Friday, May 22, 2009

A Dream House Treasure Trove . . .

While out in BRittany on a bit of a Spring break a few weeks back, my no doubt demented bloodhound nose led me in a roundabout way to this abandoned shack in a thicket of brush near a ruined church. The well manicured front yard was strewn with various objects, as though they had tried to hold a jumble sale, and then gave up, and fled. (Maybe a bank made a large mistake in their favor, and they took the cash and fled, as happened in New Zealand recently.) Anyway, this place had obviously seen better day. . . or perhaps it hadn't !
.





















This washing machine drum is dedicated to Jeff34 over at Life Is Beautiful (in blog list at right), for he has a similar object in the photos on the right had side of his page. . .
.

































Whoever the place belonged to had very thoughtfully left a snack out on the table for me. . .
.





















The lawnmower, after a career in cutting them down, was succumbing to brambles . . .
.





















They had tossed everything out into the yard, even the bathroom sink. . .
.





















The interior decoration was nothing to write home about either. . . a bit Spartan. . . Just goes to show, one never knows what wonderful surprises one may find, if willing to poke around, off the beaten path.
.


















.
.

15 comments:

desi said...

Those are really funky chairs though!

:D

Laurie said...

Honestly, Owen. Supposing the poor owners came back from the supermarket while you were still there? It would have been so embarrassing for them!

ladydi said...

Somehow this isn't what comes to mind when one thinks of a lovely French chateau. So much for that steriotyped image! Is there a photo of your real home somewhere in the depths of your blog?

jeff said...

Hey ! owen ! Quand tu fais du rangement chez toi, tu plaisantes pas !... La vache, quel boxon ! On fais la teuf, on tire sur la cigarette et t'as vu le bazar !... T'es copains sont loins d'être cool... je te le dis !... Pourraient filer la main après !
Quant au tambour de machine à laver... c'est bon...? t'en a fini ? Non, parce que faut que je le passe à un autre blog... On avait dit "rent" jusqu'à samedi ! OK !
Je compte sur toi Owen ! Ah ! un truc !... Je savais pas que tu prenais la soupe chez Loulou !?! You know "soupe" !...
Au fait j'en oublies presque l'essentiel... tu te bonnifies comme le bon vin... tes photos sont excellentes ! T'as bien fait de suivre mes conseils ! Non, ne dis pas merci... c'est bon !

Allez à plus H owen ! Ciao !

Cat said...

I love to rummage around abandoned structures. You never know what you will find!

Anonymous said...

Bizarre,

GG

Margaret Pangert said...

This place does not look abandoned, just neglected. Chairs, table, is that a spinet piano in the back? A cardplayers' den? There are four chairs... A gang's hideaway? Hangout for the local volunteer fire department? No sink? Use cans or bottles. Weather nice? Sit around the table in the front yard.

Lynne with an e said...

It is not my desire to make you die of envy, Owen, but I have lived in an abandonned house. No running water, no electricity, and a room whose door we only opened once before naming it The Bat Room. There was a shed full of old furniture which we dusted off and dragged back in but, most interestingly, there was an old-fashioned pedal organ in the living room. A little mood music?

Owen said...

Louciao, I had no doubt that you were an abandoned house afficianado; and a pedal organ is the icing on the cake... how long did you stay there???

Margaret and Laurie, you're right, the owners may have just gone to the local bowling alley for the afternoon, and probably realized right away that someone had been tramping around their front yard... they're probably looking for me...

Desi, funky everything there !

Cathy, thanks for dropping in, yeah, I love rummage sales like this at abandoned places...

Hi Di, no photos of my place in these pages, you will just have to imagine Mr Toad's mudpond...

GG, bizarre is classic British understatement, I think...

Jeff, tu peux aller chercher le tambour quand tu veux, je t'envoie les coordonnées google maps par courrier mulet, avec un tonneau de super tord boyeaux qu'ils avaient stocké au placard ici...

Lynne with an e said...

We experienced 2 seasons at the abandonned house and, thankfully, neither of them were winter!

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos Owen!

Amy said...

I am drooling over that yellow table (not the snack though). That makes me want to go find something similiar for my backyard.

You find the neatest places. I love how lush and green things are despite the age of the place.

Owen said...

Amy, if you really like that yellow table, well, being the generous guy I am, you can have it ! LOL ! Maybe we could get FedEx to deliver it to you ? Or DHL perhaps, they have a yellow logo... although I heard they sort of pulled out of the US...

Thank you Rain...

Lynne, yeah, abandoned houses with no heat are a bummer, for sure... unless you make a big bonfire out of them, but that's only good for one night's worth of heat.

Amy said...

It would be my very own rusted table from France. :) I think I'll have to find one over here at a yard sale to save a little money.

Anonymous said...

I love your photos, especially the black & whites of urbanity's forgotten relics (if "urbanity" is a word), the neglected cemetery statues, unwanted pigeons...

I came upon a neglected shack one time when I was a teenage girl exploring an overgrown lot in the middle of my neighborhood once. I was surprised there was more than briars and brush in the area, and it freaked me out to find some hard core graffiti written on the walls inside. Apparently someone else had found it before I did...which is why I never went back. Yikes.

Love your observations here - the lawn mower almost looks like it could be a new North American landscaping trend. double yikes!