I think every town has a few of Those Houses, the ones with the reputations. Our town has the Murder House, and the Murder Suicide House. And the Spooky House, a decaying Victorian mansion that looks like the Addams Family could live there. And the house where the crazy guy lives, who stands on his porch and yells at everybody. And the subject of this post, the Recluse House.
The Recluse House was owned by someone who rarely ever ventured forth from it. Over the years it fell to worse and worse condition. If the owner had any money, they never spent any of it on home maintenance. There were maple saplings growing out of the roof gutters, among a lot of other problems. Eventually the owner died, and people wondered what would happen with the house. The consensus was that it was too far gone to salvage. But someone bought it from the estate, and started to work on it last spring. People said the owners were sending good money after bad, that they should have just bulldozed it and started over.
They worked on the inside until the weather warmed up. Judging from the industrial sized dumpster outside the house which was filled up several times, the Recluse was also a hoarder. For a long time I thought the naysayers were probably right, that the house was likely a bad investment. However, gradually it began to be transformed. New windows and new siding went on. Old plumbing fixtures were removed, and new were put in. It was re-wired, and a new heating system put in. It is now nearly completed, and no one would be ashamed to live there. I don't know if the owners are going to live in it, rent it out, or flip it. I hope they bought it very cheap, because they certainly have invested time and money in it.
The residents of the Spooky House hung Christmas lights from the eaves. That had to be a dangerous undertaking, but they wanted to let their light shine. The Murder House, which was also in bad shape, was renovated for a rental property, and now looks nice. You wouldn't catch me living there, but hopefully no one told the present residents what happened there in 2014. What you don't know won't hurt you about those kinds of things.
To me the houses are a metaphor for the resurrection of the body. And a God who never gives up, and never counts the cost of his investment. It's not over until it's over.
Update: (HT to Tom) Advent is a good time for renovation in our spiritual life. We have to open ourselves to the master Renovator and Restorer, and accept his grace. And allow ourselves to let loose of what we are hoarding, to our detriment.
What a nice reflection! I will share it with Raber, whose degree is in historic preservation. He goes on a rant every time he sees old public buildings pulled down. He understands about asbestos, which is the deal-breaker for most of these restorations of public buildings. But just pulling them down and slapping up a pole barn structure, a box store, or strip mall kills the personality of the town. Raber had a study one time that linked the uglification of people's neighborhoods and public spaces to a rise in depression. Patients in nursing homes are greatly affected by their surroundings, I suspect because those surroundings reflect just how much they are valued--or not.
ReplyDeleteI am glad the owners of the Recluse House have given people something pleasant and hopeful to look at! Lord knows we need it now!
Church people and service groups did offer to do some hands-on maintenance to help the original owner of the house, but he turned them down. That's kind of the definition of a recluse.
DeleteI wonder if we will see some people exhibiting reclusive tendencies after the pandemic is over; maybe distancing will start to seem normal to them.
Yeah, the Boo Radley syndrome. I'm going to have to ease back into "live" interactions. I have avoided the phone and Zoom, just texting people since March because I don't have much to say. When The Boy shows up, I'm ready for him to leave after about 30 minutes. I can't imagine sitting through Mass for a whole hour. It's not fear of the disease, but just taking up the solitary habit with too much enthusiasm, I think.
DeleteBTW, a degree in historic preservation sounds fascinating!
DeleteIt's great if you don't want a job. He has used the hands-on carpentry skills somewhat and a Congregational Church hired I'm to repair and stabilize the stained glass, but Americans don't care about preservation enough to pay for the historical analysis and restoration, especially in the Midwest. We were too stupid to get degrees in finance, business, or computer tech.
DeleteI agree - a wonderful reflection!
DeleteI live in a town that, during normal times, is sort of a "hot area" from a real estate perspective. It has a couple of train stations with frequent train service for Chicago commuters, is accessible to a couple of the local highways, has good schools and is relatively well-governed. The town is considered built up already, with basically no undeveloped land, so it is not the kind of place where developers are churning out new subdivisions en masse. Instead, there is a lot of action in so-called "tear-downs": speculators purchase 60s-style ranch houses (like ours) from the current owners, and do more than a renovation: they tear down the current building and then construct McMansions on the property. There are a number of blocks in this area which are a hodge-podge of older ranches and newer McMansions. The latter are simply at a different scale than everything was when my neighborhood was built up in the 1960s: more windows, the rooms are bigger dimensions, the ceilings are higher, at least three garage slots (ours has one). The old ranches look almost like (boxy and low-slung) doll houses next to them.
I admit I don't immediately see how this relates to renewing oneself for Advent. The metaphor is more along the lines of the contemporary longing to reinvent oneself completely.
Katherine, Is that a reflection on what we are supposed to be doing to ourselves, inside and out, during Advent?
ReplyDeleteTom, yes. In fact I think I'll add that thought as an update.
DeleteHang on - outside, too? Dangit, time to start the diet.
DeleteJim, draping yourself in strands of fairy lights adds seasonal festivity to your appearance!
DeleteSeriously, as the pandemic has slogged on, I think we're all letting ourselves go. Since the weather got cold, I have a tendency to live in long johns, fleece, heavy socks, and sweats. I have been trying to get into a decent pair of jeans and a turtleneck by the time Raber comes home from work so that I look like I still care.
Jean, I do have several ugly Christmas sweaters, will have to settle for those.
DeleteTwinkle lights go with everything!
DeleteI love it when people restore old homes with character. But, the expense can be horrible. We have two different friends who bought old homes in historic districts - and discovered too late that the required materials etc would be way more costly than modern materials. One couple had planned a first floor addition for a new master bedroom and bathroom- still in their 60s but planning ahead to be able to live only on the main floor, They have been fighting the historic district watchdogs for a year now to try to get a permit. Both couples are ending up spending about triple their planned budget.
ReplyDeleteThe Spooky House would be that kind of a money pit if someone were going to restore it to its original specs. The Recluse house was probably built in the 1940s, a small one storied house, would be a good starter home for a young person or couple.
DeleteOur downtown has a lot of lovely old buildings. People recognize the historical value, but what you said about the expense of restoring and keeping them up is daunting for someone wanting to have a business there. I imagine in the historic districts in Maryland and Virginia the buildings go back to the 1700s. Here it's just the late 1800s so not quite the historic panache.
In the '90s, some folks fought the destruction of Miami's first Sears store on grounds it was historic. It had been built in the 1930s. History depends on where you are standing when you look at it.
DeleteSome of the 1930s architecture has kind of a cool Art Deco or Bauhaus vibe to it.
DeleteHistoric districts and commercial property preservation are a bit of a sticky wicket.
DeleteHistoric districts are often used to stabilize a neighborhood or to exclude certain populations. In East Lansing, big houses were purchased by slumlords and fraternities and turned into noisy student hell-holes. Residents created the historic district to make the cost of keeping up the property beyond the means and/or interest of those purchasers. In other instances, a historic district gentrifies the neighborhood and pushes out current residents, often black and brown people.
Preserving commercial properties or areas on the public dime is always controversial and pisses somebody off.
Katherine, many states require that real estate agents;/ owners disclose the fact that someone was murdered in a home for sale. My niece and her husband had only lived in their home for 4 months when they were killed. . So not much equity for their kids. My sister insisted that the crime be disclosed even though it wasn’t mandated in their state. They immediately got some very lowball offers from people trying to take advantage of the tragic circumstances of the house sale. But it sold quickly to people who said they hoped to return joy to the home. They were told what had happened, were moved that they were killed because of fighting neo-nazin/ white supremacist hate, and paid very close to asking price - which was a good buy. They said they hoped that they could bring new joy to the house.
ReplyDeleteAnne, that is a crazy story! Was anyone arrested for the murder?
DeleteAnne, I'm sorry about your niece and her husband. What a tragedy for their family to live with.
DeleteThe logical part of my brain doesn't believe in "hauntings". But one's mind can play tricks when one is alone at night. I would wish for a seller to "speak now, or forever hold their peace" about a tragedy having taken place in a house I was interested in buying.
We used to live in a house which was built in 1884. I never felt anything eerie in it, but my husband once said that he felt a presence. I'll admit that gave me the willies. But it was a drafty place, cost a fortune to heat. I just figure the "presence" was an air current. It's funny, that wasn't a particularly comfortable house, but it was roomy, and had a lot of good features. Like an office and a second bathroom. The kids were heartbroken when we sold it and moved to our present town. But they know it couldn't be helped at the time.
Anne, I think you mentioned that story before. It's so sad. It is nice to think that the new owners were sensitive about the situation and wanted to make it a peaceful place.
DeleteI looked up a realtor Web site, and sounds like states vary about disclosing deaths to a potential buyer. Some states require that violent deaths be disclosed, but that natural deaths only need to be disclosed if the buyer asks.
This info is kind of interesting: https://www.omegahome.com/blog/who-died-in-my-house/
Jim, three years ago my niece (and god-daughter) discovered that the boy her 16 year old daughter was dating was sending out neo-nazi tweets from an anonymous account (not his own name). She discovered this after her daughter told her "Did you know that the Jews caused World War II"? She asked her where she had heard that - the boyfriend. She asked more questions and then she saw what he was texting her daughter and what he was tweeting. So they talked and they told her that she couldn't see him any more and why.Apparently he was leaning to white supremacy as well. This was upsetting to her but she agreed and broke up with him. He came to their home around 4:30 am on Dec 22. They had invited her husband's parents for Christmas because they now had a big enough house and were looking forward to hosting Christmas for the family. (It was a beautiful, modern contemporary, Katherine) They had a combination lock on the door - I don't know if their daughter had given him the combination or if he had just watched her open the door. He came with a hammer - prepared to break a window. And a big knife. But the murder was committed with the gun he had taken from his parents' home. My niece and her husband heard voices and went to see what was going on. When the boyfriend was told to leave and not return, he pulled out the gun and shot my niece's husband and then my niece. He also shot himself- right through the forehead. But he was among the 5% who survive a bullet through the brain. He recovered enough that a trial was scheduled for September. Fortunately it has been postponed - it will be a horrific thing to go through for my niece's daughter, her grandparents who were in the house, and her younger brother, who had just turned 10, and held his mother's hand as she drew her last breath.It will be a nightmare for my sister, her husband, and her son - none of whom saw the crime scene, but there will be photos.
ReplyDeleteAnne, what an awful thing - and a continuing nightmare for your family. I will pray for all of you.
DeleteWe are packing to leave tomorrow to drive to California. One thing I have learned - the survivors of murder victims have to pay heartbreaking consequences for years afterward. I don’t know how my nieces children will fare in the long run. The daughter is now 18, dropped out of college, living with a boyfriend and dealing with PTSD. The son from my nieces first marriage, in his 20s now is similarly messed up. the daughter is also from her first marriage. The youngest lives with his father’s brother- the brothers wife resents the child, he is miserable and, even though a very good student, agreed to go to a military boarding school to get away from the family. He is only in 7th grade. Not thrilled with the military school but there aren’t many boarding school choices for that age. It’s heartbreaking. My nephew and his wife agreed to move back east again. They had been living in California and had planned to stay. But after his sister was killed, my nephew began handling all the legal stuff, including working with the prosecutors. My sister and brother in law both have serious health problems and can’t manage. My nieces husbands mother has Alzheimer’s and so his father is full time caretaker for his wife and also lives a 7 hour drive from where the prosecutors are. They will be called to testify though. The nightmare continues for the family even though they are all gradually healing. I pray that the murderer will take a plea bargain. He will be tried as an adult even though he was still 17 when he committed the crime - which occurred in a death penalty state.
ReplyDeleteOne of my colleagues years ago started a group for families of murder victims after her daughter was killed. She said she measured time in "before" and "after" the event. The fallout wrecked her marriage and some of her behavior was eccentric, but understandable. For instance, she made up a new name for herself after the divorce. It helped her take control of her identity. Despite the sorrow, she did a lot of good work, and eventually found some peace. She died several years back.
DeleteI am so sorry for all that family is going through. Especially that 7th grade kid. It's hard not to judge the aunt who resents him. What I would wish for him, besides a lot more love, is a nice Hogwarts type of boarding school. Not a military academy. But I know there aren't many boarding schools nowadays.
DeleteTo get back to Advent - NCR has a story about one approach- reminiscent with all the Kondoing and death cleaning too.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/simple-advent-abundant-life-what-do-you-value-most
Thanks, Anne. I have bookmarked this. I have noticed "abundant life," a term from very right-wing Prosperity Gospel circles, being picked up by mainline denominations. I wish they'd find a different term.
DeleteOne more observation- as I have mentioned many times, our neighborhood has a large number of Jewish families who do not decorate for Christmas - obviously. The families who do decorate for Christmas tend to go heavy on outdoor fairy lights, which I have always loved when the dark and cold settle in. Describing Jesus’ birth as the coming of new light into the world was a great choice of metaphor.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have noticed a different schedule this year. - the lights are up earlier than usual. And homes that have not previously decorated with lights are doing so this year instead of settling for only a wreath on the door. Some of our Jewish neighbors have commented at times that they too enjoy seeing all the Christmas lights. The lights brings hope to all I think, Christian or not, as we reach the end of this year of Covid. I wonder if th lights will stay on longer in January also to brighten the new year while Covid continues to darken our world.