I was always intrigued by this image.
Do you see a Victorian woman at her vanity?
Or do you see a skull?
Do you want to see something even scarier than that? Anyès over at The Dusty Victorian recently did a post about her scary basement. Be sure to check out her site! Her basement looked a lot like the basement at Eastlake Victorian, so I thought I'd let you take a peek at ours as well. Follow me...
Here... I'll get the light...
Watch your step. The floors are very uneven...
Watch your head! There are spiders EVERYWHERE!!!
Wait a minute...
All those spiders...
Are DEAD!!!!! Yes, all our basement spiders build their webs all over the place, then promptly die. What does that mean?
And all the windows have been clawed at and chewed. Was some creature once locked down here and tried to escape?
Most of the original structural posts have been replaced, but the house is still sagging in many areas...
This is definitely a basement that can never be living space. The ceilings are much too low!
The floors are cracked, the walls are disintegrating, there's seepage everywhere...
No matter how often we've swept, cleaned, and dusted, we end up with this...
and this...
And, the pièce de résistance...
A room with a toilet. Nothing else, just the toilet. I must say, we've never taken advantage of that toilet, and I don't ever remember even opening the lid. Scary, no?
Well, that concludes our tour of the creepy, disgusting underbelly of Eastlake Victorian. Thanks, Anyès, for the inspiration!
Now, where did my husband go? Last time I saw him, he was in the basement...
Terry!............
Terry?.............
What a fantastic post!!
ReplyDeleteI love the photo of the Victorian lady!! And your basement!! Typical for an older house but perfect for a Halloween post!!
Have a HAppy Halloween weekend!!
Hugs,
Debbie
Hi Debbie-
ReplyDeleteHope I didn't scare you too much! I hope your Halloween weekend is fun as well!
-Pam
Man Oh Man!!! That was creepy Pam, but hilarious at the same time. Loved it!
ReplyDeleteAnyès
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Oh poor Terry!!! It looks like a scene from one of Poe's works. Love the picture of the Victorian woman - didn't see the skull until you mentioned it, but it's very cool. As for your basement - what a great site it would be for a Halloween party, low ceilings and all:)
ReplyDeleteHi Anyès,
ReplyDeleteThank you for great inspiration! It was a lot of fun trying to find the creepiest parts to photograph. Glad you liked it!
-Pam
Sweetbrier-
ReplyDeleteI guess if we had kids, the basement could be used for a haunted house party. As for adults, well, they'd all have to be no taller than me. Terry bangs his head on all the low ductwork and pipes down there. Maybe that's what happened to him... :-)
-Pam
When I lived in Chicago... (1938 to 1958 ).
ReplyDeleteThe house that we lived in was built in 1895...by my great-grandparents....and later sold to my grandparents..and even later...left to my mother who was their only daughter.
Our family owened the house for over 70 years and then it was sold...when we all moved out and my parents did not need such a large home any longer...we had a basement too...but it was usable...and we could walk around in it. It was musty smeeling and dusty ...but it also had s single toilet in it...and was very useful to us..and there were 11 of us living in that house at one time...and it only had one bathroom on the second floor..but I do remember not wanting to go down there alone when I was young.
All five of us siblings who grew up in that house are planning to visit the old neighborhood next summer...and we are working on getting the owners of our old homestead to let us in to see it one more time.
If nothing else, we will have pictures takenof us in front of the house.
OK...did not mean to write a novel.
Rose
Hi Rose-
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your stories of growing up in Chicago! Irving Park neighborhood, right? Oh, that would be great if you all got to go inside to see your old home after all these years! Make sure you bring any photos you might have of the house to compare it to now. I wonder how the current owners are using the basement?
-Pam