First off I know what you're all thinking - 'mookster explored a house?!?'!
I generally, as a rule, don't explore houses. After a very bad incident in Belgium a few years ago I swore off doing them because they only ever seemed to cause me more hassle than they were worth. I disliked the thought of exploring a house so much I wouldn't even step foot inside one in Luxembourg on my last trip to the continent in 2014. A year or so ago I was dragged into exploring an abandoned farm house in America and I was on edge the entire time and hated every second of the fifteen minutes I spent inside. A house has to be something very special for it to be put on my exploring radar, and this one certainly is that.
This house was last inhabited five years ago by an elderly lady. She had lived there with her husband for most of their married lives until he died, and she carried on living there alone. The neighbours would bring her food and help her, until one day she attacked one of them so they stopped their visits and she became a recluse. She never left the house, as she didn't want the neighbours to see how ashamed she was. In 2012 she suffered a stroke which caused her to fall down the stairs, she was taken to hospital and later died there and the house has been empty ever since.
Entering the house we headed upstairs to the attic to get our gear out. The windows in the attic at either end of the house look straight into the neighbouring properties and there were people up and about already so we didn't spend too long up there for fear of a neighbour spotting our movement through the windows. So we headed down to the bedrooms, these were the only rooms that looked to have had any kind of 'rummaging', there was a bit of mess but not too much. But it was the ground floor where things really went to the next level. It was like stepping into a totally untouched 1970s timewarp. Nothing had been rearranged or gone through. Everything was neat and intact, the cupboards full of belongings were shut and there was a beautiful lack of 'staged' shots. The couple who lived here obviously bought matching sets of everything - the metal and glass cabinets in the living room and dining room matched, the dining table and chairs matched the side board and there was an amazing massive sofa with matching chairs.
Houses leave me with strange feelings. In houses abandoned due to circumstances like that it is somebody's entire life you are bearing witness to, the aggregate of all their years of existence left behind. This particular house certainly has a pervasive sadness about it, almost a melancholic feel as you look around. I can only hope that it is bought and loved once again.
I don't know if this place has made me like exploring houses again proper, but it's sometimes good to do things you'd never normally make the effort to do.
More photos here... https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157683046658443
I generally, as a rule, don't explore houses. After a very bad incident in Belgium a few years ago I swore off doing them because they only ever seemed to cause me more hassle than they were worth. I disliked the thought of exploring a house so much I wouldn't even step foot inside one in Luxembourg on my last trip to the continent in 2014. A year or so ago I was dragged into exploring an abandoned farm house in America and I was on edge the entire time and hated every second of the fifteen minutes I spent inside. A house has to be something very special for it to be put on my exploring radar, and this one certainly is that.
This house was last inhabited five years ago by an elderly lady. She had lived there with her husband for most of their married lives until he died, and she carried on living there alone. The neighbours would bring her food and help her, until one day she attacked one of them so they stopped their visits and she became a recluse. She never left the house, as she didn't want the neighbours to see how ashamed she was. In 2012 she suffered a stroke which caused her to fall down the stairs, she was taken to hospital and later died there and the house has been empty ever since.
Entering the house we headed upstairs to the attic to get our gear out. The windows in the attic at either end of the house look straight into the neighbouring properties and there were people up and about already so we didn't spend too long up there for fear of a neighbour spotting our movement through the windows. So we headed down to the bedrooms, these were the only rooms that looked to have had any kind of 'rummaging', there was a bit of mess but not too much. But it was the ground floor where things really went to the next level. It was like stepping into a totally untouched 1970s timewarp. Nothing had been rearranged or gone through. Everything was neat and intact, the cupboards full of belongings were shut and there was a beautiful lack of 'staged' shots. The couple who lived here obviously bought matching sets of everything - the metal and glass cabinets in the living room and dining room matched, the dining table and chairs matched the side board and there was an amazing massive sofa with matching chairs.
Houses leave me with strange feelings. In houses abandoned due to circumstances like that it is somebody's entire life you are bearing witness to, the aggregate of all their years of existence left behind. This particular house certainly has a pervasive sadness about it, almost a melancholic feel as you look around. I can only hope that it is bought and loved once again.
I don't know if this place has made me like exploring houses again proper, but it's sometimes good to do things you'd never normally make the effort to do.
More photos here... https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157683046658443
