One by One by D.W. Gillespie

Hello everyone.

I've mentioned our old houses in the past. We currently are working on an American Four Square that is over one hundred years old. We have restored a 1907 Victorian that had been divided into apartments, we returned it to single family. One of the things we did during the Victorian renovation, which took almost ten years in total, was to remove the walls on the third floor. We put heating and air conditioning ducts behind knee walls and installed insulation. While removing the walls, we found so many things; photos, paintings, corset, letters, button-up shoes and more. One thing we found was the corner of an envelope with a company as a return address. We also found writing on the low roofing boards that held the metal roof. There were spots where children had written their names in colorful chalk. We were able to track down the family that had lived there right after the house was built through the company name on that envelope scrap. It was amazing to learn that the 70+ year old man we were talking to was only seven years old when he lived in our house and those names in chalk were his sisters. We were able to talk to them too. It was so fun and made the hard work worth it and the house feel so much more personal.

I recently read One by One written by D.W. Gillespie. This is the story of the Easton family of four, mom, dad, older boy, and a young girl. Most of the story is told from the young girl, Alice Easton's, prospective. This family finds a great old house that needs lots of work. Not only is there a rambling, creepy old house but a large lot complete with dark woods featuring an old locked shed. In addition, next to the house is a pool that is only half filled with sewage like, black, putrid water. My nightmare come true!  As the family moves in and starts to work on their new home, the dad becomes rage filled. Immediately my mind went to The Amityville Horror, and I prepared myself for a B movie-ish retelling. Boy was I wrong. Little Alice tears off a piece of wall paper and behind it finds a drawing of a family that looks remarkably like the Eastons. While the kids are blamed for the artwork, Alice knows the truth, it was underneath the wall paper that had been hung years ago.  Things start to spiral out of control when family members go missing, as an X appears over the representation of them in the drawing.

This story is spooky, hitting many of the horror story highs including that smelly dark pool, the locked shed, odd woods, huge house, angry adults, a possibly evil diary, and a snow storm that isolates this family from the outside world including help from the police. The story moves quickly, leading the reader from the innocent beginning to terrifying end. A very fun read, perfect for this time of year.

Back to some housewife stuff, we finally have someone hired to fix the damage from hurricane Dorian. I sincerely hope he doesn't find anything drawn under the siding.