Seattle, WA

Weird Steve has a house that lives up to his name. Filled to the brim with oddities and curiosities, it is a perfect example of the Victorian decorating style known as “horror vacui” (literally, fear of empty spaces), and not a square inch goes uncovered. Weird Steve has dedicated his life to cramming his Victorian Mansion with his growing collection of curios, antiquities and odd refuse.

Steve’s unusual artifacts include circus sideshow exhibits (pickled punks, two headed animals), Victorian Art (wreaths of human hair, furniture, statues), Natural History (exotic taxidermy, anatomical displays), antique medical and quack instruments, funeral paraphernalia (antique coffins, collection of casket plates), a 25,000+ library of curious and esoteric themes, 150+ antique toasters, a sculpture garden (complete with 25 foot-tall Rapunzel tower), a tree house outfitted as a bordello and countless others oddities. Wonderful, cluttered Horror Vacui at its best.

And... I didn't get to see it. Steve's Weird House is not open to the public, and the location of the house is not widely known. Internet searches show countless inquiries into how to find this house, with no results. Steve doesn't want to be found... which became my challenge for this bucket list item. I did the research and finally located the address of the place. The location is peculiar for what you can see from the street without entering. In an otherwise unremarkable neighborhood, the property is completely overrun with trees and bushes - so much so, it's difficult to see if there's even a house in there. The only visible (sort of) entrance to the place is a very short (4'?) opening in the undergrowth where a person has to duck down to enter a small gate. Weird indeed.

While personal tours are not available, an online tour is. You can view a high quality 360 virtual tour of every room of the house at the following URL: http://www.bohonus.com/special-projects/virtual-tour-steves-weird-house/ Also, check out this video tour afforded to Antiques Roadshow a few years back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEysKQ6ARUk