I wasn’t a believer in ghost or the paranormal until I experienced some strange events while remodeling an old farm house several years ago.
The old run down house was being fixed up as a wedding present to the Deal’s youngest son Ron and his future bride. The house was in a run down condition built in the 1920’s. The old house sat high on a hill overlooking the dam that backed up the waters of the Tims Ford Lake. There wasn’t any bathroom or running water in the house but it did have electricity. No one had lived in the house for years since Ron’s grandfather committed suicide in his bedroom with a shotgun. Attempts to remove the blood stains from the ceilings over the years were unsuccessful. Peggy had ask me what I could do about the stains and I suggested that since the ceilings were nine feet from the floor we could lower all the ceiling in the house to eight feet and that would replace all the old wood materials with new modern materials.
Peggy told me the day before he committed suicide Mr. Deal had sold his tobacco crop and cashed a $900.00 check. The money was missing and she thought he had hid the money some where in the house. Since I was tearing out all the old interior walls to be on the lookout for the money and she would split it with me if I found it. The money was never found in the house or the old cow barn behind the house.
The first strange unexplained thing to happen while working on the house. After a wall between the living room and dining room was eliminated the couple wanted to add another overhead light some eight feet from an existing light. They wanted the two lights to be controlled by a dimmer switch where the switch for the old light was located on the wall. The old light was working so I turned off the breaker at the electrical box to kill the circuit I was working on. I ran a new wire from the old light to my new box and installed a light bulb, turned the circuit back on and turned the switch on but neither of the lights worked?? Bad switch, NO! Bad bulbs, No! Bad Breaker, No! No power was getting to the old light as it was before I added the other light. Every thing I checked was OK. I worried all evening trying to explain the problem with the lights but it continues to this day to baffle me. I removed the electrical box cover and ran a new circuit to the lights, now they worked fine.
A hallway door would not stay open even when I placed a 50 pound bucket of sheetrock filler against the door. Some time later the door would slam shut on it’s own for no explained reason. Several attempts to keep it open with the heavy bucket always failed. Peggy said they had the problem with that door ever since Pop died. I was told to take the door down and make a cased in opening.
Strange noises were heard one night while we were trying to finish the job on time. We didn’t work anymore nights. I became trapped under the house while installing the plumping pipe system. The crawl space had low head room and as I worked my way to under the kitchen area I couldn’t continue to crawl. Dirt had washed in under the kitchen area over the years from an open access door. I couldn’t crawl back the way I had come from because a nail was piercing into my back. I had to call for an employee to dig a trench to me from the access door so I could get out.
Finally the project was finished and the newly weds moved into the house. Three months later his wife accidentally set the kitchen on fire while waiting for some oil to heat up to pop some popcorn. Back to rebuild the kitchen. Years later with the help of some friends they converted the attic area into two bedrooms as their family now numbered three children. They had a fire in the attic bedrooms mostly smoke damage.
All these strange occurances that happen while I worked on the house has changed my mind about the paranormal. In Peggy's words, " I don't think Pop wanted the changes to the old house." ???????????
