ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area What's in the walls?

Was working in a "side" attic and found a bunch of old Nabob vanilla extract bottles. I mentioned it to my dad (who's in his 80's) and he remembered when he was a kid in the 30's that the guy that owned the house was an alcoholic. Never did get to take any of the bottles as the owner I was working for peered into the attic to see how I was doing and spotted them.....and never offered me even one of them

I was re-insulating my own attic and saw 2 boxes in the corner. I was hoping it was money! No luck. One box contained a bunch of old receipts from the 30's, the other box contained a bunch of little girl's "treasures" from the 40's. Cut outs from magazines, valentine cards, etc. This little girl is now in her 60's and still in the area and I've been meaning to give them to her....this thread just reminded me.

My dad was doing work for a neighbour some years ago and they came across a tin can up in the ceiling... They opened it and found a brass watch with Russian writing on it sealed in the can...

I was doing work for another neighbour a couple years back and found a little home-made clay pipe for smoking weed hidden up in the ceiling...

A.D

Just last month I was taking out an interior chimney in my mothers house. The chimney ran through the linen closet, so I had to remove the shelving. I'm pulling apart the wood, and I find a little admission ticket, the kind you might get issued to get into any sort of local carnival or fund-raiser.

I go to pick it up (and bend it in the process, of course ) thinking that because of how new it looks, it must be something left by the last owners before my family moved in in '89.

Then I read the date: Friday, October 31, 1924.

Not much, but sure neat because I wasn't expecting it.

-John

Foung some circa 1920's newspapers during a remodel/rewire I was working on in Kenosha a few years ago. The H.O. was going to see if the historical society wanted them.

Found an (empty) pack of smokes under the insulation in my house - circa 1934 or so. And to seal the rafter/studwall area, they had cut down shipping boxes and recycled the cardboard. Saw several with the NRA (National Recovery Administration)logo and "...we do our part" slogan.

Of course, according to the (now grown) children of the previous owner, the 3rd owner back was the City Clerk, and supposedly had hidden "shoeboxes full of cash" within the house.

The only paper I've found so far has been pages of the Chicago Tribune from December 1943 that they used to stuff several junction boxes before they were plastered over...

[This message has been edited by DougW (edited 02-25-2006).]

Let's see...

In a craftsman-style house (like the one in Mr. Holland's Opus), I found a soda bottle under the attic floor. It had "Cola-Cola Bottling Works, Washington, D.C." embossed (raised, actually) on the bottom. It wasn't the wasp-waist style like now, it was straight-sided.

Also, I found an intact (except for the filament, which had been the up-and-down zig-zag kind) Edison-base bulb, with the pointy tip, under a house. I could just barely make out the words "National Mazda" printed on the side.

We have a small collection of various old wine bottles (evidenced by the grapes raised around the bottle) and various apothecary-type bottles, not screw-topped, obviously to be sealed with corks.

I have found a few tools, mostly screw-drivers, Channelocks, a hammer or two, and recently an almost-new pair of Kleins, complete with the thick red replacement handles. No power tools, though. A couple of lighters, one in a pack of fresh cigarettes.

I gave the cigarettes back to my helper, but kept his lighter. hey, he's gotta feel the pain to learn, right?



Me-owch!



Magnets, Gunther, magnets.

Larry, some day some lucky stiff will open the wall where I dropped my pliers. He'll also find the magnet I tried to use to fish them out!

John,
I feel your pain.
A couple of years ago I dropped a brand new pair of Klein angle-type diagonal cutters down the back of a wall oven cavity while working up in a roof-void.
I could see them down at floor level and even managed to hook them out with a length of catenary wire, but as I was lifting the hooked wire out it turned and the cutters fell off, only to drop to the floor and roll under the oven unit.
The oven unit was built in to the wall and there was no way that I was going to tear the cabinets apart for a pair of side-cutters.

I was in a VERY tight attic with some VERY nasty loose insulation. I was scooping and throwing the insulation out of my way & my wedding ring flew off my finger. I dug around in that tight, nasty attic for an hour looking for it...no luck.

Dave

Wall cavities are rare here, but even in solid brick walls you can find newspapers. Often when there are big holes people stuff them with paper and then plaster them over, in order to save plaster.
Floors are a great source for stuff too. The typical Vienna floor is a typical wood floor with beams and 1" subfloor, but some more layers on it. Atop of the first subfloor you get a layer of "insulation", basically sand, mixed with everything they had around. That layer can be up to 12" thick. In that debris fill I found newspapers from the beginning of WWI, small bottles (one half full with antique bronze paint), lit matches the ton (pink dyed wood), even some unlit (with yellow heads), the weirdest thing a pair of ragged canvas shoes, just like red converse.

Well, I found some old newspapers, an old bottle or two, BUGS, supposedly a dead cat, ( I didn't stick around for that job. I just left.) There was once a pack of old girly playing cards. You know the type with the old cheesecake pictures. I found in an attic once an old latern that looked like it came off a a Navy ship. Never did find out if it is or not. I can post the picture here if you want to.