Our house has a weird acoustic quirk.
So our house is a typical UK/Northern Irish three bedroom end terrace. Our ‘front’ door is actually in the side of the house, on the unattached gable end. When you open the door you are in a squarish vestibule with the staircase to your right, a door in front of you and a door to your left.
Walking through the door in front of you brings you to the kitchen. Walking through the door to your left brings you to our house long ‘front room’. Or lounge. Or living/dining room. Or whatever you want to call it.
Taking the stairs takes you to the bathroom on the right and Adam’s room on the left. The other bedroom on the left is Simon and mines and then across the hall is my office/studio.
Got it? Good.
So, the quirk:
If you are sitting anywhere in the front room and the front room and the kitchen doors are open, you can hear absolutely anything said in the kitchen.
If, however, you are in the kitchen, you can maybe hear a few words, if they are shouted, from the front room.
It really doesn’t make sense as the door to the front room is past the door to the kitchen, so somehow the sound can turn that corner into the front room but can’t turn it back into the kitchen.
Is sound like water? Does it follow the path of least resistance? And so things said in the front room goes up the stairs?