What Is The Most Interesting Thing Found Inside A Demo'd Wall?
This is my first post, love this board...
I was doing some rehab work for my grandmother a few years back, and when we opened up the walls, we found all kinds of interesting things in there. Beer bottles, cans, dead mice, etc..
Just wondering if someone found something really interesting, money, etc...
Sorry if this post is kind of frivolous, just wondering...
I just got divorced...yipee!...and am about to buy my first investment property....The ex has my old house... 
Been reading about real estate investing since '96, but the wifey was too busy spending all my ca$h!
Could have retired by now, if I had chosen REI over her....
[ Edited by turtlepw on Date 03/10/2004 ]
A hammer from about 1920. Still have it, still use it
Hi turtlepw, re:your post. Some time back a friend bought an old house with small rooms. He paid some 12k for the house. When he went to enlarge a couple rooms, he found some 100k plus buried in the wall. I have not been so fortunate.
I hate finding old newspapers. They cost me so much time, because I just can't resist sitting down and reading through them, like going back in time.
My Grandpa was had a bakery and worked through the depression 16 hours a day seven days a week. When the grand parents passed, my dad and I had to demo the bakery space to rent to a different kind of business. We found a White Owl cigar box (Gramps brand) full of large bills... all silver certificates! They disintegrated into dust when we went to touch them.
The best thing I found was an nice old Millers Falls combination square. It was perfect, no rust, not a scratch... I use it all the time in my shop.
I stick stuff in walls all the time as time capsules.
In the basement of the house we're doing now, a previous owner was a roofer with high ambitions (or high period, I'm not sure). He made walls out of pallets and covered them with tarpaper. He never bothered to anchor them to anything on the bottom but on the top he used everything from 6 inch nails to screws and tacks to hold them in place. I was taking one apart (was dangerously close to the furnace) and out fell a plastic bag with cassette tapes. I took them home and it seems someone was taping all the phone calls from the basement. Since the house was a foreclosure (and the previous tennants seemed to have people living everywhere) i think someone didn't trust someone else..
There was something good in the basement too, but not in the wall. When we bought the house, it was cold, no heat or electric, so we toured the basement via flashlight. There's a big old oak "mystery cupboard" on it's side in the very back. It's got to be at least 8 feet tall, since the house was built in 1897, i think it's original to upstairs but how the heck they got it in the basement is beyond me! We can't imagine what it was used for, it has really odd looking slats on the sides. One day, i'll get it upstairs though!
becki
p.s. forgot, had a totally mummified mouse fall on me when ripping out the od drop ceiling in the kitchen. Gotta love de con, eh?
dammit, i'm so jealous. i've found no white owl cigar boxes, no money, not even a dead mouse. all i've ever managed to find was enough asbestos to make me cough and sneeze for weeks. i better get a mask and quit the macho bit, before i develop lung cancer! ugh!!!
I found a "cats paw" in a wall with the company name "Drew" on it.
It was manufactured in Kingston Ma around 1890.
I still use it today
JohnNH[ Edited by JohnNH on Date 03/28/2004 ]
[ Edited by lorien on Date 03/29/2004 ]
I found an old envelope with a Panama Canal stamp dated 1913 in the attic addressed to a Colonel
Agrcultural publications and a little corrospondance from about 150 years ago. Oh yes....... and a load of dead mice.
Having done over 250 rehabs,I have found guns,newspapers,cats,mice,coins,cash,tools and various items you would not believe.
I found some XXX movies. Actually, a contractor of mine found it. I didn't want to throw it out until he was finished since I was afraid he would think I took it home!
tortio, so should i send you my address? i can see that they get properly disposed of!
:-D
I would say that I have mainly found porn from the 40's and 50's & 60's in my area. Other than the old newspapers used for insulation I have found the bottles, silverware, a small diamond, and a box with old (really artistic and cool looking) checks.
Large well preserved whole Rat Skeleton from tooth to end of tail, dug in just around the last tub removal & drain we did. He never made it back out!
Oh....Also found a Civil War bullet inside a wall of that house....? Can't even imagine...
SG
I was rooting around in the attic with about a foot of blown in insulation in it found this large heavy old crock bowl thought I would take it home to the wife to mix cookie doe in till the elderly lady next door told me it was an old chamber pot. She gave me 10 bucks for it though.
Ed
Lots and lots of beer bottles. A cache of antique medicine bottles, More mice and dropings than I care to remember. A few tools but none of them very usable.
We have found a lot of stuff. Behind a couch in the baseboard we found a big bag of cocaine once. The handy man told me it was an 8ball worth 250 bucks. In others we have found a cigar box full of watches, melted gold ingots,2 one gallon plastic baggies marked Hair and nails filled to the brim with just that, a rolex, cash, silver collectable coins, etc.
The weirdest was a guy that had died in the place and wasnt found for a week in the florida sun. The old owner threw in 10 boxes of Baking soda, and shut it up with nails from the outside. No one had been in the place for two years after that. Then we had the joy of cleaning it out. You could still see clearly where the baking soda had soaked up everything where he passed away. This guy had serious mental issues as we hauled out 100 (yes 100) Lawn and trash bags of stuff he had accumulated. 20 bags of newspapers, he lived like a gerbil, there wre layers of paper over everything. It looked like he would put a new layer on, when it got dirty. The rest of It ranged from disney memorabilia, womens clothes, lots of marital aids(you can imagine), QVC stuff bought but never opened, letters from 4 different girlfriends, 2 bags full of empty vodka bottles, Vietnam memorabilia, etc etc. 1/2 of everything I just mentioned was hidden behind the drywall for some unknown reason. But the best part was the live possum we found living in the bottom half of the stove(broiler) that had been left open for however long.
Kyle
Quote:
On 2004-04-07 09:24, KyleGatton wrote:
We have found a lot of stuff. Behind a couch in the baseboard we found a big bag of cocaine once. The handy man told me it was an 8ball worth 250 bucks. In others we have found a cigar box full of watches, melted gold ingots,2 one gallon plastic baggies marked Hair and nails filled to the brim with just that, a rolex, cash, silver collectable coins, etc.
The weirdest was a guy that had died in the place and wasnt found for a week in the florida sun. The old owner threw in 10 boxes of Baking soda, and shut it up with nails from the outside. No one had been in the place for two years after that. Then we had the joy of cleaning it out. You could still see clearly where the baking soda had soaked up everything where he passed away. This guy had serious mental issues as we hauled out 100 (yes 100) Lawn and trash bags of stuff he had accumulated. 20 bags of newspapers, he lived like a gerbil, there wre layers of paper over everything. It looked like he would put a new layer on, when it got dirty. The rest of It ranged from disney memorabilia, womens clothes, lots of marital aids(you can imagine), QVC stuff bought but never opened, letters from 4 different girlfriends, 2 bags full of empty vodka bottles, Vietnam memorabilia, etc etc. 1/2 of everything I just mentioned was hidden behind the drywall for some unknown reason. But the best part was the live possum we found living in the bottom half of the stove(broiler) that had been left open for however long.
Kyle
Maybe he was a Vietnam vet. There was a house that I looked into renting in the Dallas area last year that was a fresh rehab. The rehabber bought the house from the owner's family after he died. He said they hauled out just stack and stacks of newpapers that were piled up all along the walls....like he was building a fort around himself in his own house. The previous owner WAS a Vietnam vet with mental issues.
kids room had small hole in wall. down by floor between two studs it was piled about 6 inches deep in hot wheels, marbles, legos, plastic army men and other bits and pieces of a young boys room.
Yes I returned all the toys to the rightful owner. My Son
Jackman- Get that mask. You don't want to die soon after you find the big pay day in the wall.
i was turning a gym into a night club space and knocking down walls. This was a muscle head gym. When we knocked down one of the wall we must of seen over 100 needles fall out of the wall. My handyman almost started puking. It was really gross. I guess these body builders were doing steroids or something.
STEIN SMITH
(732)331-9085