We’ve now lived in Scarborough for nine years. I can’t believe it has been that long but here we are. When we first moved into the neighbourhood most of the houses in the area had that brick bungalow 1950’s era look. There’s been a few changes as people decide to renovate, add a second story or in some cases tear down and rebuild.

One of the houses that was renovated near us, was actually the site of a terrible house fire about seven years ago. We came out in the morning to go to work and here were fire trucks, media and neighbours all looking at the remains of an overnight fire. One woman was killed in the fire and the family obviously had to relocate. After about 6 months the house began to see some workman and the ruins were cleaned up and a renovation project began. The kept two walls of the original house and enlarged the footprint giving it a modern and larger look.

When the renovation was done no one moved in, but rather it went up for sale. After less than a week the for sale sign came down and it has sat empty every since. For a while it seemed someone was coming around looking after things. But last summer notices started being taped to the front door and the grass and weeds began to take over.

The house appears today to be totally abandoned.

The properties in this neighbourhood would normally sell for around $800 to 900K, so it is a valuable property, plus whatever was paid in the renovation. Wondering about all this I walked down to the house, You don’t have to be an architect or even need to be around the house long to see one of the issues. It is clear that whatever work has been done has been done cheaply and at times to cover up things that need addressing.

I don’t know who owns this, but it seems that the fire was just the first tragedy. The second one is the final state of this house.