noted in several types of houses for me too

Same problem with Hammer. Hit a zombie from full health to death (mine, not the zombie...), and the zombie found it quite funny as he beat me to death. Probably 20-30 swings of the hammer, right at it's head.

Video of my death: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9rFBCPpRVA&feature=share&list=UUl0YSEfNVaxp7fQP-0VR-yw

Same here. I'm guessing the timer is just long, though having waited 5 mins, I felt that was enough and re-spawned. A timer would be nice.