The neighbor nickname thread reminded me of this house in our neighborhood.

The guy who lives there, Conrad, is a total freak. He's older, in his 60's I'd guess. He lives in this house about 3 blocks from me with his wife, who seems pretty normal. I've seen her outside with a grandchild before and she said hi. Conrad, from what I hear, is really nasty.

Anyway, Conrad does "Art Cars". Have you ever seen these? They are cars that people dress up and call Art. They have clubs and conventions and stuffy. To give you an idea, here's a link to some photos at the Art Car Museum. http://www.artcarmuseum.com/cars.html

So, those photos are weird, right? Well, Conrad's cars are worse. There is one that is totally splatter painted except for the front windshield. There is one called "Handy Car" that has this huge mound on the roof and hands sticking out all over it. And there's one that is covered in baby doll heads. Just the heads.

His house is just as bad. The front yard is a total jungle. You can't see the front of the house. The side fence is covered with the lids from kid sandboxes, like the bug and turtle-shaped ones. And there are baby doll butts sticking out of the wood gate to the back yard. The back yard is a mess. Usually the gate is closed and I can't really see anything other than the doll butts.

Did I mention that Conrad drives his art cars all over? You can't miss him.

At the end of our block there is a house that had a fire over a year ago. It totally burned down the 2nd floor. But the first floor is intact, and still has the curtains in the windows. It's abandoned and totally an eyesore. Keep in mind I live in a downtown area and that my condo complex is gated and very separate from the ghetto houses that surround it. :)

OMG, Brooke, I can't believe you live near that guy! His cars are my uncle's favorite part of Artscape every year. :lol:

This is a pretty new development, so not a lot of time for wierdos to move in yet. I guess the wierdest ones are on the corner, Jerry and Jessica. Jessica is a SAHM but doesn't seem to do anything at all that requires the least bit of physical exertion - I know this will drive the Stroller Fans crazy - she has some fairly expensive brand of stroller (not sure which one, but I know I couldn't afford it) and she leave it OUTSIDE. 24/7. Rain, sleet, feet of snow, doesn't matter. I'm so tempted to go steal it and give it a proper home. And her husband works for Lowes, where I'm quite sure he's robbing them blind. He has more power tools than anyone in humanity should be able to afford, and they're all outside too. Sanders, routers, grouters, things with bits and other attachments that probably cost a couple hundred bucks, laying around in the dirt, sitting on the porch, whatever. And yet with all these pricey tools, he doesn't fix a single thing around the house! :doh: The garage door is still not closed completely, the side gate is still hanging off the hinges, the front railing is laying in the driveway. It's just astounding!

:lol: we probably live in the weirdest looking house (for the next week at least :lol: ) Its painted a bright purple color, and is such an eyesore..but its easy to give directions to where we live "Just look for the big purple house" :lol:

The people across the street leave their christmas decorations up all year long...I've never seen them take them down since we've lived here..Santa is toppled over on their roof..they have rudolf and the reindeer sitting in their lawn....there is a giant blow up snowman that is up every night, come rain or shine....and they have a huge dead wreath hanging on their house

OMG, I would love to live next to Conrad...but I am an "art person." :)

We live in a brand-new subdivision, and I was just saying to DH that a couple of the spec houses being built are pretty lame from a curb appeal standpoint. For example:

http://homepics.realtor.com/image6/http/northeastwi/listings/large/031/10312209a.jpg

http://homepics.realtor.com/image6/http/northeastwi/listings/large/004/1039864a.jpg

I guess I have an aversion to the "door alcove." It's hard to tell in the first rendering I posted, but IRL the entrance area is so dark, and the two gables are so close together they're almost touching. And the front windows are so tiny -- just not very welcoming IMO.

Another trend I don't like is the huge-garage-with-a-small-attached-house thing. Call me over-critical. :blush:

The people across the street leave their christmas decorations up all year long...I've never seen them take them down since we've lived here..Santa is toppled over on their roof..they have rudolf and the reindeer sitting in their lawn....there is a giant blow up snowman that is up every night, come rain or shine....and they have a huge dead wreath hanging on their house
Someone in my neighborhod still has their nativity out.

I'll try to sneak some photos of Conrad's house when I go out today.

:lol: that man sounds sooo funny :lol:

oh my gosh Brooke..that's hysterical! Baby doll butts?!?! what the..?!?!

Ok....here are some photos from when I drove by today.

This is just one of his cars. He has 3 more. His house is behind all the trees. Remember, it's winter. In the summer, the house is totally hidden by leaves.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9ee7b84990000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2019);/)

A closer shot of this car. That blue and red thing is on the top of the mound on the top of the car! See the car behind it? It has a Christmas Toy Soldier on top of it.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9e26c05b80000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2020);/)

And this is the gate to his driveway and back yard. When the gates are open, you can see all the doll butts. They were open this morning but he was outside so I didn't get to take a photo.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9e26a05be0000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2021);/)

Oh.Dear.LordOk....here are some photos from when I drove by today.

This is just one of his cars. He has 3 more. His house is behind all the trees. Remember, it's winter. In the summer, the house is totally hidden by leaves.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9ee7b84990000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2019);/)

A closer shot of this car. That blue and red thing is on the top of the mound on the top of the car! See the car behind it? It has a Christmas Toy Soldier on top of it.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9e26c05b80000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2020);/)

And this is the gate to his driveway and back yard. When the gates are open, you can see all the doll butts. They were open this morning but he was outside so I didn't get to take a photo.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9e26a05be0000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2021);/)

:lol: Brooke, that's terrible! :lol:

Our neighborhood is pretty boring, but a few blocks away, there is one weird house. They have the grill of some car up above their driveway, and because they have NO fence (despite being right on the main road), you can see all of the *lawn art* in their backyard. They have at least one driftwood sculpture (there might be more, though... I never have looked that closely) and they have one of those shadowy cowboy statue things... I'll have to see if I can get a picture later. And they have Christmas lights up year round. :rolleyes: We drive past their house to get to ours all the time, but it isn't really in our actual neighborhood, thank goodness! :lol:

Another trend I don't like is the huge-garage-with-a-small-attached-house thing. Call me over-critical. :blush:
Yeah - I dont care for the 3 car garage w/ house, either.

OMG Brooke--that is sooo ugly! what an eyesore :lol:


We dont have anything too unusal, mainly b/c of the strict ordinances and rules around here (TG). And b/c its hard to buy a house in this suburb, so you have to really want to live here (something people who dont give a crap about their homes wouldnt put for the effort to do).

Anyway...there is a house on our block that was the second house built (ours was the first in 1929). Its this teeny tiny little thing...the width of it is the size of ONE room. I think its a 3 room house w/ a bathroom!! And its set back from the street, so you almost miss it if you blink. I think the original owner is lving there!! If they ever kick the bucket, I hope the next owner totally renovates it!!

That's a sweet ride Brooke! :lol:

Brooke, that's funny! :lol: There's a guy here in CT that does art and has maniquins speared with stakes in his front yard.

We live in an apartment and have some strange niehgbors but no other houses around. There is one that is across the street from my mom's house that is a complete trash pile! Their roof leaked so they just stapled a blue tarp over that part of the roof. They leave the plastic on their windows year round. There is a gas pump in driveway that does NOT pump gas along with piles of other crap. Every year they have a three week long tag sale and what ever doesn't sell they push into a huge pile and burn. We've seen them out there around this huge toxic bonfire drinking beer and roasting hot dogs. I had the "pleasure" of going inside that house once for an ambulance call and was totally grossed out. :dead: As soon as the call was over I went home and took a very long hot shower.

Dawn

we no longer live in a neighborhood and just bought a house in boonieville and now live on a gravel road with no neighbors we can see (thank goodness!)

But where we just moved from we were renting our house and our neighbors across the street were weird. They had a stupid dog that got loose all the time and they spent half the time chasing it down around the woods in the neighborhood. DH even went over and cursed them out a couple times for letting it come in our yard and bark and scare our kids. They still were nice to us though and acted as if we never said a thing to them. :rolleyes: I'm sure in their eyes WE were the weird ones :lol:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9e26c05b80000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2020);/)


http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc00b3127cceb8a9e26a05be0000001610 (http://java_script_:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b39e120be4 6f',%2021);/)
Wow...what does that do for the property value?

:lol: Wow, Brooke! :lol:

Wow...what does that do for the property value?
I don't know what it does to his value. I would sure hate to be his neighbor.
The good thing is that his house is kind of far back from the main street so alot of people may not even see it. OUR property value is going up, but the houses over by him are probably suffering.

There aren't really any weird houses right in our neighborhood (just a bunch of trashy ones :dead: ) but down the road aways there is a house thats a 2 story (most houses here are 1 story) and is south western designed on one side and victorian on the other 3 sides. Plus the victorian part is like pepto bismal pink, it used to be really bright but its faded some now. Ill Have to try and get pictures of it someday.