Do you believe in ghosts?

If you asked me that a week ago, I would have said no. After living in this house for five months, I can honestly say I’m not so sure anymore. Looking over everything that has happened here I just may believe in ghosts.

This is a 200-year-old house. We knew when we bought it that there was a chance that someone died in the long life the house has had. So far looking at the newspapers back in 1920 a Mr. Downey may have passed away here. It seems that his widow was trying to auction off everything and then sold the house. There may be more that we haven’t found yet.

To us this is just a foot note in the huge history of the house. Nothing to write home about. Just something interesting to tell guests around the dinner table along with all the other many exciting things that happened in this house. Not even close to the bands that played here or the fact that Charles Adams lived here in 1912.

Ever since we moved in, we have a sound bar in the living room that randomly turns off by itself. At first, I thought something from the network was causing it. So, I disconnected it. Then just figured it’s going out. When it goes off you just have to grab the remote and flip it back on. It doesn’t happen that often, maybe once a week. Just to the point that you live with it and not too frustrated where you want to get a new one.

Early on I came downstairs at 5 am in the morning to find the dryer on. Nothing in it just running. After checking around with the family, it seems that no one turned it on. I just thought it was a glitch in the control board and went on with my life. Keeping an eye on it just in case. This was the only time this had happened.

We have had a few things just randomly fall off the edge of the table. We live right by the main road in town with lots of big trucks that go by. So, I just figured that the vibrations from the trucks were moving them off the edge. About the strangest thing was we were watching the British Comedy Ghosts and a bowling pin that was sitting on the floor just fell over. We got a bunch of pins when the bowling alley closed down, so we have them sitting around the house. Seemed a little strange and we made jokes about it.

Then you have your normal random groans, pops and creeks that you have in an old house. From the wood expanding in the sun, boiler turning on and sending water to the radiators and the wind. 99% of the time you can never tell where these are coming from and when you do manage to track it down it’s always something simple.

We also have a lot of orange Asian beetles, box elder beetles, ants and house centipedes. The house did sit empty for a while. No huge swarms just we have to clean a few of them out every day. For a house of this size, it’s no wonder that we have some crawly friends that find their way into the house. This could be considered creepy if you are squeamish about this sort of thing.

At this point there is nothing to think about. Who would? Then the other night happened. My better 1/2 and I were going to bed after a hard day of work, trying to drift off to sleep. Yes, we are night owls, so we are always up late. When our bedroom doorknob turned 90 degrees, unlatched and opened a crack. Our chihuahua sleeping at the end of the bed jumped up and started barking. We both had the normal reaction, turn the bedroom lights on, put on glasses and see who is at the door.

There was no one there! We have a motion sensor in the hallway to turn on the light when it detects motion that wasn’t set off. Went downstairs and checked the rest of the house. No one was up. None of the motion sensors were set off. Just in case I checked our ring door cameras, and nothing had got near the house. The house was as empty and dark as it was when we went to bed.

Now if the door just unlatched, I could say it was a draft. But the handle TURNED 90 degrees! Me and the better 1/2 saw it. These aren’t your normal run of the mill interior doorknobs. These are the large handles that you can easily see, takes some force to turn and have locks on them. The next day I tried every way I could think of to make the handle turn on its own without luck. I can’t find any explanation on what we saw.

I know this isn’t your big smoking gun, movie screaming specter, or the cat levitating 10 feet off the ground. Just a simple mystery of something unsettling that happened. Everything else that happened since we have been here can be easily explained away. What if, just what if it’s all connected. Maybe the stuff falling, noise, etc. Is some unsettled spirit trying to get our attention.

I hate to say it but being from the Midwest, having 5 kids, two cats and a chihuahua it’s going to have to try a LOT harder. I personally think it would be cool to have a ghost. Maybe we could get it to do dishes or help out around the house. Would be a huge hit on Halloween. Best of all you would always have someone to talk to or blame things on. Could even use some help running wires in the wall too. If we do have a ghost it’s going to have to pull its own weight.

We will have to keep everyone posted if more develops. Until then if you want to help fix up this possibly haunted house you can donate here.