I found my mother-in-law's wig!

We've left things during two different projects. Under the staircase I put pre and post project floor plan, names of the architect, GC and workmen as well as a picture of the current homeowners, us!

When we remodeled the bathroom, we did about the same thing in tub the wall.

This Fall we will be doing another major remodel (20 years after the first one). I plan to hide some things again. I sure would love to find historical things in this 1892 house.

We found a wood street sign in a closed off part of the attic 20 years ago. The street on the north side of our lot was closed and converted to lawn. Half of the street went to the house property and half to the town as part of a park.

Our house is from 1978, and we pretty much gutted it and removed 3 walls in the renovation. It was fun to see the math graffiti of the construction workers back then...their scribblings on random wall studs. It was particularly interesting around the living room fireplace. Apparently it was a hard thing to frame around, with a large header that encircled the house where the second story walls cantilevered out. There was a lot of geometry and math going on there!

Also...found the strangest coincidence. One of the wall studs we removed had the name of the construction company. Same as my real first name. And the code number to the job was the same as my partner's birthdate...1-19.

So I guess this house, which we could barely afford and used every last cent we had in our savings for the downpayment 14 years ago, was meant to be. And I hope we did it proud with our renovation.

When contractors opened the wall in my current house, they found a whole stash of newspapers from 1947 (the year the house was built). It was very amusing thumbing through them and reading the news from nearly 60 years past. I especially enjoyed the ads for permanent waves ($0.75), modern oil-fired heating systems ($99.50), and the latest fashion in ladies frocks ($6.50). What a hoot!

We've left a time capsule sealed in a wall at the base of the staircase with some of those newspapers, the names of prior owners, photos of the house -- pre and post-renovation, copies of house plans, photos of us, and other bits of info about the neighborhood. I also stuck in an old door knob, an old window latch, and the original furnace thermostat.

I wonder if it will ever be discovered. It's fun to think about.

We've found political advertising from the 1930's in walls, we've found newspapers from the 1930's being used as carpet padding, we've found small old toys in heating vents, we've got tons and tons of old hairpins that were under floor heating grates. We gutted a room and when we took off the drywall, we found oh so many obscene drawings on the original plaster walls. At our last house, I was digging to make a garden and found all the pieces of an old concrete fountain that the neighbor told me was in place in the 50's. We're still working on this house now and I'm sure we'll find more stuff.

Worked on a remodel on the navy base here on some bachelors quarters.When we pulled the old wall board off there were sayings such as "make love,not war", "save water,shower with a friend","kilroy was here", all sayings right out of the sixties.There was also an unmentionable about richard nixon who was governor of california at the time these quarters were originally built.

Pulling the old medicine closets, there were piles of old double edged razor blades that were deposited in a slot at the back of the cabinet and fell into the stud cavatie.

Own a house built in 1980. Doing a gut job remodel on one of the bathrooms. The plumber signed the tub surround and wall. Too bad I can't track him down and boot him in the a-s for some of the things he did. running all the water lines horizontally through all the studs to the next bathroom around the corner,running all the vent pipe horizontaly through the studs to connect to the main around the corner in the other wall, cutting off a stud at the bottom so he could run his vent line and the drywallers for leaving it that way.

Yeh, I found his signature all right and it's taking me twice as long to redo this bath.

The first owner of our 1950s ranch was mentally ill. She was convinced that someone was spying on her and had an electrician open all the switches and relocate some to opposite sides of the rooms. (We "inherited" the electrician, who told us this.) She was removed from the house after locking herself in the master bath with a hammer and knocking out ceramic tiles, seeking the "spy".

So, we weren't entirely surprised that when we were replacing the furnace and found oversized 1920's $20 bills tucked into the framing. (Don't get excited; there were only a few!) The attic above the garage was filled with bags of wood turnings. There was a 2" deep 6 x 6 foot false wall in the FR paneling. It was empty -- too shallow for anything thicker than a painting? A map? Mysteries.

I purchased my 1957 house from my grandmother. And she pretty much left EVERYTHING. So yeah, there was a lot of history we threw away. Mostly junk. Old 1980's nudie mags left by my uncles and such.

We recently were called to figure out why the floor of a house was sloped by 4 inches. Found out that the massive fireplace at one end had actually been built on the floor framing! No footer at all. The thing was huge and was causing the floor to deflect badly. We had no choice but to tear it out, brick by brick, and rebuild it.

In the process we found about two cases of empty Budweiser cans inside the masonry, the ones with the pull tabs. That seemed to explain things.

About the only thing I found in my last house was the plumbing permit dated 1954.

My uncle on the other hand bought a house from a little old lady in MA. She had saved all her VE and VJ day newspapers from 1945...pretty cool. I have another uncle who found $25000 in the wall of a house he was demoing. The house was vacant, and his lunch box went home a little heavier than normal that day.

Brand new truck sitting in the driveway the next day!

I wish we had this conversation before the drywall went in. I would have put some things there. On Monday, the kitchen cabinets go in and I'm thinking this is my last chance to leave some messages. Will write on wall with marker (behind cabinet)names of people involved in remodel, what we did, date.

I'm also thinking about adding a family picture and maybe something from the newspaper in a zip lock bag. Maybe that could be taped to back of cabinet or placed under a cabinet?

Enjoying your stories. We did find an envelop of money behind something (it was ours) which is a reward for moving everything in this place. We're using that find for some of our eat away from home meals now.

an Old Milwalkie berr can pull tab and rolling papers under my tub. That explains the wiring running through the shower plumbing.

I was gutting out the walls in a bathroom in a 1930's house and found what appeared to be a piece of 3/4" pipe with a cap on the end and a hole through the cap. When i touched it I discovered the pipe was loose so I lifted it out to find that I had a "Daisy BB gun" but it appeared to be a much cheaper version than the ones I remembered from my childhood. Out of curiosity i cocked and test fired it and it had full air pressure. I looked on the underside of the barrel for the hole where you pour the BB's in, but it didnt have one.

I brought it home and cleaned it up then i found the mfg name, address and serial number so out of curiosity i ran a search for Daisy Mfg and got an email address for them. I then emailed them some pics and the serial number to see if they could tell me anything about it.

They told me that this was what they called the "Daisy For a Buck", Thats right folks, the original selling price was $1.
It is s slimed down version of the Daisy "Red Ryder" saddle rifle only this one is a single shot. You have to unsrew the barrel and manually insert a BB in the end of the barrel.

From the serial number they said this particular one was manufactured in 1929 although that model was available from the late 20's to the early 40's.

Since finding this I have talked to dozens of gun dealers and memorabilia collectors and none have ever seen a single shot Daisy BB gun before.

We didn't find anything too exciting. We bought a 1966 off of the original owners. When we stripped wallpaper from the upstairs hall we discovered each childs name had been penciled on the wall with the word wallpaper and then a code number specifying the wallpaper that was to be used in that room. We found a 1974 local football schedule and our coolest find were the original architects plans from the early 1960's. It was interesting to see how the people who built the house changed things on the original plans (some were good changes, some were not), but cool to see what the builders original intentions were. Its also helped us with accurate measurements for everthing as we have slowly been remodeling.

A 1941 license plate and ... three gay porn books and pamphlets from the 60's. A portion of the basement was unfinished, and these three books were up on top and pushed way back on a beam. I grew up a few blocks away, and when I was little (I'm 50 now), I knew of this house but I didn't know who lived here. My sisters knew the family - mom, dad, couple of daughters. It's really quite sad. This dad - a tortured soul living his life the way he was "supposed" to.

While remodeling her stairs,a friend of mine found in her late 60s house (and gave to me!) an RC Cola can (no pull tab--can opener required). It's 12 ounces ("two full glasses," it reads!) She also found 3 PBR 7 ounce beer cans in her ceiling.

I had an Anchor going while drywalling the bedroom closet and suddenly it was gone. I wondered about the race between evaporation and ants but I think the heat won. Not much of a time capsule unless the future demo-minded person likes beer. 'Course, any sign of humanity between the studs has got to give pause. Beer is such a sign, 'specially Anchor.

We're still in the process of remodeling our 1970's house and when we pulled out the kitchen cupboards we found this behind them:

Figured it was prophetic- as we certainly could have used help all along the way!

Then, pulling ceiling down in basement family room we found this:

When we pulled the wood stove out of the fireplace last week, there were ashes and an old stubby beer bottle in there- how could you close up a fireplace- add a wood stove and not clean the ashes first???? WE've lived here for 11 years, have no idea how long the wood stove was in place.

the building our office is in originally built in the 50's and was 3 stores side by side in a single building. i got my first haircut where my wife's desk sits now. anyway, we bought the building back in the late 80's. up inthe attic, really just small spots for the central air units, there were bags and bags of hair! why it was put up there i will never know. i asked the barber about it once, and he said the only thing he could figure was he must have been holding it for someone for wigs, he really could not remmeber since he was well over 80 at the time. plus we foudn all sorts of old newspapers and drink bottles.

at our house, we have found only scribbling on the walls/floors. nothing of any importance.

Ripped out the old fiberglass bathtub and surround and found the plumber signed and dated it when the house was built. Now my old house we did an almost complete gut rehab, and we put notes and coins in the walls. I did the same thing when I helped my dad remodel their house in the 70's.

When we remodeled growing up (1830s colonial), we found a full scale ship model (~7-8') outside on the rear porch that was mounted above the door and painted exterior white. No one notice it in any of the house auctions. We had it stripped and refinished.

I also found an accounting book from the 1800s in the actic that had the servants names and what they were paid (an axe, shoes, tobacco). Some of the 'servants' had curios names like "George Washington" and "Thomas Jefferson", etc.

We've also got a couple of Indian Tomahawk heads and the likes.

Found one page from a porn magazine tucked away behind a bathroom mirror. I wonder why someone put it there :) (I hope it's not my wife)

Several years ago when I was remodeling the downstairs of our former raised ranch, I found a mechette!

It had a serial number. A search found that it was a WWII issue for the Marines in the South Pacific.

When we moved I took it with us. It's great for cutting watermelons!!

Enjoy the journey.

eal51 in western CT

Our house had been vacant for awhile and broken into by some rather unsavory characters.

We found a crack pipe by the water heater :~/

Just yesterday during a bath remodel we found an old newspsper(Philadelphia Record,1935) with the front page news" Dillinger's Woman In Red Loses Her Deportation Fight"

The house I grew up in is probably over 100 years old by now. In 1975 the top half burned up and my uncle came to help install the new floors and such. He stayed almost all summer. My friend and I would beg for icecream money so a few times he took a coin from his pocket and hammered it into the door frame. If we could remove it we could have it. There is a nickle and penny nailed in the upstairs bedroom closets. Not sure if anyone will ever find them unless they did a huge remodel. He also inscribed my name in the kitchen floor before laying the vinyl down. Since it was typical 70s colored linoleum I imagine it has been changed by now and my name discovered. My name is also written on the counter top board which the laminate counter was put on. And my initials are carved on one of the real wood shingles on the side of the house. Dad was not listening very well when I asked if I could carve my name on the side of the house. He said yes and only realized his mistake after I carved the letters.

I think I will write something inside the wall for the fireplace before we cover it up. Someone may get a neat surprize 100 years from now.

Photos of the lady of the house, with her bootay to the camera wearing daisy dukes, with her head and face swung around smiling wide for the photographer. Various photos, different locales and outfits but all the same pose. Musta been proud of her bootay!

I was doing a kitchen remodel just a month ago and found a 45 rpm record under the base of a cabinet. My sons, ages 20 - 31, were helping me demo. They'd never seen one so they thought it was really historic; which means they think I'm really old. :)

They told me to leave a dvd under the new floor.

Tee hee ! a Playboy magazine and a W-2 form, both from 1978 !

Very strange combination if you ask me.

How about this problem?

Here is a link that might be useful: Contractor, owner feud over hidden cash

Windsorbecks, I saw that this morning. My DH and I are of the opinion that it should belong to the owner of the house, not the contractor. If the owner wants to share it, that's his prerogative. But I suppose the law will have to get involved, even tho it should be a matter of "who owns the house?"

When we redid the kitchen, we found 1983 newspapers from San Diego inside the kitchen walls, a recipe underneath the stove (that wasn't mine) and the old laminate flooring (harvest gold and yellow!) hidden under the current laminate flooring (fake wood board print). That recipe had to have been there at least 15+ years, as we'd been in the house over 15 years already. I put a piece of that newspaper and the recipe in our home remodeling scrapbook!

When we put in the family room addition, we found another nasty surprise - termite damage. We had to have the house tented. I didn't keep anything except the signs that the pest control people left on the outside walls of the house. :0

DonnaR/CA

How about this.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cash Found while remodeling

I can't see how the contractor could claim this cash. It was on the property when the current owner bought the house. Didn't it 'convey' with the house as much as the walls and roof? If a contractor opened my kitchen drawer and 'found' $200, is it his? I don't think so!

Not history but kind of neat - in my basement there's a boulder whose leading edge protrudes about a foot and a half above the floor. Tradespeople who've been through say that when the foundation was set in the late 1880s, the builders lacked either the manpower or the equipment to shift that big a rock, so they left it in place. It's right next to my washing machine and I've named it my Thinker's Rock. DH knows that if he can't find me elsewhere in the house, I'm in the basement doing this: :)

Here is a link that might be useful:

While refinishing a rolltop desk for some neighbors I found an old political post card that has a copyright dated 1932. Rather amusiing picture that has a picture of a elephant with a GOP blanket on his back pushing an old truck that has US & Co. on thee tarp. A donkey is kicking up his heels along side the truck. The caption on the card reads "It's an Elephants Job", "No Time for Donkey-Business".

In addition a brass ruler was lodged in the back of the compartments. It is stamped Turtles Standard Gage, New York, ITU Card 5419 Patented and Made in the USA. On one side is inches and the other says "6 & 12 PT.

No they are not mine even though I found them in the desk while refinishing it. And I can't believe that guy has any right to the money he found. But this is a different world without many morals!!

I was searching for something else but found this thread and I knew I had to bump it.....this is what my contractors found on day 1 of demo:

We are only the 2nd family to live here and I did know that the former owner built the house by hand, but I never expected to find that he signed and dated things. We took pictures, we cut out the piece of wall, I set out a plan to protect the piece and bury it back in the walls again when we got to that point. Big fanfare surrounding it.

over the next few days though the guys uncovered more and more pieces of wall where the owner had signed it. It was like he was yelling from beyond "THIS IS MY HOUSE STOP TRASHING IT!" lol it got to the point where they'd yell "found another one"

While cleaning out the cold air return on the first floor of our 1955 split, found a rubber ball, very old squeaky dog bone (no more squeaky), and a Pennysaver (local business newspaper with advertisements/help wanted stuff) from January 1964 in the bottom of the duct. How it all got down in there, I'll never know.
Also, on the top shelf of the downstairs closet, found a paper fan with an advertisement for a now defunct furniture store on it. Apparently movie theaters used to hand out paper fans before commercial air conditioning was prevalent and businesses recognized them as an advertising opportunity.

In our turn of the century house, we found a 1902 penny in a bedroom wall. We also found a newspaper clipping from I think the 1980's inside the wall of a shoddy addition to the kitchen. In the attic we found a mailer tube with curtain rods the homeowner had ordered from Sears -- I forget what year it was but the postage on it was something like 5 cents.

But the real gem we have is a book that a local gave to us. The original homeowner (the wife) -- her dad had given her mom a book before they were ever married - the inscription is dated 1877 -- the book has come full circle back to this house. We also have another book that belonged to the original homeowner -- it's a dictionary, but she tucked some clippings into it and jotted down birthdates inside the back cover and made other random notes in it. They are both gems to have and it's neat that they came back to this house in a very random manner. Someone gave us a box of old books because we turned one of the rooms into a library. It was just random luck of the draw that two of those books had ties to this house. It was meant to be.

divabeadz -- You have somebody's Family Bible. It would be a kindness to post the surnames on RootsWeb.

jrice -- I think your brass 'ruler' is an old tool used to measure type, back when type was set by hand or offset. The 'point' refers to the size of type. The 'inches' side would be used to measure the length of a story to see that it would fit on the page.

In the early 80s, my husband and I did a kitchen remodel to our late-20s house. When the contractor took down the wall between the kitchen & three-season porch, he found a 1936 calendar--which he kept, and he "let" us keep three cardboard-type cards that had numbers on them -- you'd put one in the window to let the iceman know how many pounds of ice you needed for your icebox.