More likely it'd smell like the family laundry spread out to dry on the radiator in the lounge, after it's had a good go in the spin dryer.
A foreboding dark gothic built with the blackest quarry stone. Should there ever be an absynthe-related murder and a missing body, this house would be the scene.
Right, so I'm procrastinating pretty hard while working on my portfolio for school, so I made this little thing: "Before him stood a lonesome house, hinting of victorian and gothic construction. Old, dark stones made up it's wall, a stark contrast to the pearly white wood, which seemed to him, almost like ancient bones. As he approached he felt as if the empty windows were watching him and he wondered what secrets were hidden behind it's cold, bleak facade."
I think it depends on your character and the type of book your writing? Is it a horror? Is you character someone that loves thrills and ghost stories in which case they'd describe it differently to someone who was terrified. Personally I wouldn't give too many details, let the readers imagination fill in most of it. Maybe something like: "The house rose from the ground like a headstone; tall, weathered, and menacing. Dead trees pressing in on all sides, their bony branches clawing ominously at the dark Victorian windows. I smile. It's perfect." That was my (very quickly thrown together) take on it from the perspective of someone planning to try and scare their friends. But if it was someone planning to renovate and live there, then they'd see it a lot differently. They might focus more on the things that appear damaged, thinking of all the work it'll take to get it ready. Atleast thats what I try to do, but what do I know
Torn, worn down by the power of time; the glass no longer at attention, for they were eventually (and obviously) replaced by wood. Nature has obviously done her job in molesting its roof with her rain, for the roof looks as though it shall soon buckle its knees and give in to gravity.
Swaddled in gloom, as if each brick and every tile absorbed sunlight and moonlight alike, banishing them to a dark and forsaken core.