Over the past couple of weeks, I've explored a few abandoned houses plus one that looked like a house but turned out not to be. Nothing exceptional but still had some fun and got out of the house/away from work.

1. First one was a couple of weeks ago. Stopped at this one on the way to the house I posted last week. It's a pretty isolated property where you can't see any other buildings and it has some nice old trees.
DSC09052 by KMD1720, on Flickr

2. There were four rooms on the first floor. The living room was inside the front door with a utility room off to the side. In the back were the kitchen and dining room. All the windows in the dining room were inexplicably covered with fabric.
DSC09056 by KMD1720, on Flickr

3.
DSC09059 by KMD1720, on Flickr

4. The stairway split off in two directions at the top. With no upstairs hallway the second floor was basically a square with all the bedrooms connected by doorways. At the top right was the bathroom which has been on fire, hence the missing wall.
DSC09076 by KMD1720, on Flickr

5. The three connected bedroom plus bathroom.
DSC09081 by KMD1720, on Flickr

6. The basement wall was pretty well bowed on two sides.
DSC09089 by KMD1720, on Flickr

Full album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.../with/25655307676/

7. The rest of these were done on Thursday. This old farmhouse was built c. 1840 according to the county auditor's site.
DSC09201 by KMD1720, on Flickr

8. I'm amused by the porch column hanging in midair here.
DSC09203 by KMD1720, on Flickr

9.
DSC09206 by KMD1720, on Flickr

10.
DSC09214 by KMD1720, on Flickr

11. These magazines were dated 1972.
DSC09219 by KMD1720, on Flickr

12. I'm not sure I've seen a living room painted this color before.
DSC09225 by KMD1720, on Flickr

13. There were 2 bedrooms upstairs connected by a doorway with the stairwell in back.
DSC09232 by KMD1720, on Flickr

14.
DSC09229 by KMD1720, on Flickr

Full album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.../with/25241897974/

15. This house, built in 1910, was a couple of miles north of the previous one. It is leaning heavily toward the rear and you can really feel it when you're walking up the stairs in the back.
DSC09272 by KMD1720, on Flickr

16.
DSC09247 by KMD1720, on Flickr

17. There was a pile of books in the kitchen, mostly educational in nature.
DSC09249 by KMD1720, on Flickr

18. The first floor had three rooms, all packed full of stuff, making it difficult to move around.
DSC09253 by KMD1720, on Flickr

19. The three bedrooms upstairs were mostly empty except for these pails.
DSC09264 by KMD1720, on Flickr

20.
DSC09267 by KMD1720, on Flickr

Full album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.../with/25242035984/

21. Initially, we assumed this structure was a house. It is on a 57-acre property where a second abandoned house burned down a couple months ago. Turns out, the property was once a golf course and this was the office/storage. It was built in 1995, making it the youngest abandoned building I've ever explored.
DSC09296 by KMD1720, on Flickr

22. Unfortunately, the vandals and graffiti kids have made themselves at home.
DSC09276 by KMD1720, on Flickr

23. Somebody had the inclination to force a chair into the drywall.
DSC09277 by KMD1720, on Flickr

24.
DSC09278 by KMD1720, on Flickr

25.
DSC09284 by KMD1720, on Flickr

26. The basement was full of shelves and papers from a hobby shop scattered around the floor.
DSC09288 by KMD1720, on Flickr

Full album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.../with/25574218980/

Hey, I remember you!
Great pics, man! I was really astounded by the abandoned golf course building that was just built in 1995. My god, those folks must have had some EXTREMELY bad marketers, managers and/or planners!

Posted by JohnInMi Hey, I remember you! Great pics, man! I was really astounded by the abandoned golf course building that was just built in 1995. My god, those folks must have had some EXTREMELY bad marketers, managers and/or planners!

Thanks! I don't know what happened with the golf course but it only lasted about ten years. It's also in a really weird place and the only way to access it is a gravel driveway that goes behind a couple of active businesses. There's no actual street access to it so maybe that had something to do with its lack of business.

Here is the problem with all of the abandoned houses near me. They all have squatters or people using them for drugs. It makes going into them pretty sketchy and you have to be really careful once inside. My best story is this house where everything was covered in dust but when we went upstairs there was a bed roll some knives and sniper rifle manuals, pretty eerie if you ask me.

Great Find!

Posted by Marsden107 Here is the problem with all of the abandoned houses near me. They all have squatters or people using them for drugs. It makes going into them pretty sketchy and you have to be really careful once inside. My best story is this house where everything was covered in dust but when we went upstairs there was a bed roll some knives and sniper rifle manuals, pretty eerie if you ask me. Great Find!

Are these urban or rural houses that you've been exploring? I typically stay away from urban houses because there's a much higher risk of encountering squatters or people using the house for nefarious purposes. Also, the few I've explored smelled like a diaper fire and didn't end up being particularly interesting. But I've been to about 30 rural farmhouses and never had any trouble.

Posted by KD20 Are these urban or rural houses that you've been exploring?

Suburban typically, in the less dense areas, it's honestly just a stumble-across thing. I try to stay as safe as possible and typically leave if I see the evidence of people living there.

5, 7, 10, 11, and 15 are the best in my opinion. I like some of the others but believe you can take more exciting pictures of the locations if you're going for artistic photography. Get low! Get high! Wide angle! More macro and shallow depth of field!
I see that you live in NE Ohio too! I'm gonna live up there, around Cleveland, for the next few years. How easy are these country houses to find? There's a ton of barns in Upstate New York but places like these are more rare. Just seeing what I can scope out ahead of time.
Cheers, keep it up.

Posted by Siltgod 5, 7, 10, 11, and 15 are the best in my opinion. I like some of the others but believe you can take more exciting pictures of the locations if you're going for artistic photography. Get low! Get high! Wide angle! More macro and shallow depth of field! I see that you live in NE Ohio too! I'm gonna live up there, around Cleveland, for the next few years. How easy are these country houses to find? There's a ton of barns in Upstate New York but places like these are more rare. Just seeing what I can scope out ahead of time. Cheers, keep it up.

Thanks! As for the photography, I mostly intend it to be documentary rather than artistic and openly admit I'm not the best photographer. Country houses can be easy or hard to find depending on what part of Ohio you're in. They're all over the place in central, northwest and southeast Ohio. I know of a few in northeast Ohio but not near as many. You won't find much information on the internet about them so your best bet will be driving around certain parts of Ohio. That's how I found most of my favorites.

Posted by KD20 Thanks! As for the photography, I mostly intend it to be documentary rather than artistic and openly admit I'm not the best photographer. Country houses can be easy or hard to find depending on what part of Ohio you're in. They're all over the place in central, northwest and southeast Ohio. I know of a few in northeast Ohio but not near as many. You won't find much information on the internet about them so your best bet will be driving around certain parts of Ohio. That's how I found most of my favorites.

Totally understand the documentary/art dichotomy, if it works work it. In terms of Ohio houses, have you found the majority of them to be uninhabited and safe? I know some Rust Belt areas can have drug dens, particularly bad floors, have you found that to be the case?

Posted by Siltgod Totally understand the documentary/art dichotomy, if it works work it. In terms of Ohio houses, have you found the majority of them to be uninhabited and safe? I know some Rust Belt areas can have drug dens, particularly bad floors, have you found that to be the case?

I've never found an inhabited one but I typically won't do the ones that look questionable unless I'm positive nobody lives there. Some of them are pretty sturdy and some are not. A few were downright dangerous. You'll see a fairly wide variety as far as structural integrity goes. I've never found a drug den or any other kind of illicit activity going on but I've heard of others finding these on occasion.