The stories our walls tell

For those who don't know, we bought this house 4 years ago from a friend of the family. For three years before this purchase we lived in an old fifth wheel camper when we weren't on the road. We lost our 1st house in 2003. The previous owners were best friends of my parents. I had heard years ago it was my Mom & Dad who got John & Helen together. Now years pass, Mom & Dad pass away, Helen passed away & John decided to go live in an assisted living home. We could not pass up the deal on this home. We knew the house had history with my parents. We also knew the home had a history of having "unpaid guests" Now, say what you will but we have had numerous occurrences happen in our home since we bought it. We have seen & heard things, lights turn on, our dogs snarl up the stairs, Ken has felt "someone" pass him on the staircase...the list goes on. We are not afraid of our home however. In fact, we feel blessed to be here & we take great pride in our old house & take great care when we do remodeling. Any sort of changes seems to stir up the activity in the house.

Anyways, last week we decided after 4 long years of not liking the dining room & den that we would remodel. The house is in complete array right now so I won't share oodles of pictures. Instead I would like to talk about this one....


We had a built in desk/curio cabinet along the one whole wall. When we took the bank of drawers out this is what we found: 1 completely empty vodka bottle, another vodka bottle with a tiny amount in it and a cabinet making book from 1949.

I posted a few pics of the whole remodel on my facebook for friends to see & because almost all of the pics have "orbs". Now keep in mind, we know the family who owned the home prior to us. Sandy, who is John & Helen's daughter commented on this particular picture & said that she remembers when those bottles & book were put there. This is what she said:

"I remember when my dad put the vodka bottles in the wall, Donald and Thelma came over that night. They shared what was in the empty bottles, and then they (dad and Donald) put the bottles there for kicks, mom was upset but laughing. They said in 100 years who will give a shit, and then he threw his cabinet book in there too. I will tell you there ... are many stories those walls will tell, and I know exactly which ones have the biggest tale, I will say be careful with the sledge hammer you never know what is behind old walls;). I often think I should have bought the house, just so I can dig stuff back up. I will tell you one spot if you have not already removed. The kitchen counter top that was by the sliding doors. Every time dad would place something to be covered up for the future mom would say "John Rickel I might want that", or she would say "I might need that" of course, he never listened."

We are having fun finding out the stories beneath the walls but at the same time, we are sooo ready for this project to be done!!