House Update

The house is slowly coming along. One of these days we will finally be finished and able to move in. I really wish it was sooner than later, but what can you do.?

So far we have the hardwood floors sanded and resealed. They look so much better than they did before. Granted we didn't get them completely pristine, but the major problems are gone. I do like some of the scratches, dings, wear marks etc. left in them. It gives them character and lets you know that they have been around for a while.

We are very pleased with the way that they turned out. I just hope that they wear well and we don't have to do it for quite a long time to come. The sealant that we used is used for bowling alleys, so hopefully it will wear well. Now I need to find out how to clean them and such to keep their shine and not to break down the sealant.

So the next projects were the be the priming, painting, carpet install and kitchen floor redo. So we are getting there. Everything is complete except for the kitchen. The tile is down, but needs to be grouted in and sealed. I will post pictures of these things in the next few days. I didn't want to completely over whelm you with pictures.

Here are some before and after pictures of the floors.

Living Room Before....



Living Room After...




Dining Room Before...





Dining Room After...



Hallway Before...



Hallway After...



Family Room After...



Master Bed Room After...

A Haunting???

Ok a bit of a creepy story about our new house.

Well as you know in my last post, we have purchased a house. It was built in the 50's and has 2 additions on it. We have been working on the floors and painting recently which has put either Kevin or myself there late at night alone. This is because some one has to go home or stay at home to put James to bed and make sure he eats a good dinner and gets to bed at a decent time.

Any way, we each have experienced something that neither of us has shared with each other until today. Kevin experienced it before I brought a radio over. He was there by himself and said it was around 11 pm. I experienced it after the radio was there. I too was alone and it was around 9:30.

So I am sure you are now wondering what the "experience" was. We both heard music playing. It wasn't the radio because when Kevin heard it there was no radio. When I heard it I ran and checked the radio and it wasn't on. I wasn't just any music like you would hear on the radio either. It sounded like a music box. We know that each other was telling the truth because we were finishing each other's sentences. Not only did we hear the music, but we also heard people talking. These voices were younger, child like voices. The only children close enough to hear are the neighbors across the street. Kevin said that the family was well in bed and their and our windows were closed when he heard it. When I was there the neighbors weren't even home. I looked around and all the neighbors homes were closed up for the night and there wasn't anyone outside as far as I could see. It had creeped us both out now knowing that each other has experienced it and we weren't just hearing things.

The cemetery next to the house does have a few kids buried there. It is a family plot for what I am guessing was the original owners of the land. So we are wondering if it might be the kids.

I know that some of you are thinking we are complete crazies for believing that there might be ghosts or spirits in the new house. Then there are others that are open to this and thing it interesting. I am a believer in this. We currently live in a house that is haunted. We have had too many unexplained things happen here that we can't just dismiss. Nothing violent or dangerous has happened, but we have had things fall, loud noises, being touched etc. Kevin came downstairs one late evening to a really loud noise that woke him from a sound sleep. He swore that someone had broke into the house. He got downstairs and there was nothing. The doors were locked and everything was in it's place.

Another example is from last night. I had locked up for the evening and went to bed. Kevin got up during the evening to go to the bathroom because he wasn't feeling well. He decided to sleep on the couch just in case he has to make another trip. When James and I got up that morning I saw that the front door was cracked open. I asked Kevin if he had gone out to get something and he said "no". He hadn't touched the front door and it wasn't cracked when he laid down on the couch. He would have seen the porch light coming through it. So now they are unlocking and opening doors on us. Wonderful!

I am not opposed to having ghosts, or whatever you want to call them, in the new place. I just hope that they are friendly and we can all get along. You might see us on an episode of Ghost Hunters if things aren't friendly. As long as they don't bother James and aren't violent toward us then we can live with them. Heck we do now.

Kevin just told me that he experienced a shadow while in the extra bed room taking the tape off the walls. He said that he saw it in the hallway and it headed toward our bedroom. He said that when he ran to look for it, it was gone. Great! This could be quite and interesting house.

I think I will have to do some digging on the history of the land, house and cemetery and see if I can come up with anything. Maybe I can talk to my Father-In-Law and see where I should start. He has done research on the property that we are currently living in. So I am sure that he has some idea where to begin.

Wish us luck.

Where I Have Been

Boy has it been busy around here. My Grandma has been in town for a month and we purchased our first house!

It was really good to see my Grandma again. It was also nice to be able to spend some time with her and not have to rush to see her. We could have her for a day and then let her rest for a day. She gets really tired quickly, so we mostly spent time sitting and talking. Which is fine with me. I just enjoy the time with her. I know she really had fun watching James play. I hope that she will be able to come back soon for another month or so. Sadly we spend our time with her thinking that it might be our last. She will be 90 this year, so she has lived a long life. I just hope that she lives a lot longer.

Now to the house. We signed the papers on August 22. It isn't anything spectacular or anything, but it is ours. It is a ranch with 3 beds, 1 bath, kitchen, dining, living room, family room, partial basement with a 3 ft high crawl space under the rest, a 3 car garage and sits on 1/2 acre. I am very excited and James seems to love it when we are there. Currently we are working on it before we move in. We have to redo the floors in all the rooms except James' bedroom and the bathroom, then primer and paint the walls. It is taking longer than we want it to, but we know that we will be happy with it once it is finished. We need to do some work on the outside of it as well, but that will come after we move in.

Here are some pictures of it just after we purchased it.

Exterior Pictures......

Standing in the drive way.

The 3 car garage (3rd one is in the back)

Part of the back/covered porch

Side from Church parking lot

Quiet neighbors (yep that is a cemetery that you see)

Side Back

Now for the interior pictures......

View of the living room from the dining room

More of the living room

Dining room

Bath room

Family Room


Family room and a view of the "Magic Closet"


Interior of the "Magic Closet"


Hall way to the extra bedroom and master bedroom


Extra bedroom


Extra bedroom


Hall way leading to master bedroom


Master bedroom


Master bedroom


James' bedroom


James' bedroom looking at the "Magic Closet"


Kitchen


Kitchen

That concludes the tour of our new home. We hope that you enjoyed yourself. As you can see there is work that needs to be done and that is what we have been working on. I can't wait to get into it.