THUMP!
The noise jars me, even though I was already lying awake, an unfortunate side effect of not having yet installed window shades in the bedroom. It’s on the list. Moonlight streams through the window. awake, even though I’ve become a light sleeper lately. Tonight more than usual from the moonlight streaming into the bedroom window. Frank, the basement contractor, said that these noises were probably a result of the house re-settling due to the work he had done. Not common, but apparently not that unusual. Well, at least the basement’s dry now.
I moved into this farmhouse six months ago. It’s way on the outskirts of Boston, and some of the homes date back to well before the revolution. Fortunately, this one is from the late 1800s. Old enough to have a ton of character like stained glass windows and the original wide plank flooring, but not old enough to be a money pit like some of the older homes. Or so I thought. Still, I managed to get a great price. Something about “Stigmatized property”, though my realtor assured me that it was just a bunch of rumors. As it is, I’m only superstitious if it involves the color green, if you get my drift.
Like any old house it’s had issues. The basement wall would have a trickle of water on the uphill side almost every month. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem to be directly linked to thunderstorms or the weather. Fortunately, I found a great contractor. Frank ended up digging up that entire side of the house to re-seal the wall, and found what looks like a root cellar from a much, much older home. With these old neighborhoods, sometimes a house would burn down, and they would just build on top of the rubble. In this case this little room is nearly adjacent to my basement, and Frank figured that water was pooling inside, then seeping through.
Frank gave me the option of connecting it to my basement, but I thought it was a creepy little space, even though it looked like it might even have served as a playroom at one time, with what looked like crayon scribblings on the walls. The red stone floor was covered with scraps of blackened paper, candles and broken glass, and there was a vague odor of decay or rotten eggs. Frank pointed out the piles of small bones and claw or teeth marks covering the walls and suggested that rats or possums might have become trapped in there at one point. That pretty much settled it – I had him block it off and make sure my basement wall was sealed properly with 2 coats of Hydro-Seal. That was over 2 weeks ago. Well, that appears to have been when the house started making its noises. Frank said he had heard of houses re-settling when a foundation is disturbed.
The noises seem louder tonight. Sharper and more frequent. I think I hear a faucet dripping slowly. I guess I’ll check the kitchen sink tomorrow, or is it coming from the shower here next to my bedroom? You never know with these old houses.