I've seen a similar home before and the wife was a lovely, lonely bored housewife who's only activity in life was to shop, shop, shop while her workaholic husband travelled on business. Wife becomes addicted to shopping to fill the huge voids in her life. Gradually, she filled her nice home with 'stuff'. After a while, she didn't even see it as unusual or not 'normal'. You'd be surprised at what is hidden behind closed doors when you get into private homes. Lots of hidden secrets.

I've seen some ridiculously staged homes that usually try to make it look like Carrie from "Sex and the City" lives there. This I find quirky, cluttered and intriguingly bizarre - but I'd have no problem seeing through the facade to see the bones of the home and whether or not it would work for my purposes. Doesn't faze me in the least and actually brings a smile to my face rather than a frown!

This is the home of a hoarder. They have 7400 feet to hoard in, but if it were a more average size house, we'd be calling the health department. I am not being facetious here. The owner(s) have a mental disorder. I do not find it quirky or interesting or anything positive.

From Wikipedia: "a pattern of behavior that is characterized by excessive acquisition and an inability or unwillingness to discard large quantities of objects that cover the living areas of the home and cause significant distress or impairment. Compulsive hoarding behavior has been associated with health risks, impaired functioning, economic burden, and adverse effects on friends and family members. When clinically significant enough to impair functioning, hoarding can prevent typical uses of space, enough so that it can limit activities such as cooking, cleaning, moving through the house, and sleeping. It can also put the individual and others at risk of fires, falling, poor sanitation, and other health concerns."

The decor is definitely weird but I don't think we should assume the owner has a mental illness. The house is clean, there are ample places to sit and read, watch tv, sleep and the kitchen looks very functional. A few of the rooms are bad but I think many people have "junk" rooms.

To me, 75% of that stuff is trash but it's not actual hoarded trash like magazines, mail, boxes, etc.

I would bet $1.275mm that the realtor cleaned up as best she could (or hired people to do it) so that the floors and kitchen counters were cleared and the chairs were able to be sat upon for the photos.

I disagree because I don't think a realtor or cleaning person would take the time to make the very deliberate arrangement of items like we see in the main living area photos. And if someone else was staging the house, why not move those stupid mannequins? They would be easy to put back in place after the photos.

Plus, the physical condition of the house looks very good. Paint inside and out, trim, windows, floors, etc. I think the owner is probably not mentally ill, just a little odd.

I also think it's kind of a stretch to diagnose mental illness in strangers just because they like more stuff than you do and are not Marie Kondo fans.

I see no signs of real hoarderism there. It's immaculate and carefully arranged and I don't think you could find a stager anywhere who would have tackled that. I'm sure they would have had the vapors and gone home if confronted with it.

ETA Except that they would never have bought in such a development, it reminds me very much of the home of an artist who was a friend of my mom's, one who also used mannequins a lot.

I've decided the mower riding dude is not a real person since the mower is in two photos in the same location.

I really hate how people throw the word hoarder around so much these days. I am perfectly fine with people enjoying their stuff. If its stuff they are enjoying is not just piling actual garbage and dead pets then its just someone with a lot of stuff. The listing says the owner is an artist...artists make stuff, collect stuff to make other stuff, and if this artist has not financial imperative to sell their stuff they might tend to keep it close at hand.

I agree there is a difference between hoarders and those who just like to be surrounded by tchotchkes and think it is good decor.

My friend said, "It kills me that the realtor does not mention any of the craziness within the house, such as a child mannequin walking on the ceiling. "This room has tile floors for easy clean up!"

It does look well maintained. It also looks very tiring to keep up with all that stuff. I can't imagine keeping it somewhat tidy and dusted.

aprilneverends, I live not far from Colony West Subdivision. Colony West is an acreage subdivision with very expensive large homes. Most of the homes around here are in acreage subdivisions. It's a beautiful area.

Pea.."I think it is really a mannequin mounted on the ceiling not a photoshop job...why would a realtor photoshop a mannequin on a ceiling?"

I explained my guess before..:) The realtor "populated" the house with other mannequins right? A lot of these, in many rooms? to illustrate the use of the space?

She photoshopped images of kids' mannequins in the family spaces. as to say, in her tongue and cheek way. "here, that's a family room, you can turn everything upside down"

Thank you mitchelext! now I need just money! lol

I've seen some unusual listing photos here and on some other dedicated real estate sites, but this one is definitely up there.

Interestingly, after moving the owner's stuff out you will be left with a very nice 7000 sq ft home on a beautiful 2 acre lot. The owner(s) have not done a lot of structural changes or "highly personal" fixed decor.

After reading the Realtor's descriptions, they earn a new prize for subtlety. They carefully point out the features, even those covered by stuff (like "real hardwood floors" that are otherwise covered or the wainscoating in the dining room)

I do find it a bit creepy, and not just due to the mannequins. Children hanging from the ceiling (not photoshoppped -- the hair is hanging down on one) and the religious and skull imagery/objects in the entry are not comforting and welcoming. Some of the art I do like -- interspersed with some macabre pieces that are not my taste.

I saw quite a lot of hoarders' houses..that's not one of these.

(if you go to open house-the mannequins wouldn't be there, imo. including "children hanging from the ceiling". I'd love to be there to check it with my own eyes)

It looks so normal from the outside. I was thinking, "oh the outside is pretty" until I saw that "creek". It's actually a stagnant ditch for breeding mosquitos. The cows are cool, though.

The inside reminds me of a Hidden Object game . The owner is probably a hoot.

It's rather pretty from the outside... imagined myself going as a potential buyer and the RE agent not mentioning the inside and how it looks so crazy and even scary IMO... walking in and running out! Hope it was actually Xmas when the photos were taken... probably wasn't :(

I like all the built in book cases, but the current owners would need to put it in writing that all of their collections need to move out with them when they go... although I do like the decor in the outside kitchen!

I read the comments here before exploring the website... not as bad as I expected, but yes, the maniquins are a bit freaky.

It kind of reminded me of something from the show "Hoarders"... Only cleaner..

I agree that the outside of the house is very pretty with great street appeal.The guy at the front gate must be a mannequin as well and yes, I agree that the riding lawnmower is probably a prop, which I think is actually cute and I suppose could be consider art of some sort.

So are the cows mannequins as well and if so I think a couple of them should be tipped over.

I couldn't be more surprised at the reactions here. I saw the pics and then proceeded to read people's comments anticipating people to run the gamut of mildly appalled to horrified. I didn't expect the positive comments. I guess my perspective is quite different from y'all's, as I think this is a travesty of what could be a lovely home, and a mess, and likely in even worse condition than before the realtor hired a cleaning crew for the photos. Are you guys seeing what I am seeing?

I agree that there are definitely some junk rooms and you picked an example of one. But other rooms in the listing appear to be crowded but very functional. I think many people have junk rooms or crowded guest rooms or basements that are repositories for thing they aren't ready to discard.

Look at the real estate listing house kitchen versus a hoarder kitchen.

Understood, but the OP house is so large, so it has more room for the stuff

M Miller, frankly I think the room you show here was the absolute worst room of the lot depicted. But in most of the cases I can mentally remove stuff and see what the house could be if I wanted something with that much square footage, a muddy stream, and a McMansion-like roofline. Other than the mannequins, I'm not disturbed by the interior.

I'll admit I'm personally not a minimalist, although I'm no where CLOSE to those extremes. And their taste is by and large not remotely mine. (I still like the outdoor kitchen...)

I found a wonderful house back in 1991 where the lady had passed on and the bank now owned the place and ALL the contents. She was a collector (not a hoarder), and every room was filled with old b&w photos, and a million belongings that mostly dated to the 40's and thereabouts. The property was wonderful (her stream was pristine). I didn't buy it because the kitchen hadn't been modified since 1940, either - and I didn't have any money then, and because the crawl space basement was rather creepy, and because since the house was built back in the late 1700's, dealing with doors I'd always forget to duck under was something I didn't want to do.

Unlike some, I can see houses and homes under their current furnishings, apparently. I actually hate it when realtors nowadays insist that homes have to be sterilized. Clean, yes. Sterile... I have a hard time visualizing my stuff in those digs.

Let’s throw in a low ball offer. I want the dummy sitting at the bar!

M Miller…this house does not belong to the OP.

If we all chime in-we can have a space to hang out lol

JudyG Designs - when I said "the OP house", I meant the house appearing in the Original Post. I was responding to d_gw's 2 photos so I had to specify between the 2 by saying "the OP house".

I won't take a guess at hoarder or not... but I'm dating a Chicago fireman and a place like this scares the bejeezus out of me. It's such a danger to anyone who tries to help in an emergency. Can you imagine a fire, and someone crawling through the thick black smoke trying to find victims... only to find mannequin after mannequin? Or have a huge pile of stuff fall on them? Even in an event where you have visibility, like a health emergency, just trying to find a victim, clear enough space around them to administer CPR or whatever, and then getting them quickly out of the house on a gurney is going to be very hard in a place like this.

So call me a worrier or what you like... when I look at this I don't see "interesting", I see "fire hazard" and "dangerous."

As for the unfortunate children suspended upside down from the ceilings, I don't this those are Photoshopped. Looking closely you can see the support brackets at the ceiling, and it looks like chains holding up the bike.

Anyone think that maybe this is a "publicity stunt" of the realtor's doing? If it is, then she/he accomplished what they set out to do because it's all over the web especially Facebook.

I'll never worry about putting away the normal clutter for the cleaning lady again.

It's an entire house done in "Buca di Beppo"! It's only missing a table with the Pope's head in the middle.

The mannequins everywhere are creeping me out.

Donna

The owner is an artist.

this was featured on the Houston news this evening i cannot imagine trying to show this house.....

There is art and then there is “art”.

Let’s forget the decor….how in heaven’s name do you clean this house?

Not all artists are weirdos.

Why are you assuming the person that lives in this house is a weirdo?

Extrapolate from above, Pea.

Watch this: the owner made those mannequins.

http://www.khou.com/news/weird/meet-the-woman-who-owns-the-quirky-mannequin-mansion/458366846

wow. that's even better than I thought then

the video doesn't play that great though..freezes on me..

ok...was able to see the video. the owner is quite a talented lady.

She seems interesting! That's way too much stuff in a house to suit my tastes, but obviously her home has made her happy and it's been her creative outlet. Nothing in the world wrong with that.

See i told you guys normal artist...i've been in lots of artists homes and they are usually full of quirky chaos.

Certainly agree. She is one in a million.

I commented, as most did, that for marketing purposes, it may be best to eliminate just about everything.

I don’t like to go to an open house and see personal photos on the ‘fridge or propped up on the mantel.

I want to see the house as my home and overload of objects (no matter how valuable or artistic) keeps me from my vision.

The interview seems to indicate the items in the house are not an impediment to it selling rather it seem to have attracted a lot of attention.

I found Waldo.

I am so glad there are artistic people around to save me from the sterility that is out there!

She was on the local news here. It's all real and she makes them. The house is a beautiful house and it's very clean. I don't know who cleans it glad it's not me. She is quite interesting. It's a lovely piece of property. And yes those are real things hanging from the ceiling.

It's a nightmare to me. I don't care how clean it is, it's a cluttery mess and the children on the ceiling are creepy as all get out. I'm not one for sterile, minimalist interiors by a long shot, but I could not ever relax in such visual chaos, and what else should a home be but relaxing?

I find it hard to believe that such a 'creative' person bought that structure in the first place. Are there no artsy lofts in Texas? Why buy a 'keeping up with the Joneses' house only to fill every inch with stuff screaming "I'm not the Joneses! I swear! I'm really not! Look how quirky I am! Super, extra, infinitely quirky!"?

The exterior doesn't seem to scream anything other than i have money so she and the Joneses don't seem to have much interaction at all. Most of the quirk is contained...in a very big house...so no screaming. Why should creativeness be only allowed to only exist in lofts?