Talking Walls Photography

This falls under urban exploration as the house was sold in May of 2023 and is by no means abandoned. It’s what I’d consider to be ‘filler’ for a day of exploring. The house was on the market for $3,000,000.

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Note: This is a continuation of the same property exploration. The first post is found here.

This property was purchased in 2015 by a couple looking for an investment property. They’d originally been renting the garage to use as a workshop area. Three years after renting, the owners asked the couple if they’d be interested in purchasing the full property. The couple agreed. They undertook renovations to the house and rented it out to two families. (There are actually three properties on the property, all of which were explorable)

In October of 2021, the Ministry of Transportation approached the couple and made on offer on the property. The MTO was looking to build a bypass and in order to do so, have to take ownership of five properties along the current highway.

The couple felt that the offer was well below the market value of the land and refused it. Because an agreement could not be reached between the ministry and property owners, the ministry notified them that they intended to expropriate the property under the Expropriations Act.

The couple hired a lawyer, who informed them that it could be up to a year before any progress was made on the expropriation. While they were not against the building of the highway, they wished they were given more notice and fair compensation for the home they worked so hard to obtain and maintain.

In January of 2022, they received a registered letter informing them that they had 90 days to vacate the property. They asked the MTO for an extension in order that they could find a new property and take their tenants with them. The MTO refused.

As of May 2022, the couple no longer owns the property and they continue to negotiate a buy and sell agreement with the MTO. Protests against the bypass have sprung up on social media including a Facebook page.

Thanks to RP_Explorations for sharing his find with me.

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In this video, we conquer your question of, “If the lights are on and there’s no dust, is it really abandoned?”

This property was purchased in 2015 by a couple looking for an investment property. They’d originally been renting the garage to use as a workshop area. Three years after renting, the owners asked the couple if they’d be interested in purchasing the full property. The couple agreed. They undertook renovations to the house and rented it out to two families. (There are actually three properties on the property, all of which were explorable)

In October of 2021, the Ministry of Transportation approached the couple and made on offer on the property. The MTO was looking to build a bypass and in order to do so, have to take ownership of five properties along the current highway.

The couple felt that the offer was well below the market value of the land and refused it. Because an agreement could not be reached between the ministry and property owners, the ministry notified them that they intended to expropriate the property under the Expropriations Act.

The couple hired a lawyer, who informed them that it could be up to a year before any progress was made on the expropriation. While they were not against the building of the highway, they wished they were given more notice and fair compensation for the home they worked so hard to obtain and maintain.

In January of 2022, they received a registered letter informing them that they had 90 days to vacate the property. They asked the MTO for an extension in order that they could find a new property and take their tenants with them. The MTO refused.

As of May 2022, the couple no longer owns the property and they continue to negotiate a buy and sell agreement with the MTO. Protests against the bypass have sprung up on social media including a Facebook page.

Thanks to RP_Explorations for sharing his find with me.

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This house was built in 1972 and it retains much of the original design including original kitchen cupboards, stove and kitchen island. The front entrance also appears to be the original construction.

It’s owned by a Mr. Cerundolo, who is a landlord of many properties including an oceanside property in Florida. He purchased the house in 2015 for $1,650,000. Prior to 2003, it belonged to the Taherzadeh family. It was last rented by the Gillies family. In one of the bedrooms I found discarded painted art by the Gillies daughter.

There are actually three units in this building: the main house, a basement unit and an attached rental unit. The basement unit features a bar with an arched brick design. The property has a swimming pool in the back.

There’s a rezoning application for this property which leads to me believe that the house will be demolished and a new property built.

Realty Photos

Exploration Photos 2023

I know, some of the photos aren’t perfectly straight. 🙂

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(video stabilization was turned off, sorry)

I first visited this house back in 2015. The location was shared with me by the niece, whose Aunt owns the house. You can read the history of the house here. Some of the highlights:

– The house (as I’m told) was built by Native slaves
– Ownership of the house was stolen after death of the owner, through a forged will
– During the 1970’s, an elderly man used to store auto parts in a shack on the property. When he didn’t leave at the end of the day, the family discovered he’d died in the shack.

The house hasn’t changed much in the eight years since my initial visit. The front door has been boarded as have a couple of others and there’s now signage for 24-hour video monitoring. Someone has broken the glass in the front and side doors (now boarded over) in an attempt to gain entry.

The roof has developed holes and the ceiling has fallen down in parts of the house.

These photos have it all: lens flare, distortion, light blowout, white balance issues, noise and crookedness. They’re absolutely terrible… and don’t do this location justice.

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This house was built in 1941. It features a double car garage, jacuzzi, upper patio and an outdoor pool.

It was last owned by a woman named Rosemary B. In 1984, Rosemary founded a massage therapy company. The business was sold in 2009.

In 2000, the house was transferred into her name for $2. This indicates that it was likely a family transfer. The property was purchased in 2020 for $2,200,200 by a numbered company. Rosemary passed away in August of 2021 at the age of 71.

The Explore

I first discovered this house in June of 2023. It was getting dark by the time I arrived. I anxiously tried the front door and to my delight, it opened. I entered and used my phone to look at some of the ground floor rooms. I was in the house for no more than two minutes when I heard the sound of something rustling in the kitchen. I was unsure what the sound was, an animal perhaps or someone trying to hide? In any event, I left quickly.

I returned the next day with camera in hand to document the house. I noticed two things: the side window was now open more than it had been the night prior and the front door was now locked. Perhaps an owner had secured the house? The window suggested to me that perhaps someone was squatting here.

I tried the back door and it opened! I called out, “Hello, is anyone here?” to which there was no reply. I started taking photos. As I made my way to the front of the house, I saw someone walking in the upstairs hallway. The person was a male, who appeared to be transient. I asked him if he was staying here, he responded that he had been walking past the house and was curious.

I’d later find some cigarette butts and a half eaten Pop Tart next to a bed which indicated that he may very well have been staying at the house – contrary to what he’d told me. I later observed him outside possibly waiting for me to leave. This is a reminder to the sad state of housing in this country.

The House

As you stand in the front entrance, to the left is a room with low hanging light fixture and fireplace. I feel like this may have been a room with a pool table, given the low height of the lighting. To the right of the entrance is an office den with a wall bookcase.

The kitchen is in a state of disassembly and I didn’t spend much time in it. To the west of the kitchen is a large room lined with wooden paneling and a spiral staircase leading to the second floor. There’s extensive use of wooden paneling throughout the house but not of the cheap variety.

To the east of the kitchen is what looks like the living room. The different rooms are somewhat confusing because I didn’t understand what the purpose of the rooms were. At the back of the house is another large room with an partition opening in the wall facing into the kitchen. It seems that any of these rooms could be a ‘living room’, leaving me to wonder what the purpose of the other rooms was?

Upstairs were a few bedrooms of non-interest. One bedroom had a bad with a sheet, a smell of fresh cigarette smoke and half of a Pop Tart.

The master bedroom is quite large. It features a walk out patio facing the back of the house. There is a jacuzzi tub at the top of a flight of marble stairs with oval windows on both sides. This is interesting to look at but not all that functional.

The upstairs bathroom features a large stain glass window in the shape of a key.

There’s some water damage primarily toward the rear of the house but otherwise it looks repairable.

The Basement

Down in the basement I discovered dozens of empty video card boxes. There was a room lined with insulating foil. I immediately knew what the room had been used for – it wasn’t a grow op, it was a Bitcoin mining room. Here, dozens of computer video cards hashed out mathematical equations in an attempt to mine cryptocurrency.

Exterior photos & video will be posted the first week of July.

Phone Photos

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I don’t have much information on this property. It looks like it might have been a seasonal home but it could have been a residence as well. I’d hesitate to call it a time capsule, it’s far from it. There’s a lot of debris but it’s held up quite well against vandalism and nature.

What happened to the Baxters and why do they no longer use this property? Ontario is full of mysteries like this one.

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This is one of four vacant houses along the same block of a busy highway. The land was sold recently for $18 million dollars. It’s most likely that for that price, the houses are to be demolished for new development.

This house appears to have been converted into two rental units. The upstairs is of no interest while the main floor has a nice staircase, wooden molding and pocket doors.

The photos aren’t the best and I expect to do a revisit soon.

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This home was owned by Richard and his wife Patricia since 1973. I know that a man named Geoff lived in the house and passed away in the home in August of 2020 at the young age of 49. He owned his own business and I’m surmising he rented the home. There was a sign for his business in the back room.

The house has been vacant for several years now and the grass is quite overgrown.

In 2020 this house was sold for $4.4 million and the company that purchased the land later sold it in 2022 for $18.5 million dollars.

There are three other houses along this section of the road that are also vacant and overgrown.

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