Why is Hill House so frightening?

While reading the Haunting of House Hill, I kept finding myself questioning why the house was so incredibly sinister.  Eleanor would personify the house and describe it as having a presence of its own, making her feel haunted and uncomfortable.  However, whenever the house was mentioned to be vile, evil, and dark I could not understand what made the characters so afraid, making them want to turn away from the house.  It wasn’t until a passage on page 42 that made me understand why the house was frightening.  This passage describes the parlor in which the characters are occupying at the moment.  The household objects in the room are described in ways that they normally would not be labeled.  For example it contrasts the unpleasantly high ceiling with a narrow fireplace, a fireplace that looks chilled even though a fire is burning, chairs that are slippery, lights that cast shadows, and the quiet weight of the house.  These descriptions of high and narrow, fire and chill, comfort and slippery, light and shadow, and heavy and quiet are polar opposites, which creates an atmosphere that defies reality. This makes it uncomfortable to imagine a place where normal rules do not exist.  The characters and the reader find it painful to imagine a home that is supposed to be filled with warmth and safety to be so cold and unfriendly.