What a mess

[hibb]

Thank God for a big shovel and huge trash bags.

Just got through tearing out the ceiling in the upstairs bedroom I'm remodeling. My father-in-law did this upstairs addition back in the mid 1940's. He put in 1/4 inch drywall with bat insulation between the rafters and a shit load of blown in insulation above that. And he ran the drywall along the rafters instead of across them. No wonder the ceiling was sagging. It's a wonder it stayed up at all.

I don't think my FIL was much of a carpenter. When I get the rest of the interior walls torn out maybe I'll post pictures and see if any of you recommend any structural repairs I can do before I put in the new walls.

Interesting what people stash inside the walls. So far, I found three large empty heart shaped boxes that chocolates come in and the box top from some board game based on an old TV game show. They also left a large roll of bat insulation up there. I don't know why they didn't unroll it so it would do some good. It'll be interesting to see if they put anything in the walls.

David

[hallerb]

I have found 5 or 6 glassd milk bottles in the walls of my home, apparently left in place back in 1950 when the home plan was built. found a birth certificate in another home

[Charlie]

All I found was empty beer cans. No wonder there are no square corners or plunb walls.

Charlie

I have found 5 or 6 glassd milk bottles in the walls of my home, apparently left in place back in 1950 when the home plan was built. found a birth certificate in another home

[hrhofmann]

I found some very old liquor bottles from the 1880's under an old home my daughter and son-in-law bought about 15 years ago.

[hibb]

.

I found lots of stuff when I tore out the walls downstairs in this house. It was built in 1910 but the upstairs was not finished until much later and lots of stuff the kid played with upstairs fell into the lower wall. There were plenty of books and newspapers and such and those wooden blocks kids play with and a couple of toys. Non of it in good shape when I found it. The best thing of all was a hammer. It looked like it had hardly been used and had been in there for many decades.

Now every time I re-do a room I put stuff in the walls. Unopened packs of baseball cards. Money that was dated in the year I did the project. Personal history and pictures of my wife and me. Pictures of how the house has changed down through the decades.

David

[Jerry - OHIO]

I found a set of center bits on a beam that fit in a brace & bit hand drill, in my bacement ,they go from 1/4 " to 2 1/2 " in eights . Now I gotta get a brace. Jerry

[Jules]

I like that. With our place it's little bits of grafitti - mostly from the kids of the folk who built our place - tucked away out of sight where nobody would ordinarily see it. I usually add something to it and date it...

[Ed]

I found a brand new .22 rifle above the basement heating duct in a house I rehabbed a number of years ago.

[Buck Ofama]

The best thing I ever found was 2 cigar boxes filled with coin rolls from the 1880's to 1910's. They're bank-rolled with open ends. About $200 face value, total. They're still in the original rolls and boxes. I've had them since 1968 and don't intend to do anything with them until my grandson marries, then they're his to do what he wants with them.

[hibb]

I gotta say that I got a bit of a creepy felling when I saw that bundle up in the rafters yesterday. Glad it turned out to just be a roll of insulation. Maybe I should get it out of the trash bag and unroll it just in case they hid something in there. I kinda doubt it tho.

I just hope non of that old crap has any asbestos in it.

David

[Stormin Mormon]

That's the one that shoulda gone to the little blonde boy in "A Christmas Story". Where the old man is always going down stairs to yell at the furnace and kick it. And the boy only wants a BB gun for Christmas.