The Un-touched House

I was flying from Linden to Drumheller Alberta, practicing some impromptu navigation. A friend of mine was on board for the flight, as I was getting re-accustomed to flying the Cessna 172. It had been a while since I did a navigation flight and it was nice to get out for a simple, quick flight over the countryside. 500’ above the ground, we cruised en-route, turning occasionally to avoid flying directly over farms. It was early spring, and the fields were all brown and had patches of snow covering them still. Coming nearer to the Drumheller airport, I spotted a small farm property below us. I did a quick sharp turn and circled the property to get a better look. The house had a patchy roof and the driveway was overgrown. Abandoned! We continued on to Drumheller and landed there. We then departed again and flew back home.

A few days went by and I called up my friend to see if he wanted to check out the house with me. He agreed and we headed out. The drive was nice, but I had to take a particularly less efficient route to find it because the landmarks were far and few between. I still can’t find the place by simply trying to drive straight to it on the back roads.

The house looked typical from the outside. Paint was peeling off on the outside and there was an abundance of tall grass and ratty looking trees. I parked the car behind the house so we were relatively out of sight. The door to the place was un-locked, but was still hard to open because it would jam tight against the warped floor. Squeezing through the partially opened door, we made our way inside and that’s where our jaws dropped. The house was so completely in tact we were second-guessing it being abandoned.

There were newspapers on the table, pots on the stove, cutlery in the drawers, plates in the cupboards and even liquor in the taller cabinets. The bathroom had a really old box of toothpaste still sitting by the sink, un-opened. The living room had some beautiful leather furniture and a nice fireplace… all complete with shag carpet! Upstairs was where the place was really starting to decay. The two rooms were ok, with some stains from water damage, but the one particular room had patches of the roof plaster falling in and extensive water damage around the roof and walls.

I have never found a place more complete and un-disturbed. It was almost like stepping into another time. You could easily lose yourself there, spending hours looking at all the cool old stuff and flipping through all the papers and sports magazines. I have made several trips to this place since the first visit and I always seem to find something cool to photograph. Its places like this that remind me to never assume that a house will contain nothing new and out of the ordinary. Yes, many houses are the same, but you never know what you could be missing by simply passing by.