Strangest Thing that Came with Your House

FlowerChild95 I would look it up - even the most strait laced families hae their black sheep! Do you know the family who built the house? I would look their name up in the local news paper files 1890s to 1950s I would also look into your homes addy to see if there are any records there with the home. Looking into old homes can be great and a lot of fun, if you can track down a history you can make the homes value go up in some cases. I have a good friend in Bonam TX who bought an old barn they thought to turn into a home. When we started to clean out the place they found newspapers from the 1860s shoved into the walls to keep the palce warm (most were in very bad shape sad to say but they goa few that were great!) they they found Jewish scripture boxes over the doors! We started looking to see anything on the place but no barns were listed from the era - but a Jewish Inn was listed and when we kept checking they had the Jewish Inn fro the 1860s! The value jumped once they restored the place, but after all that work they kept it.

We bought the house from the great-great granddaughter of the original owners. She lives one block away now, her dad lives one block the other direction, and his dad lives caddy corner behind me. I've heard some great stories from him, but I haven't gotten up the courage yet to ask him if his grandparents or parents did anything weird in the house. I should question him before it's too late to find out anything, because he is getting on in years.
Also, another lady right up the road was close friends with his father and helped with all the remodeling of the house in the 1940s. She showed us some before pictures that she had and told us everything they had done. It has a lot of history.

I remember when I was a teenager and Mom moved to an older house. They had old linoleum upstairs and had lined newspaper on the floor before laying the linoleum over it. I used to roll the flooring back and read comics and other articles from the late 40's. I remember reading an article about Elizabeth Taylor when she was still a young actress.Sort of like a trip to the past.
We also left a dresser at a house once and years later when my sister was married she was looking for a used dresser. She got the used one from a newspaper ad and later recognized it as the one our family had left behind when we were kids.What goes around comes back around. LOL

What a great thread, everybody has stories about weird houses! Some of them remind me of a place I lived for a summer in Alaska. It was the town's original hospital and it had later been used as a maternity center and a hospice. Most recently it had been divided into 5 small apartments and used as student housing. My friends across the hall had the original kitchen with a giant sink and next door they had the dispensary cabinets. The center of the building was a long hallway the ended in an enclosed porch that we filled with potted flowers and veggies. The creepiest thing was the laundry room in the basement. It had been the morgue with big stone and concrete slabs along the sides and drain channels in the floor. One day the lightbulb burned out and it was weeks before we got desperate enough to go down and fix it.

ewwwwww!
:)

Susan

Zanymuse, Your story about the built-in grandma touched my heart. Built-in grandmothers are the way God intended for it to be, I think. Grandparents have a different perspective on life, one that needs to be shared and passed on.

My mom lives with my son, DIL, and three great-grandkids! They have kept her outlook young, and she has been there all their lives! They would think it was very strange if they didn't have Grammy around. Her health has deteriorated, and even though they are very young, they keep their eye on her and holler "Mommie!!" if they percieve anything to be wrong.

They also go to her for some loving times every day. She loves it! She snuggles them and makes them laugh, and the bonding was there from the very beginning.

She could move to a quieter place if she wanted to; she says the kids make her nervous. But when we broach the subject, she crawfishes! She loves having her great-grandkids around! AND, my son cherishes every minute he has with her... my DIL says she never had a grandmother like Grammy!

FlowrLady, your story is so inspiring. How lucky "Grammy" is to have so much love in her life and now especially, in her twilight years. And her Grandchildren and Great grandchildren can only benefit in their own lives to have her in their presence. I can only imagine how many Grammies out there would love to trade places with her. Thank you for sharing.

Don

Don, my mom is 85, and her health is NOT good. "Twilight" is where I think she is right now. We all, every one of us, knows how lucky we are to still have her. When she's "up", she's the life of the party... no one else like my mom!!

I can appreciate that, flowrLady. My own Mom is 86. But she lives alone and sees her grandchildren and great grandchildren far less than she'd like too. Most live far away, including myself. We all try to bring her to see us or visit when possible, but it is getting hard for her to travel now, and I know she is often lonely. She does have a son and grand children and great grandchildren where is lives, our home town, and that seems to sustain her. It helps that she stays as active as possible with senior activities, but of course, family comes first.

Don

We are lucky. My MIL lives just a few miles from us. My wife brings her to our house at least 3X a week. My wife also day cares our granddaughter, so greatgrandma gets to spoil the heck out of her. My MIL is near 88, & in very good health. She lives in a nice apartment & takes care of herself. She sews quilts for a pastime, & also makes pillow cases. She loves to shop, so the three of them do a lot of that.
It's nice to have long life & good health.
Bernie

This house came with a marijuana plant growing between the
back porch steps.

Later on, we would find the home was practically sitting on top of
a dump. You name it, they buried it here, right down to box springs from
an old mattress. Horseshoes, bottles, pottery, marbles, nails, bolts, large
farm implements, shovels, glass, even a television.

Yep. Some of it is fun, though. I saved all of the marbles and now have quite a
little collection going. When I find something new, I truly do feel excited, even if it is junk.
Next project involves a mosaic with all the glass and pottery shards.

I run to the house, excitedly removing the treasures from my pockets to show
the family, who typically respond with "Uh, huh Mom."

Wuvie, what fun! You're so lucky :) Never a dull moment as you stroll around your property.

It's time to revive this thread again.

No really strange things came with the house but they did DO some weird stuff. When installing very small shelving, they used the biggest toggle bolts I have ever seen in my life. The shelves were 1.5'x6" and the bolts were 6" long and 1/2" wide! What the heck?!

On the flip side, they installed 7' verticle blinds with 1" screws. Have you ever tried to close stuck blinds and had the whole thing come crashing down, bringing plaster dust and sneezing accompanied by colorful cussing and consternation.

They did more stuff but I'm repressing them. Makes me much happier.

When I bought my previous home, one bedroom light and several plugs didn't work. We discovered later (by flashlight) that there was an additional electrical box set in the wall of the broom closet that controlled just those few things.

There were also small built-in cupboards (2'x2') with a door at ceiling level in two of the rooms. We could never figure out a purpose for them. Then there was the hot water heater in the attic and the 2 foot deep rectangular pit under the house (fuel oil, maybe) that our puppy fell in and had to be rescued, but aren't old houses the coolest?

wow what awesome stories! My house came with a stone gargoyle in the center of the living room floor. No Kitchen and a burned out upstairs, but an extremely heavy large stone gargoyle....now I wish I could find the picture, as soon as I do I will post it

It might be a good time to start a part II, instead of adding to this thread ;o)

O.K. We will continue here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1036748/