# Strangest thing you discovered when you moved in your place? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932 "2016-07-14T22:32:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/81 "2016-07-18T22:04:44Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > My kitchen has two built-in lazy susans under the cabinets on each side of the stove. One of them seemed to be blocked. You could spin it, but there was resistance. So I sent my son into one of them to get whatever was keeping the thing from turning. > > It turned out to be an unopened box of Count Chocula cereal, with a coupon you could send in for free stuff. Deadline March 1973. > > We found it in 2008. > > A previous house, built in 1889, had its chimney stuffed with newspapers. I wanted to use the fireplace so I hired chimney sweeps to make sure it was all good for burning (in approximately 1977). Some of the newspapers it was crammed in were from the late 1940s. Guess it had been awhile since there was a fire in that fireplace! Years later, say 1990, we had some work done, which involved opening up a plastered-in crawl space, and there was a very old screwdriver. It might have been the screwdriver of a guy who built that house! > > When we had to dig up a lot of the backyard of that house, we found a cache of old booze bottles and a couple of rings, sized to fit children. One of them was gold. > > When I moved into my first apartment in Denver, there was a cabinet with about a hundred paperback romance and mystery novels. I did not know this when I rented the place. It would have been a plus. I read them, then traded them for more books at a used-book store that was popular at the time, called The Tattered Cover. Oddly, people collect unopened stuff like that. Google for it–might be worth a buck or two. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/82 "2016-07-18T22:14:57Z")
I found a early 1960’s nickel and a couple marbles digging my flower garden. Nothing as spectacular as others here posted. My uncle bought a rural home. There was a single shot .22 left in the closet. It came in handy shooting skunks and possums. They were getting in his chicken pens. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/83 "2016-07-19T07:30:09Z")
A scar on the roof where a stovepipe had once gone thru. Push button light switches and a floor heater that only heated the space above it. (that house was built around WWI.) Children’s toys buried in the backyard at another place. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/84 "2016-07-19T15:21:01Z")
When I moved into my current house, in the attic was a framed movie poster for Napolean Dynamite. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/85 "2016-07-19T16:59:57Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > My house was owned by a wallpaper freak. The closet doors had panels of wallpaper carefully placed in the middle - which did not match the wallpaper of the rooms. The bathroom had wallpaper - on the ceiling, covering a vent. > > The master bedroom had that ‘grass’ wallpaper, gone very musty. Now that was a bastard to remove. I lived in an apartment in a big old mansion many years ago and it had those big hot-water radiator heaters. If you peered between the slats you could see the layers of wallpaper where the edges curled up over the years. When this building was demolished we found a room in the basement that was not visible before and we found an old newspaper from WW1 and some old fishing rods down there. In the last apt. building I lived in (another big mansion made into apts.) there were little frames in some of the apartments on the walls - the landlord had found graffiti (eg. “John Smith was here 1914” or something) and preserved them. There is also a “rare basement bake oven” in the basement, I didn’t \*find \*it but I did sneak down there to look at it. What is “grass” wallpaper? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/86 "2016-07-19T17:06:06Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > What is “grass” wallpaper? Looks a little like burlap or a very upscale Hawaiian hut wall. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/87 "2016-07-20T20:39:34Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Less, um, disturbing but when I remodeled the front room in our CA house (built about 1960 by a noted developer), I found the developer’s signature and the date on the inside face of the top door trim. I carefully cut it to fit another location. An Eichler, by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/88 "2016-07-20T20:45:53Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > An Eichler, by any chance? Randy Parks. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/89 "2016-07-20T20:48:55Z")
We’ve lived here for almost 2 years, but this week I ripped the carpet out of a bedroom closet and found a pretty little one-hitter pipe under it. Room previously occupied by a teenage girl…I wonder if she freaked out when she realized she left it behind. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/90 "2016-07-20T20:50:23Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > I lived in an apartment in a big old mansion many years ago and it had those big hot-water radiator heaters. If you peered between the slats you could see the layers of wallpaper where the edges curled up over the years. When this building was demolished we found a room in the basement that was not visible before and we found an old newspaper from WW1 and some old fishing rods down there. > > In the last apt. building I lived in (another big mansion made into apts.) there were little frames in some of the apartments on the walls - the landlord had found graffiti (eg. “John Smith was here 1914” or something) and preserved them. There is also a “rare basement bake oven” in the basement, I didn’t \*find \*it but I did sneak down there to look at it. > > What is “grass” wallpaper? This stuff: > **[Brewster Home Fashions - Home Wallpaper, Wall Murals & More](https://www.brewsterwallcovering.com/)** > > Brewster Home Fashion's signature collection of wallpaper brings today's styles and colors to life. The Brewster brand offers a diverse variety of wallpaper collections that will jump start any decorating project. Old grass wallpaper is very nasty to remove. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/91 "2016-07-21T14:35:41Z")
The previous owners had left a wedding dress in the laundry/utility room. I didn’t have any easy way of contacting them and they never attempted to contact me so it sat around for maybe five or six years until my now-wife used part of the material from it to make the flower girl basket for our own wedding. I don’t think it was especially valuable just judging from the style and feel of the material but it seemed weird that you’d save it but then not care that you left it behind. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/92 "2016-07-21T14:53:48Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > This stuff: > > [Brewster Home Fashions - Home Wallpaper, Wall Murals & More](http://www.brewsterwallcovering.com/grasscloth-wallpaper.aspx) > > Old grass wallpaper is very nasty to remove. Ah, thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Oh yeah one time when I first moved into an apartment downtown the pipes clogged and when the plumber took the U joint off the kitchen sink something fell into the bucket with a “clunk”. I said “If that’s a hot knife it’s not mine.” Sure enough it was a “hot knife.” (Remember doing hot knives in high school? I certainly don’t, lol.) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/93 "2016-07-21T14:53:53Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > The previous owners had left a wedding dress in the laundry/utility room. A young couple bought the house next to ours and remodeled it top to bottom (quite a job, given the prior tenants). They then split. She lived there until the divorce, I guess, and one day the house was just cleaned out and empty. I walked through it and all that was left - and I mean ALL, not a speck or scrap anywhere else - was a box. Wedding albums, trinkets, cake knife, all that stuff. Just left pointedly in the middle of a bedroom. No kids, so I guess it really was trash. But. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/94 "2016-07-21T16:25:32Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Ah, thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. > > Oh yeah one time when I first moved into an apartment downtown the pipes clogged and when the plumber took the U joint off the kitchen sink something fell into the bucket with a “clunk”. I said “If that’s a hot knife it’s not mine.” Sure enough it was a “hot knife.” (Remember doing hot knives in high school? I certainly don’t, lol.) What’s a ‘hot knife’? ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/95 "2016-07-21T16:29:03Z")
Mine are boring. Last house, on the day we were moving in, a dead crow in the driveway. I hear that it’s good luck in Haiti. Current house, about 200 wire hangers in the attic. Obviously not a Joan Crawford fan. ---
**Author:** ![Nefario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/59ef9b/32.png) [@Nefario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefario)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/96 "2016-07-21T16:53:11Z")
Sorta off topic but last year my son lived in the same college dorm complex that I lived in. All the furniture is built-in and when I was there, the space under the bed was open for storage by raising the entire mattress surface like a trunk lid. It was great! Now, for my son, the beds were all screwed down! 😉 You wonder what was hidden or abandoned that prompted the modification. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/97 "2016-07-21T16:54:34Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > What’s a ‘hot knife’? Apparently holding the material to be smoked between two heated knives. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/98 "2016-07-21T16:55:38Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > What’s a ‘hot knife’? Someone is sure to try and explain it and make a [hash](https://www.google.com/search?q=hot+knife++hash) of the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/99 "2016-07-21T19:47:58Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > She lived there until the divorce, I guess, and one day the house was just cleaned out and empty. I walked through it and all that was left - and I mean ALL, not a speck or scrap anywhere else - was a box. Wedding albums, trinkets, cake knife, all that stuff. > > Just left pointedly in the middle of a bedroom. > > No kids, so I guess it really was trash. But. My brother once worked as a wedding photographer. He worked real hard to sell couples on getting 2 complete copies of their wedding photo albums, even offering great discounts on the 2nd one. His stated reason was that ‘so you have one to loan out to the relatives, and still have a copy for the two of you to keep at home’. The _real_ reason was so that they would each have a copy when the divorce happened, Cynical, but based on experience. It meant he wouldn’t have to dig out years-old negatives, pick out the ones they chose for the album, make additional enlargements of them (possibly being asked to crop out the ex-spouse or their relatives) – oh, and expecting to pay little or nothing for all his time on this. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/100 "2016-07-21T19:52:16Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > (possibly being asked to crop out the ex-spouse or their relatives) I am trying to recall who I know that did that-with scissors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932.md?page=6)