Lagniappe: Eccentric Houses

Houses, like people, are apt to become rather eccentric if left too much on their own; this house was the architectural equivalent of an old gentleman in a worn dressing-gown and torn slippers, who got up and went to bed at odd times of day, and who kept up a continual conversation with friends who no one else could see.

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

We've all been in houses like this, right? Fiddled with by people who came and went, benignly left alone by others who lived there, the house takes on a personality of its own. I see photos of houses like this in the WSJ's Friday real estate section. There are "before" photos which show a house that my husband and I would have loved to explore - or to live in "as is." Then there are the "after remodeling" photos when the soul has been ripped out of the place and replaced with bland modernity. Poor thing.