If I can figure out how, I will include some of the EVP's that were captured, and if I get really good, I'll include some video that the team caught, as well.
So, let's go back - to the beginning. To the first time we saw the house, and how we knew that we would wind up here - in our haunted house.
You don't shop for a "haunted" house
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| It seems like a nothing special - needs work house |
Or do you? In our family, choosing the house fell on my four year old daughter and myself. My husband, of course, would have the ultimate say - and my oldest daughter - then a freshman, didn't have the time to go house hunting. So, as any stay at home mom eager to provide an adventure to her restless four year old would, I packed her busy bag and made like she was on an important mission with Mommy.
It was, I told her - a very big job to help me choose a house. So, we house shopped. We went to a "Stinky feet" house, that was too small and too boring. We went to a nice, but dull "old lady" house, and a brand new - and lonely - "two ways upstairs" house. All in all, not a ton to see, and a bit disappointing.
Finally, my Realtor tells me that he has a house that's not even officially on the market yet. "It's rough," he says, "but there's plenty of yard, and it's got more of what you're looking for."
I looked at my four year old and I said, "let's see it."
So, that's how we wound up "meeting" our house. It was a hot (and I mean hot - it was hot out and the air wasn't running) mess. I'm not sure who lived here before, but they left in a hurry. The house smelled like stinky dogs, smoke, grease and just plain yuck. It was a disaster.
I thought no way, but my agent told me that if we were interested, we could escrow the funds for repairs. Ding! So it could be like new! And there was definite potential. There was space and it was bright. Cozy, but with an almost two acre yard! I'm a yard person, so the blank canvas was a little like nirvana to me.
The cape cod that needed some help suddenly looked amazing to me. What sealed it for me was when my little one said, "Mommy, we're gonna live here." Yep, I thought - we sure were.
In hindsight, I guess I felt it, too. This was where we belonged. But make the sell to my oldest daughter and my husband would be a whole other story.
Convincing the other two...
Convincing my husband and oldest daughter proved to be a bit more of a challenge. I brought my husband one quiet night. I thought - how cool? I can see what the neighborhood is like at night. Truthfully, living in a strange state, I really had no idea what areas were "good" and which ones weren't. So, imagine my surprise when we pulled up at nine o'clock at night, and all we heard were the crickets!
It was quiet, warm and pleasant and I thought - "wow, I belong here."
That is, until my husband walked in and tried to turn right back around. He actually said, "Oh hell no!" I begged him until finally, he relented and walked through the house with me. He was impressed by the giant upstairs room. There is a lovely bathroom up there with two huge closets, and as we walked through, I couldn't contain my excitement as I told him all that we could do with the house.
When we left, my poor husband was so disappointed. He thought I was dragging him, literally kicking and screaming, into a dump. So, I got online to some other listings that he had seen and said he liked. Coincidentally - they were the same as our house. The only difference that these were the "after" that I needed to help my husband visualize what our house could be.
Finally, to the extreme relief of my youngest daughter and myself, he relented. My oldest - on the other hand - hated our house. That was, until I told her she could do whatever she wanted with her room. Then, reluctantly, she said okay.
So, despite the fact that my husband was buying the house, I did the negotiating. I got the bids on how much our changes would cost and did all the shopping to make the house my youngest daughter and I longed for the home that my husband and oldest daughter needed.
Things went fast from there. We closed - after a three day delay that had me hysterical - and while my youngest was at pre-school, I spent time choosing ceiling fans, flooring, faucets, light fixtures, paint and hanging out with the work crew.
I knew we were home when one day after picking my little one up, we stopped at the house so I could show her what was happening. We went into the yard and she said, "Momma can I run over there?" She was pointing to the far corner of the yard and I realized that to her, our yard was ginormous. I said, "of course you can - it's your yard."
It took a week after closing to finally move in, and as anyone who has moved into a house knows, the first night is less like a celebration and more like an exhausted fall off a cliff into the abyss known as sleep. We celebrated with a dinner of take out pizza and Coke; my husband and I enjoyed a couple of Miller Lite's.
The girls' beds were made around 11:30 pm, and my husband and I managed to get our bed put together about an hour later. After pulling the coffee maker out, I had a quick shower and planned to go to bed. I was sitting on the edge of the mattress - just doing what people in a new place do; listening to the house. It was quiet, my dog was asleep at my feet and I was just getting used to the sounds of my new home.
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| Getting ready for our first Halloween |
That was when I felt the house "sigh" around me. It was almost like an exhaled "Okay." And I got the feeling that the house was happy we were here, if that's possible.
Now, not to boost my own ego or anything. I don't think that I have amazing skills or abilities, but ever since I was a kid, we've had hauntings. When I was little, we lived in a condominium that had spiritual activity which my parents - and even my grandpa - experienced.
When I was a young, single mother, my oldest daughter and I lived in a very old house with ghosts who made noises and acted out quite frequently. When we moved, the new owners asked a mutual friend if I would "come take my ghosts with me."
I've learned to identify these things, even if I'm not aware that I'm doing it. I never feel like I'm being watched, just that there is something there. I've never been scared like others get scared. At most, maybe a little weird-ed out.
On the night we moved into this house, I felt something I hadn't really ever felt before: like we had been drawn here. I felt as if we were meant to be here. In this home that my daughter still didn't love, and my husband had grown quite fond of.
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