Our Haunted House.....
Once we entered into a contract to purchase our current home (not before), people started coming out of the woodwork telling or asking us about "Uncle Willard". The noises, drafts, misplaced objects, weird lights etc. that the deceased uncle of the former occupants apparently was responsible for were seemingly legendary around Colby. Of course we laughed off these reports, but as we slowly moved into the house over the next three months, the day finally came when we were dead tired at dark, and decided to spend the night in our new home. It was obvious none of us was going to volunteer to sleep in Uncle Willard's supposed abode in the east upstairs bedroom!
We can't explain some of the stories that the former occupants' babysitter and employees related, but over the next few months we ran into two of Uncle WIllard's manifestations. The weird lights were rather easily traced to a mis-wired 3-way switch. But his "attic antics" were a bit more mystifying. Before we continue with that story, just so you understand how legendary this haunted house was -- a high school student friend of ours overnighted with us some months after we moved in, and when his schoolmates discovered his deed he was considered a folk hero for tempting Uncle Willard.
Every so often late at night, we'd hear a muffled "urrump..... urrump.....urrump" coming from the attic every 4-5 seconds, for minutes or hours at a time. Oddly, the push-up panel access to the attic would usually be ajar the next morning, as if Uncle Willard had been out roaming around the previous night........ We don't believe in ghosts, but we did have to admit this oft-repeated behavior was just a bit unnerving........ until we caught Uncle Willard after 2 years of coexistence.
In November 1985- January 1986 we departed for a 3 month visit to Australia and New Zealand. We debated the merits of turning off the heat and water for the duration, and finally settled on leaving them on (hint -- if you're ever debating this, turn off the water but NOT the heat). To make a long story shorter, a failed thermocouple and blizzard led to water running through a burst pipe for over two days! The new, sunken west part of our house was a swimming pool.....
The contractor my brother hired to make the repairs was well into the project by our return. He found the blown flocking insulation in our attic was very damp, and in the process of trying to dry it, discovered our attic exhaust fans were inhibited by lack of an attic air-intake. As the contractor punctured the side wall of the attic to install the needed grille, Uncle Willard took the opportunity to escape his old haunt and bid us non-believers adieu. In a way, we almost miss his carryings-on......