Just curious as to what little treasures you guys have found during Demo. What was behind that wall or tucked up into the ceiling that you found while tearing plaster out.
Weird things…
Anything worth some value..
I havent had much luck. Other than an attic full of dead black birds. Set of old VW hubcaps. Several very old books. Not in good shape though or of value.
Who knows. What have you found?
And… did you turn it back over to the H.O
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Replies
Old salt bags (quart size) filled with antique marbles. Clay, Delft, etc in a soffit. Also once while doing a roof found an Estwing flat bar that I lost 10 years earlier when I replace facia & gutters.
I kept the bar & the HO split the marbles with me. She was living in the house she was born in 85 years earlier & the marbles were her older brothers.
A bee hive
I tore down a cabin once, and an entire 20 foot exterior wall was one big beehive.
The destination is not the point. The completion is not the point. Enjoy today. If you can't enjoy today, then what is the point ?
"the marbles were her older brothers."Were mom and pop a pair of bowling balls?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
WWII Japanese rifle, VW bumper, Magnetic ointment bottles, Peerless bung, bees, Jaw bone of an #### (no relation), newspapers from the 1800's, 1935 school bus license plate (covering a mouse hole), but I've yet to find any gold doubloons or anything else really worth big bucks.
Some mid 1950s plastic baseball coins. Must have come with a baseball card gum pack.
V Liberty nickel in a studbay of a stairway wall. Figure it was left there by the original carps.
be I always leave a coin now.
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Edited 4/30/2006 12:23 pm ET by rez
A pair of two stuffed squirrels with buttons for eyes, in a bag, inside the back of a staircase.
You should have seen my face when I put my hand in that bag. Thought they were dead rats. ;-)
"Let's get crack-a-lackin" --- Adam Carolla
Found a box of Ramset charges on top of a gas fireplace insert (inside the wall) during a recent job meeting w/ the architect. From the '80's, when the place was built out.
As I looked at a job I realized that a huge nest of about 1000 wasps was right in front of me on the ground inside of an outside door I opened. We waited until winter to take care of that mess before we started.
Found a carpenter's jack plane in a stud bay while renovating a 1951 tract home in Los Angeles, California - had a slightly cambered blade that was still razor sharp!
Also found in the same house: a bathroom stud cavity in which there were literally hundreds of used double-edged razor blades; they were apparently disposed of by dropping them through a slot on the inside of a medicine cabinet over several decades.
After the infamous Northridge earthquake toppled a concrete block fence, found several empty beer bottles that had been placed in the open cells of the CMU fence before it was capped.
When I was a kid, my best friend's house had black pipe running through the basement; the valves has WWII-vintage German insignia cast into them!
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
Edited 4/30/2006 5:20 pm by jazzdogg
Found a couple old shoes, apparently part of the good luck thing. Found some coins. An old pair of spectecles (wire rimmed glasses), and one of the best was an old folding metal lunch box. Latest project had a few old Ballantine beer cans and a couple of pint bottles too.
Few weeks ago, I went down to VA, checking out an old foreclosed house for a friend that was going to buy it. Fellow working for me tells me there was a hidden room in the attic and there was a box of stuff up there. I forget what was in it, he was pretty excited. Told him up front, we don't own it leave it right where it is. I wouldn't care if it was a bag of dog spit or a bag of gold coins. The rule is it's not mine, don't touch it.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
Newspapers from the 20s and an old washboard.
I was remodeling a Polish club I belonged to in 1983 and found an axe in a roof soffit. Looked at it, and it had my grand fathers name on it. He told me he lost it when he built the place in 1932. My mentor told me to keep it as a rememberance. Wish I could passit on to the next generation.
Greg in Connecticut
That's an awesome story about the hatchet.
The best I've found were dead rodents and an old chisel that fell off the top plate and dropped onto my head...that incident may actually explain a few things.
Glen in canadaCustom build, heritage restoration, heritage millwork.
Old horseshoe.
V-J Day newspaper. Boston Globe I believe.
Loads of neat goodies but my favorite is a letter from 1863 written by a lady in Charlston SC to a friend in Columbia SC and one paragraph is,
"Sam went to the hanging yesterday and said there was quite a crowd. Poor Mable, you know that's the 3rd son she had hung."
Did you keep that letter?
I dug up one side of the foundation of my 1929 house last summer to water proof it. Found a glass milk bottle that holds about a litre. Stamped into the glass was the name of some dairy company here in Chicago and on the bottom it said "28". I'm guessing that was the year the bottle was made. Fun to imagine some guy taking his lunch break when my house was being constructed, standing in the same spot I was and tossing his milk bottle in the hole before grabbing his shovel to back fill.
"I dug up one side of the foundation of my 1929 house last summer to water proof it. Found a glass milk bottle that holds about a litre. Stamped into the glass was the name of some dairy company here in Chicago and on the bottom it said "28". I'm guessing that was the year the bottle was made. Fun to imagine some guy taking his lunch break when my house was being constructed, standing in the same spot I was and tossing his milk bottle in the hole before grabbing his shovel to back fill."
I was doing the exact same thing here at my 1913 house, but instead of a milk bottle I found a Gluek Beer bottle. Must have been from a Friday lunch break. :-)
I've also found a 1913 era Copenhagen can inside a wall, various odd coins, children's valentines and other small things behind baseboards or window sills, a couple 1964 Playboy magazines hidden on top of the furnace, and behind 11 layers of wallpaper in the den I found that the plasterers had written some insults to the wallpaper crew.
A cat.
Coming to you from beautiful Richmond, Va.
I renovated an old barn that had hand hewn cedar timbers here in Florida. Surprised they lasted that long. But I digress...I found two bottles of dried plasma with rubber stoppers circa WWII. Used for volume expansion in the wounded.
Several years ago I was taking down a hard lid at a retail shop in a mall here in Seattle. I pulled the rock off and started to yank the joists out and a big box fell on my head. I opened it up and damned if there wasn't an Easter bunny suit in that box. I asked the managers of the shop and the mall if they knew anything about it and they all said no so I took it home and for the the last 22 years I have been delighting hundreds of kids at private Easter brunches and parties with that suit. Also at that same mall we opened up another section of wall in another location in the mall and found some vintage bondage and discipline porno mags that i'm sure by todays standards they would be "R" rated.
BjR
Back in the late '70s, in the Appalachian foothills, I was on my first day of work on a quarter-million-dollar house -- big stuff back then! We were banging together formwork for footers when I pulled a beautiful flint spear point from the fresh-cut red clay. That wasn't unusual in those lovely old hills, and each such find always came with the dim realization that the thing had been a part of the life of one of my forgotten ancestors who had thrived here and that were all but exterminated in Andy Jackson’s post-1838 housing boom.<!----><!----><!---->
<!----> <!---->
I had not yet met the owner of the home we were to build, and assumed, as always, that we were making a place to house his children and great grandchildren. I kept the ancient tool in my pocket for weeks until I finally met the owner, and then gave it to him, along with the story of exactly where it came from and my thoughts on what it meant to its maker and our place on the land. I was pleased to have made some connection across the centuries between his family and mine, and had a good time imagining some future parent telling the story of the old tool and their birthplace to little kids not yet born.<!----><!---->
<!----> <!---->
By the time we’d framed the house, it had been sold, and just after final inspection it sold again. Obviously (now), the whole idea of the big, ostentatious place was simply a monetary investment, with no real life involvement. After that, I always built any found arrowheads or whatever into the stud bays of new houses. Before much longer, I decided that I really didn’t want to build houses any more.<!----><!---->
<!----> <!---->
Now I sit on me old arse and just draw them, with enough distance to pretend that they represent the sort of continuity that I’d like to imagine they do. I let myself wonder, now and then, what a future carpenter might make of an arrowhead found during tear-out.<!----><!---->
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half of good living is staying out of bad situations
was working on a fireplace replacement job here in the
nude river valley a few years ago had already demoed
the chimney and started on the interior facewall and found
out it was a double facewall and that the interior room had
actually been reframed till it was a 10 " wall,well anyway while
removeing the old masonry from a stud cavity I felt something
FURRY AND MOVING yanked my arm out slitting it on an
ole rusty azz nail --screeching like a 300# fat gurl--knocking over
piled up masonry on my partner and just generally making a fool
out of myself,after calming down & armed with my trusty Brickhammer&
trowel"- I was gonna knock it out and cut the sum bit""s throat-
welt we got a light shining it into the hole we seen the nasty little thing _
green eyes just a shinin, teeth bared wanting to take a bite out of
this human that has invaded its nest------but it wasnt moving !!!---
---took a stick and poked it in the face ---expression didnt change ???---
reached in and pulled out the sorriest looking looking product oF
taxidermy ive ever seen a stuffed ,mouse eatin consipated looking
Bobcat --I ran into the homeowner a few weeks ago he told me he
still has the thing he looks at it when he is feelin like he needs
a good laugh hoho-hehe- yech right-------DW
In Israel during the 1940's immediately prior to gaining independence from the British, the local defense forces were all underground, as a result whatever weapons they had were kept well hidden. After Israel became an independent nation in 1948, of course the underground militia's were all outlawed. However a few "store rooms" clearly were forgotten.
Earlier this year, right around the block from my house, an electrician doing renovations in a local synagogue was quite surprised to find out that the cabinet which hold the torah scrolls was also hiding a large number of very old hand grenades! All in quite usable condition, just that old explosives tend to be rather unstable. Fortunately for him, he was smart enough just to get out and let the police bomb squads do the clean up.
I had lost a saw that my dad gave me many years earlier. I found it 3 years later in some cabinets that I had ripped out of a store and taken to the owner's warehouse. He had called me back to partition the office in his warehouse and I had to move the old cabinets out of the way.
I had often wondered what happened to that saw as I am usually pretty careful with my tools.
A bag of pot and some rolling papers on top of a Garage wall.
Uhhhhhh, I forgot what else we found that day. I do remember lunch was great, especially the potatoe chips.
Edited 5/2/2006 10:56 am ET by txlandlord
Wallet with 63 dollars in paper and about 2.50 in coins. Gave it to the pastor of the church who owned the bathroom I was renovating.
Found a sex 'novelty' condom in an attic once. The heat had not been kind to it.
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Invictus, by Henley.
All ....decided to take down a wall and make part of our living space larger ,found a piece of 1x with a note on it ,said " Frankie thought you would take this wall down someday love ya Dad. " My Dad had been deceased almost 20 yrs and had built the wall that I was removing in our famlies home.
Empty Fifth of Vodka, hmmmmm
I have found local papers and some NY Times in the basement and attic of my house from 1917. One paper advertises all of the businesses being closed for Registration Day so all able-bodied men can go register for what would be WWI.
Found four bottles stashed in a rafter just over the knee wall storage area. Someone was sneeking a nip!
Found tax and insurance statements through the 1940's, including a note that the homeowner could get a lower rate if they were no longer making novelty toothipicks out of the house. That explains the toothpicks behind the trim....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
I was working on a school project 5 years ago and was in charge of alot of demo work, in one brick wall I found 3 hollow steel door frames that had been closed in on both sides with brick, it seems that the masons couldn't wait for a cold one, I found 8 empty Budweiser cans in that wall each with the date and the masons name scratched in them. The masons dates were from the early 80's.
My Mommy says I'm special.
I was not there that day . My dad was a builder when i was young i was in school that day, he was remodeling a legion hall and tore apart the main platform, hidden was a water cooledmachine gun and tommy guns. Nobody knew they were there. I begged my dad to take one but the old marine never even thought of it. I imagined myself pretty cool holding a tommy gun.
My house (attached photo) was built in 1900 in the old gold mining camp of Maysville, Colorado. Some of the original exterior balloon-framed walls are now interior, and are filled with slag from the smelter just across the river. Each stud bay holds a few hundred pounds of the stuff -- probably not especially healthy, but lots of thermal mass!
Houses of this era are often interesting, due to the common practice of plastering the walls with newspaper, and caulking gaps with bits of clothing.
}}}}
Foureagles, I went to school in Gunnison. I was dong double takes at your photo. Driven past your home many times. Ya live in a great part of the state. I am very jealous as I am stuck in Denver for now. Enjoy the high country. Tim
Found an old newspaper from the year the house was built. Interesting thing was that it was NY/NJ paper and the house is in MA.
Old chisel behind the fireplace.
The interesting stuff was behind the wallpaper on the original unpainted plaster. All sorts of notes and measurements that don't make much sense. I've looked at the one over the bathroom toilet ever time I'm in there and I still can't figure out what the measurments are for or what "soap & brab" means. Too bad we have to paint over it eventually, its an interesting conversation piece - for the guys at least who look at it. The gals never seem to notice but I guess they are facing the wrong way.
what "soap & brab" means.
Maybe "soap and grab" for the ceramic soap and grab combination units found in many tile tub walls.
Nope, its a half bath - no tub. It may say "soap and drab" but that doesn't make much more sense. It may have something to do with the ceramic soap dish and ceramic toothbrush holder over the sink. But the picture sketched below it doesn't go along with that - I'll have to post a picture at some point before we paint, for kicks.
Note painted (in about 5 different colors) on a brick column in my ca 1852 basement......
"this house painted April 11 1865 by W. M. Norcross"
Some of my daughters McDonalds toys may be found in the future.
I worked on the Upper Pontalba remodel job at Jackson Square in the French Quarter a few years back.
We opened a wall and found a ladies shoe with foot bones in it. Job got shut down for an investagation and we found out that the shoe and bones were well over 100 years old.
After opening some more walls a ladies arm bones were also found.
After the second investagation we were told that when the building was built someone butchered this person and placed her throughout the building during construction.
Several more smaller bones were found and each time it would cause the job to be shut down.
busta
I found 10,000 socks and not a single one matched any of the others.
Post some pictures. I'll bet one of them is mine.
The destination is not the point. The completion is not the point. Enjoy today. If you can't enjoy today, then what is the point ?
About 18yrs ago, I was framing up a home in a neighborhood I grew up in. Across the street anougher home was being torn down to build a newer 3K sqr ft + home. The wrecking crew that was digging up the basement started getting very vocal and excited. As it turns out, they uncovered mason jar after mason jar of Money! I have no idea how much but it was alot. That night I made a few calls, I new the family that lived in that old home. As it turns out the great grandmother collected all the money that her kids made(my friend's grandfather and his siblings circa late 1930s) and planted it in the basement via mason jars. She died and never told anyone. The next two generations(over 50 yrs worth) growing up in the same home, never knew.
Yep---I was a little green with envy.
This one cracked me up for a couple of reasons .
1 this is my house
2 I am a plumber
House built in 1975 note from original plumber who just happened to be named Bill.
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The pipe is a 3x2 santee where the arrow is------ if he would have made that tie in in the attic I wouldn't have had a big ol bow in my wall to deal with.
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I also like how he just butchured the floor joist
Do you look to the government for an entitlement, or to GOD for empowerment. BDW
In '79 (still in high school) I was helping my dad remodel a room behind the garage that he had drywalled 10 or so years before with the help of the teenage kids from across the street. Found a chunk of 2 X 4 they had scribbled on & left behind- 1967 LBJ is Prez The Beatles Bob Dylan The Rolling Stones LSD is our God showed it to my dad, he freaked...
greg
With all the demo and renovation I have done over the years, I have always been disappointed that I didn't find any objects of note or consequence -- except maybe hairpins and a few coins.
However, what is nice is finding some mark from previous workers in the house. A few years back, we removed wallpaper and found the signed names of three guys who did the original wallpaper in the house in 1913. I can't tell you why, but I was kinda moved by that.
So I hardly ever close a wall without throwing something inside for the guys down the line -- a newspaper or news magazine, sometimes pics of the crew with names, dates. Just about anything that will personalize what we did for the people who are redoing it sometime in the future.
********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
that I didn't find any objects of note or consequence
Hmm, that's close but not quite like the way I'm almost inured to finding "nothing" behind walls. As i nthe framing is rotted or eaten away, or the expected insulation is not there, or whatever . . .
Can be annoying just how full a dumpster gets with that "nothing," too . . . Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I do similar things. When I put in a new medicine chest/light in the bathroom, There was an exposed cavity form the tiny one that I removed. Wrote the date and names of the family members and on a 2x4 ledge, put a Susan B. dollar and a the front page of a local newspaper. I figure that in 15-50 years someone will find it and get a kick out of it.1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go 4 - get a new board and go back to step 1
Still have an old Coke bottle, the small 12 oz kind, that I pulled from the inner rubble of a circa 1936 concrete porch that I busted out. Indentical to one I had previously found half-buried in the dirt at an old overgrown cemetary.
Removed some 3/4" wood panelling recently - Prior to hanging it, the original installer had stapled his business card to the drywall and wrote on the card "Paneled by Ernest Schmidt 1967."
Regarding the poster who mentioned the razor blades in the wall cavity behind the medicine cabinet, I assumed the "slot" was a gap or other fault that someone conveniently took advantage of to drop the blades in. I was talking to my BIL this evening about his bathroom renovation and he mentioned that he found and counted 300+ blades in his wall cavity. To my surprise, my FIL explained that the old metal cabinets were made with a slot specifically for dropping blades into the wall cavity.
I believe that those where 6 oz Coke bottles."Pepsi-Cola hits the spot,
Twelve full ounces, that's a lot,
Twice as much for a nickel too.
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you."And yes there where slots in the back of medicene cabinets for razor blades.Just dumped into the cavity.
Coke bottles until about 1960 contained 6 1/4 ounces, not 12. my thrifty neighbor favored Pepsi because it came in 7oz bottles.BruceT
Coke bottles until about 1960 contained 6 1/4 ounces, not 12.
Yep. Someone else caught that too. I grew up with 16 oz bottles, so that "12" was my best guess without actually looking. I checked the two that I have and both state "MIN. CONTENTS 6-FL.OZS."
Heard this from a neighbor: He was helping someone demo a wall, and they found a window buried behind the wall.
With the curtains still in it.
Helping a friend remodel a house that was built in the 70's. We found a vibrating sex toy still in the package and along side it was a package of batteries. We didn't try it out.
Were the builders innovative and ahead of their time? Could have been the first to go cordless when pouring cocreate!
I found a 1936 dime on top of the head jamb of a door, unusual because the place was built in 1926. Mebbe someone had the casing trim off for some reason. Also found a small triangular file and some hair pins.
The crawl space is where the interesting stuff was. There are loads of little stubs of arc carbons, and the remains of small camp fires. The site is not far from the old Brunton movie studio, active from 1919 until it was bought by Paramount in 1926. They made westerns, so this is probably from some silent western.
-- J.S.
In the house I bought...
Stevens Model 311 Double Barrel Shotgun, brand new in the box. Still haven't shot it.
1904 news paper laying in the dirt(dry) under the house. House built 1904. by Dr. Beffa. Super Construction, must have had the "A Team" on this one.
brand new in the box. Still haven't shot it
In case you are curious (I was), it looks like that's worth $3-400.
Here's a thread on a similar topic: http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/What_is_the_value_of_a_hammerless_double_barrel_shotgun_that_says_Riverside_Arms_Company_Chicopee_Falls_Mass_patented_April_20_1915_on_the_side_and_is_this_a_Stevens_311Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
We rebuilt a house about two years ago and found about 35 bottles, alot of newspapers including one with the Hindenburg as the headline. This house was built on junk. There was an addition done and we had to open up part of the foundation and found most of this stuff in there.
Bought a house in Vancouver in late 70's, remodelling it involved taking out lots of laster and plathe.....which had to get removed of course. Inside a closet, when I took off the door trim I recall an old hair net envelope falling to the floor when I cranked off the header trim. It stayed on the floor whilst debris was shoveled up. Finally sweeping up, it just wouldn't get swept up and when I had to pick it up ( bending down in annoyance) it turns out it held 10 10 dollar bills. Wife's mad money I guess.
Eric
in Calgary
Homeowner bought a 1919 Craftsman bungalow in Long Beach, CA last year and asked me to rip out the tile-enclosed tub/shower enclosure so he could put in a new shower kit from HD. Behind the tile I found the original 1919 cast iron claw foot tub in good condition. Suddenly the job changed from rip-out to renovate.
BruceT
While remodeling an upstairs bed and bathroom, numerous bottles of Schlitz glass bottles of their Real Draft Beer, and a sign stating, "Schlitz, (sp) Breakfast of Champions" were found behind the sheetrock walls. My buddy and I alway have a laugh, when we think about that job.
But another story is about a 1950's Aircraft Carrier that was built, I forget the name. A number of years after it was commissioned, some sailors, were tracking some kind of a line, Low Pressure Air, Electrical, or something. They followed it into a bulkhead, but could not get to the other side of the wall. They tried all four sides, the top and bottom, but could not get to the other side. They then took their problem to the ships engineering department, maybe Damage Control office, that has all the blue prints of the ship. Long story short, they cut a hole into the bulkhead, and with a flashlight, found a complete machine shop! It was guessed that the shipyard workers have left one wall out for the installation of the machinery, the wall, or bulkhead, was then welded up and shortly later painted, and everybody forgot what was behind it. I could never verify the story, but it always brings a smile to my face.
I remember hearing that machine shop story when I was in the Navy in the late '60's and early 70's. I'm pretty sure it was one of those urban legends. - lol
They weren't in the walls, but after my Dad died, I found five 50 caliber machine gun bullets in his basement workshop. He had been trained as an aircraft gunner during WWII and I suspect that the bullets were souvenirs. They weren't badly corroded, but I told my Mom to take them to the police station and let them dispose of them.
I also have a WWI canteen that I found in some of my grandfathers stuff. I don't know where he got it since he wasn't in the service. It's pretty beat up and has engraving listing several army camps on the east coast.
Doing salvage on old victorians you sometimes come across cool stuff in walls.
One time I was removing some door trim in an opening between the dining room and the kitchen and found fairly ornate sliding door mechanisms that someone had covered over.
Another time the evening before the dozers were to arrive and tear the house down, I was removing 1x10 cedar siding off an old timberframe that had been vinyl sided and did a walk through of the upstairs.
Earlier that day someone had wanted a window set that had been in a dormer which had been added on sometime during the history of the house.
What I saw was a couple old 1x's that had been used as a sheathing piece underneath the wall of the window dormer which had been torn open by the window removers.
On these 1x's was a paper sign which was glued to it about 8 ft long. In foot high circus type lettering was the word 'GARGANTUAN'.
I started thinking it may have come from an old cage circus wagon from back when over an ape or large elephant.
The electric had been shut off to the house but I felt I just couldn't let that little piece of kitsch history go to the wrecking ball.
So there in the fading twilight I found myself with a handsaw hacking away at a wall to save a little piece of Americana memorabilia.
be yep still got it,out in a shed. Roar!
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Great story, Rez. "So there in the fading twilight I found myself with a handsaw..." I can picture the scene you describe and feel the mood of the moment.BruceT
On one house I purchased and worked on (Wawa, Ontario), I found a few walls with burnt studs with some extra pieces added to make them full stud lengths. I only found them on a few interior walls, so it was probably worse at one time (whole house probably gutted by fire)
The best thing I found in the walls was the "Stop Work Oder" for the plumbing. Every single drain had a separate pipe draining out into the yard.
Turns out that the waste line from the toilet flowed into an old Sherriffs car and then into station wagin burried next to the house. I didn't really notice the problem with the 30ft evergreen tree growing on top of them.
That place was fun!
stripped the wallpaper in the hall of my adoptive family's house built in 1850, in rural north carolina 30 miles down river from winston salem.numerous notes in italian on the plaster.someone eventually will find my starret combination square in or under a built in fire place mantel and shelving system in a million dollar house in lewisville, nc.
I wonder how much stuff is left behind in walls that's never found?Like a stash of money that was missed when the bulldozer pushed the house down and loaded it into a truck...
Taxation WITH representation isn't so hot, either.
Sad to say but I grew up with the razor blade dispenser in the back of the medicine cabinet.
I have an 1870's house in Vermont, lots of bottles found, seems drinking on the job was more acceptable at one time. Favorite one was found in a box that called it "The Female Remedy" Seems it was good for day after contraception, PMS, headaches, lethargy, hormone replacement etc. Ingredients were 65% alcohol. DW had the small box flattened and framed, always good for a laugh
Midlebury,
I that product still on the market? ;) juuust asking.. I live in northeast vt, It's amazing what can be found in the walls. Most of the older houses did'nt have insulation, made a perfect spot stash things. Bottles, books ,newspapers, shoes?,seashells? Keeps the job interesting.
Northeastvt
I think this must be about the 6th post of yours I've replied to today.
I wonder how much stuff is left behind in walls that's never found?
Like a stash of money that was missed when the bulldozer pushed the house down and loaded it into a truck...
I've wondered that too. But then again, a jar with a "lot" of money from back in 1930 doesn't really add up to much nowadays.jt8
"The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake..."-- Nelson Boswell
I lost a goood chisle down in a studwall once, working thru a hole about 10" x 16" near top of wall. I got out my big old magnet and tied it on a string. Tryed to snatch it for probably twenty minutes, 'till I realized my time was probably worth more than the tool replacement cost, and gave up. Just as I started to reel her in, I felt the chisle jump onto the magnet and went slow and careful!I was doing siding on a condo out ot in CO once. It had been framed with steel ( Ironhorse was the name of the place - in Winterpark, CO)
I was siding over type X gyp bopard and fopunda place where there was a bump out and had to make a cut top lay it back. There was a vise-grip type C-clamp holding a stud in place from the welders tacking them to beams. There was a matching clamp setting on the beam too. i've still gotr at least one of them.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
"found a complete machine shop"
I had heard that same story from a sailor who was on the ship when the machine shop was found. He said the bulkhead doors were not put in due to the rush to get the ship built and out to sea.
I once opened up a wall to install an air conditioner in a 3rd floor apartment and dead center of the hole I cut in the plaster was a framed picture of jesus christ looking back at me. It made my hair stand up
I have a steamer trunk handmade with blacksmith made handles, theinside is covered with a english newspaper 1840, lots of very intreasting storys, The trouble america is having with mexico army, death notices people not paying there bills. I also went into a basement and found a trunk with swords from the civil war about 10 old handguns like colt dragoons pocket pistols, the owner knew it was there must be worth a fortune, still there his family military, #### flags ww1 canteens sharp rifles persian rugs, I nener stole anything in my life that day i wastested but passed.
Let's see if I can remember all those pleasent surprises - and the unpleasent ones too.There was the long bone in a fireplace masonry in a buiolding that had been a stage coach stop once upon a time - in Hot Sulphur Springs, COThe couple of vermin nests now and again.A newel post at base of a grand staircase that contqin3ed a note with the names of the three carpenters who had worked on it a century before. One of the last names was same as a guy on my crew. when we put it back, that note went in along with a new note.There was a time I found a stud bay behind wqallpaper and no solid surface other than that paper. A loaded shotgun stood there near the head of a bed.I try to leave a newspaper in under a landing or some stud bay when I build one.Out in Colorado, I worked on the crew remodeling the bank in Kremmling. It had been built in about 1906 from stone and brick. The old vault that we dismantled was stone with walls at least two feet thick. There were several pint flasks empty in the infill mortar.in the balloon walls of a large house where the help had once had their rooms on the third floor, we found some footwear that was like woven grass flip-flops - nicely done. And a couple scraps of fabic that was oriental..Tore the wall paper off a hall and written in pencil was the name of the papre hanger and the date it was hung - 40 or 50 years beforeI was caled to do some discovery on a house to see whether a certain contemplated remodel was feasable. in the second floor, some spaces did not ligne the way I'd have expected. I crawel through an access about 14" W x maybe 26" H, then turned and crawled over FG battsdown the blank cavity typical of a cape, and suddenly found myself in a room big as a four man tent. had been equipped with blankets, a drop light, cigarettes and ashtray, rolling papers, and several playboy centerfold pinups, and a stack of the magazines, I think there were a few empty cans of Bud too. I knew the kid who had been about 15yO last time the house had been rented out...
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Ha ha! Good story.
I've a similar a bit off topic for the thread, but since it's storytime and associated with your post I'll share it.
Back in my younger days BobDylan made an album 'Slow Train Coming' with Christian lyrics which I had made a cassette copy of to play in the tape player of my old 70's Superbeetle VW, that had like yard high stereo speakers from a house system, sitting in the back seat as I liked my tunes loud back then.
At some time the cassettetape had broke and I had spliced the tape back together with household tape.
One early morning I'm still waking up and pie-eyed on my way to work in the VW when I hit a good bump in the road.
Unknown to me at the last playing of that tape the tape had caught itself at the household tape splice and automatically shut itself off.
Hitting the bump in the road somehow kicked the tape back into the playing mode with the volume still up on that quiet morning, filling the little car with the voice of Bob Dylan loudly singing 'JESUS SAID BE READY FOR YOU KNOW NOT THE HOUR OF WHICH I COME!'
Thought about that event for the rest of the week:o)
CU invented vw's
be now back to our regularly scheduled program
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Edited 5/4/2006 2:17 pm ET by rez
Reminds me of a night I was working, DW was home listening to the radio and had it up fairly loud. station evidently lost power and went off - she went to bed after a bit - forgot to turn off the radio.
About 2am, a car drives by the house and the lights shine in the bedroom window and the radio comes on blaring " ATTENTION CITIZENS OF EARTH, WE COME IN PEACE! PREPARE FOR OUR LANDING!" just as the lights coem in the window waking her up.
She comes flying out of the bed scared to death and then the radio goes to "We are now back on the air and here is our next selection"
She calls me to tell me what happened - I about fell over laughing.
1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go 4 - get a new board and go back to step 1
That puts a whole new meaning to "finding Jesus"
ANDYSZ2
The worse thing I ever found was chipmunk nest about 8' x 8' what a nasty species.
I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
On the current house, someone had signed/dated the BR3 top plate. concrete guys also put a name in the footing, but it was mostly obscured by the block walls. While pulling the ceiling drywall down I uncovered many of the former residents. Anywhere from beef-jerky consistency all the way down to a small pile of brown dust. I hadn't realized what the 'piles of brown dust' were until I found the attached.
I think the 'former resident' count was probably 40-60 and 20-30 of their former 'duplexes' made out of fiberglass insulation/paper...and probably 50lbs of droppings.
On a different project I kept finding porn mags. Under the carpet in the MBR closet, tucked behind a shower wall, behind some drywall. Must have been up to a dozen mags there, several of which I'd never even heard of "Mature Busty Moms" or some such. Never realized there were mags that were so specific.
Previous ones I've found newspapers, usually with some big event (WWII, man on moon or such).
jt8
"The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake..."-- Nelson Boswell
That squeek pic was some pretty exciting stuff!:o)
be betting cu invented that
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
That first piece of ceiling drywall was a real eye opener. I was pulling it down by hand...and had one end of the sheet at about eye level when I realized it was covered by HUNDREDS of mouse droppings...and they were all rolling towards me! Keep it LEVEL! Where's the trash can? No where near, so let the droppings fall where they will as long as not too many rain down on me. From there on I used a hoe with a fiberglass handle to pull it down. That at least let me stand back.
Except for a couple pieces near the furnace. I didn't want the drywall to clobber the furnace when it came down, so I was pulling it by hand. Had my hand at JUST the right spot so that when the drywall tipped down, a mouse-remains-pile managed to get by my gauntlet-style gloves and ran right up my sleeve.
jt8
"The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake..."-- Nelson Boswell
Not found behind a wall... I had a REALLY dificult time tracking down a leak in my folks roof. The leak had ruined two 8ft maple doors and several hundred sq.ft of maple floor. Crawled all around the attic, found evideence of little leaks but nothing big. Finally wound up taking off some roof tiles. Almost immediately found lots of signs of pacrats. Soo we took off 4 square of tile to discover the original roofers only used one course of felt, not two. They didn,t even use ice and water shield in the valleys.
anyway the rats ate through the felt and the roof leaked everywhere. sSo we stripped it down and did it correctly. But cleaning up 3.5 squares of rat related stuff was GROSS.
Newspaper from 1939 (house was built in 1939) with article about the Army and Navy conducting innovative (for the time) joint exercises in Oahu, for a hypothetical amphibious assault by the Japanese. I had no idea we'd done exercises based on that possiblity, 2 1/2 years before Pearl Harbor ... Too bad no one speculated about an attack by them new-fangled aeroplanes...
Another paper in the wall had a short article about a girl heading off to meet her dad stationed on the USS Phoenix, as her mom had died -- makes you wonder what happened to people like that, when you see a snapshot into their lives. (As for the ship -- it was sold to Argentina and renamed the "General Belgrano", later sunk by the British in the Falklands War. Amazing!)
later sunk by the British in the Falklands War.
It's the only "ship kill" on the books for an SSN, too. I remember some "noise" about how the Brits spent billions of pounds to shoot a "dumb" (Mk 14 style) torpedo into a surface ship.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Several sets of rat & mouse bones. Many corncobs. Good Luck Shoe. ~4 cups of extremely cheap dog food, put by rats under the concrete bathroom floor. Few scraps of newspaper, dates obliterated.
A payment envelope addressed to "paper girl" at an address around the corner where my friends now live. A Christmas card from 1946, addressed to the house next door. (Down that crack behind the mantel, where you often find things...)
A naturally mummified oppossum, which fell down a very narrow space in the wall & couldn't get turned around to crawl out. Quite a few chicken & turkey wishbones.
& I am not done yet. I put all the inorganic stuff back for the next remodler, plus coins, significant sections of the newspaper, some plastic tokens from Big Y supermarket, etc.
I also have all my helpers sign & date the backs or undersides or whatever of each project.
At least one piece of rtim in every room in my house is signed by the carpenter. I haven't been able to track any information about him. That would be cool. A plumbing business closed after forever a few years ago. It is possible that entire blocks of houses around here were plumbed by this company....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
A cottage renovation in New England with obnoxiously tweaked walls sitting on a sharp slope so the crawl space went from the front 1 ft to the 5 ft in the back.
A real balancing act to get stuff to fit and look presentable enough to pass.
When removing the trim around a front entry door to figure out a way to make a square door fit into a three dimensional trapezoid opening I discovered why the building appeared so out of sorts.
The carpenters of old had written their own time capsule on the backside of the trimboards.
The cottage had been moved from it's original location about 10 miles away to it's present site by being pulled there by a team of oxen way back when.
The dates written escape me but they included the beginning and end date of the move and the completion date for their work.
Owners mounted and left it exposed on the back porch as a piece of the home's history.
be a ChubbyChecker and twist
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
I was working on a house once owned by John Wilkes Booth's brother (the owners had documented it, and the Booths were a wealthy family hereabouts). As we were removing porch columns for repair, a bottle fell out with the names of the carpenters who worked on the porch in 1915. Homeowner has the bottle and note on his mantel to htis day.Another time, we were digging a crawl space for an addition, and we kept finding old unfired shotgun shells. My buddy Jeff found this old rusty round thing, and began to worry it was a land mine. I thought this was unlikely, so I began to pry at what looked like a latch. Turns out it was an old cast iron waffle iron, and the rest of the crew couldn't figure out which of us two had the least sense, lol.
I was fixing up the lower unit of my duplex after the renters moved out and proved that coming from wealthy families means never having to clean. When I removed the old weird cobbled together remains of the ironing board insert in the kitchen, I found some odds and ends, including a card postmarked with the same date, over 50 years before.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
How bout a set of glass "rectal dialators" in original boxes. (Thats how we knew what they were.) (Really) Maybe the owner was a proctologist???
heh heh Reminds me of one more.
I'd found an old clear glass 'under the bed' male urinal with the spout like what one might have found in hospitals in ye olden days that had unlabeled lines on it measuring the volume.
My at the time age20something college student cousin saw it when I was showing it to her mother and went asking what it was.
My aunt later said she almost couldn't stifle her laughter when I answered my cousin telling her it was an antique blueberry picker.
My cousin replied 'pretty cool ' and picked it up and made some kind of a trumpet sound into it. Roar!
I told her she could have it and she took it back to school and kept showing it to all her friends. Till later when a male friend knew what it was and told her.
be heh heh I use to put my poor cousin thru the paces
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
I have a Queen Ann Victorian built in 1900. When I redid the brick foundation I found chisels, a framing square, a plumb bob, bottles, and plane in the walls. But the best was when excavating for the foundation I found a token from "THE PIONEER SALOON FILLMORE ST S.F. GOOD FOR 5 CENTS IN TRADE." One wonder what kind of shape those carpenters were in too lose all those tools.
What was cousins response to you when she found? Is it printable? LOL1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go 4 - get a new board and go back to step 1
heh heh I use to get creative with cigarette loads on her. Burying them deep in the cig and putting them in the middle of the pack so she'd light up the next day or two somewhere like a school cafe in front of everybody.
She quit before I could find a way to reseal a new pack or that would be a classic.
be especially if I could work it out somehow to have her buy that pack of cigs new.
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Part of a 1921 San Francisco Cronicle in pretty bad shape, but for one legible article, "The Train Robbers Outwit Persuers Again!"
Pretty cool.
Pat
The 1977 Hide-and-seek Champion.
I'm presently re-doing the house I grew up in. I've found all sorts of stuff in the walls, in the ductwork, in crawlspaces, etc. Mostly little stuff like playing cards from some unknown card game, an old handwritten radio log of local stations, old bottles, things of more recent vintage from my childhood, like some metal state flags we collected from cereal boxes, milk bottle tops (remember milk bottles?) with US presidents, Coke tops with state capitals, a handmade (or so it looks to me) cake icing spatula, some really cool trinkets from the '30's like a Buster Brown & Tige button, pins, etc. But the best one is what my dad found in a crawlspace under the eaves in the '50's -- a model 1890 Winchester pump-action .22 rifle, breakdown model, in good condition. (I used to use this gun to go "plinking" when I was a kid & still have it.) This thread inspired me to go on the web to look into its value -- up to $2,200! I was going to get some pictures of all this stuff this weekend and post it, but didn't have time. Maybe later this week.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
a dozen chandeliers circa 1920's hanging from a ceiling behind a false ceiling. A "prophylactic" in original cardboard package ( rubber totally degraded, doubt I will use it ). "stained" knife behind casing ( collected by authorities ).