Strangest Thing that Came with Your House

Yes golddog and also Horsheshoe's McGorkle brothers. Its another time lets hear it.

I've never come to this forum before....what was I waiting for! This stuff had me rolling in the aisles!

I don't have any funny stories to tell, I don't think. This house just has some things we think are idiotic design flaws, like if I want to sit closer to the TV than clear across a 20 foot room, then I have to turn my neck until it hurts to watch it, while I sit in the loveseat. They put the built-in TV cabinet in the dumbest place, so that absolutely NO seat in the room is good for TV viewing! And the cabinet had no doors, which I hate. I don't like the cluttered look of tv and stereo equipment. Doors wouldn't fit (we tried) so I figured out to put a matching cellular window shade over the whole shebang. Matches the windows and looks neat. Just pull it up to watch TV.

And the powder room had the door opening IN, so that if you were fatter than 6" across, you would get stuck if you were in there and trying to get out. We had a clever carpenter figure out how to fix it without ripping out the doorframe and replacing it. He just took off the door, cut new notches for the hinges and installed it opening OUT, filling in the other hinge notches on the other side. Much better.

Also, in the breakfast nook, there was this huge window, from the floor to about 7 feet high. Outside this window was a newly landscaped, perfectly useless piece of yard! A big piece, I might add. What a waste! So we ripped out the window and had 8-foot double, outswinging french doors installed, pretty ones with leaded stained glass. Then we had a deck built so we can grill out there without walking through the living room with trays of food to get to the pool area to grill. What a stupid design that was!

There is another side yard right outside our master bathroom, which is another thing in need of remodeling (the house is only 4 years old, I might add...just a stupid architect). We want to take out the jacuzzi we never use, made one of those big tiled showers with lots of spray-heads and make a door going out to an outdoor spa.

And did I mention the "bonus room" that is 15"x30" and totally empty? We can't figure out what the heck to do with it! It has a window a/c unit in it because the previous owners were too cheap to put in a third central unit to cool it. So now, it's noisy and birds build their nests on it. It isn't sealed properly, so the bird nest stuff flies in all over the floor...what a mess and a waste of space!

There are other design flaws...too many to mention. What the heck did we pick this house for! LOL

Oh, I forgot the laundry room doors! LOL Two 8-foot high doors that have that "catch" at the top to hold them. Well, one in particular constantly swells or changes position or something and there are times that I have to take a running start to smash into the door to open it! Ow! And shutting it is as loud as a cannon!

Sharon, can you post floor plan for your crazy room in the decorating forum? http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/decorating/ I bet you'd get a slew of suggestions about furniture placement. Those folks love a good challenge!

I take it you mean 15x30 feet, not inches, on that bonus room, right? LOL!

HAHAHAHA Gardenwife, yes, I meant feet! Boy, inches...that really would be a useless "room"!

Sigh. That other room. Furniture placement...well, I can try, but I really don't think there is anything that can be done. The problem is that it's one of those big rooms that's open into the breakfast nook and kitchen. There is no actual wall directly facing the TV. The "wall" directly opposite the TV is open to the breakfast nook. The sofa is against the "wall" (open from waist height to ceiling) but it's off to the side, not facing TV. And too far away. The fireplace is in the middle, where it would be good for TV viewing. The TV is on one side of the fireplace and the powder room wall is on the other. The sofa is directly facing the powder room wall. They need to be switched, but not possible because of the plumbing!

I think it's hopeless.

Betcha it's not. Start a thread there and let's have some fun.

Okay, I'll have to draw it up and scan it tomorrow.

Our home was built by the previous owner. He was an electrical engineer.....
The only thing that I was sold on was the fireplace. It is huge and sits in the middle on the living room and dining room. The first christmas my DH put up a train set and was telling the guys at work how we had a train that went all the way around the fireplace. They could not figure out why there were holes that went out of the house around the back of the fireplace and a hole to come back in the house.
The wall paper in the entry way had huge trees like you would see in a childs room. We thought about getting some monkey cutouts and putting them on alot of the trees. The main bathroom had dark brown wallpaper with black stick looking figures. Reminded us of african wallpaper.
The living room-dining room has a beam ceiling and where it went into the kitchen the ceiling has an angle with cedar across. at the highest point he had holes cut and dusty wine bottles sticking out. We figured if they were too drunk to get up that high to reach it was last call.
The computer room had rust stains on the floor. The neighbors told us their son was not allowed to play outside so they put his fullsize swingset in here.
The house was already 10 yrs old and never had curtains on the dining room windows. We never could figure out the actual color of the carpet.
He also added on a 11x16 room he had a hot tub on. No windows just 4 sky lights and in the 4 corners a different colored floodlight bulb. Now that was spooky.
On top of that our yard is not very large and there was 37 bags of pine needles when DH, DS, FIL and MIL got done. I was cleaning the master bath bathtub and it took 2 and 1/2 hours to clean.
He also has 1/2 of the house electric run to a breaker box outside and 1/2 to a breaker box in the attic. Electricians just shake their heads.
Last but not least one of those big round clay suns hung above the fireplace.
We had alot of work to do but I love my house now.
this guy was a piece of cake. They drew up the plans and custom built it and in 10 years done more to it than anything I have ever seen.

I know some people don't believe in ghosts. If I hadn't had experiences w them , I wouldn't believe in them either. Unfortunately I've run into them three times. (What's wrong w me?)
First time, My DH and I were renting a house that was about 20 yrs old, and "someone" there kept doing odd things.-- locked me out twice, reversed cafe door shutters I had just hung-found them hanging upside down, and then started tripping me every time I went down the two stairs into the garage to do the laundry. The fourth time "he" tripped me, I called my DH up and went out and sat in the car. Never went back into that house again. had just found out I was pregnant and was really afraid. We moved out immediately.
The second time I was touring an old house that my aunt and uncle had just remodeled. We were coming down the stairs from the 2nd floor when "someone" grabbed me by the ankle and I fell to the bottom of the stairs. My aunt said they had been having a lot of problems, also, and they sold the house soon afterwards.
The third time was my DH and I were living in a big old house built in 1640 (5000 sq ft). We'd been there 6 mos and no problems. My DH had to go out of town one week and our lab had run off on us (he was in love w a cow on the other side of town). For the first time we were all alone in that big old house. That night I was awaken to the sound of someone walking up and down the hall (wood floors) outside our (my thee children and mine) bedrooms. I gathered the children and called the police-they came and found nothing. They came four more times that night. I finally put the kids in the car and we went to a motel. When my DH returned home the neighbors informed him that we were at the motel. They then told him to tell me it was nothing to worry about. They sais that an old maid had lived in the home all her life (Daddy built the "little" cottage for her). She had a caretaker named Frank. They had both been dead for yrs, but they were sure that what I heard was Frank patroling the halls. We did go home, but I made sure that if my DH went out of town, we stayed at the motel!! We moved not too long after that.
Believe it or not!! Jay (smooth)

This is a great thread, I've had a good chortle at this for the last wee while.

When we took over the souterranean flat below ours, the smell was so ghastly that I had to run back out and have another look at my breakfast. The place was a complete dump, and we started right away to rip everything out.

We thought for years that the house was subsiding as it was built in 1905, and our whole area is built on moorland, but to our horror, we found that the people before us had knocked a doorway in a carrying wall, which of course weakened the entire house structure causing cracks in the wall up to the third floor.
That was the first repair, and 3 months later, we were finished with a knock-through to our flat upstairs, thus giving us 7 rooms in all .... a house in a house if you like.

Here's a picture of the 'clandestine' doorway.


Wintermoor

What a wonderful thread!! The strangest thing we ever encountered was in an old house built in the late 1800s, which had a fieldstone basement. It leaked rivers in every rain storm, and had grooves chiseled in the floor leading to a "drain" hole, which must have gone into some kind of dry well as it didn't appear to go into a real drain. In one corner of the basement was a cement block structure, that was about 6 and a half feet high, that had a small pipe coming out of the side, about a foot off the floor. We finally figured out that it was a cistern that collected rain water. Some years after we moved from there we noticed a realtor's sign in the front yard, and my daughter and I thought it would be fun to go through it and pretend to be interested in buying it. When the realtor showed us the basement, we asked her what the cement block structure was, and she replied that it was a coal bin. I looked at my daughter who was trying very hard not to burst out laughing, when I then asked the realtor if the little spout was where the coal came out.

ROTF, you're my kind of people, meezers.

Just thought it was time to bring this one up again.

In 1989 we looked at this house to purchase which was framed in, even had some insulation on the walls. It was plumbed , wired, etc. The realtor told us the couple that was building it had to quit because the husband became terminally ill. He said they had taken a lot of oriental children to care for over the years.

We bought the house even though we lived and worked 400 miles away. Approximately 2 years later we stopped at an estate sale in a city 80 miles away. I saw a box of picture frames and offered them $2 for the whole box. I had not even looked at any of them. They went around and collected more that were hanging on the walls. So, we had quite a few. We put them in the trunk of the car where I totally forgot about them.

A couple of weeks later I asked about them so my s/o went out and got them for me. I started looking through them which most were empty, no pictures. Then I came across one that had 2 real beautiful little oriental girls about 2 or 3 years old, in it.

The next one I found that had anything in it was a certificate to the husband and wife of the people we bought the house from awarding them for all of the foster children they had cared for.

Absolutely amazed at the coincidence??? Those 2 little girls were meant to be in this house I guess. After I retired in 1995 we moved in and began finishing the house. I have their picture and the certificate with the story hanging on the wall.

Jeanette

This message was edited Jan 16, 2005 8:36 PM

This message was edited Jan 16, 2005 10:41 PM

Wow, neat story, Jeanette!

That sure gave me the heebie jeebies!!!

i once rented a house in chicago that had a funny little door in the bathroom . when you opened the door it looked like a small linen closet but upon closer examination i found that the floor could lift up using an almost hidden handle. when i lifted the handle i found an extremely narrow spiral staircase leading down about 1 1/2 floors(this was a first floor room). upon going down the stairs (with a large flashlight and a small gun) i found a tunnel leading to under the street. i went as far as i could but it was blocked off and i could never give it the true exploration it deserved. i discovered later that the house was a speakeasy/gambling hall in the 1920's and that when there was a raid that tunnel was used as a means of escape. i did not stay in the house too long after that as it was sort of creepy and not long after i left it was torn down to make room for "urban renewal".

Jeanette, I have to ask, what does s/o stand for? I've tried to decipher it and can't.

This thread has kept me very entertained for the past few hours :-). I'll think about it and see if I can remember anything weird about the homes I've lived in.

-Julie

SO - significant other ...fun thread, keep 'em coming!

Right Kooger!!! Jeanette

I bought my house in 2002 and it is a 1927 Arts and Crafts Bungalow. In the basement behind a small door we found a boulder. Thats right a Very Large Rock - took up the whole room. Cannot figure out why they didn't remove it when they built the house.

I'm so glad this thread's back up -- what a riot it's been.

When we remodeled the kitchen last fall, we found some stuff behind the cabinets; other than abandoned mouse nests, there were some bits of ephemera we thought were amusing. Granted, they're not vintage-vintage, but they're still fun. http://davesgarden.com/journal/j/viewentry/50010/

No fun surprises in this house - BBs in the ceiling don't rate too high in my book! And what kind of person - with SEVEN kids - puts in white tile counters and floors in the kitchen? A person with a Y chromosome, that's who.

I left treasures in my childhood home. The access to the bathtub plumbing was through a small cut-out in my room. There were no floor boards in the plumbing area and the bedroom boards were exposed so I could tuck my secert things under the floor.

I wonder if my things delighted a child. :) I hope so.

And what kind of person - with SEVEN kids - puts in white tile counters and floors in the kitchen?

Uh...that would be my dad. ; ) Seven kids AND a woodstove.

Between our dirty feet and the soot and sawdust from the stove, my Mom had a constant struggle to make that kitchen look remotely clean!

No BB's in our ceiling--Mom made us take our BB guns outside to shoot cans off a log, like normal people. :p

Rhonda

This message was edited Jun 2, 2005 8:41 AM

What a fun thread! So glad it was revived!
We moved into this house a year ago. It had been a rental for low income families for about 20 years prior. So definately nothing fun here. Just a poor old house that has never been taken care of. In the 70's someone (probably the owner) put up Z-Brick in the kitchen. It was dark red with black "mortar." It looked as if the kitchen had major smoke damage from a fire. If you dont know what ZBrick is, it's this horribly ugly fake looking "brick" that cant be taken down without damaging the walls. So we painted it glossy white. It took a lot of coats, but it actually looks really nice now. Keep the stories coming!!
~Rachael

Our find was not IN the house but rather in the garden. A couple months after buying, I started digging out a terraced area....I unearthed a good number (27) blue cobalt glass bottles.
The man at the antique store said they were more than likely old medicine bottles. They now sparkle in the afternoon sun in my guest room windows.

Yeah, forgot the last house, the one I lived in for 28 years, using a metal detector in the back yard we dug up the hood of a car. Don't remember what kind. Nope, nothing under it but dirt.

Jeanette

I love how cobalt blue glass looks in the sunshine. What a cool find, marc.

Jnette, guess that brings a whole new meaning to "clean fill wanted", eh?

Yes, I guess that would not be included. LOL

Jeanette

Wow, finally got through this thread after about 2 hours of reading. It's a great thread....glad it was bumped. I still want to know what was behind the locks on Golddog's "mystery room."

My DH found a clamshell while digging up some sod today. I suppose some would say that means our property was once covered by the ocean? LOL! Yes, I'm joking. ;-)

Great thread, glad it was bumped.

When my father retired from the Army, we moved to TX. The first house we lived in was a rental. The owner's wife had painted trees on almost every wall in the house. The kitchen had apple trees, the breakfast nook had lemon and orange trees, there were mimosas in the dining room. I can't remember what was in the bathroom, but I know it didn't escape her paintbrush! Some of the trees extended onto the ceilings. They weren't bad, she actually did a pretty decent job... they were just a bit much for my mother's taste. As a kid, it was just fun!

Our 'new' house came with a balcony over the kitchen...with a little door to the attic. Now the balcony is about 50' long, 6 feet wide and 4' tall.. Hello? We laugh about hireing a Mariachi Band of Little People to Play at a party...there is no rhyme nor reason for it....even has a wrought iron ballustrade! There is also a small room off the kitchen...about 6' high and too small to be anything. It makes me claustrophobic...it is even carpeted!!!

We figured since the previous owner was really short and always stoned, he got a bit 'off' on his calculations. None of the walls are plumb, none of the corners squared...it is a challenge to even put up window molding!

We love it, tho. It is unique.

Aloha....I've GOT to see that balcony and the little room. PLEASE post pics of them :-)

-Julie

Maggie, that sounds fascinating! Can you imagine the fun painting that? I could if I were talented at all.

Jeanette

Jeanette, I think that lady was ahead of her time. Many people are into murals nowadays, she just did them all over!

my dh and i once had a resort in nw wisconsin and like any older buildings there was plenty of things to repair or upgrade. the strangest repair we had to make was on a water line leading to one of the cabins. apparently there had been a leak in it before and some genius had tied a sock around the part of the pipe with the hole. i wonder how long they expected that to work? hehehe

Bumping this up; just found this today, and have totally enjoyed reading all these great posts!

strange thing with my house - trampoline springs, in the attic. To heavy to get out in the box so one handful at a time! A big pain...

Our neighbor's dog.

When we first looked at the farm, there was a huge yellow dog stretched out in front of the door who barely moved out of the way to let us get in. Realtor mentioned that the dog was always there when she showed the house.

Fast forward to a few months later, dog was still there, "helped" us move in, ended up with it's own box of dog biscuits & water bowl, kept me company while I mucked out stalls in the barn, was allowed into the house during thunder & snowstorms, etc.

Don't get me wrong, the neighbors were/are wonderful people who loved the dog to pieces, but she insisted on being an outdoor dog who LOVED people & visiting them. And since the neighbors worked & I was home all day, the dog pretty much "lived" with me during the week, but spent evenings & weekends at her real home. It's funny because everyone from the postman, to the UPS man, to other new neighbors thought she belonged to us - lol.

She passed away last year, & even tho I have 4 dogs of my own (who she loved & played with daily), I miss her as if she had really been mine.

A baby! We were so wrapped up in the house - buying, etc. we forgot we were trying to get pregnant! I was 2 months or so before I even noticed! All that moving but the little guy hung in there!

Nicole

Birthday number three pic!