Welcome to Craig & Yvonne's Victorian Home

April 2001 - It was sometime in the middle of the night, probably around 2:30 a.m. or so when I woke up and went to the bathroom. During the day we had been moving boxes around. There was a pile of boxes in the hall next to the third floor staircase. Among the items waiting to go to the attic was an old Springfield rifle from the Civil War. ( I own a number of artifacts from two of my Great, Great Grandfathers who fought in the war) While I was walking back, I was suddenly startled by a very heavy and loud slamming sound at my feet. With my heart pounding, I made my way over to the light switch and turned it on. The rifle which had been leaning against the far wall, had somehow been thrown a distance of about 7 - 8 feet. For the record, this scared the bejesus out of me. Granted, I was already a little bit on edge from the stories I had already heard. So, I decided to take the logical approach. I must had stepped on a loose floorboard or something like that, that cause this to happen. So, I put the gun back where it was and proceeded to dance around the hall in search of the loose floorboard. When I realized that there was no logical explanation for this, I became really freaked out. I didn't want to wake up Yvonne, because there was no sense in scaring her too, so I went down to the kitchen, sat down and attempted to reason with Mr. or Mrs. Ghosty. I won't get into the details of what I said, but there hasn't been any more scary incidents in the middle of the night. I believe we have an understanding. By the way, I was skeptical about the existence of ghosts prior to that night. My views on the subject have since changed. - Craig Schaible -

April 2001- My first encounter was in the kitchen. I usually listen to dance music but, every once in a while I put on WSOU because I used to be a heavy metal chic. I don’t mean Bon Jovi; I’m talking ”Kill your mother, Satan music”. Ok so I’m bangin’ my head, and I hear a voice telling me to “turn it down!” or “turn off the radio!” Craig was in the basement, so it wasn’t him, and we were the only people in the house... I’m not sure who it was, all I know is that I quickly changed that station. - Yvonne Schaible -

May 2001 - My second encounter happened on a bright sunny afternoon, while on the phone with my sister Jessica. I was sitting on the couch in the Living Room just chatting away when I clearly saw a large figure of a man walk past the room! He was about 6’1” tall. He walked from the Dinning Room toward the front doors and then was gone. I said to my sister “I just saw the ghost”. But then played it off to nothing, I didn’t want to scare her away from visiting. - Yvonne Schaible -

June 2001 - It was a bright, sunny afternoon in the early part of June. I just returned home from work. I went out and got the mail and made my way upstairs to the second floor where my office is. I was walking standing at the bottom of the staircase leading to the third floor. The sun was brightly shining through the window at the top of the stairs, lighting up the hall were I was casually sorting through the mail. The sun shines directly onto the hallway floor during that time of the afternoon. I didn't notice it until it moved. When I looked at the floor, there was the silhouette of a man standing in the window. The instant that I noticed it, the man turned to his left and walked into the third floor bedroom. I instantly spun around to see but there was nobody at the window. I immediately ran up the stairs and into the bedroom but it was empty. I was so excited! I yelled "that is soooo coool! I immediately called Yvonne and told her what I had just seen. The thing that makes this encounter rather significant is the fact that the shadow was so clearly defined and it was right in front of me, not in my peripheral vision. If I had to venture a guess, my impression was that it was a man between six feet and six feet two inches tall. One thing is for sure, he didn't weigh very much as none of the creaky floor boards made a sound as he walked by. - Craig Schaible -

October 2001 - We bought a new kitten and one of my Beagles wants to eat her. We have been keeping the kitten upstairs. So, we decided to try to introduce them. I bought a soft padded muzzle for the dog to keep her from biting the kitten. I figured that she could smell the kitten and maybe see that she wasn't prey. Anyway, the muzzle attaches behind the dog's neck with a plastic clasp that requires two hands to release. Anyway, needles to say, the dog wasn't too thrilled with the muzzle, but it was only for a few minutes. She tried really hard to get it off, with no success. We introduced the kitten and the dog still was going nuts. So after a few minutes of that we called it quits. Yvonne went into the kitchen and I brought the kitten back upstairs to safety.
Yvonne while in the kitchen saw (what she thought was me) a man walk into the reception hall. A few seconds later, she walked into the hall just as I started to come down the main staircase to take the muzzle off the dog. She was startled to see me upstairs after thinking I was in the hall. Then we both looked at the dog. The dog was no longer wearing the muzzle. Upon closer inspection of the muzzle, we noticed that the clasp had been intentionally released. We both agree that there is no physical way that the dog could have opened the clasp on her own. I had double checked it to be sure that it was secure for fear she would eat the kitten. So who was the man in the hall? Who ever he was, I guess he likes dogs... Craig Schaible

Here are some stories from the former owners of the house. Maybe were not so nuts after all?

October 1980: "I was in sixth grade. I ran home from school and was the first to get home. Normally, my mom was home when we got there, but this day she wasn't. I decided to call my neighbor to see if they knew where my mom was. I was sitting in the Dining Room looking down the center hall. As I was on the phone with my neighbor, I watched my bike roll across the floor from the Living Room into the Den. I started screaming! My neighbor sent her son over to come and get me, because I couldn't move, and I was screaming into the phone". - Bridget Jaramillo -

December 24, 1980: "My parents were invited to a Christmas Eve party. My cousin was visiting us for the holiday, and he decided that he wanted to work out. We knew that we had some "free weights" in our storage room in the attic. My two brothers, my cousin, and I went up to the attic (about 10:00 PM) to see if we could find the weights. While we were all looking, it was very quiet. All of a sudden, we heard a woman singing "The First Noel", and it was coming from the same room that we were standing in. While she had a beautiful voice, she sang it in a scary way....kind of like Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy. We all freaked out and ran downstairs. My cousin thought maybe there were Christmas Carolers in the area and that somehow their voices echoed in through the windows of the attic. We ran downstairs and outside, and there was nobody around. I will NEVER forget that as long as I live"!!! - Bridget Jaramillo -

June 1985: "My boyfriend (now husband) was over my house with his friend. We were hanging outside in the backyard having a barbecue. It was about 7:00 PM or so. I went inside to get us all drinks and to start washing the dishes. I turned around and glanced out the kitchen window facing Watson Road. As I looked, I saw Nelson and his friend jump over the bushes, run down the hill, and get in their cars and leave. Later on, Nelson called me to tell me what happened. While they were outside, they heard me calling to them. They said I kept yelling "Nelson, come here, I need you for a second." The voice was coming from down in the basement. They went through the outside entrance into the basement (off the back yard). The voice got louder as they got into the basement. They got to the middle of the basement, and then the voice just started laughing. Nelson said it sounded exactly like me, only I wasn't there. The voice was actually whispering in his ear, as if someone was standing right next to him, except nobody was there. They ran out of there as fast as they could! The ghost really liked to mess with Nelson. I'm surprised he ever came back again"!!! - Bridget Jaramillo -

November 1985: "Nelson and I rented the movie "The Evil Dead". He was working a late shift at Mobil. He didn't get out of work until midnight. He and his friend came over so we could watch the movie. Since it was so late, we had all the doors to the Living Room closed. When it got to the part in the movie where the camera went to the basement, things started happening. The single door in the Living Room used to stick because there was carpeting in the room and the door was too big. The door started shaking, as if someone was trying to come in. We thought it was one of my brothers or sisters trying to scare us. Nelson and his friend decided to go through the double doors and into the hall to scare whoever was out there. When they got there...nobody was there but the door was still shaking. They came back and sat down next to me. All of a sudden, a blue light came shining through the top of the door, and the door swung open. We were petrified! We finally ran out the double doors and left. I called my mom to tell her I was spending the night at Nelson's house. She then told me that she watched the movie earlier with my brothers and sisters. When it got to the part where they went into the basement, the lights flicked on and off and boiler made a terrible "explosion-like" noise. They ended up not watching the end of the movie. I guess the ghost didn't like that movie!!!" - Bridget Jaramillo -

September 1992: "My sister Kerri was AWAY at college Freshman year when she had a dream about my grandmother coming to her and
showing her everyone sleeping. It was kind of like when the "ghosts" from A Christmas Carol showed Scrooge scenes with his family. She called my mom the next day, and my mom told my sister that she had the same dream. A few months later, my dad was out of town on business, and my sister couldn't sleep. She was visiting for the weekend. She went into my mom's room (about 2 AM), and while they were sitting on the bed, they saw something...it ended up that they both saw a white figure floating from the mirror and into the dresser. It was pretty scary!" - Bridget Jaramillo -

November 2000: "We were trying to get the house fixed up since everyone was coming for the Holidays. Nelson and I couldn't decide on what type of light fixture to put in the Den. There used to be a drop ceiling with track lighting. We had removed it all and the last step was deciding on a light. Nelson had picked up a "tiffany-style" light fixture. I had gotten a small chandelier. We had both lights sitting in the center hall. We were in the Living Room watching TV, when Nelson decided he was going to go put up the Tiffany light. He walked out through the double doors of the Living Room, and a second later he backed up through them. His face was completely white! I asked what happened. He just turned to me and said "we'll use your light". It turned out that when he walked into the hall, there was a figure (it looked like a man about 6 feet tall) leaning on the stairway railing and pointing to the box with the chandelier." - Bridget Jaramillo -

Thanks Bridget for sharing some of your experiences with us!