I don't think I properly updated anywhere on this website or within this blog, properly, what Ryan and my new lives are like in our new house. Our own new Weird Adventures Base of Operations! I mentioned on social media we went southeast from our old townhouse in the suburbs to several acres of forested, rolling and rocky hilltop land with a home that's (quite gratefully and stunningly) twice the space we were living with before. We wake up to sun shining into our bedroom for the first time in 8 and 1/2 years and windows on all sides of the house. That's an astounding and profound change for us, especially after the last 3 years of the pandemic having been spent in the cramped townhouse with all our hobbies and collections on top of each other. We were never truly granted any time or space without being in earshot of each other for the duration of our relationship and while we know we can endure small spaces, we knew we couldn't continue on with what we wanted to do and what we wanted out of our home in the little townhouse. We had very nice neighbors, but the thing is, we didn't want any neighbors.
I know I mentioned in old blogs that we had a roommate, Off Camera Rick, until the end of 2018. We'd all been enclosed for a long time and last fall the final straw was pulled after we'd discussed moving over and over during spring of 2022. I hesitated because I was terrified of the process itself, of making a wrong decision that could last a lifetime, or using our finances the wrong way. But, Ryan is generally right, often, and he convinced me to take the first step after me dicking around endlessly as I am wont to do with major life decisions. (It had to be me, because I'm the one who owned our house before he and Rick moved in.) So I called an agency, we then diddled around with finances until putting every piece into place (I hate math, it's a process I consider a living nightmare, but fortunately through all the alleged ADHD I have learned the ability to organize my existence and paperwork to accomplish this type of necessary evil), and we searched for another month and a half until we found this very home I'm sitting in. The process is long and weird and slightly invasive, but we had great people to work with, and a small but desirable townhouse to offload which happened last month officially. We're also grateful the entire buying and selling process occurred before the housing market did another absurd turn as it's done in the last month and a half.
"We live...in a society."
The previous owner of our new house, which is itself around 80 years old, lived here for 55 years of her life, and landscaped the entire yard over that half a century. Ryan and I already being in our late 30's and 40's are not necessarily fresh out of college on our first home, but this feels like the place we've both been waiting for. Outside is a waterfall and pond the owner uncovered and built herself, and the acreage of woodlands (eastern pine turning over to maples) was bought by her and saved as forest instead of becoming more homes. It's like she saved the woods for us, it's exactly what we wanted.
However, in this house, toward the end of 2021, a death occurred in the room that has become our guest room on the first floor. This in itself is not abnormal or undesirable, in fact, I'd like to die here too, as would Ryan. We look wholeheartedly forward to it, however just in a much farther forward place in time than the near future. But the previous owner did lose her partner here after their 90+ years, and so her eventual departure from this home became our future at the end of last year.
Many people die and are born in private residences, it's not something that deterred us from any point in the process of buying the home. We just knew though, along with how long this home was loved and how much it was personalized, what kind of haunting we'd have. It's the aire of a lived in structure, and reminders of choices made through wallpaper and wood finish and flowers. There were several grab bars in place for the previous owner, and to be honest the one in the shower is nothing but handy. We're not haunted by any conscious or sentient aspect here, and certainly not unnerved anywhere inside or out, but the house feels like it has a strong story in place and we're simply carrying what's felt palpably in place forward.
We've nearly finished the renovation on the guest room, which will make it the first one done completely in the entire place. That was *the room*, and there has never been a feeling of lived in around and within it. It's a peaceful haunting that reminds us how grateful we are to be in this place, and surrounded by the forest on nearly all sides. Our new and distant neighbors are all incredibly friendly, that's another aspect that's giving major relief. No one's on top of one another out here. We're in homes of older age and from different years, haunting stories writing themselves as the days pass like a new volume of the same series.
To new weird adventures,
thanks for reading,
6/2024 UPDATE: Well! We found out the person who passed away in the home did so in the seance parlor, or the front room, by the window. We found this out straight from that previous owner who we bought the home from, as she's visited twice to see the beginning and end of major construction last summer. It's been DIY updates and changes since then, and still, no ghosts. At least we don't think so at this point, but a couple odd instances over the last year have made us wonder. 🤔 💠👻
Commentaires