It's a very typical 60 year old house, look at the pictures of the inside from the real estate link above. A lot of the interior looks original, just covered in paint. The garage isn't important.
None of it is really important, except as it relates to one story. The gutting of the house by neighbors while he stood by and told them to take whatever they wanted. Whether that even happened isn't really important, he's using it to illustrate the point that he doesn't give a shit about his dead father's things (or his dead father, for that matter).
The picture of the house was just posted as a trivial nugget, since I hadn't even seen the address before finding the obituary.
hank solo's point is more interesting.