Walls can talk

Copyright © 2009 Teresa Boardman.

Houses speak to me and they always have.

They tell stories and reveal secrets. The basketball hoop on the garage says that children once played there. The tool bench says that the mister liked to fix things.

The ancient stove in the basement says that the same people lived in the home for a long time. The ancient green carpet and the flowered drapes in the vacant home say that someone is gone. Maybe the former occupants are in a nursing home, an apartment or a graveyard.

Some homes feel happy inside and others do not. Most of us who have been in the business can spot a divorce home. Sometimes there is evidence of children, but it doesn't look like they live there full-time and there is no evidence of a couple. The home is either filled with his things or hers.

The homes that are filled with all the stuff that a growing family has are happy homes -- I can almost feel the love. The children's rooms are bright and filled with toys and pictures. I can tell that they are selling because they need more space.

There are sad stories in homes, too: the home that someone bought to rehab -- empty, with some missing walls, and now owned by a bank -- and the homes with missing copper plumbing and holes in the wall where the appliances used to be.

There are homes with ceilings falling in because the roofs that needed repairs long ago were never attended to. And now that a bank owns them, they may fall further into decay. There are some beautiful historic homes that are rotting away before my very eyes.

There are homes that the occupants left quickly. They were likely rental properties that were foreclosed on and the renters didn't get much notice. I find children's toys in odd locations and in one vacant home I found one piece of furniture: a child's playpen -- in pristine condition, complete with a blanket and some toys. ...CONTINUED

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