But like so many untouched houses it needed maintenance and updating.
In a section of Abasand built as housing for employees of Syncrude, the oil sands mega project of the 1970s, blocks of total ruin faced untouched houses just across the street.
Don't miss the line connecting Martina Franca, Locorotondo and Alberobello, which winds through flower-filled valleys where untouched Trulli houses are scattered through the olive groves.
The structure was "dans son jus," an untouched traditional French house.
"I want this and the garden to remain untouched if the house is sold and may take out a covenant to keep things as they are," she said.
I was surprised to see that vestiges of Michael Jackson and his children remain in the house, untouched.
Cocteau painted her walls, famed decorator Madeleine Castaing did the décor and the house, untouched by any renovations, feels as if they all left yesterday.
Off West Bernardo Drive, the capriciousness of the wind-driven blaze left some houses untouched in their glorious peach stucco amid green grass and well-tended flower beds.
The optimists argue that the Hamptons should remain relatively untouched by the housing collapse because most buyers put up substantial equity, and some of the biggest deals were done in cash.
Their alternative was to build a road tunnel, leaving the houses untouched, but this was rejected on grounds of cost.
Jim Henrichs, the Smiths' next-door neighbor whose house was untouched, came by to offer condolences.
