I was shoveling my driveway this evening and I realized a strange coincidence. Then it occurred to me it might not be a coincidence after all. So now I’m worried my house might be cursed. So here are the facts….
In 2006 I looked at a house in Hingham which was an absolute dump, uninhabitable, a tear down, a complete junkyard. In fact, the words of some of the others at the open house were “this place is (expletive) disgusting”. There were jars filled with formaldehyde that were so old they’d fogged over and you couldn’t tell what was in them. Grease was dripping down the bedrooms walls where the headboards once were (Soul Glow anyone?). There was an old bank safe (a very large one) in the garage the previous owners had turned into a sauna. Yes, a sauna, steam bath, Turkish bath, whatever you want to call it. Complete with extension cord running from the house, across the back yard and into the garage. My personal favorite was the garden hose coming up through the 2nd floor window, into the bathroom, hanging over the shower curtain rod as the shower head.
So what does one do with such a house? Run? No! I thought it was perfect and by 2007 it was the place I called home. It was not before a major rehab with a lot of blood sweat and tears. The house was completely updated from roof, electric, plumbing and the back of the house had to be torn down and rebuilt. It was 6 months of construction, a team of about 15 men from the general contractor, the fence guy, the roofing company, the company who did the driveway, etc. By no means was it a small undertaking. So here’s where the story gets weird…..
As I’m shoveling my driveway, I finally reached the bottom of the snow and the shovel hit the cobblestones. It made me think of the man who put the cobblestones in and recently passed away. This is when the facts hit me like a ton of bricks.
The Driveway Guy – he’d owned his own company for years and done a lot of stone work in the area. He passed away of cancer in 2012. Even more eerie, as I’m writing this, I googled to check on the date of his death and found it was almost a year ago to today. I have goose pumps.
The Fence Guy – a gentleman from Kingston, who'd put his life back together and had been sober for over a year. In 2009 he went out for a bachelor party and had offered to be the designated driver. After dropping off his friends safely, he was driving home at the wee hours of the night, fell asleep at the wheel, went straight when the road turned and was killed.
I can’t remember his last name as I wanted to google and find the date of his obituary. I looked in my phone to see if his last name might be there, however I have his name saved as “Kevin Fence”. I looked at his cell number it started with (617) 571 which is the same first 6 digits of my cell number. I no longer have goose bumps, now I’m feeling uneasy.
The General Contractor - Jason was a young contractor who practically had a monopoly on my street. He’d renovated 5 houses on the street within a year and a half. His business was thriving and he made the mistake of dabbling in prescription pills. He quickly went into a downward spiral and passed away 2008.
I went to find his obituary and his passing is almost exactly 5 years and 1 month from today. Goose bumps are gone, uneasy feeling is gone, I’m now - scared.
Is my house cursed??
Notice the Soul Glo? Bottom right hand corner of the below picture.
The garden hose is coming up from behind the shower curtain.....
The stairs.
The front of the house before construction and after (with cobblestones shown).
