Between the door to my bedroom and the door to the connected bathroom there is a switch. The switch does nothing. There is a light switch not two feet away that turns the lights on over the sinks. There are switches in the bathroom for everything in there. On the other side of the door there is switch to turn the ceiling fan off and an unused switch to the never installed fan lights on and off. The mystery switch controls none of the outlets in the room, whereas nearly every other room in the house has a switch that turns an outlet on and off.
The mystery switch appears to be connected to nothing at all. Although I will occasionally play with the switch and hope I am turning the neighbors tv on and off.
Congratulations! The other end of the sock wormhole must open in your children’s rooms. Lord knows all my disappeared socks must go somewhere (likewise everyone else’s). Could you send my husband’s black stripey one back? It was his favorite pair.
All this talk of isolated heat and cold reminds me of a mysterious event at a friend’s ranch. They had a couple hundred acres on top of the limestone bluff overlooking an isolated stretch of the Llano River in the Hill Country of Central Texas. You couldn’t see any other place for miles upstream or down. There was a barbed wire fence running along the bluff top edge to keep cattle from straying too near the cliff. It wasn’t electrified, nor was any other fence for miles around.
However, if you walked a couple hundred yards away from the ranch house there was one little barbed wire end, just a piece, that permanently glowed red hot. You could touch the fence around it a foot or two back and it was normal temp and held no current. But that one little end glowed. They just happened to see it by chance one evening, otherwise in the daytime you had to put paper against it and it would ignite. This lasted for at least a couple years after they discovered it and then, without explanation, it stopped.
I sometimes wish I had some cool mystery in my house. I got nothing. We remodeled extensively, and didn’t find anything cool stuffed in the walls. So my husband decided to leave crap in the walls for the next person. Empty beer cans in one wall, newspapers in another, a book (can’t remember which though now) in one, and other stuff that I probably don’t even know about.
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The mystery switch appears to be connected to nothing at all. Although I will occasionally play with the switch and hope I am turning the neighbors tv on and off.
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I’ve got a basement I’ve never seen. Under one wing of the house.
Apparently, when the last owner decided to renovate the basement, the only place to put the bathroom he was putting in was across the opening to the wing’s basement. So he did. And now, I’ve got a nicely renovated basement, with a working bathroom, but no way to access the wing’s basement.
I have no idea what may be in there. Frozen aliens? Judge Crater? Al Capone’s loot? I may never find out.
For us, the mystery is why the place looks like it was painted by meerkats.
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This is going to depend on which neighbor it is. The nice guy who didn’t let us borrow his ladder to clear a blocked gutter - he did it for us. Or the ones on the other side with the trampoline that began falling apart microseconds after being dumped in the yard and who also let there bavarian tick hound poop all over the neighborhood.
Also, when we moved into the house there were no towel bars anywhere in the house. I don’t think any of the previous three owners ever hung up a towel.
Most of our household mysteries involve why the hell the original owner had things done a certain way.
Why the hell did he have them build a beautiful staircase in the middle of the very open floor-plan, but then have it only lead to the attic.
Why the hell did he have them build an attic with a door that is only about 4’ tall.
Why the hell did he go to the trouble of having a beautiful loft with beautiful woodwork built above the kitchen/dining area, visible as soon as you walk in the front door and then make the only access to that loft be a trap door in the dining area ceiling? The fireplace and loft (the chimney goes up through the loft) are two of the most impressive things about this house yet the loft is almost completely useless. Even more annoying is the fact that the beautiful staircase is right next to the loft but there’s no way to open access from one to the other without a complete overhaul of our roof.
There are 2 double coat hooks which were installed when we moved in. One is on a post next to the stairs. The other is in the dining area. Both were installed on about a 130° angle. Why?
We also have some mysteries that aren’t original owner related.
Why does the brand new smoke alarm in the basement keep going off? The battery has been changed twice. The smoke alarm does actually detect smoke. We know it’s in working order because the fire inspector was here as it was being installed.
We very frequently have very loud snapping/cracking noises. I’m assuming that it’s the sound of the house settling. Log cabins don’t make the same noises as regular houses. I’m curious to know though if one day the house is just going to fall down. The structural engineer we had in last Fall said the house was in great shape but those cracking noises still have me wondering just what the hell is going on.
In front of our porch, there’s a huge, heavy, flat rock. It serves as the step from the front path to the front porch. It’s moving. Every time I go out there, it’s a bit farther down the path. We still haven’t figured out how we’re going to move it back to the original spot because it’s so damn heavy. So, how is it moving on its own?
I’m a little confused. You have a finished room with an attached bathroom in your basement that’s completely sealed off (no outside access) from the rest of the house? How do you even know that the room is? Is there even a window? That sounds really, really creepy. :eek: Like there’s a really nasty surprise in there waiting for you.
Have you tried removing the faceplate? Could be it’s a hidey-hole for some kind of stash.
When my ex and I built our house we had a couple of “outlets” that contained no electrical wiring. We used them as micro-safes for a bit of extra cash and jewelry in one and a place for a bit of something else in the other.
I’d be willing to bet the mystery switch and the switch that turns on the “never installed fan lights” are three way switches. Both controlling the “never installed fan lights.” This way you can walk out of the bathroom, turn the lights off and go to bed.
Tell me, does the mystery switch (and the other one) say “ON” and “OFF” on it like a typical switch or is it mysteriously blank?
There are a number of variables that can affect slope stability; dip, soil medium, moisture, etc. How steep is your path and does your soil contain a clay component? Do sprinklers cover the area?
When we purchased our home the owner, who was a builder, walked me through. He told me a particular switch on the living room wall did nothing. I came to discover later that it did in fact accompany the ceiling fan on/off switch and controlled the speed and direction. I discovered this by switching it when the fan was running, causing it to pop several times as it attempted to reverse itself.
Admittedly it would be strange if yours wasn’t right next to the fan switch. Is it though just on the opposite side of the wall?
Different country, therefore different codes, but my mother’s house is from 1975 and the fact that it had two circuits, as well as separate breakers in the kitchen itself for the stove and washer (now dishwasher, the washer lives in a bathroom) was a novelty.
I need to spend some time labeling the circuit breakers in my house, but I think I’ll just volunteer the first relative who comes visit to help me. Each single plug seems to be on a separate circuit.
It’s not quite a mystery any more, but it used to drive me nuts. I’d be doing whatever and hear the sound of running water from my bathroom, and it sounded like a mis-opened faucet or broken pipe. It’s actually coming from a neighbor’s flat but still makes me jump every time.
I bought my house 5 years ago and written in chalk above the door to the basement was, “10+K+M+04” and I have no clue what it could refer to. It was also written above the walkout basement door leading to the backyard. The previous owners first and/or last names did not begin with either K or M.
I jotted it down on a box in the basement before cleaning it off just in case I needed it but 5 years later I still have no idea what it means.
How do you even know that the room is? Is there even a window? That sounds really, really creepy. :eek: Like there’s a really nasty surprise in there waiting for you.
in the other.