It's time for another installment of a house call complaint of a haunting for you to work your skills.
This homeowner had inherited the house from her family. Her father died when she was in her 20s and then her mother retired to Florida. The house was paid off, in a nice neighborhood, a little old and tired, but ready for redo. Being a middle-ager never married, the woman considered her childhood home the future home for her children that she was determined to begin having as soon as possible. She worked like a mad woman on the place every weekend, evening and holiday, enlisting friends and family to help out.
She contacted with concern that something was in the attic.
It began after she started to gut out the rec room. The wall between the room and the living room came down and opened the area up into one huge space. It brought in lots of light and was a brilliant choice for her modern tastes. Exhausted from the hard work, the woman went to sleep in the master suite that her parents used to share and that she claimed as her new domain. Curled up on the bed for a few moments before taking a much-needed shower, she fell into a deep sleep instead.
She was awakened by a slamming sound, something remotely familiar. She sat up and realized the room was dark and she was still in her dusty clothing, she went into the bath and ran a shower. When she was dry and in her pajamas, she headed down the hall to the kitchen for water. It was when she got to the door that she heard it again. Swinging around, she raced down the hall and looked around. The place was still and there was no sign of an intruder, but that sound was familiar and yet she didn't remember it being a part of the heating system or other usual house sounds.
Days later, it happened again several times in one night. She investigated twice and then finally gave up chasing it down and went to sleep.
It was when she had her brother and his family over for a barbecue and painting party that she really got concerned. Her brother came into the kitchen pale-faced.
"You're not living with someone and not telling me?"
She shook her head.
"Then who's in the attic?"
A chill ran through her body, suddenly the woman knew what the familiar sound was the click of the attic door closing in place.
Her brother reported that while he was using the bathroom, he heard the attic door click and stepped into the hallway to hear what sounded like heavy footfalls in the attic.
A middle of the night rhythmic thumping came to her mind and the woman realized that she had half awake heard the footsteps too.
When asked about the history of the house, the brother and sister revealed that three of their four grandparents had died in the house. One died in his sleep, the other two died in hospice care of cancer. They had always lived with other generations in the home. So far as they knew, nothing had ever happened of a haunting fashion while they were growing up in the house and the grandparents had passed when the woman was 5, 10 and 12.
Where do you begin?
haha, run away
ReplyDeleteMister Sharaf;
ReplyDeleteYou would be fun to take on a ghost hunt, but probably no help, huh?
I'd install an attic fan.
ReplyDeleteBubba;
ReplyDeleteHow about one of those ones on the back of air boats in Florida swamps? That should blow the sucker right out.
I'd get out my sage if the activity bothered her. If not try and capture some evidence on film perhaps. You know I have never been on a hunt so I'd call you first!
ReplyDeleteBecca;
ReplyDeleteI admit to tackling it with a mixture of logical commonsense, virgo organization, psychic skills and psychology. I think you and I would have handled this case quite nicely together.
this type of stuff creeps me out.
ReplyDeleteClean up the attic.
ReplyDeleteWatchman;
ReplyDeleteAnd yet you keep coming back. I'm glad you do. You will enjoy more creepiness to come on here from a safe distance, of course.
Echo;
ReplyDeleteYeah, what is up there, BTW? I might just divulge that in a while.
Check for raccoons.
ReplyDeleteVapor;
ReplyDeleteVery practical and an excellent first step. It would have been useless to begin to measure EMF and run around in the dark waiting for things to happen. This location was lucky to have only one focus of attention--the attic. So, what better way to tackle it than to see the layout of it first?
That's so creepy, I'd get out of there!
ReplyDeleteWell, Zoey, that wasn't really my plan. :-)
ReplyDeleteI did open up the attic, taking special care to see how difficult the door was to open and close, trying it several times. I pulled down the ladder and entered. I stood on the ladder a few moments and listened into the darkness to find out if any critters were rushing away. It was completely silent. So, I clicked on the light and climbed up. What I found surprised me. I expected with generations of family, it would be filled with stored memories. Not a thing. There was one box near the attic door that held a collection of hot wheel cars and barbies. That was it! There open rafters with no flooring in most of the parts of the attic, but from the door opening to the vent there was a strip of planks nailed down to get around. This also paralleled the hallway downstairs.
I would most likely call the Ghostbusters because they have a lot of experience with this kind of stuff or I would check out the attic for myself because "I aint afraid of no ghost."
ReplyDeleteMarduk;
ReplyDeleteGood attitude. I admit that the attic did not prove to have anything in it to give way or cause sounds. I did have someone listen in the hall as I walked around the nailed planks and the brother said it was very similar. So, something was putting weight on the planks. But, at night time when it cooled off, could the planks have just contracted? Was something opening the attic door? From inside, it was not hard to open but from outside it was harder using the string. I climbed out, put the ladder up, closed it off and put masking tape along the edges of the opening. I was out of town when I studied this place and wasn't expecting a house call, so without recording equipment to see if anything moves, I figured securing it and seeing if the seal breaks was a start.
Burn down the house and salt the earth. If I can't live there, nothing can.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I have absolutely no idea where to start. I guess I'd call in the experts.
Les;
ReplyDeleteHee hee
After taping the attic door shut, giving it a good sitting down and listening. We went into the kitchen for some coffee when the distinct click sound occurred. Rushing down the hallway, I found the masking tape unstuck from the door but the door was closed. It had opened enough to break the tape and close again loud enough to hear. As we walked back down the hall, sounds above us sounded like wood creaking under heavy footfalls. We stopped and listened and it stopped too. We walked on to the kitchen and I sat down with the owner and told her that it looked like this: The house had no history of haunting, although 3 people had died there 25 or so years ago. The only thing different was that she was living there and renovating. Although renovating is often associated with hauntings, in the case of the sounds occurring as we walked down the hall, I began to wonder if the removed wall nearby had done something to change the way the attic sat above. I told her to have a contractor take a look at it and see if there was anything to that theory. If there was not, she was to have the contractor fix the attic door so it didn't open quite so easily and see where that took her. As it turned out, there needed to be metal braces to help hold the structure after she had removed the wall. The creaking and the attic door opening never occurred again, even without fixing the attic door. It would appear the house was tweaking a bit under the strain.
i'm not very observant of these paranormal things. i could be living with a ghost right now and not even know it lol
ReplyDeleteSwamp boat fan? That might be a bit much - and noisier than any sounds made by random air gusts.
ReplyDelete