to think something supernatural is going on and want to move house? (Any rational explanations much appreciated!)

[GoldLetter]

6 months ago DH and I bought a detached 4-bed Victorian Vicarage in isolated spot on edge of village, no other houses in sight, woods behind. This had always been our dream. House seemed beautiful and peaceful until we moved in.
Soon after we moved in I started feeling really uneasy when alone during day,as if being watched, but I put it down to house being so big and isolated until bizarre things started happening. In upstairs bathroom there's a trapdoor leading to attics, I've never been up there but one morning I noticed trapdoor was slightly ajar. When DH came home from work I asked him why he'd been up in attic, he said he hadn't been up since putting some boxes up there when we'd moved in months earlier. He was freaked out by the trapdoor being ajar in case we'd had a break-in but he checked attics, nothing amiss. No explanation, and we would have noticed if he'd left it ajar the first time as I used to take bath in there everyday.

A week later, we heard a bang, like explosion, from upstairs and found one of glass shower doors in same bathroom had shattered! Luckily it's safety glass but was all over floor. Its quite new and company who fitted it had no explanation, said it had never happened before. They replaced it but I'm now too scared to go in that bathroom in case it happens again. No window was open and there'd been no sudden change in temperature. Is there anything that causes this to happen?

Last month DH went away for a week and I was nervous about being in house alone at night, but I'm skeptical about supernatural and an Athiest, so I convinced myself I was being silly. The first night he was away, there was a power-cut at 11pm, which tripped all the burglar alarms! The second night I was on phone to friend and heard lots of banging and crashing in attics, like piles of books falling, it was so loud she heard it down phone and asked what the noise was! Was a nervous wreck until DH came back.

My female friends also find the house very creepy, they say they can't sleep and that its always really cold with strange atmosphere.

Other strange things include a long hallway leading to an (unused) porch with outside door that's always locked, there's something so creepy about it I can't bear to walk past hall at night and twice DH thought he heard knocking on the door in eve, shouted to the person to go round to other door, but no-one came and no-one was out there when he checked. We put security lights all around house and garden, but they constantly flicker on and off, DH says they're just oversensitive and get triggered by bats or the wind. He's quite chilled about it all and says it just feels spooky because its an old house, he likes it here and can't understand why Im so scared. He's going away for another work trip soon, I said i'd stay at my friends' and he thinks I'm being totally unreasonable and got angry. He thinks I'm joking when I say I want to move again.

AIBU? Im not usually an anxious person but I'm constantly on edge!

Re the shower screen I've had this happen before and we think there must have been a fault in the glass because it happened when the heating came on.. Also, and this DID scare the shit out of me. My kids were in the bath and merrily washing the tiles above the bath and suddenly they started to bow and shoot off the wall - that was an easy explain in retrospect, the twunts who lived here before didn't use spacers and in the heat of being washed they expanded and lost contact with the elderly adhesive. Didn't stop me evacuating the kids from the bathroom and physically blocking access to the room till the noise of them shooting off had stopped though!

However I know what you mean OP. We have a bit of a spooky house and I'm irrationally unhappy here on my own in the daytime. But I think it's about the infrasound that anything else. The walls are made of some weird stone which has iron flecks in and there's not a mobile signal to be had despite boosters so I reckon it's probably making low frequency noises and giving me the willies.

I would suggest re the loft hatch that you remove it. If it's a critter it won't like it - squirrels are prime culprits IME and you rarely see evidence of them but they can make a heck of a lot of noise. Also clean the chimneys and see if you have nests in them - I'm betting you do. Because birds can again make a lot of noise and also strangely seem to like moving stuff around.

I grew up in a 700 year old house in the middle of nowhere which had many, many quirks and weirdnesses and which I adored. My bedroom even featured the 'coffin window' through which the departed were posted because coffins wouldn't fit down the narrow stairs... I have some old-house-anti-freak-out tips for you:

Get a pet of some description - doesn't matter what as long as you can blame random noises on it.

Put lamps on timers in rooms that spook you, set to go on before dusk, so that rooms are never dark. Although remember you've done this or you'll be freaking out about lamps coming on randomly

Draw all curtains/blinds etc before it gets dark because there is nothing more unsettling than approaching a totally black window in the pitch of night to close a curtain when you can't see out.

Do some over-zealous draught sealing.

Keep torches around the place in case of sudden power outages.

Ignore pretty much every creak, groan, bang, stomp etc - it's just your house breathing in a slightly more asthmatic way than a sprightly new build.

If it makes you feel better we had the following alarming but totally explainable incidents over the years:

Hammering on the kitchen window which turned out to be a squirrel requesting a top up of nuts on the bird feeder.

Awful heavy breathing and hacking cough at the back door which turned out to be a poorly hedgehog in search of cat food.

The sound of distant small children running up and down the attic screaming which turned out to be mice in the throes of death dragging the mouse traps around with them

Weird wispy shapes floating around which turned out to be smoke from a dodgy chimney.

Our house always felt entirely benevolent though, and I think yours will to once you've learnt to recognise and accept its quirks.

I am sceptical, also an atheist. However, we've lived in some very 'atmospheric' places and all sorts of odd things have happened. DH is much more of a believer, he claims to have seen ghosts.

And despite being pragmatic and non-fanciful, I was absolutely convinced I saw a tiny fairy fly in front of my eyes one evening. Not an insect, and definitely not probably a feathery type seed poddy thing, but it moved across one way, and the next and then hovered in front of me. DH was next to me on the sofa, he was truly convinced I'd gone in to some kind of pregnancy induced madness.

Daylight hours I'm all bravado and cynical, but put me in the dark, or on my own, with odd noises and I'm a gibbering wreck. I do think some houses have a bad atmosphere, for whatever reason. Probably rising damp

I'm puzzled by this thread

Has the term 'sceptical atheist' suddenly changed, to mean 'I totally believe in woo'?

So many people are claiming to be sceptical atheists and then posting stuff about 'ghostly goings on'...

I think a lot of people are sceptical and decidedly non-woo till faced with unexplained occurrences and then it's a battle between their logical and sceptical side and their 'I'm alone in a creepy house in the country' side.

I used to have a trapdoor to my loft that suddenly fell open, in the dark watches of the night, with a huge bang - causing panic and terror.

I was in a very unatmospheric 1930s terrace at the time.

It was due to the fact that the loft hatch hadn't been closed properly when exP and I had been up there putting things away. The chances are, given that you moved in quite recently, you've been up and down a fair bit and you just didn't close it properly. The crashing in the attic? You probably didn't put everything in neat piles, and one of them fell over, maybe due to a draught.

If glass of any kind is put under too much pressure or under any tortion, it is likely to crack suddenly. I have had this happen when screwing in glass shelves rather overzealously. I think this is a more likely explanation that that something supernatural rose from the grave, headed to your bathroom to admire the Armitage Shanks and then started smashing the place up for no apparent reason.

I don't mean this in a bitchy way, but it sounds like you and your DH are setting each other off with your wooish tendencies . Once you've decorated the house and got used to it and made it all cosy, it will feel really different. A new place, with less light and ambient sound, will feel different for a bit.

Honestly, if there were woo, and I were a ghost, I would think of WAAAAY more fun things to do that pop open attic doors and smash shower screens. I mean - imagine the possibilities of being an invisible influence on the world!! At very least, you would want to tease people a little. You'd have to be a pretty uncreative ghost to be satisfied with such mundane interventions.

I agree with Fenella but also have you done much yet by way or redecoration/modernisation? If it is newly decorated in your taste you will feel much more comfortable and as if it's 'your' home. Give it a chance and in time hopefully you will feel much more settled there.

I think a lot of people are sceptical and decidedly non-woo till faced with unexplained occurrences and then it's a battle between their logical and sceptical side and their 'I'm alone in a creepy house in the country' side.

Exactly!

One of the rooms we disliked in one house, because it was always cold and 'eurgh' turned out to, be riddled with damp. No wonder it felt cold and unpleasant. Although it never actually smelled damp...

The damp doesn't explain the breathing noises I heard in my room (same house), like there was someone in bed next to me. Not like someone snoring in another room, it was exactly like there was someone in the room with me, asleep.

Believe me, I really wanted to find a good explanation as I had to sleep in the ruddy room. Although the experience wasn't actually scary. Just odd.

I think it is a bird or a small animal. When I was at my granny's house I heard a stamping noise. I freaked out! But my gran explained that it was just a hedgehog. They are very noisy.
Because your house next to a forest, there must be a lot of wild animals in your garden. Put CCTV outside. Some of animals are nocturnal.

I know you're an atheist, but here's my experience. When we moved into a previous house DH and I both felt a strange presence. We only mentioned it once as we both felt stupid! It seemed to be focused in a spare bedroom which also occasionally smelt really bad (stay with me here!) I'd read that these supernatural things can manifest as a small somewhere... I am a Christian so I went in and prayed really hard 'In the name of Jesus leave our house" It worked. I haven't ever told this story before because it sounds so weird but seriously and weirdly I was thinking about it this morning. You could phone your local vicar, he/she won't think you're crazy and what harm would it do???

a spare bedroom which also occasionally smelt really bad.

If it was a fishy smell, then that would probably be old bakelite electrical fittings that are decomposing under heat.

My ILs had a terrible problem with this because the old lady next door still had some 1930s light fittings and the smell wafted through one of their upstairs bedroom fireplaces.

It's squirrels. I bet my knickers on it. We have them and they bang about in the loft, move the loft trap doors, set off the security lights and bang down the drainpipes making you think there is someone outside. I bet one of the idiot things broke your shower glass too.

Fill you lift with rat poison and I bet you have a week of noise then a much quieter time.

I am totally non-woo and I think the explanations are all obviously earthly ones as described many times here.

We stayed in a holiday house once that was a big old rural place. Felt very cold even though it was the beginning of May, but it was because there was inefficient oil-fired heating and we couldn't get a good fire going in the log burner. It had lain empty for a week and was warm by the time we left. I bet the next guests didn't feel cold!

All the bedrooms were off a long corridor, and the first night I convinced myself I could hear someone walking down it. By the last night I knew it was just the floorboards relaxing! I didn't know e history of the place, only that the owner was trying to sell it, and in the meantime renting it out as a holiday home so my mind immediately started thinking "ooh why is she selling up? Doesn't she like it? Why not???"

I come from the 'burbs and am not used to country houses so they give me the heebie jeebjes a bit. I'm used to being able to knock next door for help! Don't like it when there is no next door!

In contrast we stayed in a smaller very rural log cabin on its own on a wood with a herd of deer that used to walk past) that was well-heated. There were lots of old photos showing the original owners holidaying in it in the 1920s. So I imagined how loved the house was by them, and how I loved it too, and so felt immediately like I was part of the love for the house, if you see what I mean, and relaxed. Even though the people in the photos were probably dead and if I believed in woo, could have "haunted" the place. Didn't feel anything wierd at all.

Any weirdness is just people's imagination. It's all to do with how relaxed you feel somewhere. So you need to make your house somewhere you feel relaxed. Put a catch on the loft hatch so draughts can't move it (this happened in our suburban semi- never happened since the catch was on, obv).

Put lights on, get an emergency generator, a pet, have a proper look in the attic for animal evidence.

Once your mind is at rest, you will feel less apprehensive.

My house was previously owned by the church, like yours. I have found crucifixes in a cupboard that the builders found. I have never felt uneasy here - quite the opposite. On the other hand I won't move those crucifixes. I KNOW it's ridiculous, but I've seen too many stupid horror films about disturbing things, so I've left them there. I know I'm being stupid. But woo people on threads like these don't help!

I'd always been non woo - but experiences of moving into an old house (built 1835) did shake me up tbh.

i have had many experiences here that can all be explained by 'the mind playing tricks on you' (what can't?) but why had I never had these experiences before my late 30s? Is an old house really that intoxicating to the brain? Must be.

i described one upthread, but one scary one I had was decorating ds2's room - I was painting and saw out of the corner of eye a child walk into the room - thinking it was ds2 (aged 4) I said, oh no darling, go back into the playroom, you'll get paint on you. A call up from the playroom "I am in the playroom mummy' - nobody else in the house except baby dd, who was asleep in her cot.

It does freak you out.

1. you probably have squirrels which are causing the noise
2. dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/09/18/exploding-shower-doors-a-problem-in-texas-nationwide/ see this link for stories about exploding shower doors -
3. you probably just didn't notice the attic was slightly open before
4. you are imagining things because you have convinced yourself something unearthly is happening.

Rationally, logically - if there was a ghost in your house that could open doors, explode shower doors and push things over - do you really think it would do all that out of your sight?

You can psych yourself up to believing anything. Wind yourself up to believing rational explanations rather than the irrational!

We once had rats in our roof and I've never heard anything so noisy. It honestly sounded like they were moving furniture up there and there was nothing up there to move. There wasn't even a loft, just the girders and such.

Got rid of the rats and the noise went. It's very likely something that simple. Get your local pest control peoples in.

I'm sure the house is fine. Best of luck!

The scariest thing about this thread for me is the number of faulty shower screens there are! I'm off to check ours...

if there was a ghost in your house that could open doors, explode shower doors and push things over - do you really think it would do all that out of your sight?

Could be the spirit is trying to lead them somewhere though ... the shower screen smashing locates the bathroom, the hatch is again in the bathroom.

Maybe the ghost thinks they all need a good wash?

I agree - the 'practically new' shower screen shattering is the scariest thing about this, and that's nothing to do with the supernatural!

We had a bird in our loft, noisy bastard. And it shat over loads of stuff.

And the pigeons and magpies that walk along the top ridge of our roof pecking are also extremely loud. Feck off nature, I'm trying to sleep.

As I write this DH has just got up as he was convinced one of the children was malingering in the hall, peering round the door. Naturally there was no-one there.

I told you he was much more in to all this than me. He sees and hears stuff all the time, unless I hear a noise like someone trying to break in, in which case I'm 'just hearing things'.

My friend's shower screen did that spontaneous smashing thing, unfortunately she was in the shower at the time and ended up with lots of nasty cuts that needed stitches.

Can only comment on shower screen as this happened to us. Fairly new shower screen just shattered into loads of tiny pieces. Plumber said he sees it from time to time. No reason, no explanation.

at bundybear's 'asthmatic' house.

My house is a 500 yr old farmhouse, I love it here, creaks and all! The previous owners told us that when they moved in that the elderly lady who sold it to them had handed them the keys and said "I hope you like ghosts" before hopping in her car and driving off at high speed lol!!!

Our first night here I woke at about 1 am and could hear this really eery music playing somewhere in the house, not quite loud enough to make out the tune but just loud enough to be certain it was a strange high pitched music . I literally felt sick with terror and spent a sleepless night thinking "what have we done?!" I was convinced we had bought a haunted house! The next morning I discovered that the eery music was in fact coming from Club Penguin on the laptop (special Halloween themed music background). One of the children had been playing it the evening before, it had gone into sleep mode but the minute the keyboard was touched it came back to life. Seeing one of my cats walk across the keyboard and set it off was one of the best "thank god for that" moments of my life!!!

I am much less freaked out by the creaks and bumps than my DP is, I'm here all day by myself and never get the creeps. I know for a fact we have bats, mice and squirrels sharing our roof with us so any scary noises are easily blamed on them. Plus the draughts through the stone roof tiles are unbelievable - blew my bedside lamp over one particularly stormy night (my room is in the loft).

I think your house is haunted. I've always been sceptical about ghosts and spirits but that was before we moved into our house.
We've lived here for 10 years and have always felt at home as far as the house goes. But oddly our garden path is what freaks us out. Our kitchen over looks the path and time and time again I am positive that I've seen someone walking up the path. But always just out of the corner of my eye. My mil has had this too.
Sometimes, when we're walking up the path, it feels like someone is following us. It spooked us for ages.
Our house was built at the end of the 2nd world war, it replaced the house that had previously been there that was hit by a doodle bug and fell to the ground. No one was home at the time, except the dog who was killed. It was outside in a kennel.
I'm convinced the dog is the 'presence'. Bizarrely since getting a dog, we don't notice anything now!

Oh LittleHorseShoes, that's so funny!