2010/09/13

The White House Mystery

DaGoddess @ 04:48

Some mysteries are easily solved with a decoder ring or by a couple of inquisitive teens. Others require a spy of the highest caliber, the kind without a name. And still more so complex that a bevy of Hollywood writers take years to unravel and ravel and unravel and ravel and unravel the story.

I’m sitting atop a bit of mystery here.

Around the corner and across the street is a white house. It intrigues me and MOBD a great deal. It’s been empty since I moved in. It’s been empty for months prior to my moving here. With the market the way it’s been, it’s no wonder that it’s remained empty. It’s a pretty good sized lot, too. Horse property. 2.2 acres. White adobe. Hacienda style. Square. All rectangular/square windows save one round stained glass window on the south side. Two stories. 2,400 sq. feet.

A realtor friend looked up the property. It sold a few years ago for almost $2million. Foreclosure a year or two later. On the market again this past year for under $300k. Foreclosure in less than two months. That was back in December. Empty ever since.

Yesterday there were trashcans out in front for the second time since I’ve moved here. Looks like the bank is getting ready to put the house back on the market so they’re cleaning up. We’ve never seen anyone there. No people. No cars. Nothing.

MOBD and I decided to walk over last night. We walked past a neighbor’s house and heard all these birds. What a racket! Every once in a while, we hear them really raising a fuss. As we got closer to the mystery house, we heard the birds again, but the sound isn’t coming from where we thought. Now it’s coming from back behind the white house or maybe from the pinkish house. WTF?

We step onto the property and start circling the house. Roll up door on the front room. A three car garage that’s pretty much impossible to put a car into or drive out of unless it’s half a Mini. The 3 bay garage is just too close to the house and the roll up door on the front room. Around back, there’s another roll up door on the house, but it’s too small for a car. Hmmm, what could it be for?

The stables out back look sturdy enough. The extra building has some gear stored there. We start walking toward the stables and the bird noises get louder. Sure as shit, there’s cage after cage after cage of birds. Mostly parrots from what we can see. Not exactly great conditions for birds as far as shelter…open sided…no air conditioners, no fans, no heater elements either. Nobody in the house. Not for months. And yet there are birds there. Alive and seemingly healthy.

Obviously someone’s coming by daily to feed and water and otherwise tend to them. How come we never see anyone? And why would there still be birds there if nobody lives in the foreclosed house? MOBD says he’s always heard the birds and he’s been here three years. WTF?

On our way back home, we check the trashcans. Mostly debris from the cages and some yard detritus.

Maybe a neighbor? Maybe someone from the pink house is leasing the stables to house the birds. It’s convenient. It makes sense. But…it still doesn’t quite seem right. There isn’t another neighbor around who’d be doing this. The only other house within an easy walk is empty. Another foreclosure. Huge. Almost 4,000 sq ft. The bank is asking close to $600k for it. (Realtor friend info again.)

But the birds. To whom do they belong? And why do we never see anyone over there? And when is the house going on the market? How much will the bank be asking for it?

The way we see it, if the bank is asking anything under $200k, MOBD will put in a bid. Anything more than that, we’ll just wait until it’s sold, the new people move in, and then we befriend them…and get answers to our birdly questions and we get in to see the house since it’s driving us bonkers. Plus, we want to check out those garages.

For now, we wait. We’ll probably walk over every day until we get some sort of satisfactory answers.

We’re weird, huh?

6 Comments

  1. That is TOO weird!! It’s so hard to wait for the answer to a mystery… :(

    Comment by Pam — 2010/09/13 @ 06:00

  2. I was really hoping walking over there would answer some of our questions. Nope. Only created more questions. Like an episode of Lost.

    The windows, I should have mentioned, are covered with a relfective film, so you can’t even peer into the house.

    Cue Twilight Zone theme.

    Comment by DaGoddess — 2010/09/13 @ 14:04

  3. Keep an eye on the birds for me!They can come join my flock

    Comment by karen — 2010/09/14 @ 17:35

  4. I hate that they’re just sitting there…it drives me crazy! They look healthy, but I think it gets far too hot for them to be out there. Grrr. I’ll send all but two to you if I liberate them.

    Comment by DaGoddess — 2010/09/14 @ 20:12

  5. Sounds like the house might be cross between Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ and ‘Psycho’.

    Comment by Mrs. Who — 2010/09/17 @ 18:13

  6. I’m putting on my Trixie Belden cap, calling up Honey, Jim, Mart, and Brian…maybe even Di…and we’ll go solve this puzzle!

    Comment by DaGoddess — 2010/09/17 @ 19:20

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