I scared of my new house

[HouseyMcHouseFace]

Please talk some sense into me. I’m normally a very rational, non-woo person.

I recently moved into my dream house. I’ve always dreamed of living in a period property and I now live in an absolutely gorgeous medieval farm house. It’s even got a secret passageway!

But dh works away Monday-Friday and I’ve so far spent the evenings sitting in my dc’s bedroom after they fall asleep. The first night I was on my own I lit a fire and snuggled up and watched a film which turned out to be quite scary. Then a branch banged into the window, I complete crapped myself and ran up to dc’s bedroom and didn’t come out until morning.

This week I’ve even felt on edge during the day when I’m in the house. There’s lots of creaks and odd noises and I just can’t relax.

I know there’s no such thing as ghosts. So why am I being such a tit? I can’t possibly tell dh - I spent years convincing him how happy I’d be living in an old house 🤦‍♀️.

Has anyone else managed to overcome their fear of living in the house they’d always alwanted to live in.

Oh and read
The very noisy night by Diana Hendry and Jane Chapman
🤣

I can't offer any reassurance - my mum's old house always had scary spots - one on the stairs, and in one bedroom. Odd things happened. It was never a nice house to be alone in. Her house now is even older but completely peaceful and not at all scary, nowhere near the same atmosphere. So I know it wasn't us being woo.

My house is Victorian. My helpful neighbour who has lived next door since 1985 told me that the previous owner but one was laid out in the living room for a week and asked if we ever felt anything strange. Luckily, we haven't 😁

I probably shouldn’t mention I recently got a cat who has spent the last week trying to escape the house by any means possible. He is not being reassuring at all.

Age of the home has little to do with it. I've seen some creepy shit go down in relatively new homes.

Haunted china faced dolls are the worst...

It's obvious, really - the cat is trying to chase George the Squirrel.

Let him. it's not as if you'll have to deal with ghostly squirrel guts across the kitchen floor

I don’t know why I’m finding it so creepy. I’ve always been obsessed with history and have never freaked myself out before. As a teenager some friends and I managed to hide behind a door and get locked into Dover Castle overnight. We had a lovely time and spookiness didn’t cross my mind once.

But for some reason, since that first night when I slightly freaked myself out it’s all just felt ‘wrong’. I’m definitely not typing this sat on the floor of dc’s bedroom. I’m definitely downstairs having a lovely time and enjoying the atmosphere of my beautiful house.

Well, long as you get your head round the fact that people died there.

We used to live in a barn conversion. It was months and months into us living there that DD who was about 8 at the time said to me "are you scared of the ghost mummy?" I asked her what she was talking about and she said the creaking and knocking noises at night. I felt awful that I hadn't even thought to talk to her about how the wooden frame and beams would contract in the evening after the heating had gone off, or the sun had gone down, and so the joints would creak. She was much happier after I'd explained - so explain to your children! We now live in a house build in 1750 and have never had any issues with things going bump in the night. In fact the only place we ever had a 'woo' moment was a Bryant house. One evening when we were all sat in the lounge, I heard thud thud noises from the room above (detached house). The dog jumped on the sofa next to me and growled at the ceiling. Really freaked me out.

I’m not bothered at all about people having died here. I think it’s actually that there are so many dark corners and cupboards and things that I can’t see. I’d feel daft going into a room and checking all the places that a person could hide. But there’s just so many in this house I think maybe that’s what I’m finding unsettling. Which is more logical I think.

As others have said OP, every house has sounds all of their own you just need to get used to the sounds of yours. Also, as someone else wisely said (and it was said to me by my mum) dead people don't harm you it's the living you need to worry about.

Stop watching scary programmes on your own in a house you are not used to.

Look at the house in the day, all the rooms etc., they are exactly the same in the dark.

It is a HOUSE made of bricks, mortar, stone, wood, etc., it is not alive. Make it your home, stamp your personality on it, live in it, fill it with you and your families noises.

Buy lots of LED fairy lights and lamps to illuminate those nooks and crannies. Some nice books, spring flowers, that kind of thing. They'll look pretty, especially if you've got all those wonderful architectural features, beams and nooks such places tend to have.

And during the day, empty out the cupboards, line them with pretty paper and organise stuff to look Pinterest-worthy.

no self respecting spirit will dare make a cupboard or niche look messy by wafting about in it if it's that pretty

Ooh, I hadn’t thought if prettifying the cupboards. You’re right, that would make them a lot less scary.

Buy lots of LED fairy lights and lamps to illuminate those nooks and crannies

This is a brilliant idea and what sorted it for my friend, she put up loads of fairy lights.

I have them too, I like tall plants, like six foot, in dark corners, and I wrap fairy lights round the trunks, and it means in the evening everything is warm, lit and cheery, no one is scared with fairy lights!

Yeah, lots of lights on until you get used to it. Give the cat some whipped cream to help him feel more at home.

Or maybe it's just haunted.

I grew up in a very old farm house. Lots of creaks and groans, not to mention the bats in the attic.
I’d love to say I was used to it but it scared the bjesus out of me and still does. I cannot sleep there without the radio on or I will hear ‘the noises’.

I categorically do not believe in ghosts, but I do believe in the ability of people to frighten themselves silly. Get lights everywhere. Keep the radio on. If you truly are spooked, speak out (even if you feel like a twat and know ghosts don’t exist). Say clearly that this is your house now, so anyone there needs to pipe down or move on.

I hope you enjoy your house and tune out its creaks. I’d also keep on top of pest control - rats or mice can make a right old racket.

Good luck.

I live in a new build with barely a cupboard to hide in and definitely no noises, but I sympathise, I also watched Sabrina alone thinking it would be Buffy like and it scared the life out of me too

Some rellies of mine live in a house just like that, around 1500 build wooden frame no foundations moves and shifts trees do bang on the windows in any wind, wind also howls through any one of the number of cracks and its got an open hearth chimmey stack that the odd bird comes down and flies out in the room covered with soot, bugger to heat but does look nice all those logs that glow there but hey! its had a lot of people live there over a very long time inc some nuns and they think one occupant was a witch who was done in for witchcraft.

Moi!, modern manor that does go bang and bump in the night with all those steel lintels that heat and cool expand and contract one sounds like a gun going off sometimes but it dosnt bother me at all.

Sleep tight now wont'cha:)

I’ve always lived in old houses, they can be creaky and creepy so put the lights on, put the tv on put pictures on the walls - make it friendly and remind yourself that old houses make odd noises - usually to do with the pipes - but it’s just bricks and mortar

I had to laugh at this - years ago, after two truly horrid years living in a Southampton street where, for two years, I didn't get a single night's unbroken sleep, my then partner and I parted company and I went to live somewhere really rural by comparison. The first night I was there it was really quiet and I could hear something whumping against the glass of my bedroom. When I finally plucked up the courage to go and see what it was, it turned out to be - a rather large and plump moth...it was THAT quiet.

From a woo point of view, just to make yourself feel better and, um, evict any spirits that might be knocking about, you could do what I have done most of the places I've lived - say a little prayer or blessing (the Lord's Prayer is fine, or there are nice pagan and Celtic blessings out there), walk round the walls with some nice incense, repeat and throw a little water into the corners of each room; repeat with a bit of rock or sea salt; finish off with a candle; take the candle into what you regard as the heart of your new house, and leave it there to burn down completely and safely. Houses do pick up energy, in my experience, just as much as people....

And also, as someone else suggested, invest in some good lights, LEDs or similar. Don't have mirrors or masks in daft places like I did in one place where I lived...

So many great suggestions here OP. In essence though and to repeat -

• fix the lighting, and consider automatic lighting in certain areas - include your outdoor areas for lighting
• cut branches back
• get a couple of big dogs
• stop watching scary movies

You'll soon settle in.

Is it in Savernake Forest?

Ah. You will get used to them.
And they will get used to you .