What’s Life Like in a Real Haunted House? Read This With Lights On

Residing in a turn-of-the-20th century plantation outside a quaint village seems like perfect slow-lane living, right? Just like stepping back to a simpler time, but with all the modern-day conveniences fully intact.

But what if the past wasn’t quite ready to let you enjoy the present? What if your perfect-in-every-way home was actually occupied by a restless spirit or two?

We set out to discover what everyday life is really like in a haunted house. And to answer the eternal question: When you discover your place is haunted, why on Earth would you choose to continue living there?

Just a trick of the light?

In 2006, Tony McMurtrie purchased the circa 1880 Pillars Estate with the hopes of restoring it as an event venue and private home.

During the restoration, family friend Cora Goyette moved in as caretaker because of McMurtrie’s frequent travel schedule. It wasn’t long after the renovation that the duo realized they weren’t alone.

McMurtrie “had gotten up late at night to get a glass of milk,” Goyette recalls. “When he passed by one of the bedrooms he saw a woman dressed in white, lying in the bed. It was late. He was tired. He assumed it was just a trick of the light.”

McMurtie was unavailable to comment on this story.

According to Goyette, when McMurtrie came back down the hall, the vision was still there. He then ran to his room, locked the door, and kept the dogs nearby for his safety. (Pro tip: That might be insufficient when it comes to ghostly guests.)

“Ghosts don’t care about locked doors,” Goyette says.

‘I’ve heard things now’

“There was no greater skeptic than myself,” Goyette explains. “I think that if you believe in ghosts, you’re going to see a ghost. When Tony first told me about it, I thought, ‘Oh come on, you must have had too much to drink last night.'”

But it wasn’t long before Goyette started experiencing things, too. One night during a dinner party, the ghost decided to make an appearance. While the 10 guests sat around the table talking, a butter knife suddenly lifted off a plate, flipped over, and landed back down, dangling off the plate.

“Everyone saw it. No one was touching the knife or anywhere near it at the time,” she recalls. “It couldn’t have been anything else.”

Goyette doesn’t believe the spirits in the home are purposefully harmful. It feels like a friendly entity, but that doesn’t make things easier.

“I’ve heard things now,” she says. “When I’m working in the office, footsteps come down the hall. Something walks by overhead.”

Swapping ghost stories

The home is rented out for events and occasionally used as a bed-and-breakfast, so the longtime residents initially kept mum on their spooky sightings. But it turns out that where ghosts are concerned, you might as well fess up—or they’ll introduce themselves anyway.

“The next person to see the ghost was the chef,” Goyette says. “He was standing at the bar, looked up into a mirror, and saw the reflection of a woman in a white dress holding a white parasol standing outside.”

But when he turned to see who it was, no one was there.

Voices keeping you up at night?

Seeing things is scary enough, but that might not be your only problem—you could end up hearing a freaky soundtrack, too.

Since the start of the ghostly activity at the Pillars, many people reported hearing something they couldn’t quite explain.

More than once, Goyette—and others—have heard the grand piano playing in the parlor, even when no one was in the room.

“It just made the same note over and over,” Goyette says.

“Bong.”

“Bong.”

And it isn’t just residents who get the chills.

“Once we had a handyman come in to do some work in the basement,” Goyette recalls. “While he was down there he heard a childlike voice saying, ‘We’re over here. We’re over here.’ But when he went to look, no one was in the basement with him.”

So why continue to stay when you’re, quite literally, haunted on a regular basis?

“There’s no question in my mind that there is a good spirit,” Goyette says. “It is absolutely gorgeous. And the location here is fabulous and absolutely heaven. Haunted normally implies scary, but I’m not scared to be here.”

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Watch: 4 Real-Life Haunted Houses You Can Buy—If You Dare

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