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I live in a pair of weavers’ cottages, originally built in 1810 but knocked into one sometime during the early 1900s. The place has bags of character and some quirky odd features.
The oddest is the door to my daughter’s bedroom, as it opens on its own. This is in the oldest bit of the house and is one of the two rooms still in their original 1810 layout. I could understand this if it didn’t close properly, but it has a latch. We hear the latch pop and the door open almost every night. A quick check on the kids always reveals that they are asleep.
We were talking about it last night and only then did it occur to us that this was somewhat unusual.
Any ideas?
don't tell the kids would be my advice.
beyond that, fit a latch that can't just be lifted to open the door and see what happens.
I suspect it's a dodgy latch and a draft or something is enough to cause the door to open.
Sell up and move out!
Indian burial ground?
I bet your Spider senses are tingling...
Probably just one of the many missing prisoners we keep hearing about. So nothing to worry about.
EDIT: Just one of these guys I expect. They look like a friendly bunch.
[url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10910748/Names-of-eight-missing-prisoners-released-including-killer-on-the-run-for-17-years.html ]Lodgers[/url]
House is moving a few millimetres in that area - perhaps due to changes in humidity or temperature, and the door is not quite even.
Do you have any way to measure the shape (angles) of the door accurately?
I am a grown man but I suspect I would sh&^ myself if it happened in my house 😯
Yes, you have a ghost in your house that likes to open doors. I understand this is very common with your basic apparitions, despite being non corporeal they have a real problem with closed doors and very much like to open them.
I suggest you watch films like the sixth sense, the exorcist and poltergeist as these will reassure you that you have nothing to worry about.
Or adjust the latch.
I'd suggest you fit better latches or even 5 pin locks, perhaps a bar across and a padlock.
All whilst you daughters in bed of course.
Don't thank me. 😉
Houses do strange things. Try and make the latch more secure and see if it stops.
Don't tell the kids, wait for them to tell you if they think there is anything odd going on.
I deal with a lot of old houses. Some people think their house is haunted. The oddest one I have dealt with was the old guy who told me he didn't believe in ghosts but he would never sleep in the bedroom tbe kids thought was haunted. He was the most rational and sceptical ghost reporter I've met but he was scared of that room.
Do you have any way to measure the shape (angles) of the door accurately?
Get a laser pointer, tape it securely to one side of the door and mark a spot where the beam lands. Monitor it throughout the day.
swap doors with [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fridge-door-wont-open ]your man here[/url]
I think we have a ghost in our house also, except this one like to switch lights on but never off.
Actually I think we have three... all girls 😉
The latch has to lift 5mm or more and there isn’t that much play in the door, frame or wall. It has been there for over 200 years and is solid.
It doesn’t bother us to be honest. It doesn’t bother my daughter either. Occasionally, if it wakes her, she will appear in our bedroom and tell us that her door just opened.
Saw this on Reddit yesterday, might be worth not watching this one OP.
I am a grown man but I suspect I would sh&^ myself if it happened in my house
This is the boat I would find myself in.
It doesn't bother us.
<POP!>
"Go and close Em's door... and put the kettle on while you are up."
In my house two females have died (of natural causes) - one 30 of cancer, the other in her 70s heart attack. Both married to the same bloke obviously decades apart.
The room where the 30yr old died- my remote keeps moving from my 'preferred' spot on the chair arm where I sit and usually moved up into the shelves.
I am sceptical though. If ghosts exist why aren't we tripping ove rthem all the time?
It has been there for over 200 years and is solid.
It can still move though. Timber framed houses move around all the time when the ground under them moves.
If the houses were built in 1810 and bearing in mind the tendency to have lots of kids, how many people do you think have lived in them in their 204 years of existence? If ghosts really do exist (and I'm still looking for proof) the chances of something happening are pretty high.
"Go and close Em's door... and put the kettle on while you are up."
There's the problem. You need to teach them to put the kettle on for you too.
In my house two females have died (of natural causes) - one 30 of cancer, the other in her 70s heart attack. Both married to the same bloke obviously decades apart.The room where the 30yr old died- my remote keeps moving from my 'preferred' spot on the chair arm where I sit and usually moved up into the shelves.
I wish I had a ghost that would tidy the bloody place up a bit. Does the channel mysteriously change over to Loose Women as well?
Get some video cameras in there.
Suspect there is a draft coupled with a door that doesn't quite fit. Does the temperature change at all?
Used to work in a really old pub with similar goings on, doors opening and closing seemingly on their own. Just put it down to the character of the house!
I wish I had a ghost that would tidy the bloody place up a bit. Does the channel mysteriously change over to Loose Women as well?
For two May's in a row the kitchen used to be 'noisy' at night. Plastic bin lid flapping (solved with a 5lt bottle of water placed ontop).
Mrshora weirdly has forgotten all about these! All shes remembers is the house being very cheap and nothing else mattered.
I used to scoff at this stuff. My grandparents had a bedroom that I hated sleeping in as a kid, I always had nightmares, the window being blown out and basically being grabbed / sucked out the window. Never told anyone about it (I used to not really speak much as a kid...) then my sisters can along and as there was 2 of them I was moved to the box room. No more nightmares.
20 years later at a family Xmas my sisters mentioned they hated that room and used to have bad nightmares every time they slept in it. I'd never discussed that with anyone...no idea if that is 'haunted' but I definitely get a bad feeling about some places / rooms.
I don't see dead people though.
OP
I think you need to try and stop thinking about ghosts.The more you think about them ,the more they will appear.They will then tell all thier ghost mates and really start to wind you up,mostly late at night when you are trying to keep your heartrate down .Not posting on the internet about it should help.
You are Mark E Smith, and I claim my sacking from The Fall 😀
I used to scoff at this stuff. My grandparents had a bedroom that I hated sleeping in as a kid, I always had nightmares, the window being blown out and basically being grabbed / sucked out the window. Never told anyone about it (I used to not really speak much as a kid...) then my sisters can along and as there was 2 of them I was moved to the box room. No more nightmares.20 years later at a family Xmas my sisters mentioned they hated that room and used to have bad nightmares every time they slept in it. I'd never discussed that with anyone...no idea if that is 'haunted' but I definitely get a bad feeling about some places / rooms.
I don't see dead people though.
Fungal/mould spores in the room can cause such things in children where they sleep..
we have a stair poltergeist in our house.
any item I place on the bottom three steps to 'take up later' mysteriously find their way up stairs and into an appropriate drawer/cupboard.
I reckon it likes my wife more than me though 'cos it only appears when she's in the house regardless of when I put stuff on the stairs.
any item I place on the bottom three steps to 'take up later' mysteriously find their way up stairs and into an appropriate drawer/cupboard.
haha, sounds exactly like me. everything lives temporarily on those bottom 3 stairs 😀
I suggest watching that BBC Ghos****ch "Live" (should be available on Youtube)
It's probably Sulley (and co.)
Although some things are inexplicable it's really not ghosts. It's more likely to be Aliens. Aliens are well known for travelling across the galaxy to mess about with peoples doors, barns, light aircraft and then stick things up their bottoms.
It's 100% aliens or ghosts
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/afterlife/ghost1.htm
Stick some bluetac on the latch tonight. May stop the latch from lifting. If it works it may also p*** the ghost off so much you will be sucked into an alternative world.
On anoter note I have always disliked Ghosts.
Much prefer the cube and canyon range of bikes.
I am sceptical though. If ghosts exist why aren't we tripping over them all the time?
Why aren't there caveman ghosts?
Or cow ghosts?
Or ant ghosts?
If ghosts can walk through walls, why don't they fall through the floor boards? Where do they stop falling?
People have probably dies in lots of houses. In fact, the older the house, the more people that have dies. Why aren't all doors opening?
I wonder if ghosts really do exist you know.......
DrP
@DrP - wow that's really got me thinking, so you DON'T beleive in ghosts - thats a mind****erfriday right there! What with you being a man of science an all 😉
Can I ask you another? Why are aliens so obsessed with anal sex?
EDIT - I beat the swearfilter™ 8)
Why are aliens so obsessed with anal sex?
They're probably all blokes I expect... I mean - they seem to do all the long distance driving...
DrP
😉
old house = draughts and poor insulation.
you don't need much of a temperature differential to get crazy warpage out of a simple wooden door - especially across the grain - easily enough force to pop an old shonky latch.
[is not convinced]
I have quite a back catalogue of seemingly inexplicable phenomena having rented old houses most of my life. These days tend to err on the side of science or at least pop science as opposed to woowoo 🙂
This is interesting: [url= http://www.cracked.com/article_18828_the-creepy-scientific-explanation-behind-ghost-sightings.html ]science behind ghost sightings[/url]
People have probably dies in lots of houses
Nope, my taps and dies are all in my own house.
you don't need much of a temperature differential to get crazy warpage out of a simple wooden door
That, or something much like it. Wood's like this weird stuff that used to be living and what is a bit flexible and moves and so forth, and absorbs water and bends and straightens and doesn't stay [i]quite[/i] where you leave it.


