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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think my newbuild is haunted?

212 replies

forsythekt · 18/06/2019 01:11

Outing so have namechanged.

I live on a smallish council estate which 5 years ago was extended with a development of 15 new council houses. I moved 2 months ago as I houseswapped with an old couple and their adult son who needed a first floor flat. I was delighted to swap as it was 3 bedrooms so both my DC (DD 3 and DS 15 months) had their own bedroom and it was on the nicer end of council estates. The reason the past owners are relevant is because I want to clarify that nobody has died in the house.

About 1 month after moving in, we began experiencing a few weird things that have been escalating. It started with little things, like hearing noises downstairs when everyone was in bed and DD's toys randomly going off in the night. After changing DS one night (after opening a new bumper box of nappies) the box fell off the changing table and nappies were all over the floor. It was the early hours and I couln't be bothered pick them up so put DS back in his cot deciding to clear it up in the morning. The next morning I went back in and the nappies were all in the corner of the room. DP thought I was being silly as it's a tiny box room so there was nowhere for them to have moved to, but I remember them in front of the changing table which is in the centre of the room.

It was then quiet for awhile until things picked up again 2 weeks ago. Our dog has been very frightened and is starting into space and barking at the walls. DD keeps coming into our bedroom in the night saying someone is whispering her name. Our usually calm good as gold DS keeps waking up in the night in hysterics and we've had to move his cot into our room. DP's older daughter (14 from a previous relationship) came to stay for the first time last week and shared with my DD. The next morning she said she'd felt a strange presence in the room, but we hadn't told her of our experience. DP was still always skeptical until what happened last night.

Me and DP are in bed cuddling poorly DS and DD was asleep in her room and we heard our dog bark and then a loud bang. Come downstairs to find the cast iron table has moved half way across the living room! And the floor is fluffy carpet so impossible for our lab to have moved it. And a few hours later a door slammed. DP admits that has made him question things. I was utterly bewildered, especially with it being a newbuild so contacted the previous tenants (with it being homeswap we still talk occasionally) to ask if they had experienced anything to which they were insistent they hadn't.

I've been doing my research on the area. It's used to be a quaint
countryside village but a lot of the old cottages, pubs and the post office etc were demolished after the war to build a city overspill estate to get people out of the inner city slums. A few other nearby estates have the same origins. The village still has a few old feautures such as a church and even some old stocks (where people used to have their hands locked in while others threw things at them for punishments) near a playing field! I think our house must be built on top of what used to be a cottage or perhaps people were buried here? Though why didn't they bother the previous tenants?

Eek! Someone tell me I'm going mad.

This post was edited by MNHQ

OP posts:
FiddlesticksAkimbo · 19/06/2019 02:45

Over the course of a long evening I think I may have come under the influence of some powerful spirits, have entered an alternative realm, and posted a certain amount of bollocks Grin

Woooohhhooo! 👻

forsythekt · 19/06/2019 03:32

Made DP check the loft earlier. He found a bird skeleton. Nothing else though. Had one door slamming incident around midnight but that's all.

OP posts:
cittigirl · 19/06/2019 04:37

I find it odd that they need a first floor flat if one is in a wheelchair. I wonder if they experienced it too. Were they the only ones who lived there after it was built.

Totally believe you about being haunted. The same happened to my DB

forsythekt · 19/06/2019 06:03

cittigirl Yup, they moved in as soon as it was finished. They were quite upset when I asked, the wife especially seemed to take offense.

OP posts:
yulet · 19/06/2019 06:49

Okay, FiddlesticksAkimbo wins the thread, that is possibly the most batshit thing I've read here ever.

Full disclaimer, I'm completely sceptical, and think our brains mess with us more than we like to admit.

Set up cameras OP (and check carbon monoxide levels).

Whylurkwhenicanjoinin · 19/06/2019 07:24

My older sister lives in a house which did have a resident ghost but it was more like a recording of a movement, several friends of hers at different times asked her how long she’d lived with our gran because theyd seen an old lady dressed in a long skirt walk across the lounge and up the stairs...as real as you or i! One of the witnesses was council worker who’d had absolutely no previous dealings with her but was investigating next door’s drains, over the 20 years she’s lived there the sightings have got less and less but it still freaks me out and i wouldnt want to be there alone...now help to the OP but yes, this isnt the only person i know with a haunting, ghosts definitely do exist

Tsaminaminazangalewa · 19/06/2019 07:45

Longearedbat The strange Walkie-talkie voices we could sometimes hear

That could have been someone talking over a CB or amateur radio transmitter. My DF was a radio amateur. The best contacts would be made late at night or through the night (often spoke to people in Australia, America, Russia ).

His transmitter aerial interferes with the tv’s, radios and other electrical devices of neighbouring houses and they could hear voices coming through them. One surreal phone call came from a neighbour saying she’d just had DFs voice coming through her kettle 🙈. It was a very antisocial hobby.

Laiste · 19/06/2019 07:55

I was a sceptic until it happened to me. Now i don't know what to believe - i don't pretend to know the answers but i know for sure that it happened.

Atone point i had my phone actually in my hand - but did not take a photo or a record it. I wish i had, but at the time I was quite shocked. I wasn't expecting it to happen and recording it wasn't my first reaction. In the same way that for many people witnessing a road accident or any unexpected event happening in front of them wouldn't necessarily trigger the gut reaction of taking a photo of it. Even if i had have taken a photo it wouldn't prove it happened the way i witnessed it.

Which leads me to say that what ever you believe or do not believe i'm pretty sure that not every piece of footage or photo out there has been 'scrutinised' by some recognised organisation. Who's doing all this official sanctioned scrutiny of everything? Where's the money coming from for that then? Is it The Scrutineers? There's a whole belief system right there! Comforting to think that there's Top People checking it all out for us i guess Grin

It comes over like a fingers in the ears thing with some posters - La La La. it's all been checked. it's all fake. all of it. we know everything. there's no mystery. none. you're all bananas. la la la.

Laiste · 19/06/2019 07:58

That's not aimed at every poster questioning or making suggestions. (Having x posted with someone doing that Grin)

It's the knee jerk ''it's all crap'' people i wonder about.

Inis · 19/06/2019 08:47

@Tsaminaminazangalewa, snap. Grin My Dad was a radio ham throughout my childhood, and we had to talk down neighbours who thought their electrics were possessed, or that my father’s voice saying his call sign or using Morse was a spirit trying to make contact from the beyond via the baby monitor.

Agreed also on the unsocial hours’ contacts, and also, sun spots which occur in cycles of several years affected both reception and the extent to which he possessed neighbours’ radios/TVs etc.

TruthOnTrial · 19/06/2019 09:38

I started reading this thread fairly late last night. It felt a bit like reading a ghost story at bed time (rather perfect if you want to spook yourself! - which I didn't!)
As i was reading i heard something in my kitchen. Some sort of movement. I ignored it.

I continued reading on and found myself getting more spooked by the thought of people hiding out in attics and ghosts standing at ends of beds, or tucking people in. Waiting for those soon to pass, hearing random voices. Then i jumped out my skin as a loud noise came from the kitchen!

I went to see; it was quite late by this point, dark, and all were in their beds. Ibwas creeping around the house on my own in the dark (the movies tell you you shouldn't do this [i was thinking]).

I opened my kitchen door to see my ice box that had just been cleaned out ready for action today, which had previously been stacked with cleaned lid and ice packs, all across the kitchen floor. I also then noticed a pile of sodden cleaning pads that had been drying on the side also in the middle of the kitchen floor.

I immediately thought, 'bloody dogs'! I went through to the utility where the dogs sleep in their beds. They were all laid comfortably nestled in their beds. Although eyes open watching me, but not sitting up or heads raised like theyd just leapt back into bed after some antics (or somehow knowing they had to look 'asleep' and therefore not guilty of anything).

However, when the automatic soft glow night light came on i noticed something i one of the beds....one dog was lying on my silicon popcorn bowl/lid. We had had popcorn and left the empty bowl on the side near the sink, coincidentally where the pads were drying and above where the balanced ice-box lid and ice packs had been sitting.

Tbh though, even if i hadnt discovered the evidence, i still wouldn't have put it down to something other-worldly.

Real people can be terrifying, and real people really do try to make others doubt themselves (gaslighting), do keep keys to get into previous homes, etc.

I can't say i know anything about the other-worldly ghosts/demons/entities referenced on here, but i do seriously wonder how anyone 'knows' x & y about their presence, and motivations in being there, or intentions, and how they 'work', or what makes them dangerous.

I have had experiences that I can't explain, having 'seen' a couple of 'figures', but I also know how the 'fast/dirty' neuronal pathway in the brain draws instant and instinctive conclusions 'on our behalf' as it were, without our frontal lobe 'thinking and processing' brain involvement.

It certainly captures the imagination reading others experiences and conclusions.

I do wonder at such times of hearing these things of why, say, if I were a ghost would i, or anyone who loved their family, come back and scared their loved ones shitless!

I mean, it truly is the stuff of everyones nightmares, when at most vulnerable and prone, sleeping in bed, to be woken to someone standing at your bedside, or worse somehow at the foot of the bed, just watching you!

If i were a ghost i couldnt imagine any possible reason/motivation to visit such a terrifying experience upon my children or any other family and friends!

What possible reason would a ghost have to move furniture around?!

I do know of experiences of others where actual people get their kicks from doing that to make others scared or worry they are losing their minds!

...well if they do this then then they are a seriously dangerous demon, etc, type stuff...just who told you this or how do you know?

Where does anyone 'learn' about this stuff?!

TruthOnTrial · 19/06/2019 09:45

As for 'digital demons', well they have 'existed' since the first software developer wrote the first piece of code, especially when they didn't test fully the effects that one piece of new code would have on all the other bits and their interactions!

BettyUnderswoob · 19/06/2019 10:24

I feel like I’ve had a supernatural experience of my own and been transported back a few centuries reading some of these responses.
All the burning sage, exorcists, poltergeists, demons and “previous tenants dabbled with ouija” type crap. Seriously?

Those who mock the massive distinction between demons and spirits are showing themselves to be dangerously deluded. If the OP is experiencing any type of incursion from the demonic realm which is carrying sufficient energy to cause locomotion of objects within this realm then frankly she needs to be extremely concerned

😂🤣 Demons that tidy up? I would welcome those!

dustarr73 · 19/06/2019 11:48

I do think sometimes some people are more sensitive than others.

And we dont know everything.Bur i do believe in ghosts.I have seen enough stuff to know not everyone passes over willingly.

Lifecraft · 19/06/2019 12:08

Just a quick word about so-called 'child' ghosts. These are actually very rare;

Non existent is the phrase you're looking for. Along with teenage ghosts, adult ghosts, dog ghosts and cat ghosts. They don't exist.

Mordred · 19/06/2019 12:20

We moved into our 1930s house some years ago. Soon after we moved in, two guests, visiting at separate times and not known to each other, said they saw a woman in old-fashioned clothing standing in the kitchen, looking on and smiling - long dress, apron, cap, etc. They described exactly the same figure. We thought this was a bit odd, as the house, as I mentioned, was 1930s, so why would there be a ghost apparently from long before that ?

However, when we started sorting out the garden, we found quite a lot of broken clay pipes in the soil - mainly small bowls, so probably 17th century when tobacco was expensive, plus some larger ones. We also found an old stone step buried in the garden, well-worn by passing feet, so obviously from a well-used building. Looking at old maps, we found there had been a farmhouse where our house now stood, which was demolished when the town underwent expansion and development in the 1930s. The clay pipes must have been dropped by farm workers in the yard and the step must have been from one of the farm buildings. So, if you do have a ghost, it could be from something that was there before.

When DS was about 2, he was in the kitchen and I was in the dining room. He was very quiet (unusual for DS at that age), and he suddenly came running out of the kitchen, saying: "Scary! Lady gone!"

So, maybe we do have a ghost. Never seen her myself, though I thought I saw a shadow passing a shadow passing down the path at the side of the kitchen, once. Also, on the first night we were in the house, the main fuse kept tripping, no matter how many things we turned off. We were down to one lamp on and still it tripped. Never happened again, just that first night. A welcome of sorts?

Anyway, I keep an open mind on such matters. We know for certain a previous owner of the house died in our main bedroom, sitting in her rocking chair, in 1984: nothing from her, though!

forsythekt · 19/06/2019 12:29

DD came in at 6am as her shelf had fallen down Confused Am inclined to write a thread asking if AIBU for wanting my house guest to leave because they are an arse but leaving out the fact it's likely a bloody ghost.

DSD is saying she doesn't want to stay over again as it's creepy. Have brought a second hand video baby moniter of Ebay and am picking it up later. I'm sure it won't catch anything.

OP posts:
forsythekt · 19/06/2019 12:31

Am getting to a point where I'm past being frightened and wish it would just fuck off.

OP posts:
Janus · 19/06/2019 12:38

There was a feature on radio five live about 6 weeks ago about a lady who had this in her house. Strange noises at night, things moving, it got worse and worse. She did get the local church involved and they sent someone around as it had got horrendously bad. It stopped overnight. When she was saying all that went on the hairs on the back of my neck stood up! I’d definitely go to the church (I’m in no way religious but I’d try it!).

managedmis · 19/06/2019 12:39

What else did your DSD say?

Sounds suspicious that the old residents took offence?

managedmis · 19/06/2019 12:40

If I were you I'd be saying loudly and clearly: 'go away! You're not welcome here! You're scaring the children'.

Usually works

hsegfiugseskufh · 19/06/2019 12:46

op, tell it to leave. Tell it that it is scaring you, and you would like it to move on. As simple as that honestly.

MadameGazelleIsMyHomegirl · 19/06/2019 12:46

The ‘offended’ response of the previous tenants sounds really fishy to me! They sound like they know something... could you talk to the neighbours and see if they know anything?

hsegfiugseskufh · 19/06/2019 12:48

I never ever believed in ghosts until I shared a house with one. DP spent the best part of 4 years telling me I was going mad, there was nothing there, I was hearing things, imagining it.

He then saw/heard/felt the same things I had been for almost 4 years, and as a grown arse man would not go into the upstairs of his own house on his own unless all the lights were on.

It wasn't a "bad" ghost I don't think. Never did anything to us, just was there. I like to think it was just a man pottering about his own house, that's what it felt like. I didn't tell him to leave but I did tell him to stop approaching us and it stopped.

before living in that house, if someone had told me that, I would have said they'd lost their mind, it wasn't possible.. etc

hsegfiugseskufh · 19/06/2019 12:49

maybe the reasons for the neighbours leaving were that they were sick and tired of the unwanted guest?

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