Found
This past weekend we met up with friends of ours from our old neighborhood. It was so great to catch up and it reminded me of how much I miss certain aspects of our old house and neighborhood. While I love where we are now, it is in no way as thrilling as where we once were, and sometimes I think back to all of the craziness and I just… miss it.
It’s not as if we moved away and can never visit, but in reality, that period of our lives is long gone. The only tangible keepsake we have from what feels like our old life is a single $100 bill and an old envelope from the day we found $1200 in our ceiling. $1200 bucks—God, that was such a good day!
One of the first things we did to the house was tear down all of the plaster ceilings and a lot of the old plaster walls that were too far gone to repair. Night after night spent hauling plaster out of the house and into a 40-yard dumpster left us tired, irritable, and completely unenthused with the amount of crap we had “found.” Old newspapers, tin cans, and used pantyhose stand out in my mind but all sorts of disgusting-ness came tumbling out of walls and ceilings. So much in fact that for three years we never happened to notice an old cloth tied to one of the old pipes in the ceiling.
It was Wally (one of our completely awesome HVAC guys) who happened to notice and prompted Nathan to pull it down. Nathan declined. Wally insisted. Nathan declined. Wally insisted. Eventually Wally won and Nathan pulled down the rag—wrapped inside was an envelope with $1200 dollars. $1200 bucks! Ultimate WOOT!
By the time I had come home from work (insanely jealous that I hadn’t been there to experience it all) they had ransacked the entire house for more money but with no such luck! Still though, I’ll take the $1200.
In our new house, we didn’t expect to find anything, but we did happen upon a single bullet and an unopened bottle of Captain Morgan’s Rum tucked under some floorboards in the attic. While not quite $1200 dollars it was still intriguing to say the least. Now I know that most people don’t buy houses and immediately rip out ceilings and walls, but I’m curious what other sorts of interesting things people have found. We can’t be the only ones finding offbeat things, can we?
That’s so cool. I love hearing about the history behind homes. Ours was new when we moved in…I hope there’s nothing weird in the walls!
You never know… maybe the builders left some fun little something in the walls! ;)
I’m a brand-new reader of your blog but just had to comment on this one, because I’m feeling the same right now – I miss, miss, miss our old house & neighbourhood. How did you do it – find a new place & a new spot you liked, even though it was so different to the old one you loved? Did anything make the transition easier?
Unfortunately we didn’t find anything fun in our roof when we cleaned it all out – just inches & inches of dust, dirt & filth. Ugh.
Hi Danielle! We chose to move because we started wanting different things for our lives and for our daughter’s life (we moved when she was just 3 months old). So it was easy in one regard but really difficult in another. We had a really unique situation but what made it easier for us was knowing we made the right decision for our daughter! :)
So only dirt and filth in your ceiling? I can totally relate! We had tons of that, too!
Kathy, finding that $1200 must have felt ruddy amazing! We’ve ripped our house apart and unfortunately found very little except the usual rubble. After stripping walls and floors we have found, were the previous owners kids wrote their names and cartoons on the walls. All from the 1970′s no less! Whilst digging up all the flowers in the garden, we have come across bits of old Victorian tiles and bottles and weird little toys.
I love, that through ripping apart my house to start again, we have learnt a great deal about our home… it was built back in the day for the wealthy who worked in the local town (now a City!) but didn’t want to live amongst the peasants, still suits that type of person today, (although I ain’t one of them). The outhouses, which we converted last year had remnants of the old wash house and it was probably were the butler slept, i could go on and on but you get the drift.
I love old houses and love this home. I’m sorry to hear you miss your old home & neighborhood. I miss much of my past but wouldn’t give up my present for anything, after all I have my man and my boy and I’d live in a cardboard box as long as I had them.
PS How have you been coping with working at home?
Ooo… Cat! Old toys are such an awesome find!! Did you keep them? Your house sounds great! I especially love old homes and their history (I know, huge nerd)!!
Thanks for asking about work! It’s going great, I love it! My daughter was sick yesterday so I just took half a day off, worked a little at night, and it was so easy! So far, so good! I may be like you and never look back! :)
We found a dead crow sitting next to an empty can of Schlitz beer in the closet under our basement stairs. I’m pretty sure it was Heckle or Jekyll.
this story made it onto the news here in australia tonight:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/51847348-78/ferrin-money-boxes-bangerter.html.csp
and then i read your blog and hear about your $1200 find!!
i found nuthin in any of the houses i’ve lived in and i feel kinda ripped off!!
all the best,
jo
I just took a look at the article! He returned it all? I’d like to think we would have too, but the woman who had stashed the money had died a number of years before we bought the house! :)
Aw! I was all proud of my postcard book token from 1980 and then I read this! Noyce!
The best bit is the bullet and bottle of rum…what’s that about? Someone’s “just in case of apocalypse” stash? Awesome!
I know, right? The bullet and liquor are far more interesting (although far less exciting!)!
Love the story!
That is such a wild and AMAZING story!! Wow. And all we found was an old chicken bone behind the kitchen radiator. Sigh…
Mmmm… chicken bone! ;)
Thanks Anna! It was kinda crazy at the time!
That is so crazy! what a reward for dealing with the rest of the stuff they left behind.
I hope you gave Wally a finders fee! After all, he’s the one that found the $.
Hah! Ceecee, you’ll be happy to know we gave $200 bucks to Wally! ;)
I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now, and I never noticed that you live in The Lou! I grew up about an hour and a half away, and I am madly in love with St. Louis. While I now live in Portland (which I also love, and Portland couldn’t possibly be more different from STL), I have promised myself that if I ever move back to the midwest, it will be to St. Louis. I dream of one day restoring one of the many gorgeous, historic homes that STL has to offer. I feel like STL doesn’t receive enough props for it’s awesomeness.
I love this story…it is so incredible!