stashing a note during renovation

[cockerpunk]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Way back when I was still living home I renovated the attic for my own quarters. When I took down the inner walls to redo the insulation I found newspapers from the late 19th century! Being a nerd in training I contacted city hall and gained access to old,old records. Turns out my parents' house was one of the original "farmers' homes" from back then. My Dad called a reporter who wrote up a story which led to a descendant of the original builder contacting us with a history of the house wrt his family. Very cool.

that is very cool.

i think there something facinating about seemingly random human relationships esp when you add a few decades, or centuries into it.

I made sure to include enough information that if someone did find my note, they could look me and my partner up if they wanted to, and either see what happened to us, or contact us by whatever method the future holds. ie, im not dumb enough to think phone numbers and emails will still be useful in decades. names, places and clubs always hold significance though.

[Zeke]

I have found stuff and left new coins. I do have newspaper pages from the Depression when my 1930 Spanish was built. Left under boards in built in closet dressers I removed. You would have thought those could not have lasted there for 80 years.

[911 Rod]

Someone wrote their name and "was here" in black marker and then wallpapered over it.
Took 5 coats of primer and I could still see it! I was not impressed.
My dad used to put coins in baby jars and hide them when building.

[gumby]

I sign my work in script and date using a pencil ...it doesnt fade

[porsche tech]

Our house is a ‘79 vintage. An electrician found this in a wall…weighs about twice as much as today’s version.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by porsche tech

....

Prolly the reason Jimmy got wasted and cut his heel !

[look 171]

I did the work on Chemosphere up off Mulholland Dr. I was younger and wanted to leave my mark so I left my name and singed it under a floating bench around the fireplace. If they ever found out, they would have hung me since this is a LA land mark.

In all my years, just about over 30 now, I never left anything (but the name at Chemosphere) nor found anything but a bunch of old newspapers stuff in the for plaster and a few dead animal skeletons.

[wildthing]

[gregpark]

I found this box in a wall when remodeling a bedroom in my old house. 8" tall and 6" wide, it was torn into strips (I taped it back together) which were slipped through a crack in the bead board wall. I suspect some kid was hiding the evidence of late night snacking. Also found some 1929 newspapers used for insulation.

[LWJ]

I write silly teenage-esq graffiti on my construction jobs. Things like L+J 1999.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

Why would someone do that? Could it be a good luck thing?

"the pub" made me smile

I suspect they were druggies. And someone was hiding cash from the others.

[varmint]

Worked at Warner classic animation back when was on olive in Burbank. Was in the sub sub sub basement archives one day looking for something. Got bored and drew some Lascaux type cavemen hunting mammoth on the ceiling.
Maybe someday someone will see it.

[varmint]

Have a thick stack of fake movie prop cash. If we ever sell this house I’m leaving it and a bag of talc in the crawl space.

[sugarwood]

Seems like a waste of time. Why not just hand the story to the next owner, so he will actually find and read it.

[DerkPerk]

Wrapping up a remodel of a bathroom in our 1958 home. Found this can in the wall behind the plaster. I’ve left a couple things in various areas. Thinking of putting this back in there. Thoughts?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[juanbenae]

did a remodel of a really old home in menlo park, a very swanky area. as we were demoing it we ran across a couple hundred old paper movie posters from 20's and 30's in the wall. appeared they were being used as insulation. It was revealed that the owner during that era owned and ran the local movie house downtown.

The foreman was very close to the owner of the company we worked for and turned them over to him and he snatched them up taking them all. there were some other interesting things, a Trojan single condom box from days before they were foil wrapped, and some fully intact matchbooks from a concrete company. I was able to snatch up the condom box and matchbooks. still have one of the books of matches in my roll away tool box.

[bugstrider]

My parents found apiece of gypsum
Wall board with all of the family’s signatures dated 1929 in their ex-old ranch house. They had to move due to age and health issues

I thought the signatures were a cool find. They still have the piece at there new home.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gregpark]

I've found all kinds of stuff in old homes and buildings I've worked on over the years. A string of pearls hidden under a corner of the wall to wall carpet, which I gave to the lady of the house. She was flabbergasted that I didn't put it in my pocket.
A floor I pulled up in SF revealed a 1906 front page of the SF Chronicle dated one month before the '06 quake. It was totally readable but stuck to the subfloor. I thought about cutting it out and replacing the section but just covered it back up with new flooring. Let someone else find it one day. Indian head pennies and silver dimes behind old baseboards. I keep looking for that double eagle but no.
In a Kearny St., SF pre-quake building I was working on 40 years ago a young laborer was demo-ing an old wall when a black metal box fell out. He opened it, slammed it shut and took off running. The supervisor told me he never picked up his check and no one ever saw him again.

[jcommin]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

When I was framing houses, I always wrote my name and the date somewhere hidden.

Who knows if/when it will be found, and if whoever finds it will care.

I have done the same - somewhere inconspicuous, name, date, etc.

In 2006 my 944 was vandalized with every piece of window glass broken. I completely removed everything from the interior including door and side panels. At the bottom of the driver's side door, I found a beer bottle cap. I thought maybe the car was assembled on a Friday. Interesting find, I still have the cap.

[Bill Douglas]

Jim, I remember someone talking on this board about stripping out their Porsche and finding a Deutsche Mark. Some factory worker back in the 1970's lost their lunch money.