My New House Might Be Haunted... Help?

This is an ongoing haunting that is occurring in my new house. I have had experiences before, and I might write about them some time in the future, but I would like advice for this house first. I have lived here for going on three months, and have racked up about four encounters that are making me think my house is haunted. First, I'll tell you about the house. It has a basement that looks like dungeon, two bedrooms on the ground floor, a set of incredibly steep stairs that lead up to the second floor. There is a surprisingly heavy door about a fourth of the way up the stairs. You open it, go up four or five more steps, and turn to see a really wide hallway with two closets, and two bedrooms.

My very first encounter happened before we had officially moved in. I was sent to the new house to wait for the water man to come and turn on the water. I sat in one of the downstairs bedrooms to wait, watching YouTube videos on my phone. Suddenly there was a loud thump upstairs. I jump out of my chair, scared by how loud it was. It was directly above my head. I decided to go check it out, dialing 911 into my phone, but not pressing send. I crept upstairs, looking around. There is nothing in either of the two rooms. I even checked the closets, even though I was terrified. Nobody was there. There was no furniture that I could tip over to account for that thump. There was also nothing hanging on the walls.

I beat a quick retreat, and pulled a fold up chair that I had been sitting on earlier to the front door. This way, I could watch the doors on the stairs to see if someone had some how been hidden. Also, I was right by the front door so I could run away. Then I heard a bunch of softer thumps. They were softer than the original thump but loud enough to scare me. I thought it sounded like someone running around upstairs, or when my dogs run around playing. Much too loud to be just the house settling. I got ready to run, but nothing was opening the door, so I just waited it out until the water guy came. Once he got there, the sounds stopped. He does his things and leaves. I sat there until my mother came home with some of my brothers and sisters, trying my hardest to not think about the thumps. I texted a friend to distract myself.

Finally, my family came to clean up the new house and make sure it was ready for us to move in. With them there I was confident enough to run upstairs and check the upstairs again. That was when I realized that the second story windows cannot be opened from the outside. Some of them are painted shut, and the other two are locked with their screens in place. There is no way to lock the windows from outside, and no way to reach the window without a ladder in the first place. There was no explanation for those noises that I can possibly think of.

My second encounter involved the stairs. I was trying to shuffle the dogs outside for a potty break. I was in the dining room, right beside the stairs, when a quick flash of white dashed up the stairs. At the time we had a partly white cat that my sister was keeping for a friend. I thought it was the cat. Since it was nervous around the dogs, I decided to close the stairs door so the two dogs wouldn't freak the cat out, but I realized that the door was closed, and the cat was not there. It couldn't have gone up and then down without me noticing, since I was right there. Anyway, I walked up to pull on the door, just to be sure that it was closed all the way, and it definitely was. You can hear the door opening or closing because of the incredibly loud clicking that happens when you turn the knob. And you can hear it audibly rubbing against the thick carpeting of the stairs. It is not obnoxiously loud, but you definitely notice the noise if you are in the dining room or kitchen. I was in the dining room, right by the stairs. I did not hear the door close. I walked back down stairs, and saw the cat sitting on one of the dining room chairs, ignoring the dogs. I told my mother, who is in the kitchen watching me with a bemused expression on her face, what had just happened. She smiled and shrugged, brushing it off. I tried not to think about it and let the dogs outside.

Speaking of the dogs, they are around me all the time when I am home. I have one of the upstairs bedrooms. When I am sitting up there, they will routinely stare intently out into the hallway. Especially at night. I will listen intently, and usually hear something to explain it. At those times, I will be able to snap them out of it. Sometimes I can't hear anything, but can still snap them out of it. But sometimes, they can't be snapped out it. They don't growl, but they are scarily intense. No matter how much I try to get them to stop, they refuse. I can snap them out of it when they hear sirens, when there is a thunderstorm, or any other time when they get scarily intense. It is only at these particular times when I can't step them out of it. The only time they get anywhere close to behaving this way is when a squirrel is in their sights. It's scary, but I can't be sure that this is paranormal. Can they be reacting to hearing a squirrel outside? I doubt it, but I'd love to hear back about these particular instances if possible, especially with dog or cat owners who have gone through haunting. I haven't told anyone about them doing this.

And the final encounter that I have had happened just before I started writing. In fact, it is what prompted me to write this. It was the most... How do I say this... Intimate (?) encounter that I have ever had to date. It creeped me out a little. I was just standing at the kitchen counter making a taco, and felt a distinct rubbing on my right calf. At first I thought I had a blood clot in my leg because I'm sort of a hypochondriac and I had just read about Deep Vein Thrombosis. But then I realized how stupid that was, because why would I have a blood clot in my leg? Anyway, after about a minute of continual rubbing, my mind flitted through a list of explanations, from a stray thread on my shorts to a fly or mosquito to the cat or one of the dogs. But after none of these things proved true, and it just kept happening even after I moved around a lot, I began to suspect that a ghost was to blame. I was freaked out and ran up stairs to my room.

I am nineteen now--I was eighteen when I moved in a few months ago--and I live in northern Indiana. I have tried to tell my parents and siblings about this, but they don't believe me. Nothing has happened to them. Part of me hopes that they will have an experience, but I kind of think that that is mean thing to want. Is it? I just want some confirmation that I'm not crazy and/or imagining this. Please, any advice? Anyone? I'm kind of scared, because it's only happening to me. Now I would like some advice if anyone has any for me. I don't think this is evil or demonic, but I'm scared. Nobody is taking me seriously and I'm worried that the activity could escalate, or turn evil. Please, any advice at all about how to handle this would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance!