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The house at 19 Burnbrook Crescent was once a solitary property in the woods, with an indoor swimming pool and a backyard that tapered off into a ravine and creek, under a sky of pines.

And then it became a rental. And then it became a grow-op, busted by police with battering rams and guns. And then, so full of mould, it was only a basement apartment. And then it sat empty, for more than 1,500 days.

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And now it’s home to raccoons, a kind of wildlife Hilton, with giant holes in the roof, and collapsing bricks, torn tarpaper, broken windows and weeds that slap the knees. It does not help that temporary fencing has put the property in a cage, where a dusty piano can be seen in the “living room” of dead space.

“One of the first things people ask when they come over is, ‘Why do you live beside a dump?’,” said Ruth Rayman, who has lived next door with her husband, Keith Anderson, for 25 years, and has vivid memories of the grow-up bust, about 15 years ago.