Me and the missus bought our first house together back in '91. Three storey detached with the basement once being a separate property.No. 12 upstairs and No.13 downstairs. The House was dated as 1847 and was built for Iron Workers at the Old Cyfarthfa Works.
The house needed total gutting as it hadn't been lived in since 1972. It had been boarded up for nearly 20 years and the basement had been bricked up and condemned in the 1950's. Only cost £11k, bargain!!
After I bought it we knocked through into the basement and it was a bit of a creep fest. The basement had three rooms, with there being an old cast iron bed still in the bedroom, cast iron fireplace in the main room with pots and pans still on the hearth and a creepy old mirror still above the mantelpiece. The kitchen/scullery had old linoleum but the rest was a Flagstone floor throughout. It still had the old gas lights on the wall and ceiling. Ended up sticking a three storey extension on it at the rear and gutted the inside, it ended up being a brand new house both inside and out.
We moved in and as the House was pretty big we didn't use the basement rooms much except the utility room. In 1994 we had two pups and the basement was where they mostly lived. We ended up making the basement into a bit of a den / TV room where we both chilled out with the dogs. The dogs were about a year old when we noticed that for no reason the bitch would start barking at the walls. I would sit there with them both watching some TV and would watch the bitch looking around the room as if looking at someone or something, wagging her tail, etc. The dog didn't get as excited but would occasional look up as if being called. I never heard or saw anything
At the time we didn't have any kids so as every other dog owner will tell you, we took regular photographs of the pair of them. Now some of these photographs are regular dog eats bone, dog on sofa, dog wear sunglasses type affairs but I have a few which are quite freaky. I've got some when they were young pups walking up the stairs and there are streaking lights coming up the stairs after them. I can only describe these as the same as when you move a sparkler on Bonfire night quickly back and fore. I've got another few sets in the basement itself when there is the same effect present. No flash, natural daylight only and no jiggery pokery. If I can find these photographs I will get them posted up on here so you can tell me what you think. Even though both of the dogs baskets were in the original part of the house they both preferred sleeping in the new extension especially when we were both out.
Now the main bedroom was in the original part of the house. What would you do if lying in bed late at night your dog started barking at the wall behind the bed headboard? Used to be a regular occurrence in this house. I just used to yell at her to shut up and didn't think anything else of it. Lived in two houses since then and the dogs never acted the same.
My missus says that she felt really safe and at home in our old house and often says she wishes we were still there. :shock: