Wednesday, February 4, 2009

For Fido the giraffe


From anonymous comes this listing. What it that on the front lawn? A bus stop? A prompter's box? A phone booth? One of those lil' shelters where the palace guards go when they just can't hold the giggles in any longer?

43 comments:

Blank said...

I was going to go with "Mausoleum," but maybe I am just morbid.

Brooke said...

I drive past a house here in Utah with a building in front just like this it's sky blue. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is for. Now I will have to watch for a giraffe. :)

Anonymous said...

It's an elevator that takes you to any room in the house.

Karl Steel said...

A sukkah built by someone unclear on the concept?

Stephanie said...

and what exactly is that fence containing??

Galadriel said...

It's an outhouse!

Anonymous said...

A doghouse for a very tall dog? Where they story the family Hobbit? The place where the hope they had of selling their house went to die?

One thing is for certain is that at 450k in TN they need to put up more pictures of that listing if they want to sell it. It's a pretty unremarkable looking house for a fair chunk of change in TN.

PrincessLuceval said...

When I lived out in the country, there were those type of shelters at the end of very long driveways, so kids waiting for the school bus weren't out in the cold. This doesn't look to be necessary here, though.

Perhaps it's a tollbooth?

Barb said...

They're trying to build a TARDIS.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

And why is there not a single window on the left side of the house?

hamburke said...

I can't figure out what the building is for buy my IL's have a similar fence. Come to think of it, I don't get that either. In the case of my IL's it's a white pickett fence that runs about 6 feet in front of the front of the house and it's for "aesthetics" - the whole neighborhood has them and they are PVC which picks up dirt like crazy (think white chairs that hide in this blog). The fence here also has that "welcome home (1950's) Dennis the Menace" feel. Heck, going on that premise, the building is Dennis's fort or a rocket ship or a science project or some other ill conceived idea.

Anonymous said...

That, my friends, is a TARDIS. Police box was already taken, so they had to go with a slightly less charming outhouse disguise.

Anonymous said...

It's for the bus stop (kids). If it's raining, they have somewhere to stand under. School bus drivers don't stop if they don't see someone at the curb.

TisforTonya said...

I've seen similar houses when we lived in Northern Washington - but those were close enough to the road to be recognizable as bus stop shelters...

this one... well, if I didn't love my MIL I'd make a joke along those lines...

Anonymous said...

The yard was just happy to see you.

emily said...

I think I can make out a sign that reads:

PSYCHIATRIC HELP 5¢

THE DOCTOR IS IN

Angela at Box of Unicorns said...

Now we know where that giraffe from the listing a few days ago lives.

Charlene said...

Anon, it's fifteen feet away from the curb behind a wrought-iron fence. The kids wouldn't be visible from the street and it would take them more time to get to the curb from that box than it would to get there from the front door.

And anyway, are people in Tennessee such immense, immense wimps that they can't stand a little rain? I don't think anyone's that wimpy. It's not fifty below.

Sara said...

There's a porch right there. I don't see how it could be a bus shelter for the kids.

Anonymous said...

Are we sure its even really there? It looks suspiciously "unreal". Maybe it escaped from the photoshopping horror of a few days ago? That's got to be the blackest door/door opening ever - not even light escapes this little building. Maybe there was an offensive lawn decoration/person in the photo, and the realtor decided to cover it/them up with a vintage coal shed from 1930's southwestern Virginia?

Artful Dodger said...

Silly people! It's where the Sentry stands when the tornado comes through town. Otherwise, he's right there by the front walk.

Janet Selman said...

Duh! It's the Phantom Tollbooth! By now, it's gone, on to someone else who needs it!
http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Tollbooth-Norton-Juster/dp/0394815009/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233793287&sr=8-1

Anonymous said...

Um, do you actually know what a beefeater is? They're quite jolly and smile quite a lot.

Sara said...

Argh. You're right, anonymous. Not "Beefeater." Off to edit...

Anonymous said...

I used to drive by very large, expensive houses every day going to work. Once one of them was having some sort of construction going on, and their front yard had something I'm pretty sure was a basic port-a-potty surrounded by a fancier enclosure. I guess they couldn't stand to have such an ugly thing in the lawn in their nice neighborhood or something.

My guess is that this is one of those. Although you'd think a house built in 2005 wouldn't need that much renovation yet. Maybe this is an old picture from when construction was just finishing.

Alternate guess... no, forget it. I was going to suggest one of those storage things that they drop off and you fill it up and then they take it away and store it, which would make sense when someone's moving. But who would put that in the middle of the front yard? You'd want it near the door, and probably on your driveway where the lawn wouldn't be destroyed by the truck doing dropoff and all the activity moving stuff in and out.

Ms M said...

That is a curious apparition on the front lawn.
There was a house a couple of blocks from where I live that had a little "house" like that inside the fence, right by the gate. It had a mail slot in it. I wonder if it was a "mail fortress" to prevent mail theft? Perhaps the "little house" in this photo is related??

bmillios said...

No, it's the workshop of the grandfather from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's a tardis?

Also, they're making modern knockoffs of Craftsman houses now?

Becs said...

There are houses for half a mill in Tennessee?? Those TVA boys (your govt at work) must be paying pretty durn good.

HellboundAlleee said...

Absolutely. A photoshopped portapotty.

Anonymous said...

What about a shet for a corn/wood burning stove/furnace. I know some people have these outside of the home and then they heat their homes and floors with the heat/steam/hot water created by them?

Dad (Mark) said...

Oh wow - this is my house! For the record that is a Halloween decoration, the Crypt of the Phantasm. I don't know why we are still using that picture. We have many more that don't feature our Halloween decorations. I emailed our agent to get those updated.

Sara said...

A crypt! Of course!

Anonymous said...

You can't make this stuff up!

webbie said...

It looks a little "photoshop". I may go check it out this evening.

Just a little FYI, Franklin TN--high dollar dwelling. $474,000 is a bargain.

Anonymous said...

Dad(Mark)- Awesome! Thanks for solving the mystery. Looking forward to new pics.

Anonymous said...

2nd Julie's point: Why build a bungalow with all those period details and then have no windows on one whole side of the house? I guess they can always be added later. Still, that would be deal-breaker for me as a prospective bungalow buyer. Snotty take: This is probably in some god-forsaken exurban neighborhood where the homeowners have never seen a real bungalow, except maybe a glimpse in that "Christmas Story" movie or somethin'...

Dad (Mark) said...

The lack of windows on one side is a privacy thing. All the houses from this builder have only one narrow window in the kitchen on the side that would face into the neighbor's courtyard. We just happen to have a corner unit.

Each house has a courtyard that serves as the main green space. The neighborhood association maintains the lawn outside the courtyard. Click through the link to see pictures of the courtyard to get the idea. I'm sure I'm not describing it well.

We like it. Our neighbors like it. It seems to work for us. The house still gets tons of light.

Also, to the person who was going to check out the house tonight to see if this is a "photoshop" - we put our Halloween decorations away in early November. Sorry. If you knock on the door I will show you the disassembled crypt in the garage.

I agree that we need more pictures on Realtor.com. I asked our agent to add more - we have a ton. This is also one of the more moderately-priced houses in this neighborhood, which maxes out in the 800s believe it or not.

Anonymous said...

I hope you're able to see soon, Mark and thank you for the explanation. I was the one commenting that you need more pictures for a house in that price range in TN. The link you provided has plenty of the interior and it seems a very nice house.

Anonymous said...

I've seen these in many places - but especially in the country.

I think it's a bus shelter for
kids for colder days ... ??

Kate

Anonymous said...

Kate, actually, it's a crypt for kids on cold days.

Anonymous said...

Uh Becs, no one who actually works at TVA lives in Franklin- few at TVA could actually afford to live in Franklin if their jobs were even near there! Count on the music industry, the insurance and for-profit health care industry to fuel those pricey Franklin prices.

Anonymous said...

It's where the mother-in-law stays when she visits.