If the other houses were merely crumbling under the collective weight of age and improper maintenance, then Olaf's had likely been an architectural catastrophe from the very start.  Most of the supporting beams were visibly cracked, crooked, knotted, or otherwise filthy with mold.  The masonry was so worn that it seemed little better than powder.  The cobbled street was littered with shattered shingles and shards of glass.  All in all it looked to have been run through a hurricane and then used as a giant's latrine, and that was being generous.<br/><br/>The only thing remotely new about the building were the heavy boards that had been nailed over all the windows.  If not for Brackett's clear directions the three would have been justified in believing the place condemned and abandoned.  There were no lights to be seen through the cracks in the boards, though given the time of day it could well be that the man was still asleep.  Then again, how he could possibly tell the time of day from inside was anyone's guess.