My wife and I closed on our home purchase last Friday. Bungalow, built in 1916 in a nice neighborhood. Ugly 10 or 15 year old wall to wall carpet in the living and dining rooms which are basically one continuous space. Under the carpet, we are assured in writing and verbally , is 1 1/2″ strip oak flooring in good condition. I pulled up the carpet in a few places before the purchase and it looked pretty darn good.
I intended to let the carpet be for a few months before tearing it up, but my wife suggests that “WE” (ha ha) do it before moving any furniture in. She had sort of a point so I took up about 8′ of the carpet from the opposite ends. The floor was IMO nothing less than spectacular. Very happy at this point.
Well another 6″ into it I see some “white stuff” on the floor. I keep pulling and it quickly becomes very apparent that I have leveling compound right in the middle of my beautiful floor. In the end about 100 sq/ft had been leveled out before they put down the carpet. Most of it came off real easy with the finish intact, but around the edges where it feathered out to nothing it’s stuck fast. My wife wants to know how long before I get it all off. I said, “Honey, “WE” will get it done real soon.”
Anybody else have any stories about good or bad suprises you discovered in your own or customer’s homes?
Replies
Bits of squirrel in non-fireplace chimney (bottom of chimney). Octopus in the basement - the original coal burning which was retrofitted for gas, 1920s(?) white and red gold wedding band inscribed w/Ellen inside (guessing it was a wedding band, fits on none of my fingers) on the floor underneath the hideous formica kitchen countertop, empty small glass jar w/Dr Smith's Pills raised on the side, copper bracelet(1970s-maybe), 1940s paper doll w/clothes from a newspaper and solid maple floor in kitchen under hideous olive green lineoleum and oak in bathroom, also under lineoleum.
No bones or corpses, no hidden stained glass windows, gold or other treasures. Darnit.
Life is too short so eat dessert first, especially if it happens to be Cookingmonster's triple cinnamon truffles or her ginger-fig caramels.
10 silver dollars with dates from 1890 to 1920.
worth from 7 to 15 dollars apiece.
For a minute I thought I had early retirement!!Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Not in a home, but found an unknown graveyard in a 100 year old neighborhood while surveying for utilities. Gas line excavation exposed many graves in an old squatters camp. Ditcher shot bones everywhere...
Found a jar filled with silver dollars by a corner post. Returned it to the property owner, which really tickled her. Seems her father had buried it sometime in the early 20's.
Found a lot of snakes and mean dogs too....
Found a sack of real old Playboys in the attic floor next to a bag of mint dollar coins but your thread reminds me of something more apparent than surprises not that Playboys in an attic floor surprised me (killed about an hour of my day).
When I go to customers houses they "always" say when WE do this or that..makes me laugh cause I think exactly the same thing you do.....my wife always says that when I'm the one covered in dirt and sweat at the end of the day. Its also funny to hear her tell her friends what WE did on the house.
I told a good customer of mine while doing her job about the "we" phrase after she said it about a dozen times in five minutes. She cracked up and never said it again..lol
Be we
Namaste'
andy
In his first interview since the stroke, Ram Dass, 66, spoke with great difficulty about how his brush with death has changed his ideas about aging, and how the recent loss of two old friends, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, has convinced him that now, more than ever, is the time to ``Be Here Now.''
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Once while demoing a little bath in a 1929 house, I pulled the plaster and lath off and saw a small. neatly wrapped package. It was somebodies sandwich they either set on the blocking and forgot about, or more than likely, some "friend" stashed it there for safe keeping.
Lots and lots of marbles, wheat pennies, and the huge flat head screwdriver I keep in my Bucket Boss to this day.
rg
Got too sore to keep reading did you???
Found a Wards A 20 single barrel breech load 12ga shotgun in a rack over a fire place that was behind a wall that no one knew was there. The gun or the fireplace. About 20 wax paper rounds were with it.
90$ in aluminium beer cans on the back porch. Does that this one count?
I just discovered a 25 pound meteorite about 100 yards from the front door of the house my wife and I are building. According to the experts, I had a far better chance of winning the lottery than finding any rock from outer space, much less one that large. On the down side - the lottery would have paid a little better. :-)>
There were also about 10 boulders all over our property that weigh several tons apiece. Apparently, when they blasted their way through our limestone hill to put in a highway forever and a day ago, they just drug their refuse far enough onto our property to hide it and left it there. We had our site work contractor push all of them up to the house with his CAT for landscaping. I'm working on a deal to trade a couple of them for some custom cabinet work too.
The meteorite was just lying on top of the ground near one of the boulders. Since no self respecting 25 pound meteorite is going to hit the ground without leaving a bit of a divot, I'm guessing it was actually exhumed and dumped on our place when they built the road too.Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
Years ago while helping my dad with a foundation repair on an old Oklahoma farm house, the client mentioned snakes and critters gettin in the back door. We went to the back of the house which turned out to be an old lean-to porch extension she said was put on back in the 30's. After pulling up a few floor boards we discovered a hole about 10' across with the top of water about 3' down.
Turned out to be a an old, very old, cistern that still caught run-off.
My dad wouldn't let be treble hook or drag the cistern, darn. Just knew I'd find a pirates booty. My dad said I might find "ol' uncle fred".
Anyway long story short it took two 12yard dumpsters of sand and 3 days of my back to shovel that sucker full.
Kevin, I don't know rocks from operas, how did you suspect the thing was from outer space?
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Here was our recent surprise :)
http://www.houseinprogress.net/archives/000130.html
It weighs a whole lot more than other rocks of similar size, it has a black iron and rust colored shell with thumbprint indentations all over it, a magnet is strongly attracted to it and it looks completely different than any other rock I've ever laid eyes on. I initially thought it might be a chunk of molten iron out of a volcano or something.
Oh yea, did I mention that it weighs a LOT more than other rocks of similar size? Like, when I went to pick it up I thought it was attached to something buried under ground. I would say the weight is comparable to lead - maybe heavier. That was my first clue. It just has incredible mass.
The rest was just internet research. I found several meteorite pictures and descriptions that were identical to it. I still have to have it certified by a university that specializes in meteorites before it is considered legit but everyone who has seen it that has experience with meteorites has assured me it's the real deal.
The digital camera is out of the office right now but I'll try to bring it in and post a picture of it tomorrow.Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
A pic would be great, I've never seen one, actual or photo (museum stuff doesn't count.)
Thanks.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
You can find meteorites in your own yard.
Only much smaller!!
take a magnet and put it in a sammich bag.
Rub it around in the dirt under your down spouts.
You will get a bunch of small particles the are iron based.
Take a look at them with a magnifying glass or a microscope.
Some will be roofing nail fragments or other construction debris.
But the ones that look like little bits of lava or slag are from outer space!!!
Get the kids involved!!!
My son had this for a 4th grade science project this year. it is cool!!Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Thanks for the tip; I never thought about it. Now where did I put that magnet...
After all the rain we've had this year, the gutters are spotless.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Sorry but I left in a hurry this morning and forgot to bring it with me. It's an interesting enough find that I think I will start a meteorite thread as soon as I can remember to bring it in.
Thanks for your interest - sorry I "spaced" it.Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
I don't think that is a mertorite.
It is Paul Bunyon's bowling ball.
At first glance I thought maybe it was petrified cow manure.Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
Okay so you are in Texas but isn't that streching the size of the cows a little?
I think its stretching something on the cow!
Got too sore to keep reading did you???
Never too sore cept from working.........
You're one of my favorite new guys here so theres no way I could ever get sore at you.
Far as books go.....I'm an open one...my wife says, "to open".
Sure you don't wanna do the Ram Dass week?....lol
Be whatever
Namaste
andy
In his first interview since the stroke, Ram Dass, 66, spoke with great difficulty about how his brush with death has changed his ideas about aging, and how the recent loss of two old friends, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, has convinced him that now, more than ever, is the time to ``Be Here Now.''
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Rental re-hab can be fun. About a month ago I was replacing an old wall-hung sink with a new vanity and molded top. Now, I've owned this property since 1980, and lived in this apt. myself until 1986. Found a nice, long herringbone gold necklace in the crack between the wall and the ( sagging ) sink. Current tenant said it wasn't hers and from the accumulated dirt, I could tell it had been there for a while.
Wife had never seen it before, but it's hers now ! I'd say in 23 years I've had about 10 different tenants in that unit.
Greg.
Andy, that's FNG... You know that....
Spoke with a few people around here about about Ram Dass... Doing my home work so to to speak.
Sounds to be a hellva party...
Still going to decline.
All the waste lines in our house ceased working about 6 weeks after we bought it, and we couldn't get our puny snake past the first T in the line. The rooter guy tries his snake from the last toilet on the line, and it gets stuck. He had about 30 feet into it, so he figures that a tree in the yard had crushed the sewer line out to the street. He spends quite a bit of time trying to pull it and then leaves, mumbling that he has NEVER left one behind before. They come back the next day with the camera and a bobcat, but want to get the rooter out of the way first. After three of them give a mighty yank, it comes loose and they pull it in, bringing a rats nest of wires with it. My neighbor (retired plumber) that I hadn't met yet wanders over and points to a grassy spot right next to the house and says there is a sewage ejection pump right there. The rooter had wrapped about 25 of those 30 feet in the little septic collection chamber and pulled the pump right off it's housing, and destroying it. The wooden vault around it was caving in and the job of emptying the little septic tank so it could be worked on was seriously nasty. Having a sewage ejection pump buried in the yard was weird and unusual enough that the master plumber for the company came out to have a look-see. This definitely falls into the 'not-so-nice' surprise category.
The presence of a sewage ejection pump is supposed to be disclosed and we contacted the selling real estate agent, but she just "couldn't seem to locate" the previous owner. Those seller disclosure agreements aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
It wasn't her job to find them. (At least in Colorado, and probably wherever you are)
The seller's property disclosure is a document relaying info from seller to buyer. The only way to recover damages from a seller who lied is to hire an attorney... If you were the victim of fraud it's up to you to pursue it.Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
Legally perhaps not, though I wonder what could happen to her license if she knowingly allowed false statements on that disclosure (not that she could have in this case). Plus, she had their address long enough to overnight the final closing papers to them and get her check! If she valued her reputation as a listing agent, she would make the effort. The presence of a sewage ejection pump lowers the value of the house, in addition to having been a costly repair, and her job is to set the value of the house and attempt to be factual on the listing. Realtors are numerous around here and my memory for things like that is pretty good. And I have friends who will sell their houses someday. She won't be listing any of our homes. Nor, for that matter, will anybody in her office, since birds of a feather tend to flock together.
I agree that she should have tried, but do you know that she didn't or are you being cynical towards your broker? If you know for a fact that your broker didn't try to contact the sellers and if you know for a fact that she knew about the situation and didn't disclose it to you, then yes, she should be in trouble. Remember, lots of people leave the area right after they sell property and they can be very hard to contact. If you are simply deciding that she did something wrong and have no actual evidence of it, yours would be the type of business that our real estate office would be glad to lose. Obviously, I don't know, but you do.
I agree that birds of a feather flock together in many cases. And some show of a Realtor symbol with the claim of ethics training for Realtors doesn't mean squat! You can't train someone to be ethical in an 8 hour class.
I've also seen many cases where buyers didn't do what they could and should have done to check out the property, and then they want to blame someone else (often the broker, but sometimes the seller, the title company, the inspector, etc.).
The term "due diligence" refers to diligence due from the buyer, not from the broker. Did you have the property inspected before you bought?Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
To answer you in reverse:
Yes, I had the property inspected, but not by someone from this town, so he had absolutely no way of knowing that the city sewer line in this particular block (on others it is normal depth) is only 5 feet deep and that a sewage ejection pump would be necessary.
I suppose I could have gone through all of the city records to determine that the sewer line was high, but there are other basements on the block so it didn't occur to me. Short of digging up the entire yard there was no other way to determine the existence of this pump. We were just lucky that the neighbor was visiting his son at the moment he did and remembered about the pump, otherwise we would have destroyed the whole thing digging out the line.
I know for a fact that the realtor knew where they moved because they moved before the final closing. She had to contact them to close and get paid. Obviously, they could have moved again in the 6 weeks after that and been impossible to find, but I have no idea if she tried to locate them or not. I contacted my realtor, he contacted the listing realtor, and when I called a couple of days later he said she hadn't found the previous owners.
As for blaming somebody, I was a little peeved at the previous owner, about not disclosing, but I don't blame him for it breaking down. I was buying a 30 year old house and expected to have problems with it. I was just annoyed because a lot of expense occurred because we didn't know about the existence of the pump. We had to pay the excavator for showing up, even though he didn't need to excavate. We had to buy a new pump because the old one was destroyed by the rooter - no chance of a repair. Plus, because we thought it was a collapsed sewer line we tore up the concrete in our driveway in a spot that turned out to be totally unnecessary.
As I said, I have no way of knowing if she actually tried to contact the sellers. I would feel far more charitable towards the realtor if she had contacted me and said "I really tried, but I can't find the sellers. This upsets me because I would never try to misrepresent a property." She definitely knew where I live!
Sounds like you may indeed have gotten stuck...
In your records of the sale you should have the sellers name. Have you tried to search for their address/phone yourself. Worldpages.com and various others are amazingly easy. But, supposing you find the old owner: Then what? Legal action?
Just a minor point: At least here in Colorado, the listing broker doesn't get paid directly by the seller. The brokerage gets paid by the closing agent. Used to be that brokerages closed their own sales, but hardly ever now days.
Good luck!Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
How long did the seller live there?
Is it possible that they never knew that it was there either?
The seller had been there eight years, the pump was about 5 years old or less, according to the plumber that worked on it. When I looked at the house, the seller told me he had dug in that exact spot to fix a leaking water main, so it was almost impossible for him not to know that it was there.
To Hasbeen: yes I think I got stuck. But my thought process was just like you said: did I really want to go after the three thousand dollars or so I was out (no realistic chance of recovering the lost value in the house) and anger a guy who was a little scary when I met him? Especially when I would get only a small percentage IFF I won the case and after paying off the lawyer. Instead we had the plumbing fixed, replaced the collapsing wooden vault with steel and went on with our lives. Someday we will upgrade the plumbing in this house and at that time we will reroute the main floor to avoid the pump.
Enough of this tangent. Anyone got more surprises?
getting back to subject, I had to install a fireplace insert once in an old Inn in Colorado from about the last turn of the century. I haad to remove one stone from the facing that protruded into the openning to get the unit in.
behind that stone was a long bone like would be from a human arm.
I said to myself, "Naw, couldn't be...." and finished the installation and reseated the stone over things..
Excellence is its own reward!
Don't you just love those "WE"s!!!!!! They have no concept. I think most women think us men are magic men. We snap our fingers and the bathroom is remodeled! And then it is "We remodeled the bathroom".
Sorta like all the guys celebrating because "we" won the Superbowl...
I'll have you know "WE" did.
LOL
" My wife wants to know how long before I get it all off. I said, "Honey, "WE" will get it done real soon.""
my wife says, "We need to do such and such"
I respond, "Saturday sounds good"
Saturday AM - She says, "See ya, I going ______"
Hmmmmm, good time for Breaktime!
Excellence is its own reward!
Found quite a suprise when we moved in one year ago to our 90 year old house. The previous owner lived here 29 years and didn't do any maintanance. The first thing we did was to pull out the old AC units (they were in the window so long that the ivy on the outside of the house worked its way in between the sashes, and attached itself inside the house!). Thank god they don't make them like the used to. The 8,000 BTU unit must have weighed 180lbs and took a 220 line.
Next we pulled up all the carpet - every floor was covered with carpet or vinyl. The indents in the carpet on the steps were so deep that I was sure the wood was very well worn. To our suprise, it was actually in very good shape having been covered for most of its life with carpet. It was only the pad that was compressed.
In one of the rooms with an AC, the unit must have been leaning in to the house for several years, and all the condensation dripped onto the carpet and onto the floor. There was no indication of this when we inspected the house. The carpet appeared dry on the surface, but once pulled we saw that the pad was soaked. The floor swelled from the moisture and was blackened. The excess moisture dripped down into dining room below and put a big water stain on the ceiling. The previous owner must have known about this, but never disclosed it. He did put a few coats of highly textured water proof paint on the ceiling of the dining room to cover it up.
We did find one item on the seller disclosure that we could prove was incorrect. Upon showing him our proof, he was willing to fully pay for the needed repair.
Matthew
Along those lines, have you ever been the one to leave the surprises?
Every time I open a wall I put in a newspaper or a flyer so the next guy will know what we spent our money on.
I have put in money, photos, and collectable trading cards as well.
I have only ever found a couple screwdrivers and bottles, not very exciting stuff.
I was contract manager on a housing project in Canterbury, Kent and found a neolithic stone axe. The museum I donated it to told me it was about 20,000 years old and had been used to scrape hides.Funny feeling to know that the last person to touch it was 20,000 years dead!
IanDG
I found newspapers from 1917. One was from a few days before Registration Day. It seems every business shut down to allow all of the young men go sign up for the war in Europe. A NY Times has a little piece about the success of a few test one-way streets. The city was considering converting a few more.
Found four liquor bottles between the rafters in the attic. Someone had a secret.
Also found water bills, tax records, and insurance papers from the early 40's. The papers mention a novelty toothpick business run out of the house. That would explain the occasional find under base molding....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
Thanks to all for the interesting posts. A little update, so far I haven't found.....any silver dollars, silver certificates, Playboy mags, meteorites, used condoms, dead squirrels, bones of any kind, sandwiches, liquor bottles, etc.........
but I did find........a 1932 coin from South Africa, a gold (plated, darn it) crucifix, a Rx tube of antibiotic cream dated 1994, a dandelion digger, a cement rabbit sans ears, an unopened package of various sizes of Craftsman jig saw blades, a Marvin comic taped to the back of a door, an old sad iron, a "church basement" type table with folding legs, a small anvil, bird feathers in the basement, an iron cauldron type thing that is really big enough to boil missionaires or what-have-you in, and "found out" that the elderly neighbor lady next door has a large building named after her because she donated a cool million dollars to the agency that is housed in it. Oh, and she has a cat named Simon that talks to her in human speech. And "WE" still have that nasty crap on our floor.
Ok, I'll admit to being old fashioned; I'll put a couple of pennies in the foundation, or under a bottom plate, for luck.
Found a door used as sheathing, once. Wasn't in the best of shape; it wasn't hurting anything; HO said it's ok--so it's still there. I also found a great DIY job--a double-hung, all wood window just left in the wall and covered over. That was trim and casework entire, the lath was notched around the former exterior sill and the stool, back whenever cousin Clem and Unc' Harry addeded tha back room ahn . . . Stripped down, cleaned up, new paint--it made a neat feature in the home office.
I start a kitchen renovation on monday, and the thing the HO made clear at the start was to get rid of the windows. Seems if you open the cabinet under the sink, you can see the lower sash to the window above. A second window to the left is also buried, only the upper sash provides any view. They sheathed over them and covered the side with vinyl. But it ain't final. It's coming off monday.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Kings used to use the royal "we", as in, "We are not amused".
At work I use the managerial "we", as in, "We should do this" (YOU should do this).
Once I pointed it out to my staff and now we laugh about it when it happens.
As long as I am pointing out stuff that they are understandably responsible for its ok (as in, I am guiding them with my experience). But if I started trying to weasel them into doing my work or something it would not be funny any more, would it?
About spouses doing this, its more murky. In a workplace the jobs are well defined. In a marriage they tend to be less so. What anoys me are spouses who make lists of what the other one has to do (I guess that is why I'm single?). Like, as if only one spouse is responsible enough to decide what work needs doing. The relationships that I've seen that seem to work the best are ones where both parties are looking for what they each need to do and do not regularly dictate the other's jobs.
But, then again, maybe some guys really need to have a 'mother' around to compell them to get stuff done? (this is not meant to be sexist, just an observation that some people, deep down inside, really do want to be told, and others really don't).
Norm
Rugby,
Congratulations on the new house!
A good find and a bad find:
An apprentice project in our city was to help rewire a classic home being restored by the historical society.In the ceiling above a dining room light fixture(where an electrical box would be today) was a rolled up parcel of silver certificates dating back to just after the civil war.
On a not so lucky note I was working on a federal housing project re-model and had to fish the wall behind a bedroom door.The door knob had busted a hole in the plaster and that's where the tenant deposited his condoms when he was done with them,a whole stud space full.
Oh yuck. THAT should be a required disclosure.
Bought a cottage in MI overlooking Lake Michigan. Inspector said OK, termite treatment done, no signs of activity. Later decided to remodel; had TWO architects look it over and do plans (for substantial bucks). Found an excellent contractor and in ONE hour he found that: 1. both architects drawings of existing foundation were wrong, missing fact that basement was 1/2 size they indicated, with NO foundation under rermainder of building; 2. slab under old part of building was cracked, settled, undercut by bad drainage; 3. exterior walls consisted of 3/8" siding over furring strips over fake half-round "logs" over NO STUDS, just 1x6 pine panelling. The fake vertical logs rotted off 6"-10" above the DIRT the remnants of the sill rested on, so that roof supported by LR panelling! Moral: you can be an architect, certified by their assn., and not know S***!