Just as important to the story of the Owens family is their multigenerational home, prompting filmmakers to build it rather than to look for an existing structure.

"The house is tailored to the action in the film," explains Di Novi. "I don't think we could ever have found a house that could have matched our needs."

Production designer Robin Standefer (who had previously collaborated with Dunne on "Addicted to Love") labored for months researching what would constitute the perfect house for a family of witches. Once sketches were completed, it took an additional eight months to bring her initial artist's conception to three-dimensional life.

Although the tale of the Owens women begins in the 1600s, the story of "Practical Magic" spans three decades (from the 1970s to present day), so the structure needed to be adaptable to the passing periods. "By the very nature of the family, the aunts in particular, there is a timelessness about the environment and about the house that particularly interested me," explains Standefer. "I chose a Victorian style for the house because it needed to be rambling. There are so many children in the house, so many generations. You could almost move in a circular fashion and get lost, finding yourself in different time periods. The design really developed from there. I tried to find elements of design that have stood the test of time. You couldn't be sure if things were originally in the house in 1850 or they had been added to it in the Twenties.

"In the living room, however, I wanted to be more specifically Victorian. The parlor is the ceremonial room and I felt that this was a place where I could speak about the period of the house."

The New England-style home also features a roomy kitchen-the heart of the house - which centers around a British aga-gas stove.

"The aga is almost like a shrine," elaborates Standefer. "This is the place where they do their work; it's where they place the cauldron."

The pantry features shelves of home-canned foods-the kind of thing past generations of women used to spend their days filling which now fell to members of the prop department, who had to fill hundreds of jars.

The structure also features a dining room that has been converted into a work room (with the addition of a spinning wheel and a loom) and an impressive greenhouse filled with exotic plants, mysterious herbs and candle-making supplies.

The resulting structure stunned the author. "When I visited the set," remembers Hoffman, "it wasn't really like wandering into my own imagination; it was like wandering into another person's interpretation of my imaginary world. I was thrilled that it was so beautifully rendered; it gave me a sense of drifting through this magical world, but it was all so real."

Some of the magic was all a bit too real for the cast and crew. "We were filming a scene where we have brought a coven together," remembers Bullock, "and we had just reached an integral part where the women begin chanting together. All of a sudden, the door started slamming. Everyone saw and heard it, but we had no idea how it could be happening."

Standefer sees the house as being a very real character in the story. "The house itself has a certain magic to it. There is a whole world in this house and garden. These women are outcasts and this place is their sanctuary; it almost feels as though all the emotion of the generations is caught up in its walls."

"The landscaping of the garden was also very, very important," continues Standefer. "The aunts are dabbling herbalists, and the very nature of their heritage is to live off the earth. The way they cook, the way they medicate themselves, the way they take care of their family-it's all through the garden."

The story dictated that the house had to be built on an island, originally in New England. Because most of the filming was scheduled to take place during winter months, it was decided to re-create the New England setting in a more temperate climate. The filmmakers settled on the San Juan Islands in Washington State.

"Having been in New England, I knew there is always this whiteness. It comes from the sand, glowing off the water; everything seems over-exposed," explains Standefer. "I decided to make the exterior of the house very, very white and to make the plants in the garden quite white with lavender and pale blue, the colors of the sea."

The exterior of the house was constructed in the San Juan National Park on San Juan Island. The location had an other-worldly quality to it and living on the island proved to be an extraordinary experience for members of the production. Completely unspoiled, the island and surrounding waters boast a profusion of wildlife including bald eagles, seals and Orcas. The islands also have a magnificent climate, known as the 'banana belt;' the area enjoys a lot less rainfall than nearby Seattle. The production enjoyed stunning spring weather throughout their five weeks of filming while back home, Los Angelenos were suffering the rages of "El Nino."

Aidan Quinn comments, "There is palpable witchcraft in a place like this. All you have to do is stay quiet for a second, and the magic just seems to come in."

Community involvement was elemental to the success of the production. The townspeople of Friday Harbor were invited to participate in a scene depicting a Halloween celebration; almost 150 extras turned up in costumes they had assembled themselves. Many were also cast as Puritans in the opening flashback sequence when the Owens' ancestor, Maria, is hanged. Crew members also had the opportunity to thank the community that was so helpful during filming-makeup crew members provided demonstrations for the local theatre group and the prop department distributed blood red roses when scenes were completed filming.

The main town on Maria's Island (home to the Owens women) was portrayed by Coupeville, a small sea-front community on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. Standefer decided to keep to the palette of whites and pale pastel colors and had the entire town painted.

Tourism is an essential part of the local economy so it was decided to keep the main street open during filming. Storefronts were covered with facades while signs informed tourists that the shops were still open for business. The whole town became a part of the filmmaking process; one of the local restaurants doubled as an extras' housing area while clientele at other establishments had a grandstand view of Hollywood moviemaking.

The aunts, although appearing to be in their fifties or sixties, are actually more than one hundred years old, and their clothes reflect their lifespan. (Their apparent youth is aided by their knowledge of exotic herbs and by the partaking of particularly noxious brews.) As with the Owens house, the costumes are an extraordinary mix of eccentric period pieces and current fashions, with designer pieces often matched with antique clothes appropriate for women who have lived for more than a century.