Truck dumping, part the fourth
“Want to go exploring?” I asked. And almost immediately had misgivings, because the little voice in my head started asking questions, like if you owned that house, would you want strangers poking around it?.
“Hell yes!” Robyn said.
“Maybe we shouldn’t. Technically, it’s trespassing.”
Her face fell. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I dunno, Bessie. We probably shouldn’t be going on someone else’s property without asking.” Then, joking. “We might get shot!”
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s at least walk over to the strip mall parking lot and look from there.”
Down the road just a bit, next to the abandoned house, there’s a tiny strip mall with a church, a clothing store, and a salon. The old house sat just behind and to the side of that, and it looked like we could get a much better look at the house from the back corner of the lot. We walked over, cameras in hand.
It was one mighty creepy-looking house, yet it was strangely appealing. The parking lot, maybe 100 feet from the house, just wasn’t close enough.
Beautiful, no?
Such great lines. Another American classic.
“I don’t see any signs about trespassing,” I said. “C’mon.”
We crossed the yard to the house. I kept an eye out for property owners bearing shotguns. No one was around, anywhere.
Here’s your sign!
The sign warned us to keep out of the house, which we did (despite the fact that it caused me near-physical pain to not go inside once we were right there). Fortunately, all the windows were busted out so we could look in without disobeying the trespassing admonition.
One half of the living room (I think). I’m pretty sure there’s a staircase in that area
to the left. Unless that’s not a stringer going up the wall.
The house looked to be from the same time as ours (the 30’s), if not a little earlier. Like our house, everything is wood: floors, walls, ceilings. It’s been empty a long time, and doesn’t appear to have had many updates done. Check out that wallpaper.
I’ll bet the house would clean up real nice.
The other half of the same room.
Looking from the back of the house. Now that’s some space.
The house seemed fairly structurally solid for its age and state of disrepair. There was one place where a pier seems to have collapsed, but other than that, good and solid. We saw little rot (unless that peeling paint is covering rot) and no evidence of termite damage. The floors look like all they need is a good sanding and refinishing. Underneath (the crawlspace was open), all the beams and supports looked good.
Yep, I’ll bet this house could be fixed up with a little TLC.
At the back side.
Welcome to Amityville.
The part poking out (on the bottom floor) is the kitchen.
And in the kitchen is where the settling / collapsing has taken place.
The other side of the kitchen.
Another room, another staircase. Words can’t express how much I wanted to
go up it and see what sort of landing was behind those white balusters.
Look at that gorgeous arch.
We were fascinated by the old house, and a little enamored with it, truth be told. It seems like it would be wicked fun to try to restore it slowly, as a project for weekends, once we’re done with the house we’re working on. You know, because we won’t have enough to do already. Seriously, though, I’m afraid it may be too far gone. The more I look at the pictures, the more I think there may be too much water damage, which is sad.
We’ve had some semi-serious discussions about trying to buy some of the property across the street, once we’ve sold our suburb house and aren’t bleeding money for two house payments. If we owned some of that property across from where we live, we’d be able to control what was there and not have to worry about what might be built on it in the future. Getting the house with the property would just be a bonus, even if we didn’t do anything but let it continue degrading.
But letting something like that degrade would be cruel, if it could be saved without a huge amount of money.
I’ve gone so far as to find out who owns it and get his number, but I haven’t called him yet and may not until we’ve moved. The property is 31 acres, which is more than we’re willing to buy. I’m tempted to try and get 5 or 10 acres, though, and maybe just mention the house in passing. How cool would it be to get the house for little or no money?
Obviously, we’ve swum to the deep end of the crazy pool.
And, because I know some of you are as fascinated by the thought of ghosts as I am, here are the obligatory screwy pictures that managed to work their way into the good ones. None have been modified in any way other than resizing.
You go right back over there Fred And3rson and you go in that house and get us some photos of the upstairs for us! If you get arrested, Robyn can post a paypal Post Bail fund button. We’ll donate. Really! Or at the very least, drive your tractor over and stand on top and get some photos through the windows.
Wow…now that’s what you call “potential.”
How big do you expect that house is, living space-wise?
Kathy - I’m tempted to call the owner and ask for permission to go inside and photograph it.
Kate - the site that gave me the owner info listed at at about 2300 square feet.
Amazing … I love old houses like that. I always imagine the people who built it and the families who lived their lives there. Wouldn’t you just love to know the history of the place?
I, for one, can see you actually restoring it someday … stranger things have happened. Look at the life you and Robyn have - would you have ever guessed ten years ago that you would be where you both are now?
Thanks for sharing the photos …
You need to utilize your new “friends” at the local store to find out the history on that house. It looks fascinating!
Shelly - funny you should mention that, because I came thisclose to stopping there last night and asking.
Oh wow. That house is fantastic! The arch is wonderful! I have confidence in you Fred-after all, the 10 cats you have are going to need a house of their own. Heh.
Um, YES that is spirit activity in those last two pics! Wow.
There’s an old, abandoned house posted with no trespassing signs practically right in one of my neighbor’s back yards… did we go explore?
YOU BET YOUR ASS we did. It was littered with old junk. Some really cool stuff too.. a calendar on the wall was from 1960 something but the house is obviously alot older than that. There was even a really NICE antique pie safe in there. The floors were all rotted so it was kinda dangerous to be in there. We didn’t stay too long, just curious.
Fred,
My 15 year old daughter and some of her friends were visiting out at my moms in the country and there is an old abandoned school about half a mile down the road from there. They decided to go explore it. Being so young, they didn’t quite understand that all property is owned by someone, no matter how abandoned it looks. This place didn’t have any signs posted. So they went in and looked around. Well, it just so happens that the property “caretaker” was next door at the time and had seen the kids go in. He calls the police and they arrested all of them.
My daughter has been on probation for 6 months now because of this. Had to do 50 hours of community service, write a letter of apology, an essay about how all property is owned and a few other things. I could have been really upset with her over this, but I just feel the people really over reacted. I could have done the same thing, being a curious person and all. It just so happens, the lady that owns the school house is a lawyer. She also claims that the kids did $500.00 worth of damage, which is total bullshit. She says they spray painted on the walls. The place looks comparable to the house you showed. If they did spray paint, I’m sure it would have been an improvement.
When I was a kid there was an old abandoned dairy farm and homestead not far from where I lived. We called it “Old Crow’s”. I have great memories of exploring and playing there. We found so many neat things like old books..tin scrubboards button up ladies boots even love letters from World War I that were concealed under the wallpaper! Getting upstairs was a challenge because the stairs had collapsed but we managed..There was a spooky old silo where we would go in at night and have a campfire and freak each other out with ghost stories and half assed seances. Once we flipped an old feather mattress and it was infested with a huge snake nest ack! It was also full of spiders and bats…we loved it! Sadly it burned down when I was a teen and now 30 yrs later it is an ugly subdivision which makes me sad..no trace of the old place remains. Your pics remind me so much of it it’s uncanny.. Keep exploring!
That’s your next project! With your newly-honed 1337 DIY skillz! What a beautiful property though, I love the right-angle of the porch - it looks friendly and self-contained all at once.
I hope it isn’t too damaged… & I hope one day you turn it into another fantastic house story!
Please, buy that house! I so love your before and after pictures of the rooms you did so far, I crave more. You, being the handyman that you are, would do a great job restaurating it.
Thanks for the pictures Fred. I think it would take more than a little TLC to fix that house up and besides it is clearly full of spirits. Stay away,stay very far away.Besides, you will have your hands full keeping up that little place of yours. You may be sorry you bought that place if the spirits hang around, but I hope not.Were you kidding us about all that ghost stuff? I hope you were, please tell me you were.
That house reminds me of several I’ve seen — there’s one in my county, Cullman, at a 4-Way stop on a rural county highway. There’s no overgrown weeds/trees, but it rises up atop a hill and looks spooky near sundown. My husband and I used to call it the “Bates Motel.”
You may have already done this, but there’s a lot of blogs on the net about restoring older houses, fun to surf. I love reading them, when I have time. You can start looking at a few at this Webring (which you might want to join someday):
“Love My Old Home Webring”
http://www.lovemyoldhome.com/counter2.cgi
Jill - I think this house would need more than just some paint, putty, caulk, and molding. I suspect it might be beyond my current capabilities.
Shirley - kidding about what? About not believing in ghosts? I wasn’t kidding about that, for sure. Nor about the (old house) sounds when I’m out there alone, or the occasional corner-of-the-eye thing. Since I don’t believe in spirits, they don’t really worry me.
Cara - I’ve read a few, but not seen the webring. Thanks for the link!
Fred, have you heard of Urbex? Urban Exploration, I think. Anyway, those pics of the abandoned house are really bringing to mind a lot of the pics people post on the urbex sites. There’s something kind of cool about that kind of thing, nature taking over, etc. Cool pics! Of course you will probably venture into the upstairs sometime soon, right?
Happy Thanksgiving to you Robyn and Spud!
I know a certain waitress that could probably tell you ALL about that house. Not.
And I can’t believe a nebshit like me didn’t notice that house when we were out there. Too cool!
Holy Jeezley Crow, Fred! I took one look at your “Amityville” shot and thought, “Damn, it’s the Amityville house.” It gave me the heebie jeebies . . . until I scrolled down and read your caption.
Great minds think alike.
Did ya see any evidence of termites?
I wonder WHY no one has been living in the house…