Our sales this week were pretty interesting, not really because of our purchases but because of the weird-ass houses we visited.

The second house we visited on our journey was in Bloomfield Hills, and by all appearances, was about to be one of the fanciest (and largest) homes I had ever entered.  This was pretty much true, until things got weird.

Turns out that this house was the PLAYHOUSE of a larger home behind it.  In the 1960s, it was finally separated from its master home and sold as a residence itself.  The first sign of its former playhouse glory days was the front entry:

Looks normal enough, but this entryway used to be a POOL!  Check out that tile floor.  The drop-off on the right was the deep-end.  And check out the former pool wall and drains:

The first few rooms of this house were really impressive.  They had a tavern, a wine cellar, and a crazy opulent ballroom.

As we got further into the recesses of this house though, we started noticing a severe change of scenery.  Things went the way of Grey Gardens pretty quickly.

An upstairs bedroom had a once-beautiful atrium with a hot tub.  It now looked like the apocalypse had set in and people were long vanished from these parts:

The carpet in nearly all of the upstairs’ rooms was either horrifically stained or looked like this:

To be honest, it was just WEIRD.  I looked at Sarah and said, “Something is not right.” The house felt increasingly sad, and creepy.

We found out before leaving that both owners of the home were still alive, but had moved into a condo after getting Alzheimer’s.  The home was a fading testament to their high-style living.  

Again, it all felt very sad.  But it also felt just really, really weird.  Who leaves behind a gorgeous mansion to sit and decay?  Where was their family?  We didn’t get answers to those questions, but here is what we did get (not much):

I found a cool hand-painted Mexican plate for $5.

And a book about the wilderness because I am OBSESSED with anything relative to Into the Wild.

Everything else in the house was too weird, too dirty, or too expensive.  I was really happy with my 2 finds though, and at seeing the inside of this wild home.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: Erin’s description is perfect. Also, the house started having a grody smell after a while and my gag reflex started kicking in.

Another thing–I tried to buy the sellers’ magnifying glass by accident. What can I say? It looked cool and was left sitting there on a table with other old things! 

I did find some cool vintage sheets that say “SLEEP” all over them: 

They smell pretty musty but you can tell they’re clean and aren’t stained. I need someone who can sew to make me a little throw quilt out of them. 

I also got a little gnome Christmas ornament and some greeting cards to add to my collection. 

We went to two other interesting houses on Friday that I’ll post about ASAP. 

P.S. Look at the giant chip in that plate Erin bought. WTF?