In the summertime this house sits in a verdant meadow near the bank of a river. I pass it on dog walks and think what a lovely place it would be to live.
In winter … maybe not so lovely. Although this is the wettest I’ve seen it, the river rises frequently to within a few feet of the foundation.
Definitely not the home for someone concerned about preparedness.
Today there was a pumping truck of some sort sitting outside with a big red hose snaking into the yard. Can you say “exercise in futility”?
While I was at it, I took this picture of another house on one of our dog-walking routes:
The house is derelict and in person feels quite spooky. I sometimes think of it as haunted. But with its too-cute pink color glowing on this gray day, it strikes me that if it were haunted it would probably be by Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Glad to hear you didn’t get blown away. Thanks for sharing the pics. Looks like inspiration for an end of the world cover? The view at sunset might be worth the flooding…
A lot of stuff got blown around these parts the last few days. (This morning I found mangled trailer skirting several blocks from where the nearest trailers are.) But all the humans and canines seem to be quite fine. Hope everybody else in the coastal NW can say the same. After the storm of Ought Seven, these sequential little blows were nothing. Ought Seven was a monster. Understand that another blow is due in on Thanksgiving. But no monsters in the forecast, knock wood.
LOL on the cover idea, FishOrMan. The end of the world art went to BHM yesterday with happy exclamations all around. But I took pix of that flooded house with the thought of proposing an entirely different cover idea to Dave & Co. Something much friendlier than the world ending.
Still, Don Childers is Mr. BHM Cover Guy and I have no idea when or whether they’ll want me to do another. It might be cheeky of me even to propose such a thing. Sure loved doing the end of the world, though. And boy, did I learn a lot.
Actually, with a little creative landscaping you could turn that flooded yard into a moat, and build a house to be a usually-grounded houseboat. Flodding every winter probably changes the types of weeds that have to be dealt with when gardening. Hmmmmm . . . . I love a challenge!
(That said, one of my dealbreakers when I was looking for my own land was that it could never be a flood plain. That’s why I now am working on the challenge of building on a 45-degree slope with several near-vertical drop-offs. It’s actually a lot of fun!)
Damn, Ellendra. You are one clever woman. I believe we’ve talked before about you blogging your experiences. I hope one of these times you’ll update us all and post some links here.
I feel drawn to the pink house, haunted or not. Looks homey.
Ok, that first picture looks way to familiar….those homeowners are crazy……LOL at only one pumping truck…..
Now we get to wait to see what Claire came up with for the end of the world, art version……
The pink house needs some tlc…..
I’m drawn to the pink house, too, and its surroundings. It would take a *lot* of TLC/money to fix it up, but I could live there and feel at home. Besides, it’s on a hill and probably wouldn’t get that flooding. (I’d change the color, though, to an Italian-looking pastel orange.)
When I see formerly glorious, now run down homes like our pink friend it gets me to thinking too. Not just about what it would take to bring it back and whether such a task is feasible, but also about the past. Thinking about the home’s past and it’s soul. The changes it has seen since it was built.
Someone, probably a married couple dreamed about building a home to call their own and raise a family in. Imagine the work involved on all levels to acomplish the feat, and the excitement and happiness when they finally moved in.
I think about the times had in those now forlorn structures. The Thanksgiving meals, kids horsing around and growing up as the years passed. Why aren’t the offspring still living there, or at least renting it out? What happened? Did the regional economy no longer support the lifestyle? Were they taxed into giving up the place where so many cherished memories were made? Or were they just fools to walk away from such a prize?
A.G. — That was some evocative commenting. You made me go back and look at the photo again. And again — with your images in mind. The house really does look homey as Stryder said, and now I can almost hear those long-dead kids romping on the porch.
I can guess part of the story of this beautiful old house (and it is bigger and even more distinctive than the photo shows; it runs a long way back). It was built around the turn of the 20th century when lumber mills and fishing and construction were booming. The neighborhood it’s in is the oldest in the area and was home to working-class folks. “Our pink friend” was one of the biggest and best, built with a view of the river rivaling the fancier homes a mile away where the bosses lived. You’re right that it had to be somebody’s pride and joy.
The mills are mostly gone, the fishing depleted or regulated into extinction. My guess is that at some point the original owners either had to leave to find work or died off and left the house unwanted and unaffordable to their descendants. Maybe it was sold several times, but the working people drawn to the neighborhood couldn’t afford the upkeep and gradually let it fall into disrepair.
I suspect a more recent round of lost dreams, too. If you notice, there’s a ladder on the porch and it looks as if some of the windows have been upgraded or at least repaired in the not-too-distant past. But that ladder’s been sitting there the whole 16 months I’ve been living nearby and I’ve never seen a soul on the property. Now the blackberry brambles are taking over — not to mention the rot and moss and mold that eventually consume everything in this climate.
So maybe somebody not long ago had another dream — to fix the place up and either live in it or sell it. Then the real estate boom went bust and …
Yeah, sad stories for such a beautiful old place.
Aww, Claire, now I’m blushing!
I’ve tried several times to write an article or blog about my experiences, but even when I have it mostly written in my head, when I sit down with a pencil or at the computer, the sight of that blank page seems to cause all the words to run and hide, and suddenly I have trouble stringing together a sentence. I don’t know what it is. I failed high school because I couldn’t write coherent essays. It’s frustrating! I have a whole script for a Dr. Who episode that I want to send in, I have pictures for a sewing article already taken, I have fashion designs I want to sell to a bigger designer because i don’t have the resources to pursue it, I have a dozen patents that need filed, but I can’t seem to get anything written out!! I envy people who can write on demand.
Stuff seems to write itself in my head when I’m working on something, though, so I might just start wearing a tape recorder and see if I can talk it out, then I’d just need to transcribe it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one with blogphobia…..I have the majority of all those problems too, Ellendra — and toss in: the way it does read isn’t anything like it sounded in my head LOL and I end up noticing how I use certain words too often (how annoying!)…the tape recorder is a good idea, you should really try that and see if it works!!!
Ellendra and naturegirl — You both have interesting life stories to tell and heaven knows you have no lack of talents. Hm. Maybe you could collaborate?
As to stuff coming out different than it looks or sounds in your head — welcome to the club! That can be either a crazy-making drawback or a path to greater creativity. But it doesn’t signal any lack of ability. It’s just the way creativity works — like trying to relate a dream.
So, the “NOOO that’s not what I mean!!!” is normal?? LOL……
I try not to be to descriptive, and let those who read anything I have to say use their own imagination/life story….maybe that’s part of the problem too, not being descriptive – all I know is it’s daunting….and rereading what I’ve said is the equivalent to Charlie Brown’s ARRRG moments, hehe…
We’re kind of on the opposite ends of the spectrum for a collaboration…but I hope Ellendra keeps trying to figure it all out, it sounds like it would be great to read…..
Thanks, Claire 🙂