[stags]

I don't believe in ghosts at all but this experience sure made me wonder:

Mid '80's my then GF and I bought our first house, an old frame two story built in the early 1800's. It needed a lot of updating/repair but the lot alone was worth the price and I wanted to try my hand at a resto.

We had been told that the old steel hot water baseboard system was noisy when it cranked up so we got used to hearing the clanging sounds during those first cool fall nights. Then one night my GF woke me up insisting someone was in the house and coming up the stairs. We had no kids and slept with the bedroom door open. Sure enough I heard it too and it didn't sound like the usual pipe noises. It was a THUD then TAP, TAP pause then repeat. Thing was, it seemed to get louder each time, like someone coming up the stairs. I didn't have a gun nearby but if I did, it would have been in my hand. I yelled out something but got no response - the noise just went on. Just when it seemed to get really loud (close) - it stopped!! We never heard that same sound again.

About a month or so later we had a plumber in to check on the heating sytem for the winter. He was recommended by the seller and told us he had been working at the house for them and the owners before as well. He asked if we had known the elderly brother and sister who had lived there most of their lives - we hadn't. He told us the brother had died after a long illness and the sister died in her bed about six months later. I didn't think anything of this until he said: "I always wondered how, after he died, she got up and down those stairs by herself with that walker".

THUD, TAP, TAP.

I'm sure it was just the pipes - yea, just the pipes.