Our Haunted Michigan House
Unholy Water Poltergeist Phenomenon
By James Donahue
A story about an unexplained warm water stream that poured from electric sockets and lights in a cottage in the UK village of Adisham, eventually destroying the home, reminded me of an experience we had in one of the many haunted houses my family and I have lived in.
While the story of the Adisham house involved an extreme unexplained poltergeist activity that could not be stopped or even believed by town officials, our personal experience was a bit more subtle. But it had the potential of ruining a nice country home and like the homeowners in the UK, we found no solution.
Doris and I enjoyed buying older deteriorating houses and restoring them. Over the years we found it an inexpensive way to find housing and it gave us a great hobby of repairing and redecorating homes to suit our personal taste. This particular place was a nice three-bedroom brick country home, located on a quiet back road and it came with a barn, lots of garden space, and about five acres of land. There were fruit trees and other out-buildings, which gave it lots of appeal.
There was one major problem, noticeable when we first entered the house. A large portion of the living room’s plaster ceiling had collapsed. You could look right up through the ceiling to the roof boards over the attic. That did not stop us from buying the house “as is,” since I had a lot of experience with ceilings and wallboard. Before we moved in, I cleaned up the broken plaster and patched that hole in the corner of the room. The problem area was over an alcove in front of the front door. I did a "rush" job with a square of ceiling tile with plans to do a more professional job of installing plaster board later.
Not long after we moved in, however, it rained. I was shocked to find that my ceiling tile was not only stained from water, but the water was dripping through my temporary ceiling to the living room floor. I realized that I had a leak in the roof to repair before I could expect to fix that living room ceiling.
As soon as the weather cleared, I was on the roof with a bucket of tar. There was a chimney near the area where the leak appeared to have originated, so I put a lot of tar around that. I also smeared tar over every part of the old roof where I thought weathering might have caused a leak. I went all the way up to the peak of the roof, just to make sure. My layer of tar made the roof look bad, but I thought I probably had the problem solved. But it wasn’t. The next time it rained the water was dripping through the ruined ceiling tile as fast as ever. By now the tiles were starting to collapse from the water damage.
I bought roofing shingles and returned to the roof. I installed new shingles on that entire side of the dormer, put roll roofing in the valley, and roofed right to the peak of the main part of the house on the side facing the leaking area. I was sure this time I had the problem solved. When it rained, however, the leak was just as severe, if not worse.
Not to be undaunted, I bought more roofing and finished the entire house, carefully installing a tightly shingled cap at the peak, where I now thought the water must be getting in. Alas, the problem was not solved. During the next rain I was in the attic, attempting to trace the source of the water. I found it running down one of the roof rafters but the upper part of the rafter was dry from about two thirds of the way up. I could not determine a place where the rain was coming into the house through the roof. It just seemed to be appearing from about the middle of the roof. How could this be?
After months of struggling with this problem, I found that the only solution was a large bucket. I put the bucket on a board located right at the place where the water dropped to the attic floor. I never found the source of the leak. As long as we lived in that house we had to remember to empty the bucket after every rain, or risk having to replace the living room ceiling again.
I never did install plaster board on that part of the ceiling. I just replaced the damaged ceiling tile when it was needed. And I had to do this more than once while we lived there. It rained a lot in Michigan and it was easy sometimes to forget to empty the bucket.
The odd water leak was not the only strange happening experienced in that place. Looking back on it, I believe the entire house was quite haunted. Other strange experiences included a room that was always full of flies, a bad energy that kept the family on edge for as long as we lived there, and a severe attack of influenza that laid us all out for a week. We were about as sick as any of us could ever remember.
We also suffered a severe ice storm that left us without power in the winter for fourteen days, the barn burned, and the fire took out most of our fruit trees. It nearly claimed the house. I suffered a broken leg when a tree I was cutting fell back on me. We also suffered a severe case of poison oak that got in my clothes and spread to the family after they handled my clothes.
The bad energy we experienced in that house may have preceded us, or been created by a former occupant who, we later learned, hung himself in the garage.
We sold the house to a man and his wife who proved to be the perfect tenants for such a place. They made the entire sale process a living hell, accusing us of removing fixtures that were never there, and claiming we cheated them on land lines. The realtor that handled the sale gave up most of his commission just to appease this mean cheating pair.
I was still recovering from my broken leg at the time we were scheduled to move out, and this pair gave no quarter. They forced my wife and our children to be out on moving day, and we didn't quite make it. They consequently claimed some of our personal property. During all of the chaos, it seems that we may have forgotten to mention the bucket in the attic.
By James Donahue
A story about an unexplained warm water stream that poured from electric sockets and lights in a cottage in the UK village of Adisham, eventually destroying the home, reminded me of an experience we had in one of the many haunted houses my family and I have lived in.
While the story of the Adisham house involved an extreme unexplained poltergeist activity that could not be stopped or even believed by town officials, our personal experience was a bit more subtle. But it had the potential of ruining a nice country home and like the homeowners in the UK, we found no solution.
Doris and I enjoyed buying older deteriorating houses and restoring them. Over the years we found it an inexpensive way to find housing and it gave us a great hobby of repairing and redecorating homes to suit our personal taste. This particular place was a nice three-bedroom brick country home, located on a quiet back road and it came with a barn, lots of garden space, and about five acres of land. There were fruit trees and other out-buildings, which gave it lots of appeal.
There was one major problem, noticeable when we first entered the house. A large portion of the living room’s plaster ceiling had collapsed. You could look right up through the ceiling to the roof boards over the attic. That did not stop us from buying the house “as is,” since I had a lot of experience with ceilings and wallboard. Before we moved in, I cleaned up the broken plaster and patched that hole in the corner of the room. The problem area was over an alcove in front of the front door. I did a "rush" job with a square of ceiling tile with plans to do a more professional job of installing plaster board later.
Not long after we moved in, however, it rained. I was shocked to find that my ceiling tile was not only stained from water, but the water was dripping through my temporary ceiling to the living room floor. I realized that I had a leak in the roof to repair before I could expect to fix that living room ceiling.
As soon as the weather cleared, I was on the roof with a bucket of tar. There was a chimney near the area where the leak appeared to have originated, so I put a lot of tar around that. I also smeared tar over every part of the old roof where I thought weathering might have caused a leak. I went all the way up to the peak of the roof, just to make sure. My layer of tar made the roof look bad, but I thought I probably had the problem solved. But it wasn’t. The next time it rained the water was dripping through the ruined ceiling tile as fast as ever. By now the tiles were starting to collapse from the water damage.
I bought roofing shingles and returned to the roof. I installed new shingles on that entire side of the dormer, put roll roofing in the valley, and roofed right to the peak of the main part of the house on the side facing the leaking area. I was sure this time I had the problem solved. When it rained, however, the leak was just as severe, if not worse.
Not to be undaunted, I bought more roofing and finished the entire house, carefully installing a tightly shingled cap at the peak, where I now thought the water must be getting in. Alas, the problem was not solved. During the next rain I was in the attic, attempting to trace the source of the water. I found it running down one of the roof rafters but the upper part of the rafter was dry from about two thirds of the way up. I could not determine a place where the rain was coming into the house through the roof. It just seemed to be appearing from about the middle of the roof. How could this be?
After months of struggling with this problem, I found that the only solution was a large bucket. I put the bucket on a board located right at the place where the water dropped to the attic floor. I never found the source of the leak. As long as we lived in that house we had to remember to empty the bucket after every rain, or risk having to replace the living room ceiling again.
I never did install plaster board on that part of the ceiling. I just replaced the damaged ceiling tile when it was needed. And I had to do this more than once while we lived there. It rained a lot in Michigan and it was easy sometimes to forget to empty the bucket.
The odd water leak was not the only strange happening experienced in that place. Looking back on it, I believe the entire house was quite haunted. Other strange experiences included a room that was always full of flies, a bad energy that kept the family on edge for as long as we lived there, and a severe attack of influenza that laid us all out for a week. We were about as sick as any of us could ever remember.
We also suffered a severe ice storm that left us without power in the winter for fourteen days, the barn burned, and the fire took out most of our fruit trees. It nearly claimed the house. I suffered a broken leg when a tree I was cutting fell back on me. We also suffered a severe case of poison oak that got in my clothes and spread to the family after they handled my clothes.
The bad energy we experienced in that house may have preceded us, or been created by a former occupant who, we later learned, hung himself in the garage.
We sold the house to a man and his wife who proved to be the perfect tenants for such a place. They made the entire sale process a living hell, accusing us of removing fixtures that were never there, and claiming we cheated them on land lines. The realtor that handled the sale gave up most of his commission just to appease this mean cheating pair.
I was still recovering from my broken leg at the time we were scheduled to move out, and this pair gave no quarter. They forced my wife and our children to be out on moving day, and we didn't quite make it. They consequently claimed some of our personal property. During all of the chaos, it seems that we may have forgotten to mention the bucket in the attic.