Taking Care of House Ghosts

Last weekend we went to the Winchester Mystery House. It's this HUGE old house built by Mrs. Sarah Winchester--widow of one of the Winchester Rifle heirs and makers. The short story is that after the death of her 6-week-old daughter and (years later) her husband, she went to see a psychic who told her that the only way to appease the spirits of the people killed by her husband's weapons she needed to build a house that was never finished. So, she moved into an 8-room farm-house in San Jose, California and just kept adding rooms, remodeling, closing up, re-building, etc, etc until she ended up with an ENORMOUS house with the most bizarre layout. Some people say they're mostly mistakes because she wasn't an architect. I say that's crap. It doesn't take an architect to know you shouldn't build your staircase into the ceiling or have a door that opens into a wall. I'm with the other people who thought she was just a really superstitious old lady who was trying to confuse the spirits or was just doing "what the spirits said."

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the grounds are beautiful. The wisteria grows like crazy! There are plants from over 100 countries all over the world represented in the garden. The woman was loaded. (With money that is. Not lead.)

Quick interruption for a picture of me and Madie-Fi.

This shot really doesn't show how big the house is. It has 160 rooms, including 6 kitchens, an indoor greenhouse, a couple of dining rooms, a ball room, who knows how many bedrooms, a laundry room, and lots of glass-doored bathrooms. I didn't really get that. The grounds also had multiple buildings. The whole estate was self-sustaining.

On a totally separate note, Madie and I are loving our walks together. Here's Madie with her summer reading. We're looking for a good spot to settle down.

And this video was just cracking me up! I didn't know it would get her laughing so hard!