Old Houses and Ghost Stories
For every old house I have owned, the walls seem to tell a story. In addition, there are odd occurrences that sometimes don’t make any sense, but I shrug my shoulders and say, “well, it IS an old house”. You know, the door that slams by itself, with no wind, for example. The old antique marble that is now on the stair step I just vacuumed. The basement light that go on by itself.
We always hope for what I call the “good ghosts”, the happy memories of those previous owners and their lives that permeate the walls. In my life, I have lived in several historic homes, ranging in age from the 1700s to the early 1900s. And each one had its “ghosts” or own personality.
But I need to share this story with you that happened this week, because I am baffled with no logical explanation for it.
Some history first. If you have followed my Restoration Chronicles, you know our home is 110 years old. Most of it is original, but new sections have been added to bring it up to today’s standards.
The kitchen is a new addition we built in 2000. So it’s 20 years old, but “new” compared to to the rest of the house. The kitchen is on the west side of the original house, and the new construction is built beyond the original structure.
As you also know, we are currently in an appliance crisis, with way too many things breaking at the same time. This past week, our dishwasher, even though the water is turned off, kept filling with water. Unfortunately, it overflowed and ruined a large section of hardwood floor in the kitchen.
Finally, we yanked it out because we could not shut off the source of the water. The plumber came back AGAIN and replaced all the shut-off valves. This finally did the trick. If you look closely, you can see the dark water damage marks in the flooring.
Please keep in mind that the kitchen is new and before it was built, there was nothing in its place. However when my husband removed the dishwasher, he found a gold locket on the floor with a beautiful monogram on the front.
No one in our family has ever seen this locket before. The initials look like KMK~~~again nothing familiar to us. These are not the initials of the previous owner. From 1945-1957 the Korrick family lived here, but no one with these initials. It looks rather old, right?
So I opened the locket, and found this picture inside! Certainly not a contemporary photo!
So how does a locket, with a picture of a man taken decades ago, find its way under our dishwasher, in a kitchen that was built from all new materials 20 years ago?
I can honestly say I found all this a bit disturbing, only because we have had a series of so many unfortunate events lately. Here is list of the quirky things that have gone wrong in the last 14 days:
- Flood in the basement due to water heater splitting; flood alarm on the floor did not alert us.
- Dishwasher floods with no water going to it. Plumber turned off the water and it continued to fill for the next 6 days. Ruined the hardwood floor
- Clothes dryer at cabin stops working.
- Ice maker in refrigerator quits
- All the electrical outlets in master bedroom at the cabin stop working all at once
- My Nespresso coffee machine is leaking water. First time ever.
- The driving lights on the car go on and off, but never when we take it into get fixed.
- The desk light at the cabin randomly goes on and off. I would turn it off and it would go on by itself. Repeatedly.
- The fire alarm apparently went off yesterday. No one heard it. The fire department showed up at our gate.
It is becoming a pricey month. So I am blaming all of this on Mr. Locket Man. Isn’t this so strange? Mr. Locket Man is sitting next to my religious statue in the breakfast room until I can figure this out.
In the meantime, I am trying to reach the previous owner’s daughter to see if she recognizes this locket or photo. A bit of a mystery as it doesn’t explain how it got under the dishwasher.
Have you had any unexplained experiences in your home? Well, this makes for fun dinner conversation if nothing else!
Enjoy your Saturday and weekend! We just picked our son up from the airport, which is why I am a bit late posting today. We are blessed to have him here for the next two weeks!
If you have not read the prior posts of The Restoration Chronicles, links are below.
The Restoration Chronicles Chapter 1
The Restoration Chronicles Chapter 2