Is our house haunted?

[Antonia]

We have lived in this house for three years. We are the second family to live here. First family divorced. House is 15 years old on a nice cul de sac. Our neighborhood acreage used to be a family farm that was sold and divided into lots for houses.
DH's father's ashes moved here with us when we moved in.
In the past year, we have a touch lamp upstairs that turns on by itself. Also I looked for a missing pool ball in our gameroom. Even crawled on my hands and knees to locate it and it could not be found. Two days later, I went upstairs and the missing pool ball was very prominently laying in the center of the doorway to the gameroom.
We buried DFIL's ashes in his family plot. I just didn't like having them here. Wierd I know.
Today an old deck of cards bearing our last name (and the last name of DFIL) wrapped in a decaying rubber band, appeared in a curio cabinet in our living room. DH says he did not put them there and I have never seen them before today. DH picked them up and the rubber band broke it is so old. His parents had that deck of cards when he was growing up. I love this house and I don't want to feel wierd about it. Anybody else have any strange happenings?

 

[LuvinLucifer]

You sould read Mary Ann Winkowski's book "When Ghosts Speak". She was the inspiration for Jennifer Love Hewitt's character on the Ghost Whisperer.

 

[kaligal]

Duplicate

 

[kaligal]

We have lived in this house for three years. We are the second family to live here. First family divorced. House is 15 years old on a nice cul de sac. Our neighborhood acreage used to be a family farm that was sold and divided into lots for houses.
DH's father's ashes moved here with us when we moved in.
In the past year, we have a touch lamp upstairs that turns on by itself. Also I looked for a missing pool ball in our gameroom. Even crawled on my hands and knees to locate it and it could not be found. Two days later, I went upstairs and the missing pool ball was very prominently laying in the center of the doorway to the gameroom.
We buried DFIL's ashes in his family plot. I just didn't like having them here. Wierd I know.
Today an old deck of cards bearing our last name (and the last name of DFIL) wrapped in a decaying rubber band, appeared in a curio cabinet in our living room. DH says he did not put them there and I have never seen them before today. DH picked them up and the rubber band broke it is so old. His parents had that deck of cards when he was growing up. I love this house and I don't want to feel wierd about it. Anybody else have any strange happenings?

No. Your house is not haunted.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Don't believe in ghosts...fun to talk about, but don't believe it exists.

 

[deedeetoo]

I don't believe in haunted houses. First question, do you have kids or a cat? Either one could explain the lamp and the ball. The lamp could also be an electric short. Kids could also explain the deck of cards. If you don't have kids, did you have anyone visit recently who could have put the cards there? Maybe dh sbling, cousin, etc. Someone could have left the cards and forgot to mention it. I'm sure there is a rational explanation for everything.

 

[marmalade]

I think anything is possible.

 

[Turn the Page]

I lived in a house in Kentucky for several years that was haunted. My invisible roomies enjoyed playing with my DD's electronic type toys and turning on the microwave at 2:30 in the morning. The first time the microwave thing happened I was woken up to it beeping like it was done. Of course it's one of the models you have to open and close the door to get it to shut up so I dragged myself out of bed to go make it be quiet and immediately went back to sleep. A few minutes later I was awoken by the beeping again. So now I get kinda freaked out and go and check on DD to make sure she was asleep (she was but it didn't really matter since she couldn't reach the microwave anyway) and check the house for microwave using intruders (everything was clear) and climb back in bed. This time I was doing the huddled under the covers wide-eyed staring thing. I didn't fall directly back to sleep this time and a few minutes later heard the buttons being pressed and the friggin thing turn on!!! I unplugged it after that.

In theory I didn't mind when my invisible roomies use my kitchen appliances. I would just prefer it be during waking hours. And if they are going to use my microwave at 2:30 in the morning they could at least have the decency to make me a midnight snack. I really don't think that's asking too much.

Someone suggested that it could be a fried mother board in the microwave. These incidents occured about 5 years ago now. I still have the same microwave but left the state two years ago. The microwave always behaves itself now. I don't think a fried motherboard magically fixed itself.

I have stories from that house that would make some peoples hair curl. I am quite happy with my invisible roomie free apartment.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I very kindly prefer to think that people who don't believe in ghosts have never lived in a haunted house.

I lived in one for a couple of years. It was about 200 years old, so the house had every right to have picked up a spirit or two! I watched as the pull cord on our blinds started dancing as though someone was pulling on them. Pulling and letting go. Pulling and letting go. Over and over and over again. No vents or anything near it, and a vent wouldn't explain how the thing stretched tight then let go. . .

Once I watched in amazement as a dryer door swung out of the way of my head then swung back into place once I was out of the way (we had a stackable washer dryer in our downstairs bathroom).

Our dogs were allowed into the house once when it started raining and we weren't home.

It only got a little creepy when I started taking showers and when I washed my hair I would hear a hard knock in the shower stall. I thought it was the taps, but it was a little creepy so I started varying my routine. The rap always, no matter what I did, occurred when my eyes were closed and I was washing the shampoo out of my hair. Not before. Not after. No washing hair, no rap. I could shampoo then wash off or I could wash off then shampoo. It was always when I was rinsing the shampoo off.

The really creepy moment came when I got out of bed one frosty morning, pulled on my robe and went downstairs. I let the dogs out to do their morning necessities, then I went to do my morning necessities. As I sat down on the throne, my robe fell open and I looked to see two very dark handprints on my calves, positioned with the fingers pointing towards my torso. Fascinated, I put my hands against the handprints. They did not fit. The palms and the fingers were about my size but variant (I believe the palms were larger and the fingers smaller.) My DH's hands are much larger than mine, and we were the only living humans in the house.

A few other smaller things happened, but those are the big ones that convinced me that something was happening in the house. What, I do not know. I call it a haunting because that is the easiest way to describe it. All I know is what happened.

 

[Turn the Page]

I very kindly prefer to think that people who don't believe in ghosts have never lived in a haunted house.

I lived in one for a couple of years. It was about 200 years old, so the house had every right to have picked up a spirit or two! I watched as the pull cord on our blinds started dancing as though someone was pulling on them. Pulling and letting go. Pulling and letting go. Over and over and over again. No vents or anything near it, and a vent wouldn't explain how the thing stretched tight then let go. . .

Once I watched in amazement as a dryer door swung out of the way of my head then swung back into place once I was out of the way (we had a stackable washer dryer in our downstairs bathroom).

Our dogs were allowed into the house once when it started raining and we weren't home.

It only got a little creepy when I started taking showers and when I washed my hair I would hear a hard knock in the shower stall. I thought it was the taps, but it was a little creepy so I started varying my routine. The rap always, no matter what I did, occurred when my eyes were closed and I was washing the shampoo out of my hair. Not before. Not after. No washing hair, no rap. I could shampoo then wash off or I could wash off then shampoo. It was always when I was rinsing the shampoo off.

The really creepy moment came when I got out of bed one frosty morning, pulled on my robe and went downstairs. I let the dogs out to do their morning necessities, then I went to do my morning necessities. As I sat down on the throne, my robe fell open and I looked to see two very dark handprints on my calves, positioned with the fingers pointing towards my torso. Fascinated, I put my hands against the handprints. They did not fit. The palms and the fingers were about my size but variant (I believe the palms were larger and the fingers smaller.) My DH's hands are much larger than mine, and we were the only living humans in the house.

A few other smaller things happened, but those are the big ones that convinced me that something was happening in the house. What, I do not know. I call it a haunting because that is the easiest way to describe it. All I know is what happened.

ETA: Perhaps they just didn't like your choice of shampoo?

I totally agree with your statement that people who don't believe in ghosts have never lived in a haunted house before.

Your ghost was more touchy feely than mine were I think. It's hard for me to tell. Some people are more sensitive to paranormal activity than others and I happen to be dense as a door nail when it comes to picking up on that kind of thing. If they aren't playing with electronics I have no idea they are there. And I am perfectly happy to keep it that way. I never felt touches, saw (except maybe shadows moving away out of the corner of my eye but I could never tell for sure), or heard anything. I would often feel cold spots but it was a very drafty and poorly maintained house so that could have been purely natural. I would quite often feel like someone was watching me but other than that I didn't pick up on anything.

I think I inadvertently made the most active room in the house DD's bedroom. Oops. She was only about 10 months old when we moved in so she was still in her crib. She slept great. I mean I would put her down wide awake and within 10 minutes she was asleep and would sleep nine or ten hours through the night with no problems. Something changed when I took her crib down though. I set up her big girl bed and that child would not sleep in there at night for anything. I mean I spent two hours trying to put her to sleep at night and as soon as I left the room she would instantly wake up screaming her head off and run into my room. She would sleep in there during the day just fine and would sleep on the couch in the living room all night by herself but not in her big girl bed. The only thing I could think of was the crib offered some kind of protection for her. They wouldn't mess with her in the crib but as soon as that came down they would bug her.

Interestingly another activity involved one of DD's puzzles. She had this wooden cut out number puzzle. You know the toddler puzzles that would have specific slots to put the pieces in. Anyway, this one was electronic and when you put the piece in it would tell you what number it was. Every time I walked out of her room that thing would go off and say "seven, seven, seven". It didn't matter if I was in the room for an hour or just stuck my head in to say something to her it would go off as soon as I stepped out of the door. At first I thought I had some weird electromagnetic thing in my body that made it go off but I tested it in other rooms of the house. The puzzle only went off when I walked out of DD's room. It didn't even have to have the piece in there to go off and it was always the seven. Strangest thing was the last time I heard it I had just walked into the house from my ex's (DD's fathers) funeral. The puzzle was in the back of the house in her room and i had no more than stepped in the front door when I heard "seven seven seven" from the other end of the house.

 

[ilovepcot]

No one ever died in my house in FL, yet we had all kinds of odd things happen. All the neighbors and our friends insisted the place was haunted from things they felt or saw. DH and I have tried to find explanations for all that happened as we don't believe in ghosts. Anyway, our house in NC has had 2 people die here and we've never had anything odd or out of the ordinary happen. Seems backward to us.

 

[kaligal]

OP, if you think you have problems, check out this poor woman!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSwnWw65Wo&sns=em

 

[MistressMerryweather]

Doesn't really sound like much, house haunted-wise.

We live in a 120 yo house. Nothing. I don't even get any uncomfortable feelings now and then, but the house we lived in before this one, was only about 10 years old, in a new neighborhood and I always had the creeps in that house. Something just never felt right.

 

[Reddy]

my mom had a ghost when she was going up
a guy would walk across this room back to you - his hand go up like he is stabbing someone then walking out the door - which used to be the back door of the house
the house had a few rooms add to it so it is no longer the back door but it had a lock on it - it would always be unlock after the ghost came

as long as you weren't in that room you didn't see it - took granny & grandpa awhile to believe them - a guy did stab someone in the house

the room is no longer a bedroom so who know if he still comes or not

Since the Bible says there are ghosts but to leave them alone that is what I do - I haven't seen one but I believe in them

 

[hereyago]

I don't think it is the house itself,but perhaps it is your fil letting you know he is around.

 

[Antonia]

If it is DFIL I wish he'd find some other place to hang out!

 

[kidshop]

If it is DFIL I wish he'd find some other place to hang out!

Ask him to leave. Tell him it bothers you.

It not really something I talk about, but I had some incidents I believed to be a relative who died suddenly. I asked her stop when one thing really freaked me. It was actually a nice comforting thing, kind of like the deck of cards, but I was still scared. It never happened again like that. I kind of hope she still hangs around, just a little more subtle.

 

[branv]

I don't know what I believe. I'm not sure I believe in ghosts, or anything "supernatural", but I do believe there are maybe things we don't understand. That what people see or experience may be real, and many are easily explained or coincidences. But I also think there are some things that truly happen which we can't explain given what information we currently have. But I'm also not discounting the existence of anything. Mainly because my family has had some weird experiences, despite being fairly pragmatic people.

*My mom and dad had a large walk in closet with two doors. In the middle was a rod for hanging clothes, making it like 2 sections. My mom was standing on her side, and over the clothes in the middle, saw the head of a man (she thought was my dad) walk in, and start moving around. She even heard the hangers on his side squeak as they slid back and forth. She spent about two minutes talking to him, when she suddenly heard him walk out of the bathroom where he'd been taking a shower. Looked back over and no one was there.

*My adult sister was at my mom's townhouse (different house), upstairs in their office. There is a very small landing at the top of these stairs, with only two rooms upstairs. She heard someone walking up the stairs, turned to look towards the door of the office, and saw a tall man with black hair go walking past, into my parents bedroom. She went into the room and it was empty. My mom said my sister came tearing down the stairs like her hair was on fire. Three days later, my grandmother called my mom and told her a similar thing had happened to her the night before. Except she'd never heard what happened to my sister. She had two doors into her bedroom -- one from the kitchen, then one into a hallway that leads to a bathroom and another bedroom. She was asleep, and woke up to see a tall man with dark hair walk from the door to the kitchen, pass her, and vanish through the door into the hallway. Very sensible woman, thought, "I must still be dreaming." Just then, this horrific pounding occurred on the wall behind her head, which was the same wall as the door the "man" had vanished through. She jumped up, thinking she'd seen an intruder. A minister friend who was staying with her in the other room, knocked on her bedroom door, wanting to know if that pounding noise came from her? He'd seen nothing in the hallway, and there was no way out but through either of their bedrooms. THEN, a week later, I was at my mom's visiting while she watched my brother's little 4 year old son. He was playing on those same stairs, just out of sight. We heard him say, "Hi Patrick! Hi Patrick!" And then carried on a brief one-sided conversation. Patrick is an old friend of the family who...is tall and has black hair.

That was the end of that, but it was just...odd.

Luckily, nothing much for me. We did build this brand new house a few years ago that had some weird things. First, for some reason one area of our bedroom would get this rotten stench. But only at night, only in this one spot, once a week, and only for an hour. We went outside to check, because I thought maybe a skunk had sprayed the backyard...no smell. Checked the bathroom, thinking pipes. Nothing. Checked the attic above the area. Nothing. On a slab foundation, so no animals underneath. Then our motion detector alarm in our bedroom closet kept going off for no reason we could discern. And one Saturday morning, I woke up to my clock alarm going off. Neither of us had set it. I would have thought an electrical short, but the alarm-on button had actually been slid to the "on" position and the alarm time was changed. I just shrugged it off. But when I got out of bed, and went to walk to the bathroom, I saw about a foot from DH's side of the bed his alarm clock -- it was sitting in the middle of the floor, with the cord wrapped carefully around it. No one else in the house, mind you. We moved a few months later for a new job. I still wonder if the lady who bought our house ever experienced anything.

I don't make claims about or pretend to understand any of these events. But, yes. They were weird.

 

[fall08CP]

I have a spirit that follows me. I picked it up a few years ago when I was out of the country visiting family friends. They practiced witchcraft and read tarot cards. I stayed away from their practice, but slept in their house. One night, my friend and I woke up to a spirit standing in their living room. We both saw it, and his mother saw the glow under her door. It was terrifying, a very mean spirit!

It has since followed me back to the states and to each of the 5 states I've since lived. Sometimes I physically see it, sometimes it grabs me in the night. Other times it'll shake me awake and not show itself, but I can feel its presence. I used to be very scared, but I've learned to take control and cast it away.. for a few months at a time.

Once you've seen a spirit, you HAVE to believe. It's really something crazy

 

[Nola Girl]

I grew up with a ghost. My parents sought out help and were told if it was a good spirit it would leave if asked. Mom finally asked "her" to leave after baby brother was born as he was really afraid of the lady who came in his room at night.
Some of us are more sensitive. Once on vacation I was awakened repeatedly by a spirit every night for the entire week. I was miserable. No one else in the family felt or saw a thing! I was very afraid it would follow me home. Thankfully it did not. I was pretty sure it was a young child because it would shake me awake the exact way my kids did. We were traveling with a large group of friends and they had so much fun laughing at my expense! Thankfully my sister was with us and was TOTALLY jealous that the ghost picked me and not her. When we were kids the ghost preferred her so she was sure all ghosts would prefer her! Anyway she let everyone know that I was not insane.
I do think some things we think are ghosts are not, like the time I smelled pipe smoke and no one else did. My grandfather had just died so I was sure it was a sign. Well a few weeks later I smelled smoke again and then got a major migraine. I realized I was starting to suffer from olfactory auras. No ghosts. But I know what I saw with my own eyes.