Have the previous owners of your house left anything interesting for you?

In My Humble Opinion
81

Our first house has all kinds of interesting things left behind in various locations. It was a 6 acres mostly wooded lot. Stray tools always turned up in the yard, Hammers, shovels, a pickaxe, and six large stainless grates like used in the machine rooms of ships. These we very handy for storage firewood up of the ground, but we left them when we moved.

We had a partial corral that became a great 80x110 Dog Pen with about 6 hours works and $120 worth of stock fencing.

There was an old large wheel barrel that I fixed up and used for another 5 years.

The most valuable surprise though was the one we thought we knew about. The owners had a nice slate pool table with leather pockets that were in terrible shape. I asked if there was nay chance of him throwing it in and he agreed for only $500 plus a few other minor items like a sturdy 6’ stepladder I still use 15 years later. I replaced the leather pockets myself.

When we where moving and I felt like I was hemorrhaging money, the pool table movers came and told me, “You didn’t tell us it was an antique table. That will cost extra.”

Me, “How much more?”

Him, “We can do it for an extra $100.”

Me, “Ok, I gotta move it.”

I got a chance later, during the move. I went to talk to them as they were taking it apart. I did know the table was old, it had no date on it anywhere. I asked how old they thought it was.

Him, “Well it might be as new as 1910.” My jaw dropped, “but, it could be from the 1890s.” my jaw dropped further.

“So what would it be worth?”

He said, “Well only about $10,000 in this condition, if you get the correct legs put back on it should be worth $30,000.”

So, it turns out my $500 and another $650 to move it was one of the better investments I ever made.

To add to it, I offered at one point to throw it in with the house for $500 and the buyer did not want it. It is also of course a lot of fun to have a 8½’ slate table to play on.
The current house had some fencing I put to use and few other odd things, but nothing as exciting. We have some odd old scheduling boards for airlines from sometime in the distant past. The previous owner was a Pilot for one of the major carriers. Thankfully, they left some spare siding behind, it came in very handy.

Jim

82

I forgot one thing the previous owners of my house left. Dozens and dozens of plastic flower pots, like the ones from a hanging basket or potted bush or shrub. The yard is nicely landscaped with a variety of plants, but I don’t know why they needed to keep all the pots.

83

Probably used them for starting things to plant in the spring, like tomatoes? :confused:

84

For the love of God, Montresor! Pi-ka, Pi-pi-ka, CHU! :eek:

(I want a url to this picture, if you please.)

When we cleared our closets from the house we lived in for 8 years last October (to move to a new house), we discovered a personal check written by the former owner wedged in the back of one of them from 8 years earlier. Funny how we didn’t find it while moving in to that house.

In my new house, the former owners had lived there for 40 years. Most of the stuff they left behind were the usual – coat hangers, batteries in a drawer, even a flashlight and screwdriver. They also left behind one or two small framed prints on a wall, some old kids’ toys under the radiators while painting, and an old VHS tape in a closet labeled something like “Summer 1992”. We don’t have a VCR any more so I don’t know what’s on it. My wife emphatically said she didn’t want to know, and refuses to bring it to any friends’ house where we could view it.

85

Lots of interesting finds in this thread.

I found a flashlight with a magnifying glass attached to it apparently still new in the box. The styling makes me think that its from the early to mid 80s. They also left a china cabinet which was nice since we were thinking about buying one but they left all of their place settings in it too. I called them and told them about it but they said to keep it or get rid of it. They did want the crock pot that I found under the sink back.

Then there’s the storage shed that came with the house. I haven’t gotten around to cleaning it out yet because most of it is junk that will have to be hauled away. There might be something nice in there though. So far the only thing useful I’ve spotted is a good sized fish bowl. I’m thinking about putting a potted plant in it.

86

Usually a few older piece of furniture - a buffet, rocking chair, end table, dining room set - that clean up pretty nice. Typically we end up giving them away, sometimes to a friend, occasionally to the real estate agent.

There is often some hellishly heavy item of real but limited utility; I say they can leave it as a little ‘thank you’ for coming down on the price, and put it out for the scavengers on trash day.

Oh, kitchen cabinets; always the kitchen cabinets taken out during the last remodel are moved to the basement. We did the same thing when we re-did the kitchen.

We never find really cool stuff in the walls, but whenever we remodel something we stick a little time capsule with a personal letter to the new owners behind the wall.

87

In a 100 years, when new residents take over our neighbors house and decide to re-do the basement, they are going to find the grafitti on the dry wall ( covered with paneling now) from the New Year’s Eve party of 1999.
I wish I could be there to see their faces as they read it, too.

88

They must have been related to the old couple we bought from. We got this house in 2004 from a couple in their 80s - they’d had it built in '75. They dated things they bought - like a clock radio, the garbage cans, a push broom, smoke detectors, the washer and dryer, well, you get the idea.

Since they were downsizing and moving to a retirement home in Florida, we told them to feel free to leave whatever they wanted behind. We got some good stuff - like a queen size bed, a Lazy Boy sofa, a really nice recliner, a couple of TVs, a stereo, a few radios, and a whole bunch of cast iron cookware and some miscellaneous kitchenware.

On the less than than wonderful side, they left some really crappy, ancient upholstered chairs, 10 pairs of floor-length blue drapes that covered windows and interior doorways, 11 trash cans, some still full, half a dozen snow shovels that should have been tossed years ago, at least 8 rakes, some of which are useable, 2 so-so lawnmowers and an inoperative weedeater, a least 3 layers of carpeting in the basement (I think when they removed it from upstairs, they just spread it out downstairs) more thermometers than I can count (in freezers, in all the rooms, in the basement, outside, over the fireplace…) and cabinets and a fridge full of food, some of which had *Use By * dates of 1998.

There were 3 sheds on the property, one of which had been crushed (probably by a branch or tree) that was full of glass bricks, some floor jacks, and 2 big cans of driveway sealer (odd, since the driveway here is concrete.) We eventually tore down that shed and tossed the crap therein. The scariest find was when we got around to checking out the white shed.

We completely emptied it, and along with all kinds of electrical items (he used to do maintenance work for the gov’t and apparently made liberal use of the five-finger discount on lights and switches and hardware and stuff,) there were old bi-fold doors (replaced in the house by mirrored sliding doors) and a bunch of portable electric baseboard heaters (for some reason, they didn’t want to use their furnace.) These weren’t the scary part. Once we had all of that pulled out, we came across 7 or 8 cans full of gasoline - all with dates and the cost per gallon of the gas - some 6 or 7 years old. Some were actual gas cans, some were Thompson Water Seal 5-gallon cans full of gasoline. There were also a few of indeterminant oily substances.

There were other things that weren’t as scary. We sold a lot of the left-behinds - probably in excess of $500 - plus we donated some things to a local shelter and gave a lot of stuff away. There are still things tucked between the floor joists making the basement ceiling. Eventually we’ll get everything sorted out.

Interesting doesn’t begin to describe…

89

I found a gold-plated grooming set, including nose-hair trimmers. Very odd.

90

We moved into this house when I was 13. I remember that one of the receptacles in the dining room didn’t work, so my father opened it up to take a look. The only wire in there was ordinary lamp cord, which went down through a hole in the floor. My father went down to the basement, and discovered that this lamp cord was plugged in to a standard outlet in the basement. So basically, the receptacle in the dining room was nothing but a short extension cord, and not a very safe one at that.

It turned out, the entire house was filled with little surprises like that, some of which I’m still dealing with almost 50 years later. For example, the wall switch that controls the light over the kitchen sink shares its circuit with the ceiling fan in my bedroom. Real creative thinking there.

91

Just rusty water pipes and a stench of perfume in the a/c ducts. No personal effects.

92

When we moved into our apartment, the first thing we did was clean. My girlfriend saw a sponge crammed in between the tub and sink in the bathroom, and removed it to find… a pink set of anal beads hidden in a dirty hole in the wall…

In our basement storage there is a old hot water tank and a piece of kitchen furniture at least as old as the house (built 1908).

93

The only thing the previous tenant left me was a rock in the mailbox. :frowning: