Can Remodeling Stir Up Sleeping Spirits?

Thank you to Lisa Kaplan Gordon and HouseLogic for this amusing reflection on what can get “stirred up” during remodeling of a property.

Over the years, I’ve had more than one friend tell me their house is haunted. Usually, the ghosts are harmless pranksters who move items on a dresser, or leave small toys in a house that hasn’t seen kids in years.

What prompts this supernatural silliness? It may be a recent home improvement project.

“When you remodel, you change the restful spirits’ environment, and it may not be comfortable with the outcome,” according to David’s Ghost Hunting Blog, which collects ghost stories. “Some may bother you just to let you know, ‘Hey! You may have changed the house, but I’m still here!”

Here are a few examples of ghost claims made during a remodel:

1. After a major kitchen remodel, a Virginia home owner believes a ghost repeatedly locks her son in the basement, even after she has removed all keys from sight.

2. Soon after a young couple bumped out the front of their house, an otherwise friendly ghost began making trouble. The ghost stole tools, pulled down drywall, and pushed workers.

3. Through the years, claims have surfaced that the White House is haunted.  Mysterytopia has pictures of a 1950 remodeling that shows, if you look hard enough, an apparition supposedly standing in the middle of the renovation.

4. The moment a South Dakota woman walked into her 1910 home, she felt that the kitchen was backwards, even though she’d never been in the house before. When the real estate agent confirmed that during a previous kitchen remodel, the configuration had indeed been reversed, the new home owner wondered if she had been receiving messages from another world.

5. Soon after remodeling began on the historic Felt Mansion in Holland, Mich., shadowy figures appeared and doors opened and closed themselves. Click on this video and decide for yourself if the mansion is haunted.

Have you disturbed the ethers during a remodel at your house? Share your otherworldly story with me!