Found
Found Free Fencing
Jan/28/08 12:04 AM
The guy I work for owns a warehouse that had previously been used as a candle factory outlet, and the previous owners, in a futile attempt to de-warehouse-ify the building, had decorated all the walls with picket fencing. Since the warehouse was being repurposed, the decorations, sadly, had to come down. So I asked, if I took them down, then could I have them?
Today, with a little help from a co-worker, I ripped down the fencing and loaded up the trailer. Now we have acquired enough fencing to put a picket fence around our entire back lot, replacing the tired and dilapidated chain-link fencing that currently resides there.
A little re-nailing and a fresh coat of paint and these puppies will be as good as new.
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Milk Glass Jar
Jan/25/08 12:03 AM
While digging the trench to the curb to replace the waterline we unearthed this milk glass mentholatum jar. It is stamped with The Yucca Company logo from Wichita, Kansas. I found a similar jar on Ebay going for about $6, so that was a bit disappointing, but then I googled the company and came up with this cool old photo of the company that manufactured the product. They manufactured the mentholatum from 1889 to 1909 when the company was dissolved. Which in turn, predates the building of our house
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Craftsman Signature
Jan/12/08 11:52 PM
This week’s find is not an item, so much as it is someone’s attempt to communicate to someone else in the future Or more simply, a message that someone wrote on the wall. Dated December of 1926, it is the signature of the painters that painted and wallpapered ad the indication of such. even more interesting is that apparently in 1973 this message was uncovered by someone else. Someone who also signed the wall that they were installing drywall over.
Unfortunately, this wall has to come down. It pains me to destroy someone’s immortal words that have been scribed to last for an indefinite amount of time within the walls of this beautiful craftsman home. Someone who, more likely that no, it no longer alive.
So I have sufficiently documented it and I am posting it on the internet, so that their name and words will reach far more people than myself. I think I might even wall up the photos along with the plans.
Iron Tools
Jan/11/08 08:07 AM
In tune with my weekly tradition, here are the latest objects I’ve found. While refilling the trench in the front yard (by hand) I found several objects near the bottom of the trench. The first and most obvious is a horseshoe, which makes me wonder if it were possibly a Civil War era artifact.
It is said that the creek that runs through our neighborhood was originally named Tin Cup Creek, on account of confederate soldiers hung tin cups along the creek for drinking as it ran through the once confederate encampment. One block northwest from our house is the building that had served as both Confederate and Union headquarters for a time during the battle of Prairie Grove. Two blocks southeast from our house is the confederate cemetery for the fallen soldiers.
Having all this in mind I became extremely excited when I unearthed the tip of a long, sabre-like, metal object. I immediately thought “Wow, a Civil War sword!” Much to my disappointment and after the hour or so of digging, I discovered that it was, in fact, a scythe. Ah well, it looks pretty wicked even if it is someone’s crummy, old, turn-of-the-century lawnmower.
The Good, The Bad, And The Fluffy
Jan/04/08 11:46 PM
When ripping out the floors and walls, we find all manner of things. I classify these as cool items, strange items, and flat-out disgusting items. Well, for my find of the week I think it falls under all three, it is a mummified cat. We lovingly refer to her as “Fluffy.” She has been hanging around and disgusting anybody who dares to come and work or give a quote.
While ripping up the floorboards of a room, that had previously been a screened in porch, I got a bit of a shock. While at first I’d thought that it might be a stinky, nasty, ball of mush that I would have to shovel out, it was in fact as dried out and stiff as cardboard. I’m beginning to wonder if it might be as old as the house itself. Maybe it had mistakenly wandered in during the construction and got trapped inside.
One of the construction crew threw Fluffy into the dumpster. I was looking for the cat, when John fessed up to throwing the cat away. He claimed that he “didn’t like cats.” Anyway I fished Fluffy out of the dumpster and saved her from the local landfill. Everyone has suggested dipping her in polyurethane and hanging her above the fireplace, but Kristin won’t even look at the thing let alone consider this option. Oh well Fluffy, guess you’ll just have to hangout in the shed.
Tankless Water Heater
Dec/28/07 11:41 PM
For the find of the week I’m going to have to go with the Rinnai 53i tankless water heater I found on Ebay. This model retails for about $1200-$1500, I found a new one on Ebay for $725. I also had to buy the vent kit and the valve kit which brought it to about $950. And I can still get the $300 tax break even if I install it myself. Overall a gas water heater runs about $400, the $250 dollars more that I’m spending will most likely be made up within a year or two.
I find myself constantly, surfing places such as Ebay and Craigslist in search of discounted items. As house rehab enthusiasts, we shed a little blood and sweat to save a buck or two, why not utilize the internet too right?
Literary Insulation
Dec/21/07 11:39 PM
One of the best things about renovating an old house is all the nifty things that you find while ripping out the walls and cleaning out the crawl-spaces. It is essentially like treasure hunting. Sometimes you get lucky, but most of the time you come up empty handed. However, yesterday (although I wouldn’t call it LUCKY) my builder told me I had to rip out the ceiling of the bedroom because the ceiling joists needed to be replaced.
Well, being Christmas and all, my mother was visiting so I did what any loving son would do... I enlisted her to help me rip out the ceiling. While ripping down the lath we noticed, what looked like magazine pages fluttering down from the ceiling. Turns out it was a small stack of magazines tucked away amongst the rafters. Upon further inspection we noticed that all the issues were dated the same year that the house was built. They were issues of the Saturday Evening Post from 1925. While they were entertaining to read, the real find was the name on the address label (Randomly pasted over the “os” in Post). Delivered to a Mrs. R. F. Bell. A virtual gold-mine since we’ve had no luck in tracking down any previous owners other than the person we bought it from.
The date on the earliest magazine that I found was (the one pictured above) February 21, 1925. And from what I understand, our house was recorded as being built in 1925, but does this mean that our house was built in January or February? The latest magazine was September 5, 1925, so it makes me wonder what the significance of the dates are or how the magazines even got there. Anyway...
Call me crazy, but I plan on cleaning them off and putting them in a zip-lock along with a current copy of the architectural plans and placing them back in the ceiling once we finish out the room. And maybe someone (In 82 years) will find them and think the same thing I did... Wow!
I will be posting this under the Items I’ve Found section of our website shortly. Get a Hi-Res image of the cover here.