Conference 7.286::home_work

    	I started adding "time capsules" in the walls after I found
    a few while doing demolition work.  So far I've found a Wedding
    invitation dated 1898, a dance card from the local Masonic Lodge
    dated 1900, Indian Head pennies from around 1900, a permit to store
    100 gallons of kerosene dated 1910.  In addition the back of the
    trim I removed was signed by the person who put it up.  I've put
    some back and have displayed the wedding invitation in my dining
    room.  They do not belong to me, they belong to the house.
    	I generally include pictures of what the room looked like before
    and a copy of the Globe.  I've used a copy of paper of the 7th game
    of the World Series where the Sox lost.  When I'm getting tired
    I might write messages on the back of trim.  I always throw in some
    change.
    	Finding these hidden treasures changed my attitudes about my
    house.  I know it might sound weird, but I now treat my house as
    a separate being.  I've spent a lot of time working on it over the
    past three years. My house has been around for about 90 years,
    hopefully it will be around after I'm not.  


    				=Ralph=
    
    	(I also would like to see a law passed where people must sign
    their work and leave forwarding addresses.  They would not be legally
    responsible for their misteaks and screw up, but at least the new
    owners could call up and yell at the guy :^)  )

    Before I started putting shingles on the new boards in the roof
    yesterday, I signed my name and wrote the date and "Only two more days
    to vote for Dukakis/Bentsen - NO BUSH, NO QUAYLE".  Anybody who takes
    over this house years from now will probably be able to appreciate that
    whoever tried to save this wreck from collapsing was definitely into
    endless struggle against seemingly overwhelming odds.  :-)
    
    The ultimate time capsule is the Bed & Breakfast we stayed in once
    in England.  The owners had spent a lot of time and effort in
    renovating an old thatched roof cottage.  They had a scrapbook of
    before and after, including a photograph of the Elizabeth I silver
    sixpence that fell out when they ripped out the ceiling in the kitchen.
    That one coin paid for all of the renovations and then some.
    

    When I demolished the upstairs bath in my new-old house in New Jersey,
    I found a 4 inch cigar butt beneath the window sill.  Bet the carpenter
    is still wondering where he left it!
    
    Was worried that I would find:
    
    
    	Jimmy Hoffa
    
    
    -Barry-
    

When cleaning through our 27 year old house last fall, I found, inside 
a recessed lighting box....



someones 6th grade report card from 1965...

Guess mom and Dad never asked...

    When I was helping my dad a while back we discovered a piece of
    newspaper in the attic.  I think it was the boston globe - not sure.
    It was around 1895 or thereabouts.
    
    The thing that struck me was an ad vor a Ben Franklin kitchen stove.
    
    $3.50, financing available!

    In my previous house, I opened a wall to extend the FHW plumbing
    and found...
    
    
    
    
    a row of beer cans - Pabst Blue Ribbon, to be precise.  I was wondering
    if the builder (who was also the previous owner) thought they made
    good insulation.  There certainly were enough of the suckers!
    
    I wish I had thought of this when doing the addition on my old house,
    though there are certainly some "secrets" in the walls that the
    current owners might never find.
    
    
    				Steve

We always threw a few beer cans in the foundation blocks...  They
weren't worth a nickle then ...

Re photographs:  are there any special things you should do to ensure that
the photos are still legible when they're discovered decades from now?  I'm
thinking of such considerations as:

    - special paper and/or developing process for long life
    - protecting tasty photos from insects and rodents
    - helping your time capsule survive the perils of wall demolition

    	DCL_who_loves_time_capsules_and_knows_zilch_about_photography

    
    
    	Good question! I don't know the answer. I just figured to drop
    them in a zip-lock food storage bag figureing to keep it air tight.
    That way a few decades from know they can find out what air was
    like back in 1988.
    
    				...Dave
    
    	BTW there was an article in yesturday's Middlesex news about
    someone who found a photo of the duke and dutches of something or
    other in there bathroom wall which is supposed to be worth big bucks.
    Sorry I didn't bring it in or even read the article just what my
    wife mentioned over dinner.
    
    

> Re photographs:  are there any special things you should do to ensure that
> the photos are still legible when they're discovered decades from now?  

That's a whole 'nuther rat-hole.  But in general, standard one-hour 
photos sealed in a dark place should last for time measured in decades. 
A black and white photo made on real paper (not plastic coated) is 
believed to be able to last for time measured in centuries.  There is a 
color process called "dye transfer" that is believed to last for 
centuries in dark storage as well.  All of these assume temps of about 
55 degrees F, low humidity and nothing eating the photograph.  If you're 
planning the optimum capsule, you'd want to store the photo in a metal 
container to shield it from wood or plastic fumes.

DSSDEV::PHOTO is a good place to go if you want to really get into what 
makes a photo last a long time.

					>>>==>PStJTT

    Please don't hide those house photos in a time capsule.  Preserve the
    history by passing them along to future owners.  How I wish someone had
    saved photos of my 1900ish house which was extended in the 1940s and
    then remuddled in the 1950s.  We've often speculated as to what was
    where when and what is underneath many of the remuddlings.
    
    Right after New Year's day last year came a knock at the door.  What a
    surprise to find that the caller had lived in a small addition off the
    kitchen in 1947!  She was visiting our area for the first time in over
    40 years and managed to retrace the path to where she had lived when
    arriving in the U.S. as a war bride.  She was able to answer some of
    our questions but, as is natural, her memory was not as true as photos.
    
    
    

    
       It was a little scary when we stopped to think about it
    but my wife and I found a very old hand gun when I tore down
    the ceiling in my house. I called the Ploice they came and got
    the gun and I never heard anything after that.
    
                   John C.
    

>       It was a little scary when we stopped to think about it
>    but my wife and I found a very old hand gun when I tore down
>    the ceiling in my house. 

I don't think there was much to be afraid of.  Like any other tool, 
they're generally harmless unless they're misused by a person.  

>                              I called the Ploice they came and got
>    the gun and I never heard anything after that.
    
Did you have something in mind to hear about?  Was there an unsolved
murder in the house?  Ghostly footsteps at night? The cop probably just
took it home.  Who knows? If you had kept it, you might have lucked out
like some of the others and found it was valuable enough to pay for
whatever you were tearing the ceiling down for. 
						>>>==>PStJTT

    When I tore down the cardboard (Upsom board?) ceiling in my garage,
    I found...
    
    
    A 12" diameter Farberware electric frypan.  It works just fine.
    
    There was no obvious way that it could have gotten in there; the
    garage is under the house, with the living room above it.

> < Note 2791.12 by AITG::REINSCHMIDT "No more cukes" >
>    Please don't hide those house photos in a time capsule.  Preserve the
>    history by passing them along to future owners.  

That's another matter.  The "time capsule" approach is more fun and
in many ways more secure than passing "the Book" along with the house.
The time capsule won't get lost during a move and part of the joy
is uncovering things unexpectedly.

    
    
    	This could very interesting if it caught on. 100 years from
    now people will be running around ripping out walls trying to find
    barried treasure.
    
    	Anyone have a 100 to 200 year old house that needs some walls
    removed? I have a sledge hammer and crow bar which I handle very
    well.
    
    		Have hammer will travel...
    
    	...Dave
    
    
    

    
    re: .7 & .8
    
    Beer cans in the walls were a tradition in the construction
    company my brother owned.  I wish I did have a nickle for
    every Bud can my Dad left behind in the concrete walls!!!!!
    He used to tell us they helped the stability of the wall!!!
    
    Shane
    

I don't know if there are any Dick Van Dyke fans out there, but in one episode
dick and laura got stuck in an elevator with a crook (don rickles). Anyhow,
when Rob climbed up through the ceiling to look for a way out, he found a poem
written on the inside of the elevator shaft.  Unfortunately I can't remember
the mason's name so I'll have to make up one, but essentially it said: 

			In nineteen hundred and twenty six,
			John L. Jones laid these bricks.
			I've gotta wish you a lotta luck,
			'Cause if you're reading this your stuck!

-mark

    Arrowhead Farm in Newburyport, Massachusetts is a working farm that
    dates back to Colonial times, always in the same family.  When doing
    renovations (I believe in the 1950s) a carpenter uncovered a beam
    (post and beam, of course) on which was scratched:
    
    	I can see Genral Washintn ridig bye.
    
    pbm
    

I have a friend who is in the process of buying a house in his old 
neighborhood... it was the house that his great-grandfather lived in.

In the living room, under some old paneling that was put on some 50+
years ago, he expects to find the original wall covering, which was not
removed when his grandfather put the paneling up.

Big deal?

The original wall covering is made up of an old postage stamp collection!
All four walls!  Figuring that the newest stamp on the wall must be at least 
75 years old, there is probably a good chance that he'll find some of value...
assuming he can soak 'em off the walls!  8-)

    re. 19
    
       The Dick Van Dyke episode with Don Rickles and the elevator 
    was on last night.  

    re [.13 & .14]  -  Years ago, my father was breaking up the concrete
    floor in the basement in order to lower it.  Under the concrete,
    wrapped in oil cloth, and still in remarkably fine condition, if found
    two guns.  One was on old winchester, a model '73, I believe.  The
    other was an oddball handgun - a double action marlin black powder on
    which the trigger guard actually served to cock the piece, and the
    trigger then fired it normally.  I don't kbnow how much he got for
    them, but he was a VERY happy camper for some time thereafter. I
    daresay that had he called the police he wouldn't have heard any more
    about it either.

    When I remodeled the bathroom in the house I recently sold, one
    of the last things I installed was a new medicine cabinet. Just
    prior to putting it in, I noticed that the rough opening was of
    a familiar size/shape........and the wall behind looked mighty
    blank. So I stapled something in there that fit perfectly....
    
    Someday, somebody will be greeted with Miss October in all her
    glory.
    
    DAP
    
    
    PS -  re.23  Not to get political, but the way things are going
    these days, people are going to be digging up AR15s in the future.