Someone give me a good explanation for this so I can go to sleep at night.

[Sarahfeena]

OK, we have an old house with one of those setups where there's a front room and a family room combo, with an open passthrough in between them, so it's sort of one big room, but divided into two parts. My kid and I were in the family room part, in a chair that is right next to the passthrough, and has its back to the front room. We're sitting there, reading a book, when right behind me I hear a fairly loud noise that sounds like something metal falling from a height, onto the wooden floor. Right behind me. We both look up and were like, "what was that?" So I get up, and the front room is empty. We just put out the Christmas decorations this weekend, so the front room has been straightened and polished and all that jazz, and there's nothing on the floor at all. Not even a random toy or anything. I look all around, under the furniture, under the Christmas tree, nothing. I look all around on top of things, to see if any decoration has fallen down, everything seems to be intact. So, I figure the sound must have come from farther away than it seemed, so I go in the adjacent hallway, the stairwell, the dining room...nothing. Nothing fell to the floor and made a loud clattering sound.

So...what was it? Please give me a logical and rational explanation for this. I'm begging you.

[What Exit?]

Several options for you. I know you have an older house. What form of heat do you have? Forced Hot Air, Base Board or Radiator? If Forced Hot Air, the Ducts expanding rapidly on one of the first cold days of the year could be the source of your sound. If the others, it could be a little steam/hot water hammering. More likely in the case of steam.

I used to be an HVAC mechanic. HVAC units are often the cause of odd noises. We had a weird spooky moaning in our house that I finally tracked down to a part of the oil feed system to our Hot Water Boiler for our base board heat.

[Sarahfeena]

We have hot water radiators. My experience is that the steam ones are the ones that tend to make the hammering sound? I've never heard our system make noise at all before, other than sometimes a gurgling sound in the pipes. I lived in an old building with steam, and those made a huge racket, but not really like this sound at all.

Thanks for the thought, though.

[What Exit?]

Even hot water systems have check valve and air escapes. Early season heating could be a cause, but I agree it is less likely than either a duct system or steam system.

Next is what exterior do you have on the house?
Do you have a garage?
Walk out basement?

[Rube E. Tewesday]

Possibly the neighbours are sweeping their chimnies, or your gibb-cat jumped.

[Orual]

So...what was it? Please give me a logical and rational explanation for this. I'm begging you.

Sorry, I'm only good for hysterical and far-fetched explanations:

Warring rat factions in your walls.

The spirits from the Indian burial ground beneath the house are playing freeze tag with the ghosts of the kids who were locked in the attic in 1897.

Tap-dancing vampires.

Aliens in invisibility cloaks.

Satan.

My advice would be to move.

[Sarahfeena]

Even hot water systems have check valve and air escapes. Early season heating could be a cause, but I agree it is less likely than either a duct system or steam system.

Next is what exterior do you have on the house?
Do you have a garage?
Walk out basement?

Brick exterior. Detatched garage at the back of the property.

You mean a basement that walks out to the outside? If so, no...we have one set of basement stairs off the main hallway and another that goes out onto the enclosed back porch/mudroom.

[Sarahfeena]

Possibly the neighbours are sweeping their chimnies, or your gibb-cat jumped.

No sign of a gibb-cat, whatever that might be.

This IS an attached house, and the neighbor is having work done. But the rooms that are being worked on are on the opposite side of his house, the one that's not attached to ours. And I have never ever heard a sound from his house before other than muffled hammering, so I can't imagine a clattering noise this loud could have come from there.

[Sarahfeena]

So...what was it? Please give me a logical and rational explanation for this. I'm begging you.

Sorry, I'm only good for hysterical and far-fetched explanations:

Warring rat factions in your walls.

The spirits from the Indian burial ground beneath the house are playing freeze tag with the ghosts of the kids who were locked in the attic in 1897.

Tap-dancing vampires.

Aliens in invisibility cloaks.

Satan.

My advice would be to move.

See, these are the kinds of explanations I'm coming up with, as well.

[What Exit?]

Well unless it repeats itself, I really don't think you need to worry.

Now large numbers of flies, walls bleeding, loud demands of "GET OUT", these would be far more troublesome.

[Orual]

Might want to keep the kids away from the TV too, just in case.

[Heffalump]

Sorry I don't have an answer for you.

Just wanted to thank you because it's comforting to know that there's someone else out there that has noises in their house that they can't explain, and it bugs them.

[Zuul]

I always assume it's either Satan coming for my soul or the aliens have finally found me.

For someone who loves solitude, I really do badly in a creaky old house alone at night.

[Sarahfeena]

Here's the thing, though, Roo and Zuul. I've gotten used to the creaking, moaning, etc. Old houses do that, and most of the time the noises sound like old-house noises. This noise was...loud. Clattery. Close. Not at all otherworldly sounding, but very much THIS worldly sounding. Made it all the more scarier, I must say.

[Sarahfeena]

OK, I was trying to decide whether or not to tell my new story here...I'm afraid you all will think I've gone cuckoo. But...here goes.

Last night around 2 AM, my son woke up and came into my room. I took him back to his room and laid down with him for a bit. When he was asleep, I got up to go back to my own bed, and as I was passing his sister's door, it sounded like she was awake, too. She seemed to be talking to herself and rustling some papers, like she was reading or drawing something. Sounded just like something I would hear her doing during the day, but I was surprised that she would be awake in the middle of the night and not be scared. She does have a fairly bright night light, so I figured she just woke up and couldn't fall back asleep so was entertaining herself. I went in there to see what was going on, and she was sound asleep, not stirring or talking to herself or anything.

So...I was just super tired and imagining things, right? RIGHT?

[Trojan Man]

I had a brief period just after my teens, where heavy mental/emotional stress caused me to perceive things like that... that usually were all in my head. They seemed so real, they seemed to be coming from outside my head, but no. I'm epileptic too, so I dunno if that has something to do with it. So, my logical and rational explanation for your situation is along those lines.

[Marsilia]

I too am plagued by weird noises invading my bedroom. First, I'm fairly sure there's a family of mutant zombie squirrels living inside my roof (Convince me I'm wrong, and I shall give you a cookie), then there's the bizarre and random noises that come from the school across the street: Marching bands, one of the adults from the Charlie Brown cartoons, and the whirring/banging that has started this morning.

I do not get it.

[Orual]

... She seemed to be talking to herself and rustling some papers, like she was reading or drawing something. Sounded just like something I would hear her doing during the day, but I was surprised that she would be awake in the middle of the night and not be scared. ... I went in there to see what was going on, and she was sound asleep, not stirring or talking to herself or anything.

So...I was just super tired and imagining things, right? RIGHT?

...

...

Yeah that would freak me out quite thoroughly.

[Zuul]

Yikes, Sarah. I'd figure it was just being tired and imagining things, but...that would definitely creep me right out.

[Marsilia]

Creepy, Sarah! Very creepy!

[Sarahfeena]

I have a new one. My husband and I were both woken up suddenly the other night, by the sound of something like a marble falling onto our hardwood floor and kind of bouncing/rolling away. It was loud, and seemed to come from the space between our bed and the dresser. He said, "WTF was that?!turned on the light, and started looking around on the floor. I was like, "I have no idea, it sounded like a marble," and he said, "yes, that's exactly what it sounded like." So, we both got out of bed, looked around, and there was nothing on the floor. We looked under all the furniture, nothing. We got back into bed, turned out the light, and both laid there awake for a really long time.

[Orual]

So how much would your priest laugh at you if you asked to borrow a gallon or five of holy water?

[CatInASuit]

Are you sure the kids aren't looking for their Xmas presents

[Zuul]

Have you heard any scritching sounds or anything else to indicate you might have mice/rats/raccoons/bears? I'm wondering if there's an animal in the walls trying to stock up for winter and it occasionally drops some of its goodies.

[Sarahfeena]

That's one possible explanation, Zuul. We do tend to get a mouse or two when the weather turns cold.

I don't actually believe in ghosts at all, it's just so weird to have multiple unexplained events all in close proximity to each other.

[Peeta Mellark]

At least you don't have one of these darling little Japanese mutants in your walls:



This is only the beginning. Next come the jabberjays.

[Hatshepsut]

I must say, this is shaping up to be a great story. Keep us informed of further eldritch happenings. And document, document, document. If you start having episodes where the noise is ongoing - like the rustling/talking in your daughter's room - you could think about setting up a sound-activated tape recorder.

I don't believe in supernatural stuff, and I'm sure you just have mice or raccoons or something. But it's still fun to read about while the mystery continues.

Also, the singing mouse is marvelous. I want one!

[Sarahfeena]

The funny thing about this (to me) is that we've heard kinda-sorta weird things ever since we moved in, but nothing at all that you couldn't write off to an old house settling, or someone making noise next door (cause it's always been muffled). The two incidents I relate here where I hear something fall to the floor were very different, and that's what drove me to start this thread. In these two cases, the noises were very loud, distinct, and close by. The marble thing, as I said, sounded just beyond the foot of our bed, and the sound was that very distinct hollow sound of something hitting a wood floor (even a little more distinctly hollow in our bedroom, as that room has a new wood floor with a very shiny, hard finish sitting on top of the original one. Stuff falling on it makes a different sound from stuff falling on the floors in the other room. It definitely didn't seem like something that was hitting old, unfinished wood behind a wall or anything like that. Although that must be what it was.

[CatInASuit]

Time to start sprinkling salt across the doorways to keep evil spirits at bay.

[Peeta Mellark]

Get a smudge stick and a hippie!

[Sarahfeena]

OK, we haven't had any strange happenings lately, so nothing new to report. However, I was looking for something else I posted a while back on the straight dope, and found a post of mine that tells of an incident I'd forgotten about, which happened a couple of years ago. Here it is:

Well, the other day the weirdest thing happened, and I have no explanation for it. I had recently left our baby monitor on a table in our upstairs hallway...we haven't used it for a long time, and I was going to give it away. So we were all leaving to go somewhere...me, my husband, and both kids. My husband & the older one were downstairs, and I was upstairs with the baby, so he & I were the last ones to leave the upstairs, and I carried him down. No one touched the baby monitor, and it was not on. Or at least, it wasn't making any noise. I go downstairs, my husband & daughter are already in the garage getting into the car, so I put my son's and my coats on and go. We're pulling out of the garage, and I remembered that I forgot something, so I run back in the house. As soon as I walk in, I can hear some loud humming/static, so I follow the noise upstairs, and sure enough, the receiver part of the baby monitor is on and turned up all the way. The transmitter wasn't on (it needs to be plugged in), so it wasn't picking up anything, and it was just making that static sound radios do when they aren't getting a signal. The way the thing turns on is with one of those little on/volume wheels, and when I went to turn it off, the wheel was turned on as far as it could go. I can't imagine that either of the kids could have figured out how to do it...especially the baby, as he's not even 2 yet. Plus, no one was in the house when it came on. And it was REALLY loud...there's no way I wouldn't have noticed it when I was upstairs...I could hear it all the way downstairs and on the other side of the house.

I remember that one freaked me out quite a lot.

[What Exit?]

You need two priests. An old one and a young one.

[Ramses]

Yes.

Let the power of Christ compel you.

[Sarahfeena]