Our Christmas was spent in Spokane, WA, visiting my family; it was all very low key and relaxing. In other words exactly what we needed. The one thing my parents insisted we absolutely had to do was drive by “
that house.” I asked what exactly made it “
that house” and all my mother would say was “you’ve never seen anything like it.” I asked “good or bad?” and she replied “I just hope you have your camera.” Well of course!
With a build up like that I didn’t know what to expect, then we turned the corner…
Did you notice the guy up at the top of the column on the right (in the green jacket, above)? That’s Jeff and this is his home and creation, seventeen years of work. When we first pulled up I was dismayed that he was up there working, after all how was I going to take pictures when I was being watched? Thankfully he was okay with me taking photos and even offered to give us a quick tour. Score!
Jeff is a welder and has done all of this work himself, I could have spent hours photographing the details and asking him questions. As it was I did manage to inquire about his inspiration and I was told he spent a lot of time reading books and magazines and looking around the internet. Andrew asked what he called it and Jeff said “The Vercler Castle,” Vercler being the name of the street.
Later we did some online research and discovered the house was included in the book “
Washington Curiosities, 3rd: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff” I found an excerpt from the interview: “Jensen is a welder by trade and says the idea to start adding brick turret like structures and generous amounts of ironwork to the outside of his home didn't come to him in a middle-of-the-night dream or from a struck-on-the-head vision. "I was out in the yard one day and needed a trellis for my ivy and gourds and other vines to grow on. So I built one. And then I built more." Eventually came multiple brick and metal turrets, giant planters shaped like medieval cauldrons, a guard house and other castle like features. "Inside it looks like a regular house," says Jensen. "But outside, yeah, I guess you could say I'm the man who turned his house into a castle."
We're now at the back of the lot, and new construction is obvious. There was a covered walkway leading out to a framework yet to be finished.
That's frozen water under the stairs, and the cannon-like pipes on the left spray water in the warmer months.
Looking back toward the house...
I didn’t manage to get a great photo of those gourds Jeff referenced, many of which were still hanging on dried vines (you might have noticed them in a few photos). All the golden foliage told me this would be a very different place to see in the spring, or early summer. Perhaps I’ll have to visit again the next time I’m up that way (
here are some greener photos I found online, although these are from back in 2011 and a lot seems to have changed since then).
Those fiberglass planters were huge, easily 2.5-3ft across, Jeff said that's Virginia Creeper growing in them.
The metal sided building you can see within the brick and metal fence is the actual house.
This is a view of the top of the house.
How many turrets (or more properly "turret-like structures") do you count? I see 9 in this photo alone...
The quality of the construction and repeated details say this isn't just some crazy project gone astray but a man with talent and vision who's realizing his idea of how things could be.
Even more turrets...
Look at those crazy planters on the left...
This was such an amazing gift to see and tour with its creator, a place I will not soon forget.
Oh and remember the shot I started the post with - Jeff at the top of the unfinished turret on the right? Will actually it was finished but he's been ordered to take everything down to 3ft at the front of the property, so he was up there knocking down what he worked so hard to create. Building code ya know...
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