Old house

 

Over the weekend B and I visited a friend who lives in this large turn of the 20th century house in town, he doesn't own it however so I took these photos only so as to not intrude into the owner's personal suff. Unfortunately it needs ALOT of work such as the foundations piles which are sinking, the metal work is rusting and will probably need more money than most people have to fix the rest of the problems.

But the interior is beautiful. Above and below are 2 of the stained glass doors within the house which surprisingly are still looking immaculate with no cracks. 

The wallpaper on the right is throughout the house and is original. Apparently the house was first built for a local business man who was quite wealthy who also owned one of the local pubs in town. It's quite sad to see it looking in this state.

Linking up with Tuesday Treasures, Happy Tuesdays and Wordless Wednesday.

Old house in Whataroa

 

While driving through Whataroa recently I spotted this old house in the middle of a paddock just out of town. If you're travelling throughout the country you're going to see lots of these dotted about the landscapes, abandoned and unloved. Some are being used for sheep shearing, some for old farm sheds and others just empty.

Linking up with Tuesday Treasures, Happy Tuesdays and Wordless Wednesday.

Empty

 

Yesterday I was driving around with my daughter and I spotted this empty derelict house on the outskirts of town. Looks like a typical 1930s property and I'm not sure if it had a fire or whether it's just empty and neglected. 

Speaking of fire, we were woken up at 6am this morning by the loudest crack of thunder I've ever heard in my life, we thought something had exploded out in the street. Turned out we'd had a couple of lightning strikes that had struck something, we weren't sure what but as it happened one of the buildings in town had been hit and was on fire. Our neighbour across the road had called the fire department who turned up for about half an hour so no idea what happened there.  

Linking up with Weekend Reflections, All Seasons and the Weekend Roundup.

Blue house

I spotted this little house for sale in Murchison last year. A very pretty wee stucco house from the 1930s era, there are a few properties around the country like this. This one painted blue stands out a mile but not sure I would keep the colour if I owned it. I'd probably be a bit more traditional.

Linking up with Blue Monday and Mosaic Monday.

Railway House

There are lots of little old abandoned houses on the West Coast, probably leftover from the goldmining days of when miners or farmers lived in them. This one is in Stillwater, about 25 minutes from town right next to the railway depot.

Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, Ruby Tuesday, My corner of the world, Wordless Wednesday.

Houses old and new

So Greymouth being originally an old mining town is full of houses from different eras. There are Victorian, art deco, 1950s, 1960s and modern. These 3 are just a few examples of what I've seen in my neighbourhood.

Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, Ruby Tuesday, My corner of the world, Wordless Wednesday

Quirky villa in Te Kopuru

In mid 2010 I worked in Dargaville for about a year, sometimes I'd drive around the area looking for interesting things to take photos of. This vintage villa in Te Kopuru is loaded with decorations and is owned by local Leon Searle, he use to be a fisherman but is now retired. The garden is mostly full of fishing floats (buoys).

Moving along...this week has been full of surprises for us. Our landlord dropped by with a letter saying we have 45 days to find another rental property. Talk about bad timing. When we signed up for this one last year they asked us to sign a 1 year lease which we thought was a  bit suspect so we refused. Looks like they only wanted us here for that period of time, apparently they want to move in as owners which legally they can do so we are trying to find somewhere new before we go on holiday.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.