My New Old Home

My wife and I bought a run-down house about two years ago. It had a nice large yard and established garden with a swimming pool and a one bedroom flat at the back of the yard.

For the first year we stayed in the flat while fixing the home. We had quite a few strange occurrences happening in the new home, including a strange photograph my wife took before we had started doing any work on the house. The photograph showed what looked like a bright white silhouette of a female with shoulder length hair. It was showing only half of the head and about quarter of the torso. I posted it on a forum and someone mentioned that it looked like part of a finger in front of the smartphone's lens. We were comfortable with the explanation as it seemed very logical.

As time passed and we got acquainted with the house and its history we started to understand. One of the previous owners, around the early '90s, used to own a few trucks and did the transportation of earthmoving equipment for the numerous mines around town. He did a lot of improvements to the home at the time and seemed to really love the home and the area.

One day around December month he was transporting a bulldozer on a low-bed trailer when he fell asleep behind the wheel, the truck left the road and hit a culvert. The force of the impact caused the chains holding the bulldozer in place to break, causing the bulldozer to run over the cab of the truck and cut his body in two just below his shoulders. His wife continued to stay on in the house until she passed from cancer around the mid-2000's.

The new owners, who then bought the house, boarded a room to a young guy in his twenties. As is the custom in small towns where there's little to do, the boarder usually went out with friends to the local watering hole over weekends. One night in particular while heavily under the influence he picked a fight with the owner of the bar and got beaten really bad. Afterwards he went home and got in bed never to wake up again...

We had bought the home without knowing the tragic history of the home but I guess we would still have done it even if we did know it beforehand as we got the house for an absolute bargain. In hindsight we now understand why the property was abandoned with accounts from neighbours of the sound of dishes being washed in the kitchen at night, people walking around the house and the barking of a phantom bulldog in the garden. That said, we have become comfortable with the paranormal after having stayed in a house with poltergeist activity and me being sensitive to the spirit world since I was born.

The house became liveable in April 2013 as we had finished most of the kitchen and bathroom and moved in at the same time. The first night in the house we heard boxes being moved around and the furniture, which was not in place yet, being dragged across the floor. I grabbed pepperspray and went to investigate after my wife woke me up to the noises as I'm a fairly heavy sleeper.

This went on for the first few nights and also included the rustling of cutlery in the kitchen at night and movement in ones' peripheral vision. Activity then quieted down quite a bit, it seemed as if they were just checking us out! After that we would could still hear the odd footstep on the fixed wooden parquet floors and the sounds of doors being closed while all were actually open and when no-one else was around. My mother-in-law is a complete sceptic but actually once saw a cupboard door that is very hard to open, open and close on its own accord. It never really bothered us as the home had a good, relaxed feeling about it.

After the first week it quieted down quite a bit with the occasional sound of doors closing or the odd footsteps here and there. What we did still see regularly, though, is a small white Jack Russell terrier similar to the two we own. We would see what we think is one of our dogs in the house when they should be outside. When we go after it to take the dog out, no dog is to be found inside with both of our dogs outside and both outside doors closed!

The past couple of week's things are seeming to liven up though! There would be some of the usual activity associated with haunted homes we are quite fine with such as cold drafts, footsteps etc. Some, like the cold drafts, could have logical explanations but they are occurring during high summer on a 38 degrees Celsius day when all doors, windows and curtains are closed to keep the heat out.

What is less common to us is that we have now seen the bright white silhouette of the woman as photographed passing from the kitchen into the living room on two occasions. I have also heard what sounds like a large dog growling right by our bedroom window at night while all of our dogs are inside at night. Our closest neighbour is about 100m from our house and they only own poodles which would not be able to growl like that. Our yard is also fenced off so no stray would have access.

Lately we would be awakened at night for no reason at all while a very bright blueish-white, perfectly round sphere of light would be hovering above me and my wife. It is completely silent and stationary. Is this what people actually refer to as orbs or is it another type of phenomenon? I was sitting in the living room about a week ago when I saw what I thought to be a bat as it was a similar size, black but with a silver static type colour in between, swooping down from the sealing in an arc moving underneath a couch. It was completely silent and just seemed out of place, although we get a bat visit at least once a week. I immediately got up and looked under and around the couch only to find nothing. I am familiar to the effects of high EMF's but our wiring is new and was done using shielded power cord. I have also tested the EMF's within the home with my Samsung Note (exactly how accurate it is I do not know) and do not get any high readings.

I must mention that my wife is now 6 months pregnant, could it be that it is acting as a catalyst? I have also become interested in the occult, not to the point of doing any spell work or playing with a Ouija board but only by reading a lot about the subject. I guess I just have a deep interest in the paranormal! Otherwise it could be the time of the year or just be our imaginations? I highly doubt it, however, as we both independently experienced the same events! Maybe it is time for me to hold my own little investigation?

I would appreciate any feedback, especially with regards to the hovering lights, the "bat" and the escalation of activity just as we found out that my wife is pregnant.