When you live in apartments and other “we’re in college” housing, you grow to ignore weird sounds you hear. It might be a radio, pot-bellied pigs, or something otherwise not your concern as a renter.

But, when you move to a house, especially a free-standing one (not attached to any other building), any sound you hear is coming from your house. It may not be a problem, but it calls for investigation.

It took me a long time to get used to this when I moved from apartments and the co-op to a house, but it’s paid off, like when that pipe broke under the house.