Posted on 06/19/2022 3:16:49 PM PDT by dennisw
They thought they were doing a renovation, not an exorcism. The house had other ideas
We walked into the house for the first time on an impeccable autumn afternoon, the kind where the light takes on the hue of burnished gold. It was October of 2009, and we were looking at homes in a small, appealing town in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. The place had been staged for our visit, of course, but the red and burnt-yellow leaves falling from an old maple tree in the backyard twirled and waltzed with an unpremeditated perfection.
There was a huge hearth and a brick patio and a seven-foot cedar fence surrounding the yard, which at almost an acre was massive for a house in town. Ann and I took this in through two enormous living room windows—like twin IMAX screens projecting visions of some impossibly idyllic domestic life.
The house itself had a heft and audacity that was striking. Built in 1955, the four-bedroom ranch-style home sprawled out and up over 3,000 square feet, a funky amalgam of slabs and angles and cantilevered windows. The kitchen, though filled with dated appliances, was roomy and warm, a potential nexus of conversation and aromatic meals. The vast basement was segmented into five rooms; one of them housed a billiards table and featured the word “POOL” in raised letters on the door. The only other home we’d owned had been a creaky 1800s farmhouse that had seemed to tilt in the wind; by contrast, this was a fortress.
On the way out, we stopped by the windows. “There’s no way we can afford this,” Ann said, “but it would be such a cool place to have a party.”
Afterward, we shook off the spell. It was impractical, too big for a family of three. But a few weeks later, the price dropped, and we asked for another look, and began a series of what-ifs and yeah-buts: If we did this, we would need to replace at least part of the roof; the furnace was ancient; and the upstairs…
What was the deal with the upstairs? It was seemingly once a buttoned-on in-law apartment, but it was now gutted down to studs and subfloor.
(SNIP)
ARCHIVED HERE>>>>>>> https://archive.ph/aopgn#selection-437.0-517.250
Oh great - just as I start reading this story the power went out!
Did a quick perusal of the lengthy article. Is the house haunted or is it just a ‘money pit’?
Sorry, this article only for subscribers.
A money pit because it was built by a once-famous man who decayed into a paranoid schizo and added a lot of “secret features” to the house to accommodate his delusions.
Use the Brave browser. I was able to get in.
There’s 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
Bttt
It's not about a haunted house however but about a moneypit, mostly caused by a very eccentric guy who used to live there.
I once had a house that was once owned by one of those "do-it-yourselfers". He had light switches wired throughout the house that turned on lights and activated outlets all over the rest of the house in a random manner. For example, from the master bedroom you could turn on the garage lights and then oddly an outlet from the workbench in the basement. It took us a few weeks to figure it all out.
I liked the part about the archer/hunter, but the author spent way too many words sniveling about his life choices and then abandoning his family because he wasn’t responsible enough to see what people were trying to tell him up front. Typical self absorbed “me, me, me, I want, I want,” spoiled American behavior. He does somewhat of a Mea Culpa at the end all the while pining for his former wife and life.
This story sort of pushes my buttons because I’ve lived these scenarios through the lives of clients who wants supersede their needs and bank account yet refuse to lower their expectations and destroy what should be an enjoyable end product through their own greed. My sympathy meter refuses to budge for people who willfully and unyieldingly engage in these very behaviors.
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