What is the neatest thing that you found in your old home? (Pittsburgh: warehouse, land)

[Tallysmom]

We had this strange cut out hole between the living and the dining room. There was the huge doorway and then this hole. Just the plaster was gone, the studs were there. Then they screwed a vent cover to both sides.

I just covered it over a year ago. After that I discovered that almost all of the bass boom boom noise problem in my house was attributable to that hole.

And soon after we moved in, I discovered our little pantry cupboard was made out of an old Montgomery Wards refrigerator crate, back when those things were thin plywood.

[theo2]

Originally Posted by ebyrnes

The little black door on the lower right hand side is where the logs go (in fact, there are two logs in there now); the window opens to reveal the compartment for the items to be smoked, and the smoke goes out the flue.

Attachment 87301

Now that is neat!! Thank's for posting the pictures!!

[Q-tip motha]

Tin ceiling hid by a drop ceiling in our second floor hallway, and in our bathroom.

Ornate mantle hidden by fiberboard

Original ornate baseboards hidden by fiberboard.


The people who owned my house in its previous 60 years (120yr old home) were idiots.

[SorryIMovedBack]

My parents bought an old farmhouse in the late '60s. It has all of its original chestnut millwork, all fireplaces except one, chestnut mantles on the fireplaces upstairs, stone mantles on the fireplaces downstairs, pine floors, 11' ceilings. It also has a very small hidden room, and a cupola on top of the house. Rumor has it that their house and the farm on the next road over were both stops on the Underground Railroad. At one time, there was a spring that ran through a stone trough in the basement, to keep foods cold, I guess. The spring was diverted but the stone trough is still there. The original land grand was to a Revolutionary Was soldier as payment for service. He subdivided it and sold off parcels of 100 acres or so.

There are some gorgeous masonry Italianate farmhouses there (NE Ohio & NW PA), with walnut millwork, pine floors, and white marble Victorian fireplaces. And some later homes, like 1890s that are heading into Queen Anne and they got all of the wood off their land, so they have 14' ceilings, drop dead gorgeous walnut interiors, and pocket doors and such. Some of the farms had apparently huge groves of ancient walnut trees.

I used to own a brick Cape Cod type home that was built in 1949 from a 1920s Standard house plan. I found the blueprints and the house plan info in a closet in the house. Older people who had owned a big Foursquare while they were raising their family had this small house built as their retirement home. I guess that's why a quaint 1920s house plan was chosen in the Postwar era when everyone else was building ranchers or Modern.

[Sealtite]

A friend of mine dated a girl who lived in a house built WAY back in the early 1700's. They found fetuses submerged in some sort of solution in old fashioned glass jars, buried in the basement. This was about 20 years ago, and it made the news. Turns out they dated them back to the mid 1800's. Weird.

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by Q-tip motha

The people who owned my house in its previous 60 years (120yr old home) were idiots.

Now you're gonna get haunted for saying that.

[rhondee]

Originally Posted by kubus_gt

A laundry chute. It doubles as intercom. I can't imagine not having one now.

I have one too! It also serves as a great device for eavesdropping from an upper level of the house. Used to do this from time to time when I was concerned about a "questionable" friend that my son was loafing with while he was a teen.LOL!!!

[XRiteMA98]

Originally Posted by subdivisions

We had to demo a closet because of water damage. When we pulled the baseboards off, we found a bunch of old valentines and letters from the 1920s (right around the time the house was built).

Woa, that's so sweet. Who they belonged to? Ever found out?

[WINDCHIMES]

An Laundry Shoot in my upstairs hallway and kitchen area that goes right down to my washer and dryer! However its kinda of small so I can only send some items down, I love it, my home was built in 1938.

[okaydorothy]

We have a house that we are selling and it was built in 1929. There is still a tree stump in the basement that was used to hold it up.