Thursday, September 18, 2008

When they say "Gothic," they mean "Gothic"



It's... it's... it's a grave, isn't it? Dawn found this listing, and she thinks it is, too. The house was built in 1843, so it does seem possible.

Getting the defunct swimming pool out of our back yard was a real pain. What's it like getting a grave out? Or do you just leave it, even though your kids will have tea parties on it when they're little and then, when they're adolescents, go out there to smoke cloves?

Maybe the dead like clove cigarettes. And tea parties. I do not know.

20 comments:

David said...

If only this was in the garden of the pink house...

Charlene said...

"What's it like getting a grave out?"

Well, first you have to apply to the court for an exhumation order, which you likely won't get. If the grave was there before you bought the house, the implication is that you accept the grave as is.

If you dig it up without an exhumation order, you're likely to go to jail - disturbing a gravesite is a crime punishable by imprisonment in most parts of the Western World.

However, this is moot, since that's almost certainly a well, possibly an old dry well for drainage.

TisforTonya said...

Maybe the Satanists that sold their house recently will be interested in this one...

C said...

My husband and I used to live in a subdivision that also happened to house an historic graveyard. I have no idea how the zoning worked, but we didn't realize who our "neighbors" were until we went out for a walk a few days after closing on the house and stumbled across a fenced-off section of the neighborhood. Ta da! Graveyard! Practically next door!

Anonymous said...

I don't know about the stone that's standing up... but the other looks like a covering of an old well or cistern. That would also suck to have in the back yard, but not as bad as having a grave.

Sue said...

I live about 3 miles away from this one. Perhaps I should go on an exploratory mission.

Anonymous said...

brilliant idea - pay for one and get one free!

A gravestone to use for tea parties, smoking cigs or just plain snoozing while alive - plus your very own plot for when you die.

Now... why didn't I think of that?

judith said...

We also lived next door to an old grave yard. The oldest graveyard in Texas in fact. It was a great place for the kids to play... fenced in, not many people around, hadn't had a recent burial in over 50 years. The kid's loved it.. they learned to read by reading the headstones.

I agree, this looks more like a well.

Anonymous said...

Grave/well notwithstanding, it's very interesting to me that there's several (duplicate!) pics of the kitchen, but NOT ONE PIC OF THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE! Crazy.

Concrete Mama said...

it does snow a lot in Ithaca (COR-NELL!) so perhaps it's a snow marker, so you don't trip on it when it's buried?

I like the pink house idea better!

Meg said...

Are those cows and american flags in the kitchen above the doorway?

Becca said...

Ok guys, sorry to say, but I really think it's a stone covering a old well. If it was a grave the long flat stone would be pressing into the earth - but if you look closely it's not, it's resting up on something, and the other stone is helping it balance. Not that any of this matters.... it's still a crazy pic for a listing! I guess they are proud of the old well/grave...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, what the others said about it being a well covering. That said, in this day an age it seems a really stupid cover. "Attractive nuisance" indeed, why would you leave it like that? Do they hate babies named Jessica? (I guess then it would be propped up with a stick under it and a teddy bear tied to the stick...)

Unknown said...

The collection of photos of this house tell me two things:
1. The kitchen is newly remodeled.
2. The rest of the house probably isn't and looks like crap.

FarmWife said...

Who's to say there's not a body in the well therefor making it a grave & still perfectly acceptable for sitting & smoking your cloves. My 19 year old, black & leather wearing self would have loved it!

As it stands, my in-laws live down the road from us & have a cemetary in their cow pasture. It's kind of comforting to know I'll never really be far from home.

judith said...

Ding, ding, ding... Melissa you win the prize...

Farmwife do you have one of these in your yard????

Anonymous said...

Rotflol! That is so funny, and erm, creepy. Yikes! I can't imagine having to weed wack around that all the time.

I love your blog and your sense of humor, btw.

wundermary said...

I have both a cistern (two, actually) and a very small graveyard on my property. Frankly, I worry more about the cisterns. Whomever is buried in the yard are pretty quiet neighbors.

Anonymous said...

I can't help but say that I, too live about 3 miles from this house. I thought it looked familiar!

Anonymous said...

I live right down the road from this house! And it is beautiful on the outside - don't know why they don't show a picture...