More Crumbling Houses

Cullen and I went for a drive last night to see a house that has been on my radar for about eighteen months. It was originally way out of my price range, like three and a half times what I wanted to spend, then sold shortly before or after I bought my new house.

Then suddenly I got a notice that it was back on the market. Instead of being sold it is now a foreclosure and less than half of the original price. So maybe it was sold and the bank bought it. Anyway, it's back on the market at a steep discount. Not that I'm in a position to buy it since I just bought a house but this thing is a monster Gothic Victorian and I had to go and look at it.

So Cullen kindly agreed to accompany me, so long as I got him food while we were out, and we went to see it.

It's heartbreaking to look at these houses. You can see tons of them (not necessarily this particular architectural style, but former grand old dames) in Baltimore, rotting away, or partially burned, or in the case of one we saw with squatters living in it and and shitting on the stairs.

This house looked as though it had been purchased and partially rehabbed by a five year old with a short attention span. There was new paint all along one side but the other three sides were falling apart. The gazebo had peeling paint in some parts and other parts that looked new. Brand new screen doors were next to even larger shutters that had fallen and were rotting on the ground. The beautiful turret and two cupolas were amazing; all shell shaped shingles in many muted colors, but then there was a hole right in the side of the house.

It's depressing. And with money so tight for everyone I fear the house is just going to get worse and worse until it's too decrepit to save.

Another House I WIsh I Could Get

http://www.redfin.com/MD/Cumberland/615-Washington-St-21502/home/14708314

Need I say more?

Some random stuff

I've downloaded the Wii version of Doctor Mario so you may never hear from me again. (I did manage my two thousand words of my novel, two hundred words of my entertainment column, formatted some newsletter stuff, did my Wii Fit for 36 minutes, read a story by Kelly Link and got the kids fed so I there's some hope for my future.)

In closing I leave with these links.

Save the Boissiere House. Gosh I love this house. It's the kind of place I fantasized about when I was girl. (I'm sure I'm not the only girl in the world who dreamed of an old abandonded house next door with a mystery inside just waiting to be solved.)

An NY Times article about a horse academy at Versailles that I loved. Again, the kind of thing I dreamed about as a girl. I was particularly struck by this quote:

''The number of women reflects the considerable feminization of horse-riding,'' Bartabas said. ''Today in France, 80 percent of horse-riders are women. In fact horse-jumping and dressage are the only sports where men and women compete on an equal footing.''

We kind of have to include other horse sports like racing and eventing but he's right. One of the reason other sports annoy me is because they seperate the boys and girls. I know they've got their reasons but this is just another reason to be a fan of dressage etc.

And finally, from the piece I wrote for the saving money website today, a warning about the dangers of antifreeze to your pets. If a cat walks through spilled antifreeze and licks its paws it gets enough of a dose to be fatal. http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/clientED/antifreeze.aspx