Old Stone House

Last night our neighbour knocked on the door to inform us that she thought she had seen someone in the house while we were out shopping. I politely thanked her for being so vigilant, but dismissed what she told me – racking it up to mild bought dementia. Later that night I took the dog for a walk and upon returning home, something caught my eye – the second story window looked as if a figure was looking out at me. I gave it little mind, took the dog inside and checked on the family (who were all now sleeping). I returned outside to see if I could find the newspaper, and when I looked back up at the window it was undeniable that there was clearly someone looking out at me. I stared at the window for a few moments in shock, wondering what I should do. Finally, I streaked into the house and dashed upstairs to my daughter’s room where the figure had been standing. Nothing…

Confused, I returned outside to have another look at the window – there stood the figure! I returned to my daughter’s room and again found her sleeping peacefully. At this point I decided that I needed to document what was becoming a rather unsettling moment, so I took our digital camera outside to shoot a few photos of the window. I was sure I could see the figure, but the preview screen on the camera only showed black images. Despite this, I did my best to take a few photos, deciding that I might be able to recover some information in Photoshop.

It was now midnight – officially Halloween day – and the mystery of the figure at the window had me too anxious to sleep. I sat down at the laptop, hooked up the camera, and downloaded the images onto the computer. Of all the images, only one had the faintest bit of colour. I could barely make out what I was looking at, but the longer I stared, the more apparent it became that there in the window was a silhouette of a person! Stunned, I started to adjust the levels on the image until the figure became more visible. I continued to tweak the image until I could clearly see a large man – at least six feet tall –standing in front of the window with arms crossed. He looked as if he was wearing a white t-shirt and brown overalls…

Mike Holmes!

Dread washed over me as I realised I had been visited by the angry spirit of television’s most intimidating contractor! My mind raced as I tried to reason what I had done to deserve such a visit when I heard a voice inside my head quietly whisper – “do it right”.

Do it right? Do what right?

I desperately searched my thoughts for clues as to what Mighty Mike was talking about when I remembered the camera… Flipping back through the pictures on the viewfinder my eyes suddenly stopped on an image of our kitchen door. Earlier this week I had torn the siding off the side of the house, as well as removed the side door. Beneath the siding I had found cement block walls, rot, as well as evidence of previous renovations. The walls were insulated in some places, filled with hunks of foam or bits of fibreglass, and the cement block weren’t tied to the foundation – simply resting atop the footings. When I had tried to pull a cement screw from the blocks, a four-foot wide section of the wall fell over and smashed on the ground. I was so mad at the time I swore that I would just seal it up and be done with it… That’s when it hit me – “do it right”. When the wall fell I had vowed to abandon the building code in favour hiding yet another eyesore on the house. This is why Mike had come to visit – to keep me on course and remind me that anything worth doing was worth doing right! Luckily I had only covered over the hole in the wall to keep critters out of the house, and had never actually finished the job. I had been given a second chance! It was clear that all I will need to do is simply tear out the rot, rebuild the block wall at the base of the window, level the door tread, fix the wiring, re-frame the walls, and reinsulate – then I could hang the door!

And I thought being visited by an angry spirit was scary…

Happy Halloween!