May 2, 2008
My friend Mike and I met Peter N to look at a house I had seen online. It was in Marshfield and had almost a half an acre of land. It was listed as an “as is” sale and the asking price was only $225,000. It was a beautiful spring day.
As we approached the house on Main Street, my heart sunk, I had seen it before from the road, hidden in vegetation and I immediately knew we were wasting our time. The back deck follows a retaining wall up to the door, both the door and the wall are falling apart. There is a possibility we will fall through the two by ten decking. Inside everything is dark and dirty, all components, ceilings, floors, walls, kitchen, bath are in disgusting condition. The windows are falling apart, the roof is full of holes and the gutters full of leaves. Outside there are large pines, spruce and fir trees some of them have their bases buried in debris. I count at least 7 sheds and one large camper in the yard. Each shed is of a different design; all of them are falling apart.
In the back, on the side of the house that faces away from the main street there is a small side road and it looks like the house originally faced this way. From this side it is a traditional cape, and it might once have been charming and homey. From the other side the back drops down with the hillside and there are two garage doors in a lower level. It is too dark to go into the basement and some doors are locked but it is pointless anyway. This house and all these sheds need to be bulldozed. The only redeeming value of the property is the beauty of the trees. I think perhaps it should be made into a little park.
“Peter”, I say, “next time I will come and look at the outside first before I drag you out to show me these houses.”
“Oh, no problem at all,” he replies.
“What I am looking for is something with some redeeming value, some architectural beauty, or a beautiful view, or a perfect location. We can fix a lot of things but there has to be something underneath when we get to the bottom”.