June 10, 2006

WHAT IS THIS.. AMITYVILLE?

June 6, 2006 (6/6/06) felt kind of like a Friday the 13th. I didn't really think the date had any significance, but I was aware nonetheless. But of course, just like most Friday the 13th's, nothing unusual happened. Oh, except that the walls in my hallway were bleeding...

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge.)

Yes, those photos are 100% authentic and undoctored. The drips extended along the complete circumference of the hallway, covering all four walls.

(Un?)Fortunately, I know the "logical explanation." You see, a couple months ago I used one of those steamers to remove two layers of wallpaper in the hall. I noticed that when the bottom layer (which had been there since 1954) got wet, the maroon pigment that colored it stained like ink. The night the walls "bled" we slept with the windows open and the attic fan running all night. By dawn there was a thick fog outside and the blinds were literally dripping with water that had collected due to the extremely moist air that had been sucked in throughout the night. The moisture passed through the hallway and caused the remaining wallpaper pigment to collect and surface through the paint. I'd seen something similar (though on a smaller scale) when it reacted to the first coating of fresh paint.

Despite the fact that I knew the cause, the sight was quite eerie. My poor wife didn't know about the ink-prone pigment from the bygone wallpaper when she made the discovery, so it was quite a shock to her. It makes me wonder if this sort of circumstance is behind other "ghostly" reports of bleeding walls. Figuring it all out gave me a good Scooby-Doo feeling, or maybe it was a Bloodhound Gang vibe.

One other side note.. I also heard human screams throughout that night. Oh, wait. That was my baby son.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a similar problem recently - and the gunk just loves to leech through layers and layers of emulsion. The fix was to put a coat of oil based gloss over the mess and then emulsion that. It also works for biro and other seeping menaces on walls. :)

Mine was in no way as spectacular though. Great site by the way - just posted it at the Weird Nations forum, spotted it via Boing Boing :)

AWG said...

That last line gave me a serious belly laugh!

dean r said...

human screams, thats good kirk. hehe. keep u pthe good work you dad you. later. dtr

Kirk D. said...

Weird Nations- Thanks for the tip and the link!

AWG and DR- I'm always glad to provide a laff.