Blogger Backgrounds

Monday, November 22, 2010

Noises


The house we moved from in Montana was in my family for three generations. I lived there off and on for about 25 years. I knew where the creaky places were in the hallway. I knew the sound of the furnace right before it turned on. I knew which door in the house had just been closed from anywhere else in the house. I knew all the noises. I didn't have to question where what sounds came from.

And then I moved.

To a house built in 1903.

Let me tell you, this house has a lot of noises.

There's a ticking that seems to be coming from the living room wall at night. Is it really coming from the wall, or is it echoing off the wall from somewhere else? Is there a bomb in my wall?

I keep finding new creaky spaces on the floor in different rooms. One of them, I'm happy to report is directly under the rocking chair in the nursery. That's a really good thing because my dad refinished my rocking chair for me several months ago, and in the process, it lost the lovely creak it had that was so good at soothing babies that didn't want to go to sleep.

The furnace always startles me if it kicks on when I'm in the upstairs bathroom. It just sounds so weird up there.

I heard a door slam this afternoon and it took me almost an hour to figure out where the sound came from. I had been trying to figure out whether we had a bad draft somewhere, or if maybe Captain Kitty had managed to shut a door. (After a long day at work, I was exhausted and those 16 stairs to the upper floor are really daunting at times! Most of the doors in the house are upstairs.) I finally realized that it was the screen door right on the other side of the wall where I was sitting. It hadn't been shut fully and was blowing back and forth in the wind. I felt pretty silly when I figured that one out.

And the stairs! They're pretty darn creaky when you're on them, but they're NOTHING compared to how loud they sound when you're in the kitchen and someone is coming down them!

This morning, I heard a really strange sound (while I was in the upstairs bathroom), and I was trying to figure out why the furnace was being extra noisy. Turns out, my neighbor had just started his snow blower! I'm so not used to my house's noises that I can't even recognize a sound coming from outside!

We plan on being in this house forever. This little town is our home from now on, and this house will be a part of us as long as we can (we're hoping our kids will keep it in the family after we're gone). I know I'll eventually get used to the sounds here, and they'll be second nature just like in my old house. But for now, they sure can be a mystery when I'm the only one awake in the house!

2 comments:

B. said...

I sure wish I could come visit you and see your house. It sounds so neat. Anyway, those noises will spook you less if you quit reading and watching all the horror stories! Lol! ;-)

MTGrace said...

I sure hope there aren't children dying of arsenic poisoning in my attic!