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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:
PackingSoap · 19/06/2019 20:55

New houses are a bugger for this kind of thing though. The house needs to settle into itself.

When we moved into a new house when I was a teen, the place scared the life out of me. Creaking, doors closing, strange noises...allsorts. Now when I visit? There's absolutely nothing at all.

A lot of paranormal incidents are caused by environmental quirks. The older your house, the more likely the floorboards have been replaced, the internal walls messed about: all causing draughts, rumbles, strange noises etc.

BettyUnderswoob · 19/06/2019 21:08

exWifebeginsat40 Yes, it was withdrawn 3 or 4 years ago.

No trawling through millions of digital images or videos, though; it tested individuals, in person, using scientific testing criteria, to ascertain if they could demonstrate psychic or supernatural abilities.

Not sure why it was withdrawn... perhaps they no longer had the money!

Inis · 19/06/2019 23:05

James Randi retired in 2015 and the board of the foundation decided to turn it into a grant-awarding organisation for projects that promote critical thinking. Their website says they felt they could no longer justify their use of funds to test claims by people who wouldn’t even fill out the application form or who would just show up at their HQ with no warning and expect to be tested.

web.randi.org/home/jref-status

BettyUnderswoob · 19/06/2019 23:24

That seems a much better use of the money, Inis, and it’s about time Randi retired... he’d have been 88 then, 92 now!

Jiggles101 · 20/06/2019 06:43

Babba I also found that really interesting. My ex was a practicing Muslim (ish) and he used to believe certain people would invoke (evoke?) the Jinn for personal gain, the magician Dynamo for example he believed 'had a Jinn in him'

LennyBelardo · 20/06/2019 07:16

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LennyBelardo · 20/06/2019 07:18

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LennyBelardo · 20/06/2019 07:20

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Omzlas · 20/06/2019 07:47

Anything on the video camera OP?

nespressowoo · 20/06/2019 08:24

Hi OP. We moved into a 1930s semi recently. I felt something, so did DH. Things would move, doors would open. I didn't feel particularly scared of it, it felt like it was the old lady who had lived in it before the people we bought it off did. She passed away in hospital. I said out loud to her 'I don't mind you being around but please stop moving stuff as it's quite unnerving and I don't want you to scare my DS'. I've not felt her around since.

elheggy · 20/06/2019 11:29

I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet, but do you have a carbon monoxide alarm/monitor? There's a famous reddit thread where someone posted that they were waking up to find things moved during the night and thought her landlord was sneaking in the apartment until a user suggested she get a carbon monoxide test. Turns out she was being slowly poisoned with carbon monoxide which was causing hallucinations and memory loss.
Or it could be ghosts..

forsythekt · 20/06/2019 11:45

Had an uneventful night. Baby camera left in living room showed nothing except unsettled dog wandering around. Might be something in that, maybe not.

Will try DS's room tonight.

OP posts:
managedmis · 20/06/2019 13:02

Hmm, well that's good news then I guess.

Whylurkwhenicanjoinin · 20/06/2019 13:13

Yes that is good news! Keep us posted

Lifecraft · 20/06/2019 13:49

Baby camera left in living room showed nothing

As per very other of the millions of cameras on planet Earth.

vasillisa · 20/06/2019 16:38

Inis that is interesting!

flapjackfairy · 22/06/2019 15:37

Any interesting updates?

BollocksIsTheWord · 23/06/2019 13:44

Love spooky threads. I don’t think I believe in stuff like this but there are some stuff that can’t be explained.

I moved into my 70 year old house 16 years ago and one night I was getting ready to go out. I had left my 1 yo puppy at a friends as I knew I’d be out hours. I was putting some music on my cd player and heard him panting right behind me. He did this loads so I sort of brushed my hand behind me and said “lie down boy” or something while I fiddled with my music. Then realised he wasn’t even in the house!

I did panic for a minute and darted out the front door just staring at the house not daring to go back in😂 Anyway, for years I have heard my dog padding around in various spots only to realise he isn’t in that room or is sound asleep on the patio or something.

When having my back garden renovated a few years ago, the gardeners told me they had found a mummified dog buried under the lawn. We left it there and just paved over, but I do sometimes joke that he is our ghost dog! 😂

Indie139 · 24/06/2019 13:37

If possible set up a couple cameras

TruthOnTrial · 28/06/2019 09:43

mummified dog

Thats what needs explanation! Who mummifies a dog then chucks it in some regular soil, which would destroy any mummification and decompose anything.

I think your gardeners where having a laugh on you... Did you actually see this for yourself?
I see op doesnt have any evidence of 'ghosts'.

Very true: lots of unexplained phenomenon in our world. Just that, unexplained. 'Ghosts' is not the 'explanation' - its turning it into something for no good reason.

BollocksIsTheWord · 07/07/2019 13:33

I think what they meant was it was wrapped up tightly in blankets so resembled a mummy ... not that it was actually a mummy🤨

wheresmymojo · 07/07/2019 14:21

Could you afford to put a camera up? You can get them quite cheap on Amazon now for 'pet cams'.

Won't pick up anything in the dark though.

wheresmymojo · 07/07/2019 14:28

You could just be on lay lines. That can cause some weird feelings and sounds.

Some people are more sensitive to it than others which might be why the previous tenants didn't notice.

I wonder if there are maps of lay lines?

wheresmymojo · 07/07/2019 14:31

This is the first thing that came up when I googled - any relevance?

To think my newbuild is haunted?
wheresmymojo · 07/07/2019 14:34

Didn't we have a thread like this once and there was someone living in the shared loft space?

IMO that's way creepier than a ghost. My Grandma & Grandad lived in a row of townhouses in the 80s, next door was a 'halfway house' for people from prison.

Weird things were happening while they were out and during the night (Grandad worked night shifts sometimes). Finally they found dusty half shoe prints under the loft hatch and boarded it up.

The guy next door dragged a young woman off the street into the Catholic Church down the road and murdered her Confused