The story and life of the matchstick house.

I have been working on this matchstick house for almost 2 years now. I do a little at a time and I have only got the front wall finished. I really want to see this thing get done. As I work on the house I kind of see a story unfold about how it was built, who built it, and who lived in it. The way the matches lay and lean, the way the singles are cut and laid. I try not to lay the matches meticulously, but more haphazardly in hopes that it tells its own story. Not one that I made up. I let the house have it's own story. It's own life.

The house was built by a young man for his wife as a wedding present. They lived in the house for a year before they had a daughter and expanded the house. They didn't have much money, which caused him to use what ever materials he could find. Sometimes the wood slats wouldn't fit right or the shingles were cut at the wrong angles. Despite all of that they couldn't be any happier.

The house is built near a small meadow and pond that is lined with some woods.The wife likes to take walks in the meadow and spend time near the pond. But, one day she didn't come home. Her body was found not to far into the woods from the pond. The scene of his wife laying there drives the man mad, and  he refuses to believe it. He got to where he wouldn't leave the house. He said he has to be there when his wife comes home. He begins to neglect the house and his daughter. She soon is taken to live with her aunt. The aunt takes her to see her father once a week and takes food for him even though he barely ever eat any of it. He never talks to her. He can only manage a weak smile. But soon the smile fades. He can no longer look at his daughter. She looks too much like her mother. Not long after that they stop showing up. It's too hard on the daughter, and he never eats any of the food they bring. 

By the time he passed no one visited him any more. The house was falling apart and didn't seem safe to go in. Rumors passed around town about the man and the house. His body had gone weeks before anyone noticed a smell. He was buried next to his wife.  

The daughter doesn't want anything to do with the house. It has too many painful memories and so it just sits there, rotting. The people around town say that on occasion you can see the man standing in front of a window overlooking the pond. Waiting for his wife to return from her walk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBO_1txP9eQ