hi, my gf and i recently moved into an 1800 sq. foot townhome that has a garage on the first floor, kitchen/living on 2nd, and 2 bedrooms on the third. we have recently been hearing a very spooky and unnerving noise that doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere at all. i apologize for the lengthy post, but if the noise is something practical, we are all out of ideas, so i wanted to ask home-experts to see if there is something we are missing.
usually we can't hear our neighbors at all except once we heard faint music. i am a very light sleeper and my girlfriend is not. we sleep with a sound-maker on and have been here just 2 weeks. since we have been here, i've woken up at least 1 time every other night to the sound of a faint xylophone-like noise. basically it sounds like a very dull, yet very automated, string of 6 or so low notes, played 3 times in a row very quickly. it almost sounds like a vitamin bottle is being shaked 3 times, or maybe like a door stopper being sprung back and let loose, but it has more tone than either of those options.
usually i hear this and it wakes me up as it is happening, and since it is so fast, in that split second i am coming out of unconsciousness it stops, and then i can't distinguish what it is or where it was coming from. i have even walked the house a few times looking for an electrical device that is on but eventually convince myself it was in my head.
last night i heard it 3 times though and the last time my girlfriend was already awake and she heard it for the first time. so we are officially a little creeped out as we know it is consistent in the middle of the nights now. we work during the days but even on the weekend we have yet to hear it during the daytime. and it could be happening even more frequently at night that it just isn't waking me up every time. but even though it's dull, it's very distinct and still kind of loud.
we crossed all our t's and dotted our i's and just don't know what it could be. computer speakers are off, phones are in our room. we thought maybe the neighbor's could have a baby and the noise was an alarm they set several times in the night, but since we can barely hear their music we doubt we'd hear a baby alarm.
because it's so mechanical and automated (not manual sounding like someone is doing it) we thought first and foremost maybe a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm? are there any models that make low-pitched noises when batteries go out? it doesn't sound like a smoke alarm to us, but we are also used to apartment alarms which all sound the same. also i thought maybe the thermostat makes a noise when a temperature is reached or a program is started. but i'm pretty confident we would have heard that before. we have an alarm system but that is not set and unplugged and the breaker is turned off for it. i have turned it on before and the noise it gets for not being armed is very high pitch as well. we also have surround sound throughout the house, that recently was told to be broken (the amp), though the speakers work fine. we wonder if the broken amp is sending some warning noise through the speakers and we are hearing that. still, only in the middle of the night is odd.
other than that we are out of ideas. this post might be in vain and really i don't know what else to do as far as searching for information on the internet goes, but maybe some others could at least throw out a suggestion or an idea as to how to isolate the noise since this is a home-forum and i'm sure there could be noises we aren't considering. quite frankly, it's happening only in the middle of the night and it's happening so very often is starting to creep us out. thanks for the help.
usually we can't hear our neighbors at all except once we heard faint music. i am a very light sleeper and my girlfriend is not. we sleep with a sound-maker on and have been here just 2 weeks. since we have been here, i've woken up at least 1 time every other night to the sound of a faint xylophone-like noise. basically it sounds like a very dull, yet very automated, string of 6 or so low notes, played 3 times in a row very quickly. it almost sounds like a vitamin bottle is being shaked 3 times, or maybe like a door stopper being sprung back and let loose, but it has more tone than either of those options.
usually i hear this and it wakes me up as it is happening, and since it is so fast, in that split second i am coming out of unconsciousness it stops, and then i can't distinguish what it is or where it was coming from. i have even walked the house a few times looking for an electrical device that is on but eventually convince myself it was in my head.
last night i heard it 3 times though and the last time my girlfriend was already awake and she heard it for the first time. so we are officially a little creeped out as we know it is consistent in the middle of the nights now. we work during the days but even on the weekend we have yet to hear it during the daytime. and it could be happening even more frequently at night that it just isn't waking me up every time. but even though it's dull, it's very distinct and still kind of loud.
we crossed all our t's and dotted our i's and just don't know what it could be. computer speakers are off, phones are in our room. we thought maybe the neighbor's could have a baby and the noise was an alarm they set several times in the night, but since we can barely hear their music we doubt we'd hear a baby alarm.
because it's so mechanical and automated (not manual sounding like someone is doing it) we thought first and foremost maybe a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm? are there any models that make low-pitched noises when batteries go out? it doesn't sound like a smoke alarm to us, but we are also used to apartment alarms which all sound the same. also i thought maybe the thermostat makes a noise when a temperature is reached or a program is started. but i'm pretty confident we would have heard that before. we have an alarm system but that is not set and unplugged and the breaker is turned off for it. i have turned it on before and the noise it gets for not being armed is very high pitch as well. we also have surround sound throughout the house, that recently was told to be broken (the amp), though the speakers work fine. we wonder if the broken amp is sending some warning noise through the speakers and we are hearing that. still, only in the middle of the night is odd.
other than that we are out of ideas. this post might be in vain and really i don't know what else to do as far as searching for information on the internet goes, but maybe some others could at least throw out a suggestion or an idea as to how to isolate the noise since this is a home-forum and i'm sure there could be noises we aren't considering. quite frankly, it's happening only in the middle of the night and it's happening so very often is starting to creep us out. thanks for the help.