Don’t Judge a House by its Cover
A hard lesson learned by what I’m calling the Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde home.
A walked up to a really cool looking home in an affluent neighborhood, very excited to photograph it for a client.
I visualized adding this home to my portfolio, excited to get some great shots. I was sure it was gorgeous, a place I could only dream of living in. Granted, I was photographing the basement unit of this home.
First clue: The separate entrance to the basement apartment.
Ok. That’s not too bad. A bit overgrown and hidden. In fact, good luck spotting this in first photograph.
But I stayed positive. A nice little porch area and storage. There’s nothing wrong with that.
I knew it was a vacant unit, probably no furniture but that’s not unusual either.
BUT then…I opened the door and entered the abyss.
Ur… ok, not quite the luxurious space I was expecting. It maybe has potential? Sure the range probably does NOT belong in the middle of the kitchen. But, wait! What is that door behind the kitchen?
Behind the misplaced range… a luscious green secret garden appeared! So maybe this place isn’t so bad after all?! I ventured out there.
A beautiful backyard tucked into this lovely neighborhood in a great area. A place that in its current condition would be a wonderful home to live in… if you ignored the actual living space!
All in all, it was a fun and illuminating experience. The challenges associated with this home forced me to find creative ways to showcase the best features of the unit. In this case, those are clearly the outside. In all likelihood I will return to re-photograph the inside once it is completed but it was definitely a fun experience.
There are probably a lot of analogies and metaphors I could mention here but I will end how I started:
“Don’t judge a home by its exterior.”
