Could (would) you live in a house that was a

[Ilsa]

funeral home 20+ years ago? No one has lived in it recently and it needs renovating to modernize it and probably make it operational as a home again. It's in an old town in south Texas.

I consider myself to be somewhat "sensitive", although not frightened, about spirits and stuff. I might be able to do it myself, but I don't think I could let my kids live there.

[Wickerman]

1. The embalming rooms in the basement might be a tad tough to take

but other than that, yeah, I could deal.

[NJCher]

2. No.

I would never live in such a place.


Cher

[Ilsa]

4. Because it's too old and no one has lived there or because

it might be chalk-full of unsettled spirits? I'm concerned about the unsettled spirits, especially after seeing that TLC channel story about that family in the northeast whose house was haunted.

My father-in-law wouldn't want to be there because of the fact that unused stuff like houses might be rotting away underneath.

[lady lib]

8. That TLC show was the one of the scariest things I've ever seen.

And those parents - grrrr. How could they insist their boys stay in that house and sleep in the basement?!!

[Ilsa]

13. That freaked me out as well.

I couldn't watch the whole show and I had to go online to find out the rest of the story.

I've lived in two houses in which someone had died, but we never had any problems. But that situation with random people/spirits, some of which were evil people and then evil spirits, is an entirely different matter.

[Old_Fart]

25. I second your opinion

:scared:

[lady lib]

28. Welcome to DU, Old_Fart.

Love that name!

:hi:

[Old_Fart]

32. Thanks

:hi:

[NJCher]

9. yes

It would be for the same reason I don't collect antiques. Spirits become attached to them, too. Most people don't know much about the transfer over from earth life to another dimension. They're confused and my thinking is that some of them might still be hanging around the funeral home.

I pick up on these types of situations very easily. I wouldn't want to live in a place where something like that would be sapping up my energy.

I shudder just thinking about it.

I suppose if you're insensitive it might be OK.

Ugh, I still shudder.


Cher

[Ilsa]

11. I usually pick on those things, also, but

I have to "be alone" with it for awhile to give that part of my brain a chance to pick up on it. I would consider that I might have to be "hit over the head" with it by your standards, but others would never notice. My younger brother is also very sensitive about this stuff as well.

I have two antiques, and they must be "unattached", because I've had good feelings associated with both of them. One is a tall wardrobe, and the other is a very heavy solid oak sideboard.

An elderly woman died in one house we lived in. We never had any problems there or in another house where the owner died.

[Midlodemocrat]

10. Which TLC show was that? I missed it.

[Ilsa]

15. The name of the place was

the Parkes or Parkinson, and I can't remember if it was in PA or MA or CT. It was really frightening. I couldn't watch the whole show because it scared so badly because it was a dramatization of something that really happened.

[lady lib]

21. It's called "A Haunting in Connecticut."

I had to do some looking, but I finally found a link with the story:
http://www.tangledforest.com/tangledf/parkersnedx.html

[Midlodemocrat]

23. Thanks. Wow that is something.

I guess I should be glad I don't live in CT anymore!

[MrModerate]

Many years ago I co-founded a repertory theatre . . .

That was housed in a former funeral home. What with all the sturm und drang of a building full of actors, we never noticed any difficulties with spirits (except at cast parties, arr arr).

[On the Road]

3. Personally, I Don't Think I'd Mind

but the question is: would you? Or would anyone else who lives there?

[Strawman]

5. I heard the people who used to live there were real stiffs n/t

[Zuni]

6. fuck NO

Is that emphatic enough?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

7. SCREAMING!!!!!!!!

STILL SCREAMING AT THE IDEA OF NIGHTTIME IN A FORMER FUNERAL HOME ....................

[LeftyMom]

12. I probably wouldn't care but

LeftyDad believes in ghosts and stuff so he'd shit a brick and break out the sage and aesofetida and who knows what else to cleanse the place. Me, I'd be more worried about twenty years of dust and disrepair. Nobody worries about sleeping overnight at the hospital, and a lot more people have actually died there, instead of just being cleaned and packaged for shipping to the afterlife at the funeral home.

[GirlinContempt]

14. Well, if you believe in spirits

why would they hang out at a funeral home? Why not the place they actually died?

EDIT
I'd live there. Why not?

[Ilsa]

20. I never thought about that either intil I saw that TLC story,

a dramatization of a documented haunting somewhere in the northeast.

The mother was a very religious Catholic and hung crucifixes everywhere, but when the ghost got really active, they started disappearing. The oldest son was approached numerous times by a very evil spirit, and the teenage niece was "hit on" severla times by it, and even the mother was. The father was followed to work and his vehicle started itself, shifted into drive and tried to hit him.

[GirlinContempt]

22. .... I see

......

[Bouncy Ball]

16. Yes, I would.

I put not one bit of stock in ghosts or other things like that. It was just a funeral home, big deal. You could probably get a great deal on it because other people are too superstitous to buy it.

I'd do it, yeah, absolutely.

On edit, I've lived in two houses where people have died. No problemos. In one of them the woman died in the bathtub (drowned after having taken too many sedatives and drank a lot of liquor--ruled a suicide, and her husband was horribly abusive to her, too).

I took showers in that tub all the time, no problems. It's not like they left her body there or something.

[TreasonousBastard]

17. So, what happened between...

20 years ago and "recently"?

Does this mean people actually lived in there for a while? People who don't sleep in earth from their homeland during the day?

If it's like most funeral homes, it had one hell of a parking lot to deal with if you want plants in the back yard. It also has a lot of entrances and VERY large rooms for entertaining and orgying.

Other than the practical dealings with its layout, I don't see any problem. Every ghost I've ever seen, I just told to fuck off and they went. Ghosts are wimps.

Besides, ghosts don't deal with funeral homes anyway-- they're long gone by the time the embalmer gets his hands on the cold corpse. They deal with the places where they died.

Now, John Wayne Gacy or Jeffrey Dalmer... Would you want to live in THEIR houses?

[GirlinContempt]

18. "Ghosts are wimps"

:rofl:

[GirlinContempt]

19. Some links that might be of interest if

you're worried about being haunted.

http://www.planet-science.com/text_only/outthere/planet_goth/trophy.html

http://www.ghgghosthunters.com/Do%20you%20have%20a%20haunting.htm

http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/ghost/ghost-in-machine.pdf

Get the place tested for sound waves

[Old_Fart]

24. Never

:scared:

[Wapsie B]

26. One of my sisters lives in a funeral home.

We've had dinners there, Xmas celebrations, almost like Six Feet Under, except in a small town. I never saw a ghost but never thought about such stuff while there.

[CanuckAmok]

27. Yes, and here's why.

The odds of someone dying in a funeral home are considerably lower than someone dying in a regular home.

Most of the dead who were in the funeral home (presumably) died somewhere else. So their "spirits", if haunting somwhere, are presumably haunting wherever they died.

But I'm an Atheist, so I don't care, ultimately. I'd be more concerned with potentual resale value.

[Old_Fart]

29. Great advice

When you sell a home you have to disclose everything about it. If they don't find out by the seller the deed will let them know.

[davsand]

30. Material Girl went to pre-school in an old funeral home.

It never bothered me at all until the day we went for a program and they had it in the basement. Walking down a wide ramp to get down there really DID bother me. I felt like i was descending into the earth in a really icky kind of way.

Now, as for living in an old funeral home, I dunno--I doubt it'd bother me all that badly as long as it was structurally sound. It'd be a real bitch to buy it and have it be chock full of termite damage, plus, I'd hate like hell to have to recreate some of the elaborate plaster work that went into those old places.

I honestly feel that spirits are not of this realm and really have no impact on us except emotionally. I doubt that a funeral home would draw them in a lot- because usually it is places that hold great emotion for the spirit that they stay in. Funeral homes bum every one else out, but the dead really don't have a big attraction to it, I'd think.

My advice is get a complete professional home inspection on the property. If it passes muster with a pro, then happy moving!


Laura

[xmas74]

31. I could and probably get a kick out of it.

Think about the advantages. None of your relatives would actually want to stay w/ you. And everyone would RSVP for months ahead of time for your Halloween parties!

[carpetbagger]

33. Could you sell a house that was a funeral home?

This is South Texas. I'm not sure if that folk Mexican thing about death in a house extneds to funeral homes, but I can certainly say the region is chock-full of towns with too many houses for too few people.

[Ilsa]

34. Certain types of real estate are getting hard to come by

even in rural Texas. Alot of rural land, whether used for farming or ranching, is getting really expensive. I think some people are concerned about having to live the way we did 100 years ago and be more self-sufficient.