong with the new home. The floor was quite crooked, so the couple had to spend a lot to repair it. Apartment 5D was also located near a sewage treatment plant, something the couple only came to learn later. They were disgusted to find out that “Dowisetrepla” was an abbreviation of “Downwind Of The Sewage Treatment Plant.”

8 Lily’s Second Apartment

This is where Lily chose to stay after she called off her engagement with Marshall so that she could pursue an art course. As per Lily’s own admission, she was settling for less by choosing to live in the apartment.

She was initially eyeing a nicer apartment in New York but she delayed contacting the landlord hence it was rented away to another person. She was thus forced to take the smaller apartment that also happened to have a raccoon inside. It also had a hybrid of a sink, stove, oven, and refrigerator, known as the “Stoveinkerator.” It was no surprise when she moved out.

7 Ted’s Second Apartment

Ted lived there in Seasons 7 & 8, while Quinn also lived in the apartment while she was dating Barney. Ted seemed to enjoy living in the apartment. He confessed to Marshall how glad he was to move around the house naked and eat fast food without anyone questioning his dietary habits.

It’s more likely that he was enjoying his newfound freedom rather than the apartment itself. Barney and Marshall also enjoyed using Ted’s apartment as a “clubhouse,” a place where they kept things that their partners wouldn’t let them hold on to. Overall, it wasn’t such a bad place to live.

6 Robin’s Apartment

The apartment located in Park Slope, Brooklyn is where Robin lived in the first four seasons of the sitcom. The apartment wasn’t that big but it was generally neat and attractive. Robin lived in it with her five dogs, which prevented Lily from staying there because she was allergic. Robin was also very possessive about the apartment as she banned Ted from keeping his things there.

Unfortunately, the apartment was an hour away from MacLaren’s Pub, which made commuting tiresome. She moved to Japan and to Ted’s apartment then to an Upper West Side home. A flash-forward seen in 2030 showed Robin back at the apartment, meaning it was precious to her. It can thus be assumed that it was a very nice place to live.

5 Marshall And Lily’s Italian Home

Marshall and Lily lived at this house in Rome after Lily took up a job as an Art Consultant for The Captain. Initially, Lily was reluctant to move but Marshall told her that it would be okay.

The house had all the necessary amenities that the two needed for their daily lives. The home gets extra points for being in a beautiful neighborhood, in one of the most gorgeous cities in the world.

4 Marshall And Lily’s Suburb Home

After their woes in Dowisetrepla, the couple caught a break when they moved into the new home in East Meadow, Long Island, New York. Located in the suburbs, the house was quite beautiful. The best part is that they didn’t spend any money to acquire it. It was handed over to Lily by her grandparents who were moving to Florida.

Even though a visiting Robin found the home boring due to the quiet environment of the suburbs, Marshall and Lily loved it. They both agreed that the place was good for raising children.

3 Ted’s Mansion

Initially, the mansion located in Westchester County, New York, was far from desirable. Ted bought it in 2010 due to constant pressure for him to settle down and have a family. The house was in a bad state, needing a lot of repairs, so the gang urged him to just sell it.

Luckily, Ted didn’t listen to them. He had several ideas on how to improve it and so he went ahead to implement them. Within a year, the house was looking great. By 2013, the mansion looked stunning and almost every aspect was appealing.

2 The Apartment

Simply known as The Apartment, the house served all the main characters. In fact, everyone except Barney lived there at some point. It had two bedrooms, a single bathroom, and a kitchen. There were many convenient things about it. For example, it had a fire escape and access to the roof where the gang could hold parties.

The Apartment was also located above MacLaren’s Pub, which happened to the gang’s favorite hangout joint. From The Apartment, the gang could see whether MacLaren’s was busy or not. There are surveillance cameras too which were installed by Barney.

1 Barney’s Apartment

Barney had lots of love for himself and this manifested itself in his apartment. Also known as The Heart of Bachelor Country and the Fortress of Barnitude, Barney’s bachelor pad had two bedrooms, one occupied by a king-sized bed and another one reserved for the hundreds of suits he owned.

In the living room, there were two 300-inch flat-screen TVs and a life-sized Stormtrooper. There are also several secret compartments that house Barney’s favorite books, including The Playbook. Other notable features included moving cameras and smoke-activated voice detectors.

About The Author

Philip Etemesi
(1216 Articles Published)

Philip Etemesi is an author, journalist, screenwriter and film critic based in Nairobi. Kenya. As a child, he preferred watching movies like The Goodfellas instead of Home Alone. His girlfriend constantly has to pull him from the front of the TV but he just keeps returning. Stubborn dude! An animal lover, Philip also has a pet giraffe called Refu.

More From Philip Etemesi