stashing a note during renovation

[cockerpunk]

we are redoing one of my bathrooms, and this morning i drafted a small note about my life, what i know about that house, and some other fun information and will stash it in a ziplock bag in the wall. like a little time capsule. my house was originally built in 1909.

ive seen folks find these on the internet before, has anyone found anything in their home?

[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.

[fastfredracing]

I once pulled a flywheel off, only to find the words " f you " written on the back of the block in paint pen.
I have left notes in my house like that in several places .

[id10t]

Really wanted to do this with our recent kitchen reno -

[KFC911]

Found written on one of the inner rooms of the Great Pyramid in Egypt:

"Khofu wuz here - 2570 BC"

[wilnj]

When I renovated my house, I found some coins stashed in the wall as well as news papers from the NYTimes circa 1939 when the house was built.

I did not do anything like this in the work I did but it reminds me of a story.

An electrician friend got his start as a Union electrician in a paper plant. He was a 3rd generation electrician working in the plant but had never met his grandfather.

One day he was working in a junction box. His normal process was to remove one screw and swing the box cover out of the way to do their work rather than remove it entirely. In this instance, the cover fell off. When he picked it up, he found his grandfather's initials and a date in the box.

In speaking to his father and grandmother, they believe that would have been right around the first days of his grandfather starting work in the factory.

[mjohnson]

When we did our old house, twenty years ago, I threw an empty beer bottle and a Playboy (do they even sell them now?) in a wall cavity - I found something similar but 1970s-era in the house where I grew up.

A note with some proper details is much more mature, and that's an inspiration for when we gut the laundry room this summer.

[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.

[HobieMarty]

No, but I once found a message in a bottle along the north shore of Choctawhatchee Bay once, I still have it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[shadowjack1]

After Katrina, as I was rebuilding my house, I left several notes behind the sheet rock. If the house floods again, the new owners will see where I marked the water line.

[oldE]

15 years ago I was doing home energy audits. While inspecting the spaces on top of the wall plates between the rafters in the attic, I came across several large vanilla bottles. I suspect someone was a secret drinker, with nice breath.
Fifty years ago, my father carpeted the stairs in our house. Two years ago my granddaughter and I got a tour of the old house (built circa 1820) with the current owner. He had removed the carpet and preserved my father's signature on one of the risers.



Old houses have so many stories.



Best
Les

[Bill Douglas]

I write a note on the inside of walls and leave a few coins that could be worth something to someone in the future.

Sometimes the notes are along the lines "What you doing here Boy, wreaking my wall! there are some coins down there ↓ haha"

[sc_rufctr]

I've never done it but this is a Great idea Mr Cocker! Years ago I found someones "Porn Stash" under the floor of a house I was renovating. It was all vintage stuff from the late 50s early 60s. The house was built around 1900!

FWIW days before selling the "family home" after my ex wife left me...

- I hammered my wedding ring into the main roof rafter!

It felt great at the time and more than 20 years later no regrets.

[Rtrorkt]

I put a copy of my architectural drawings for a lower level Reno and a note in the ‘80s when I did a renovation on a 1920’s house. Just a bit of information

[craigster59]

I've done renovation on some old houses. Usually found liquor bottles, porn stash and the occasional scribble on a rafter or stair riser.

I have found an old shoe which seems to be a bit of a European tradition.
https://www.historicmysteries.com/concealed-shoes/

Hidden in the Walls
Shoes have a special significance in our society. They are the only item of clothing that takes the shape of the person who was wearing them. Shoes were believed to hold something of the wearer’s essence or personality even when they were not being worn. It was believed that it was this association with the wearer that could fight off evil spirits, should they attempt to come into your home.

The shoes chosen to be hidden were usually worn out, and there is often only one found concealed in walls and beneath floors. Interestingly, the shoes that are found are more often than not children’s shoes.

[stevej37]

My home is about 100 years old. When pulling the carpet up to replace it...I found the floor covered in old newspapers.
They used them back in the day in place of a carpet mat.

[rwest]

I worked for a city and had to crawl up into the ceiling above the jail to run cabling for a booking camera flash- it was super tight and sucked moving about, so to amuse my suffering self, I wrote a message on a concrete beam: “ almost made it to freedom” I added the date and my name.

Not sure when anyone would ever see it again, likely only if it got torn down.

I have signed the back of a kitchen cabinet I built.

Rutager

[wdfifteen]

I did that, sort of. Some guys and I rented a dump of a house when I was in college. There was a picture on the wall covering a big hole. We threw our empty beer cans in the wall cavity until we filled it up.

[Bill Douglas]

I found $300 in notes slipped behind wall paper in a house renovation. It was NZ currency but was the old paper notes instead of the newer plastic ones. That didn't stop them from being spent at the pub.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

I found $300 in notes slipped behind wall paper in a house renovation. It was NZ currency but was the old paper notes instead of the newer plastic ones. That didn't stop them from being spent at the pub.

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

"the pub" made me smile