This lovely home is located in Southern Ontario. As we approached it, we found the front door wide open, which is how many horror movies begin. The house has five bedrooms and six bathrooms, and as you can see working electricity. The front yard contained children’s bicycles and at one point a sandbox, which has since disappeared.

Vines are slowly taking over the entrance to the house. Inside we found three paintings, with an artists’s name I assumed was a former residence. The name of this location of course is based on the painting of Mick Jagger.

Some doorways had Mezuzah’s screwed into them. At the time I had no idea what these were (thanks Facebook). The kitchen featured a skylight and marble countertops. Next to it was the dining room area which still had a large screen television 🙂 In a corner of the dining room at the rear of the house was a small nook which a bench where you could sit to read a book.

In the master bedroom you’ll find a peak ceiling like in a castle, with overlooking windows.

My research indicates that last owner of the house owned several companies. Developers have purchased the land and land next door with the intention of building $2 million condos.

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This home is located in a populated area of the GTA in Ontario. It’s situated in an area of new development and so the property is gold for developers. It currently sits in limbo with plans for a school to be constructed on the land.

The house has had the same owners for over 40 years. It features three bedrooms, four bathroom, a garage, and in-ground pool in the backyard. An interesting feature are the recessed domes which house the lighting in the living room and bedroom.

Interestingly, the owners seem to have left the basement untouched for many years. The laundry room features bright orange and yellow closet doors and floral patterned wallpaper.

The detached bungalow property sold in 2018 for just over $6,000,000.

From what I’ve researched, the husband was in charge of charitable work that assisted third world countries. He gave back to his community. He would have passed away in 2007, leaving his wife. The wife passed away at home in September 2017 at the age of 98.

The family would have purchased the home around 1972, and from what I’m assuming – left much of the houses’s interior design as is.

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This house is another of the dozens of Toronto area properties that developers plan to demolish and construct new housing upon. The house is four bedrooms and bathrooms and was built in 1972. An addition to the house was constructed in 1983.

Inside the front entrance is a large spiral staircase and an eighteen foot floor to ceiling window looking out into the front yard. Special attention is seen in the crown molding in some of the rooms, and the wooden floors. At the right side of the house is a three car garage.

The property was bought in 2016 for $3,900,000. Currently a For Sale sign is visible out front next to a developer’s sign which led us to wonder, has the property been purchased or is it for sale and a developer wishes to sell their housing plan?

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February 2021 update : This property is now LIVED IN. Please don’t go there.

When my exploring companion and I first pulled into the driveway of this location, we weren’t sure that we had the right property. For one thing it looked like a farm not a house. There was farm equipment parked on the grounds, a small office building, what appeared to be a large garage storing farm equipment and large tire tracks in the dirt. I took a look at Google Street View, uncertain if I’d made an error in my directions.

We felt that someone could be working on the property, and so I hatched a plan. I wrote down ‘camera lens’ on the piece of paper that had my addresses written on it. Should I encounter anyone, I’d inquire about whether we had the proper address for the camera lens for sale. You know, the lens we drove out to take a look at – and purchase.

I walked around the back of the property and peered inside. I was nervous that someone could be looking out at me as I inspected the place. And then there it was, the jukebox that I knew from seeing another explorer’s photograph, was to be found inside. I walked around a little further and discovered the indoor pool. I now knew that we had the right address! I called for my exploring companion to come my way, and after a few tries we found a way in.

Besides the pool and the jukebox, there isn’t a whole lot of interest for the photographer to see. For the explorer with a deep admiration for a way of life that’s passed us by, this place was wicked!

The man who lived here owned a business that sold equipment for a certain industry. I won’t mention which industry, because I’d like to preserve this location. Suffice to say he did well for himself. The smaller of the buildings was the office, which we didn’t explore. I felt uneasy because we were exposed to the neighbour across the road, so we skipped going inside.

The front of the property contained the living portion of the house. The layout of the house was somewhat… bizarre. The front of the main floor opened up to a small bedroom with double bed, two smaller bedrooms with single beds, and an aging kitchen. The appliances look semi-new but the decor of the kitchen and bedrooms was ancient. The microwave looked to be twenty years old.

In the leftmost room was the living room. It contained a fireplace with flat stone masonry, mantel and an exercise bike. The walls were old wood paneling, the kind you’d find an any 1970s recreation room. On the mantel was an old pendulum clock with the name of a local business on it.

Just beyond the living room was an open area with a grand piano. The area is on the second floor overlooking a larger area below. Surrounding the upper floor (so you won’t fall) is white metal fencing, like the kind you’d see perhaps on a staircase or outside porch. At the other end of the hallway, opposite the piano, was a large meeting table and television set. This area too looked over the main floor. It also provided a view into the room where the indoor pool was located below. The indoor pool didn’t look very deep, a few feet at best.

At the rear of the house (parallel to the hallway between the piano and pool areas), were glass doors overlooking the rear of the property. This area had a couch and reclining chairs suggesting perhaps many a sunset was observed from here. The rear of the property is a large open acreage which offers a nice view.

As you make your way downstairs to the main floor, your mind begins to run scenarios as to what this place was. The area is large open space. There are colorful Christmas lights strung around the ceiling area.

The highlight of course was the 1971 Rock-Ola 449 Jukebox. The jukebox accepted dimes to play a single track record. In later years the price would increase to a quarter, just as payphones used to be a dime and eventually a quarter.

The jukebox was filled with 45 RPM (rotations per minute) records which consisted of the main song on the A side and then the B-side would routinely contain a lesser popular song. This is where the term “B-side” comes from. I was able to open up the jukebox and see that a record was on the turntable, the needle stopped on the record in mid-song. I attempted to see if there were any coins in the jukebox, curious as to whether it had been used much but couldn’t reach the coin box. (It could have been set to free-play too)

There was electricity in the building and I was tempted to plug the jukebox in to see if it worked. Part of me didn’t want to make noise in case someone was working in the field. Part of me didn’t want to plug in an aging electronic item and part of me wanted to say the hell with it and just give it a go!!

Some of the artists included Dr. Hook, John Denver, Donnie and Marie Osmond, Alice Cooper (“Schools Out”), Paul Anka and Chicago. If you don’t recognize any of those artists, you probably won’t appreciate the era of this house.

Each song had a three digit number associated with it, and after inserting your dime (or quarter for 3 songs) you’d punch in the song you wished to hear. Some jukeboxes showed you a view of the turntable inside, something that always delighted me as a geeky youth.

Now in an area next to the jukebox on the main floor were two things suggesting this was definitely a 1970s show. One was a bench with shag green carpeting on it. The type of thick shag you’d put on a floor. The bench was made to allow people to sit on either side of it with their backs to one another.

Next to the bench was a most bizarre fireplace. It was square shaped with glass on each side to allow you to look inside. Above it were 11 copper pipes running through it on all four sides, with holes underneath the pipes.

This area was added onto the house at a later date. You can plainly see where the brick wall and screen door were the original back of the house. At some point the elderly man added onto the property.

A back room contained several jars of male syrup and a stove.

This is where it gets interesting. There was a retro bar near the jukebox, also covered in patterned shag carpeting. Next to the bar area was a DJ booth. Inside the DJ booth were a stack of 8 track tapes. There was a pad with tear away coat check tickets on it, the kind you’d give to people who were attending a social function.

Considering the jukebox, Christmas lights, cozy social seating around the fireplace, DJ booth, coat check tickets and bar, I felt that was may have been some sort of a nightclub. The exclusive kind for friends only.

I have more information on the property now. The man was described as eccentric and he kept building onto the house. This is evident in the diverse building materials that he used, as well as the rooms that seem to be built for no specific purpose. As for the purpose of the main floor, I have no information as to what the place was used for.

The jukebox by the way, doesn’t work. It powers up but doesn’t play audio. The owner is looking to sell it for $600. I will mention that the family lives on both sides of the house and I’m told that they attend the property daily. I guess we timed our visit well.

The former owner lived here for 40 years. About 40 years back he added the solarium to the property. He didn’t care for his property, according to his son. The house was sometimes used for parties by golfing friends of his.

I do have to give a huge thank you to “Pic and Fable“. This young woman graciously shared this property with me although we’d never met nor spoken before. Like so many other people in the hobby, she’d been a long-time follower of mine for some time now.

So thank you Pic and Fable, this was definitely a highlight of the day.

The house is vacant as the man passed away last year in his 90’s, his wife passed away in 2011.

This home was built in 1979. It’s listed for sale in the Toronto area for $5,500,000. The house has three garages and in the back of the property, a tennis court and tree house.

The home doesn’t have much appeal as a place you’d want to live, which is because the last use was as a Christian school.

The house has an indoor pool which has been covered over with plywood. Several of the rooms have panic buttons and sensors, which leads me to believe that perhaps this was used as a group home where entry and exit of rooms would need to be monitored.

A developer has submitted an application to build a three-storey townhouse on the property.

This two and a half acre home belonged to Natalie Wong, a specialized dentist and her pediatrician husband from Toronto. The house was built in 1978 and contains five bedrooms, Titanic-style staircase and skylight with chandelier. There’s a glassed-in pool with diving board in the rear of the house. I’ve often wondered how long it would take to fill such a void with a water hose.

The couple initially planned to demolish the house after purchase, but changed their minds after the birth of their daughter. When the couple was ready to sell their house, they did so in a unique way. As their new house was in move-in-ready condition (with furniture), they held an auction to sell off their old belongings and the house itself. The couple had listed the house for approximately $5.7 million since March of 2012.

The minimum auction bid was between $5 million and $6 million.

While the house didn’t appear to have any structural issues, the couple anticipated that the property would be purchased for the land. The auction lasted approximately three hours and drew hundreds of attendees.

Some of the items sold included a Versace rug, pearl necklace worth $1,000,000, Rolex watch (valued at $70,000 but sold for $9,000) and over a dozen Gucci, Dior, Fendi handbags ($100,000) and Armani purse ($10,000). I can’t help but add a personal commentary that I find this absolutely disgusting when there’s so much poverty in the world.

Police were on the property to ensure that the valuables were safe.

About three hours into the auction auctioneer Kashif Khan asked if there were any bidders in the crowd who were willing to offer at least $5 million for the property. There were none.

The house has remained vacant ever since.

This house was situated in a well-to-do area of Southern Ontario. It was built in the 1960’s and was demolished shortly after these photos were taken. There are a few noteworthy aspects such as the unique bathtub and patterned sink but the real gem is the 2018 Mustang GT found in the garage.

I don’t believe the car is stolen, it was likely put there by the developer for storage, or hiding an asset from a spouse. I did check the VIN # and it didn’t show up as stolen.

This once exquisite waterfront mansion is located  in Aldershot (Burlington). It contains six bedrooms, two living rooms, dinette, sun room, master bedroom, home office and a large indoor pool. the realty price for the property is $4,400,000. It even has a place to park your boat.

The name of the mansion might inspire images of a GodFatherly man involved in criminal activity. The reality is that the name stems from an imaginative attempt to name the house in such a way as to keep it from being found by other urban explorers.

The highlight of the house of course is the Cabaret room in the basement which brings to mind everything from swinger parties to drug use to ritzy gatherings.

In late 2016 Weston Consulting was hired by First Urban as a consultant for a plan to redevelop the property into a 20 unit high rise apartment On May 10, 2018 the property was listed on the market after the former owners allegedly defaulted on the mortgage.

I’m not certain how ownership has changed since that time. The property appeared to have undergone some renovation work which was then abandoned.

EffortTrustRealty real estate photos shown below:

The three-acre property will be demolished if First Urban receives approval for their project. For now the house has a most unlikely revival. It’s the location of The Bong Mansion, which is described as a “Cannabis Culture Content Hub”. Their Instagram page is here.

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This luxurious mansion is located in Southern Ontario where wealthy properties are plenty. This particular mansion has stained hardwood floors, a tiled kitchen, large living room with fireplace and four bedrooms with four bathrooms.

There are two fireplaces on the main floor and one in the basement.

The basement is quite large and has it’s own kitchen. There is a black mold problem in the basement though, which may be indicative of why the house is vacant.

The house also features a three car garage.

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I named this location the Eyesore House because neighbours in the area had been complaining about trucks dumping loads of soil on the property and then driving away. The overgrown driveway is an indicator that the property isn’t being cared for. An Order to Comply on the front door was left by the city after neighbours complained.

The house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. There’s minimal water damage inside and the property is certainly salvageable. The property has been purchased by a property developer and the house’s days are numbered. Or are they?

The home has been vacant for at least five years now.

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