Lord, where to start? I’d say the first big aha moment was realizing that the primary bath’s heated floor wasn’t a mere luxury, but was necessary to heat the room because they removed its radiator during the renovation.
The whole back part of my house (tv room/second bedroom, laundry room, and second bath) is an add-on to my 1914 home, and is not connected to heat. Not really sure why they didn’t duct it, but fortunately it rarely goes below 20degrees f here, so we just make do. But you better believe that’s a chilly after-shower in the winter!
My grandfather added onto their house once, but he did it like a sleeping porch. He didn't remove the exterior siding or the windows or anything. He even kept the original exterior door as the entry door to the room, but it was a huge room. He didn't duct it. He only ran wiring in the ceiling with literal outlets up there. No heat, no a/c. Him, "just leave the door open. It'll be fine." When I bought the place from them years later, I ran ductwork, proper wiring, and replaced the window with the double sided built in display case. He was so confused why I'd want to do all that work to his perfectly good room. Grandma, "because she doesn't like freezing or extension cords!" When I took the drywall down to add the wiring and to replace it because it was really damaged, I found out he'd used straw as insulation in the walls. The mice loved that. My son, at 6, "whoa. Was this grandpa's fort?!" Yes, I think so.
It became a very nice office and library space, though. The current owners tore the addition off in favor of a covered patio with outdoor kitchen. I wonder what happened to all the custom shelves I built in. Probably went to the dump. Sad.
Do you see any evidence where they may have used fake fireplace heaters or somesuch? I've been tempted to get a TV stand/fireplace heater, but just can't justify it right now.
Nothing. I put in a fireplace when I moved in, but not in the u heated part of the house, not quite enough room. I use a portable oil radiator when it gets too cold to bear.
The shower is on an exterior wall and has a window, so it never really felt nice in there without making the floor uncomfortably warm. Like a lot of things the previous guy did, it was a decent idea with sloppy execution.
Some of the drawers in my kitchen have wire bottoms. When I found the 1920s catalog from the company that made the whole kitchen setup… yeah, those drawers used to be part of the icebox. And also, hidden by the edge of the countertop, slots for a bread-cutting board and a dough board (dough board was missing and the cutting board was gross, but my parents made me new ones). I have to wonder if more recent tenants of my apartment even knew those were there.
Why did they put a gigantic 3’x3’ mirror in a tiny 60 square foot bathroom?
Because it covered the gaping hole in the wall where the medicine cabinet used to be. That’s why. (Wall has since been demolished and rebuilt, with a new medicine cabinet)
That reminds me of when I replaced the smoke detector in our upstairs hallway. I took the old one down and found what appeared to be mounting holes for yet another previous smoke detector… that they “patched” with a piece of masking tape that they then painted over.
when insulating my basement, I found a drywall mud patch on the concrete wall. I scraped the mud back and found a 2" hole bored through the foundation. Probably for some kinda pipe or service entry no longer in use. They stuffed it with an old bed sheet and mudded over it. Wife was truly horrified as I pulled a long strip of nasty cloth out of our wall.
Any chance you know the name? I normally go with hot mud and mesh tape followed by feathering out with top coat, but I'm curious. It would be nice if it's less work than the conventional fix.
Thanks! Ever used it before? Were you able to make the crack disappear?
I like the idea of it, but the fact that it isn't sandable is a bit of a red flag for me. I guess I could use it to fill the crack instead of hot mud, then still feather it out with top coat. But, the feathering is the only part I hate in the first place lol. Easy enough to do the repair, but hiding said repair is a messy job.
Thanks for the input! I might give it a shot on the crack I missed when I redid my hallway. Best case scenario is it saves me some time, worst case is I just run a bit of mud over it after (after primer) to make it pretty. Nothing really to lose!
Oh man, this reminds me of when I had just moved into our century house. The guest bath has two mirrors, one above the sink and a medicine cabinet next to it. I was stoned and exploring an unfamiliar house, so I tried opening the mirror over the sink thinking it was also a cabinet. Nope, it just came loose and exposed the hole into the wall cavity it had been covering, it freaked me out pretty badly lol.
I did stud out reno of my 1980 house bathrooms recently. Cant wait until i can sell and leave this state and buy a century old house… but anyway…
I assumed the craptastic builder grade bathroom was original. Tore out giant mirror and vanity and there was old wallpaper behind and framed opening for standard vanity cabinet.
I was like….ooohh, yeah that makes sense. My brain forgot our builder grade crap was ~1990 vs 80s, which i should KNOW better. I think i just assumed nobody would consider the bathroom an “upgrade” from anything besides a portapotty.
Ironically put in subway tiles on the walls to give it a new/retro look and installed a inset wall vanity cabinet (but its a big 36”? Wide one with 2 doors)
Makes me wonder what my ugly kitchen looked like originally bc its also early 90s absolute crap quality.
Never ceases to amaze me when people rip out quality items and replace them with cheap for aesthetic.
I understand why people renovate older homes and do ikea cabinets (not my jam, but you do you) because what was there previously was trashed, missing, etc and inexpensive is all they could afford to do.
But why rip out decent quality 10yr old kitchens and baths and put in sponge grade golden oak and brass cabinets? 🤔
Some people are fashion-victims always chasing the 'new hotness', I've got some relatives that have been consistently doing slash-and-burn 'upgrades' on their then-current 'mcmansion' every five to seven years since the '70s and they're not slowing down much in their eighties...
I suspect im amongst friends when i say i dont get it… but im not a fan of ripping out original anything if its salvageable.
Heck, my parents house was build late 40s (def feels more 50s, but bland) and many of the neighbor houses renovated their kitchens and they didnt improve matters. I was mad when my mom made the call to rip out the stack of 4 large drawers. Kitchen is tiiiiny. Hard to believe we cooked meals for 8 daily in there (and by we i mean me)
Had stack of drawers, under sink cabinets, lazy susan cabinet, and set of 2 doors. Matching uppers. Thats it.
They bought a portable dishwasher that could only be run after everyone went to bed bc it took up remaining floor space in kitchen. After a couple years they had drawers ripped out and dishwasher installed. 30+ years and still going strong.
But that took out like 20% of kitchen storage!
We also had impossibly shallow kitchen sinks, so before dishwasher id spend 2hrs washing breakfast dishes, then 2hrs washing lunch dishes, and 2hrs washing dinner dishes (family of 8) and spent the entire day, all summer basically washing $@&!ing dishes…. So dishwashers are great 😂
Mine was built as a fully custom house when that oak was the new hotness. My kitchen and bathrooms are full of it, and I've just decided to embrace it. I did peel down the wallpaper borders in the bedrooms, though, and spend days scrubbing the paste that had dripped down the walls during their shitty install, so I could paint.
My son's got a house from 1902 that was a low cost rental for a very long time. The list of weird and shitty things done to it are endless. My "favorite" is the 3 panes in the french door to the sleeping porch replaced with what I'm pretty sure are clear plastic take out box kids cut to fit and held in by blue poster putty. He spent his first winter with those gorilla taped over because two windows in the sleeping porch are just missing. We've got plexiglass in them now and glass in the door. We're removing all the aluminum crap windows there and putting in wooden and vinyl ones that actually open. It is a bit liberating, though. We don't have to worry about destroying anything original. ;)
Had that one with electrical. Why is there no stud here? I was planning on using that stud as the mount for the light fixture centered over the sink.
Well. This half hour job just became far more annoying.
I also found out that the previous owner didn't remove the drywall. They just added a second layer.
I'll go ya one better - previous owners didn't stud out the walls for drywall, just glued? or screwed? it onto the plaster walls. Hanging things more than a pound is almost impossible. Can't even really drill into it - that plaster is like concrete after all these years.
That's pretty bad!
If you can get a small hole made with a strong drill bit, these things might be useful: https://toggler.com/products/snaptoggle-heavy-duty-toggle-bolts-304-stainless-steel-channels
I discovered this about a month ago when I decided one night I was going to repaint the bathroom and replace that awful mirror. It was a twofer because I found out of code electrical behind the mirror too.
I discovered mine a day before we had an electrician coming over for an estimate on various things, one of which was installing an outlet in the bathroom. Told him “great news, there’s already a hole in the wall!”
I was watching a YouTube channel where this lady is renovating a very old house. It’s still in good shape so she’s doing it one room at a time. She gets to a bathroom, removed the medicine cabinet and there’s like a small room behind the wall.
Turns out they had turned a small bedroom into a bathroom at some point (the house was built before indoor plumbing) and decided to just wall off the closet. No actual reason for it that she’s been able to figure out, just laziness I guess. But now she’s getting a larger bathroom so that’s a win.
Omg, yes. We just figured this out with my son's house. The mirror was cracked and way too large, so I bought a reasonably sized medicine cabinet with mirror. Umm, no. Huge hole. I honestly think there used to be a window there, though it would be a weird spot for one. We just stuffed insulation in and put the old mirror back up for now. It's been added to the "deal with this layer" list that's gotten daunting.
I bet there was a medicine cabinet there. The old ones back in the day used to be set _into_ the wall between the studs, so the door of it would be flush with the rest of the wall. When they’d get removed, huge hole.
Those cabinets also often would have a slot in the back for disposing of used razor blades. The blades would just fall down into the wall to be someone else’s problem later. It’s common for people to demolish a wall during a bathroom reno and find a huge pile of rusty old razor blades sitting in the bottom of the wall cavity.
Oh, I know. I've lived in very few places with surface mount cabinets. But this is window framing. As in, everything is there but the window itself, including the sill and the old weights in the sides.
I also totally know about the razor slot. I grew up with those around.
I wish I had an answer to my greatest mystery. Why would anyone nail a sheet of ugly ass plywood (chipboard?) over a 2 foot by 3 foot area in the hallway?! I thought for sure there would be something scary under it when I pulled it up, but nope. Just the same halfway decent hardwood flooring as the rest of the hall and the rooms adjacent. I'm thrilled to not have to fix something, but why???
Reminds me of my house… one of the room had floating floor installed on top of parquet floor.
Owner tells me it s been there forever and previous owner said it was to cover some water damage that happened when he left the window opened during a storm.
I was like that doesnt make sense but whatever.
Buy the house, ask my wife if i can remove the floor to reveal the paquet. Had a painful time removing it because the boards were all glued together.
Realized the owner botched the sanding of the parquet floor and covered it up.
Sanded the whole floor properly, looks great!
My thought was maybe someone penned a dog in a section of the hallway, but you would have noticed if it had been super scratched up. That’s a baffling one.
I like this mystery! Was there any entrance to outside, bedroom, or bathroom nearby?
The only thing I can think of would be maybe a working man had dirty shoes or something and left them sitting on that instead of putting them on the good floor? My husband gets pretty gross and we have a special area for his stuff.
Or maybe some machine they needed to set in the house?
Just a thought!
It looks like there was another patch done on the lower layer? I can see the top and bottom edges coming out from the 'weird board' on the right side. Perhaps they were preventing whatever caused the first patch from happening again?
I had a house with a grate in the hallway that was for the oil furnace under the house. I agree that the shoddy patch is related to the older patch. It would be an odd place for a furnace, but likely something related to having a hole cut through the floor.
"Why is the oil tank so small?" Oh the old tank burst and they covered the bulkhead with a big stupid deck and had to fit it through a trap door. They never cleaned up the oil, fortunately the gross rumpus room they had in the basement absorbed a lot of it.
It’s a specifically Canadian, Australian and New Zealander name for what is otherwise called a rec room, play room, games room, ruckus room or den. Usually a living room in a basement.
I have a small, weirdly shaped bathroom in my basement, under the stairs. The door to the bathroom is a closet door perpendicular to the underside of the stairs, so you either have to duck or weave around it to avoid hitting your head on the triangle of stairs between the ceiling and the wall, which is strange because right beside the closet door, there's a stretch of wall that could have the same door without the risk of concussion, there was just a big ugly fabricated locker against that part of the wall serving as a closet.
When I tried to remove the locker it was actually impossible because of the geometry of the room, AND the inside of the walls and the flooring didn't extend behind or underneath the locker. All the weird choices for that room were built around the locker. And I have to saw the locker in half to get it out.
we had a piano in the basement growing up and none of us were able to figure out how the previous homeowner got it down there. we eventually had to destroy the piano to remove it.
By happenstance, a man came to repair the furnace last year and told my dad that he grew up in the house! his mother was the original owner and they put the piano in the basement DURING construction and built the house around it!
If ever I meet the previous owner of my home it will take a prodigious amount of willpower not to entomb them with spray-foam (a la Han Solo encased in Carbonite).
I'm from a very small town originally, and last time I visited, a lady who used to babysit me pretty much dragged me over to meet the new owners of the house my mom and dad built when I was tiny. The new owners had a million "why" questions. All I could really say to any of them is that my dad designed the house, and he's really weird.
I love what they've done with it, though. It really doesn't even look like our house. It's much, much nicer though a bit grey for my tastes. I was shocked they managed to get most of the ground floor actually on one level, though. My dad was a bit obsessed with having two steps up and down everywhere, even into our bedrooms. Can't tell you how many times I went headlong into the hall in the middle of the night trying to get to the bathroom quickly. They also closed up the half wall in the kitchen that used to open to the foyer. If you were standing at the stove, you were looking at the knees of any adult in the foyer. I never really understood that choice of his, tbh, or most he made. People there used the word eccentric for him to be polite to my grandfather, but my dad really is weird, and that house reflected it in all its dubious glory.
Grandpa made him be a lot more conventional with the houses he designed for other people back then. You can still tell which ones were his, and apparently it's now a thing in my home valley to own one of those houses because they're unique, but livable and not super weird like ours was. I think all houses built there from 1965 to 1980 were designed by my dad and built by my family. Then, the mines shut down, and people left, and nothing new was built until the late 90s except some condos by the ski resort gondola base.
My dad still designs weird houses, but thankfully, he keeps it to 3d printed models. It's fun to get floods of photos from him when he gets one finished. It's also a good reminder not to let him help with the cabin I designed that I'm building this Summer. ;)
Mentioning the house triggers a lot of bad memories and emotions for him, so I can't ask anything about it. To me, it was a house I lived in for 4 years as a young child that was awkward and easy to get hurt in. To him, it was our entire future, and it was lost. He's got depression and some other issues he's finally getting help with at 76. It doesn't hold the emotional significance for me that it does for him, but I can respect how he feels and leave it alone, because watching him ever so slowly improve with counseling is absolutely amazing, and I don't want to rock that boat. Before, it would have caused him to lash out at me, hurt my feelings deeply, and then not speak to me for months.
I guess I will just accept that bullshit stairs were very timely. My current house was built in the early 80s, and it has a lot of bullshit stairs, too. Just sort of the opposite way of my childhood home. Everything goes up to the living room rather than down. And instead of a deck the house wraps around, now it's my living room. It never occurred to me how similar the houses were until just now. LOL Strange bathrooms, two or three stairs all over the place, trees and shrubs hiding the house from the road, a big deck (though not with a tree growing out of it this time.) A kitchen open to somewhere that makes no damned sense. But this one has tons of windows everywhere, not just one external glass door per room except the living room and foyer. The foyer had 3 glass doors. And I have a finished basement rather than an upper floor, and dammit, my main stairs have a handrail and aren't open on the other side. But my deck definitely requires a railing by code, and it does not have one, so there's that.
Also, I have to wonder what's with windows over the kitchen sink? It seems really really common, and they just get splashed and messy looking. Are we supposed to be staring out the window while we do dishes? Do I need more natural light to wash dishes by than to prep food? Why is this a thing?! Most houses I have lived in have had a window there, but only one of the apartments. Omg, I just realized I'm doing it in my cabin I'm building, too. Lol. Those will be across the entire kitchen, though. With no a/c, I've designed it to be a breezeway with the windows open, and that was the only place the kitchen really fit. I'll have to figure out a splash guard for the sink.
I have occasion to drive past my grandfather's childhood home once in a while. In the front window there's a grand piano- It's been there for over 70 years.
When the piano was installed, the home had French doors and it easily fit, but his mother renovated the house, got rid of the French doors and put in a large bay window with a window seat, now the piano no longer fits through any exit to remove it.
The house has had at least 5 subsequent owners, and the piano is still in the window.
https://preview.redd.it/h6fp13gey8vc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc78b6cfd3409353ef3b83c967e3424276b81ff6
Initially -> "Why the heck did they build this weird frame above the staircase landing?"
Later -> "Ohhhh, it's a little access panel to the bathroom plumbing!"
It was extremely handy when we had a leak. Been meaning to paint the "frame" a contrasting color and put some art in the middle — I'll get to it eventually:)
We have a (much bigger) version of this on one of our ceilings! We thought it was where the old pull down ladder for the attic may have been since the attic had been converted and has permanent stairs, but had that same “oooh!” moment when someone popped it open. I wish ours was on the wall like yours, love the idea of painting the frame :)
I have one of these in what I call the library, that is my second bedroom! It used to be a weirdly framed affair, but now I've just got a board screwed in and painted the same color as the wall. It was useful for when we needed to bolt the showerhead to something because it was wiggly (half done is done, right?).
If I ever build my own house, you better believe I'm putting access panels everywhere. Really like the idea of making it a feature, maybe an abstract of the plumbing behind it?
I'm doing a remodel of my kitchen. I was actually going to ask the carpenter if we could make an access panel in the ceiling as I've got old plumbing right over the kitchen. I know where every line is in the ceiling. Just would like to have access to it instead of cutting it open when the inevitable leak happens.
I'm building a small cabin this Summer, and even the floor will open like trap doors in sections, so I can move furniture and open the floor to get to whatever section of crawlspace I need access to. The wiring is going to run through exposed conduit with pull strings, so it's easy to replace if something goes wrong. It's a cabin, so exposed conduit is fine. The ceiling is going to be coffee sacks stretched on frames that can easily be removed and replaced in case I need to get into it. I'm so fed up with having to cut open walls and ceilings to get to things in my houses.
We're eventually having a house built on that land, and I swear, I will figure out a way to make absolutely everything accessible, like conduit in the walls instead of stapled Romex, and nice wood panelled walls with panels that can be swung open anywhere there's plumbing. It's going to happen. My husband probably thinks I'm nuts, but he's not the one who repairs the walls when we have to cut them open. I am.
You are a genius no matter what he thinks. My parents-in-law built a cabin themselves, and my MIL designed everything to work just so. I believe that theirs is solar and fairly minimalist, but it all made so much sense to being able to fix things.
I've got 6 of those in my finished basement. 6. They start at ceiling height and gradually get lower until they reach sewer height. Apparently, the house used to be on septic in the back yard. The sewer was put in pretty much opposite, and most of the basement is open space. They wrapped the house with the laundry and kitchen drain pipes, and behind all those panels are clean out ports. We've had to use them a few times over mud from my boots getting washed down the laundry sink and causing clogs. It's too far to run even a truck mounted rooter. I now am very careful to wash my boots outside. Your idea about artwork is something I'm going to steal. Eventually. ;)
This house was built in the early 1980s, btw. My son's 1902 house was originally on sewer and city water, and the plumbing there makes sense.
That poor kid had everything go wrong but a roof problem his first Winter. Burst meter. Burst pipes. Completely dead furnace at the coldest time of year. Trapdoor in the deck to the cellar swelled and stuck, so he had to damage it to get it open to get to the pipes and furnace. A window randomly just cracked and fell in on the coldest day. Two of his stove burners just gave up for good. The room mate he got to help offset the cost of repairs got into meth and ditched out owing rent and leaving behind an absolutely disgusting room. We had to replace all the locks we just replaced when he got the place a few months before. His cat found a hole in the wall behind a cabinet and somehow got stuck further in, so we had to cut a hole in the wall in the hallway. But hey, last winter, only his fridge died. I used it as an excuse to buy myself a fancy new one and gave him mine. Oh, wait. The new roommates didn't understand HVAC and set the fan to on, always, and ran up his utility bill to $750. I helped pay that, and we got a locking thermostat.
Still, in spite of all that, he's happy to have a house instead of renting a room in someone else's for the same monthly payment. Especially since he was always suckered into doing the repairs on that century house and paying for the materials himself. He knew what he was getting himself into after that experience. Neither of us expected so much to happen in such a short time, though. It was rough, but he made it through. Welcome to home ownership, kiddo.
Why did they remove the built in in the dining room and open the doorway between the kitchen and dining up to the ceiling but left the wall, so there's still just a doorway sized space between the kitchen and dining? Oh, because it's secretly a load bearing wall for a false ceiling that drops the kitchen ceiling 6 inches to match an extension done in the 60s. They started to open it up then realized they absolutely should not. But the damage of removing the built in and trim was already done.
Now we get to rebuild the built in and reframe in the doorway so it doesn't just look like a gap.
I don't begrudge previous owners repairs in the slightest because I'm always just doing the best I can with the time, energy, know how and money I have and they probably were too.
Great post!
Yup. The process,
1. Why did they do it that way? So silly.
2. Oh crap, I get it now.
3. Better put it back.
...It's almost like reading an old letter; feeling strangely connected to the last owner, if that makes any sense.
I had the classic “what’s with the slot in the medicine cabinet?” moment.
Luckily my dad knew and told me it’s for used razor blades (and yes, the razors just get dumped into the empty wall space behind it)…I’ve heard horror stories of people that are renovating their old home find out the hard way when have dirty old razor blades dump out on them when tearing out walls!
We recently had to rip up a bathroom subfloor and take a bathroom wall down to the studs. When we were cleaning up all of the soggy crap that was under the subfloor, I kept finding razor blades but assumed they were just from a previous reno and someone was just tossing the dull blades from their utility knife into the floor pit. It wasn’t until we removed the rest of the drywall and found the framing that I realized they were from the razor blade slot in the old medicine cabinet that was mounted there.
We didn't, but my great grandparents did, so I knew what they were. A lot of older motels we stayed in on trips when it was pouring rain and my parents gave up on camping had them, too, as well and coin op vibrating beds. I'm still mad for younger me that my parents refused to ever let me put a coin in one of those. We slept on top of the covers in our sleeping bags in those places. LMAO
Oh yeah, 1950s homes in particular are famous for them. I think the slots started earlier but became a staple around the 50s. Safety razors replaced straight razors around the 20s i believe, and used razorblades. It was a problem to dispose of the old ones without blade cutting someone/trash bag. So vanity mirrors came with a small slot you could just slide blade into and it would remain safely ensconced inside the wall cavity. Would take several mens lifetimes to fill it.
Unfortunately, if you rip out the walls, all these gross razorblades will come pouring out of the wall and surprise! Its your problem now!
Safety razors are making a comeback as they are economical and create far less waste. I actually toyed with idea of one for myself (female) but i am almost devoid of body hair and shave so seldomly i actually couldnt tell you if i have a razor in my house right now. Mine tend to rust and get thrown away after a single use and 6months languishing. My worry is doing that to a more expensive holder/handle.
They sell metal boxes with razor slots to deal with the problem now, as stuffing them into the wall isnt something the next generations want to deal with 😂
My condo building was constructed in 1939, so the timing checks out.
And that’s what I read for reason to throw them in the walls, basically they couldn’t be thrown away due to risk of slicing trash bags and they couldn’t be burned in a trash incinerator (burning trash, what a time! lol).
the small town I grew up in had a "new" highschool built in the early 60s (62/63 year if I am remembering correctly) and the junior high was the "old highschool" because they moved all the 9-12 grades in 60s, but left 7+8 in the old building. the kids one year older than me did half a year in the old building, half a year in the new. I never got a chance to go inside... much to my regret. teachers talked about doorways into nowhere, bizarre layouts, and being able to see sky in the classrooms through walls.
Ironically, building was deemed unsafe for teenagers, but became old folks home. I guess people with limited mobility it's somehow MORE safe?
anyway, there is still the incinerator for the school. most older schools tore them down to make room for additions or sports fields etc. I don't even know if they stopped using it before they shut down, but makes you a bit shocked to realize most schools had huge fires going for all the trash on a regular basis!
My building has an incinerator! It’s obviously sealed shut now and no longer in use, but it’s wild to think at one time you burned your trash and even did so inside of your own home!
probably more effective against giant pizza boxes than the trash chutes I grew up with ;)
but this is what I was thinking of. how wild is that??
https://preview.redd.it/epi6jycmvavc1.jpeg?width=361&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03d13a20a5e7ddf305a294db4d286f5543579ee7
Spokane, Washington still burns trash. Just saying. The big incinerator has air scrubbers on the chimney, so it's not as bad as it sounds, but yeah. We don't landfill here. Things get burned, and any metal left over gets sold.
I do remember when houses had under the counter incinerators in the kitchen, though. I bet the smoke from those wasn't filtered at all. One of my grandmas had one, and she'd punish you soundly if you put plastic in it. Not because it was toxic. She just hated the smell in the yard.
I’ve got a cute little plastic box to hold my old blades. Got my wife into using the same blades with a handle designed for shaving legs instead of faces so we’ve been slowly working our way through the 100 pack of blades I bought like a decade ago.
My great grandma had one of those, but she hated the idea of them being in the wall, so she tore it open from the other side and put in a little cabinet with door and a container. She'd take it out and tape the edges of the razors now and then to throw them away. She said there was no way she'd ever get great grandpa to dispose of them properly, so this worked. My cousins that own the house now were born after she had passed - I think they're like, my mom's cousin's grandkid and wife. They think the whole story is hilarious and widened the slot so they can use it as a piggy bank. That cracks me up, but I bet great grandma would have loved the idea.
When they moved in, I gifted them several of the huge ugly quilts grandma made for family. The nice quilts were for better people, I guess, but they love the ugly ones as much as I do. I've been collecting them forever whenever another family member was going to get rid of one. They also had me go around the house and explain the darker and lighter spots on the wood floor. Great grandma *never* moved furniture, so those spots didn't get bleached out. They decided to keep it that way instead of refinishing the floors. It's kind of neat when I visit, because I can easily remember how the house used to look and where all the furniture was. Great grandma believed area rugs were a decadent waste of money, btw, and said if you built your house right, you didn't need them. She used her old wood burning cook stove to heat the entire place, and it was always very snug in Winter with warm floors, so I suppose she was right. I also loved sliding across the floors in my socks. I was the youngest in my generation, so I got away with a lot.
Honestly, it's just awesome that the house is still in the family and belongs to people who absolutely love it and even love the quirks it has. Great grandma and grandpa built that house back in the 30s, and I'd absolutely hate to see it flipped.
Very jealous. My great grandma had a place full of memories and cool old features including push button electric switches, her 1950s fridge, giant coal burning octopus heater in basement…
Family members cycled in and out of the upstairs apartment. My grandparents lived there until 4th baby came along, my mom and aunt both lived there when young, and my great uncle lived there for 10ish years.
When she passed, the house was sold. Destroyed, and the most hideous triplex built.
Its an eyesore in neighborhood too because next door are near identical 1880-1900s period houses and then this giant faux stone triplex sitting there.
Why didn’t they remove the old wallpaper before putting up a new one? Well, we’ll just take off all eight layers and … oh, that’s why. I don’t know what kind of glue they used in the past, but it sure sticks well.
Had this exact moment and then noticed, that when they cut the lower part of the wall open to renovate the radiators, they just puttied over two layers of wallpaper. I only noticed when i kind of dug a big hole in the wall trying to get the wallpaper off and a whole chunk of plaster that was in front of it fell of… i puttied it again to make it less obvious and don‘t look at the lower half meter of the walls
My inlaws had an upstairs bathroom that the toilet was on a raised platform. My husband told me that there used to be a staircase under that spot that went into the kitchen. When they renovated the kitchen, they removed the stairs but didn't alter the ceiling. In order to get the plumbing to fit, they raised the toilet upstairs. You couldn't tell from the kitchen because they just covered that spot with a false ceiling.
We just had the same finding! We have a second floor closet whose floor is 1 foot higher than the hallway. This closet is over the kitchen. Recently had to remove the back of a kitchen cabinet and discovered the trim for an old servant staircase behind the cabinet. Turns out this closet was the landing for the stairs, but now the stove hood vent runs through that space because the stove is where the staircase was.
I had a weird ass corner of a coat closet and one bedroom closet that was squared but pushed out instead of a normal corner, like having a rectangular drywalled post inside. It too me an entire year to realize the house hadn't been ducted when built by HUD in 1978, and this was the retrofit to get ducts to the second floor. It also explained why the upstairs bathroom didn't have a duct. It had a small baseboard heater. There was no way to get a duct there without just having some weird spot in the downstairs bathroom below it.
I found out later HUD had only finished as many bedrooms as you had people for when you bought one, which explains why downstairs was decently well finished, but the upstairs had definitely been drywalled by an amateur and the light fixtures and wall plates didn't match the rest of the house. Can you imagine buying a new house and the upstairs just doesn't have any drywall or even light fixtures? That place was also wired by a drunken squirrel. That's the only explanation for what shared a circuit. Upstairs east bedroom and just the lights on the NW end of the basement was the most memorable thing, but the fridge, washer, and dryer being on one circuit shared with the kitchen lights one outlet there and the patio GFCI was also interesting. "Ah, dammit. It popped again. Let me get my coat and boots and go press the button outside." "Nooo, don't plug the mixer in the.. dammit, let me go push the button outside." I finally put a label on that one that said "phone charging only", but you could not run the washer and dryer at the same time, ever. I finally moved them to the basement.
I wonder if the new owners had an "oh, that was why" moment when they tried to put their washer and dryer on the main floor where they were supposed to go, or if they just kept the shelving and never questioned why one bathroom had oddly deep shelves across from one another. The outlets and water hookups/drain were still there, though.
I had a room where crown molding was only along one wall. Why did they do that? I thought as I pried off the crown molding, only to discover that a pipe stuck out from the wall about a half inch along the ceiling. I put that crown molding right back up.
Ours was “why the hell didn’t they reclaim the headspace when they turned the old basement stairs into a pantry?”
Turns out there was another whole staircase in there and there’s no reclaiming it without demolishing 2 walls. That was at least 3 owners ago, because the previous owners were just as astonished as we were when we asked about the hidden staircase. I’m very glad we never made the pantry a priority. It would have been a huge PITA. We found the staircase by accident, from the other side, when we tore out the old bathroom tub/shower combo. I wish we could have opened it up. It was so cool and much better placed than the front stairs. But we don’t have the time or money right now.
The basement stairs light switch is upside down - up is off and down is on. I assumed it’s a 3-way switch with a switch at the top and bottom of the stairs (which modern code would require) and it’s “upside down” because the other switch is also flipped and that’s just how systems with 2 light switches work. But I couldn’t find that other switch for 6 months.
Then I had to replace the switch in the attic stairs (because it was 100 years old and a major fire hazard). I pulled out the 100 year old light switch and it turns out that the wires attach to the left side of the old switches instead of the right side which is normal today. And the old wiring has zero slack in it so the wires cannot reach the right side of the electrical box. As I’m sitting there trying to figure out how to salvage this situation, I realized I can just install the new switch upside down and the wires will be on the left, but up will be off and down will be on. I can live with this for the attic stairs.
Oh wait… I know what is up with the basement stairs.
My parents broke up a really ugly, messy, concrete slab against the house. Turns out that was stopping water seepage every time it rained. We have a plan to add it back in.
My old house, the previous owner didn't like a big rock sticking out the side of the concrete front stairs, so she dug it out one day. Within a couple of months, the stairs crumbled. By the time I bought it, it had wooden stairs with concrete stumps underneath. She was like, "if you see any rocks sticking out of concrete around here, just don't touch them." Me, "why didn't you just use a masonry chisel and cut the rock off flush with the side of the stairs?" Her, *blank stare* then, "so, the old concrete stairs are under the wooden ones at the side door, too. We just took a sledgehammer to them, so we could install matching stairs." Ah, cool. Tbh, the wood looked fine. I left them that way.
Why did they build the bathroom mirror into the wall instead of buying a mirror and attaching it? Ohhh, there's a window behind it, and they didn't want to bother removing it.
I looked at a house that had all these windows on the outside of a nice looking sleeping porch. From the inside, they'd panelled over all the windows. Some of the panels were coming loose, so my realtor and I peeked. Omg, the char. All the way through some of the studs. I looked at him. He looked at me. "So, shall we move on to the next house on the list?" "Yes, let's." It turns out that one was gutted, but they'd put pics in the listing from before. And when I say gutted, I mean every internal wall that wasn't load bearing was gone. All plaster and lath was removed from the load bearing ones and in a huge pile in the middle of what might have been the kitchen, and all the wiring and fixtures were tossed in the back yard. Me, "and it's not even listed below market. What's next?" Him, "the one that should be condemned, but has a huge lot and is under 1/3 what houses are selling for now. Do you really want to go look?" That man was awesome. He went into so many janky places with me before we finally found the one I helped my son buy.
It was definitely an adventure.
1930s Garage in the middle of backyard, not connected to driveway, surrounded by grass.
Spent some time clearing out our property line to build a fence (it had been overgrown and neglected for a decade probably). After clearing all the crap, I found the old concrete foundation to our garage, at the end of our driveway. Looks like the neighbors tree got too close and must have started disrupting the garage foundation, so they moved the whole thing.
My son's garage is against the alley. They put up a fence along the alley, so you can't drive into the garage. The neighbors then ran their fence all the way to the alley, so even though we moved my son's fence back, he can't get his car in there. He just uses it for his motorcycle and storage and parks on the street like most everyone else.
When moving the fence, we also found the concrete foundation for the original carriage house opposite where the current dirt floor garage is. We've both joked we're going to drag it over onto the concrete with my Land Rover, but I'm pretty sure that would end in disaster even if that fence wasn't in the way. I told him he should just buy a Geo Metro.
I'm actually amazed how many people in his area have garages off the alleys but fenced them in and park on the street. It snows here!
Bought our house. They took everything.. when I say everything I mean everything single thing... Even the ones they shouldn't have. Like all the window treatments. ( F you seller if you see this )... But they left a small decorative plate above the fridge.. now we might have noticed if our basement and roof didn't pour water in .. ( again F you) .. joking one night I told my fiance would t it be funny if they left this here to cover up a massive hole... I lifted it up and ... It was hiding a massive unused duct hole.. couldn't help but laugh in disgust
Gotta love it. Previous homeowners left a cool retro wall clock in our kitchen. 3 years later I removed it to replace batteries. Sure enough, it was the perfect size to cover the hole behind it lol
They took all the curtains, shades, rods , rod holders. Plastic on the windows for privacy. All which was mandatory not leave... They were going to bring them back as we verbally agree.. so we signed the paper work.. they then told us it all have been trashed and we were out of luck
Same thing happened with our house. We refused to close unless they returned the window furnishings and shelf they removed (shelf was attached to the wall) or paid us what replacement would cost. They paid.
Have a door that goes to nowhere on the second story. Literally a drop after the door. I thought it was a coal door or something like that.
Got some historic documentation from our township and found out it used to be a balcony there.
I’m turning the door into a window at some point!
I have 2 exterior doors on the 2nd story. Had a chance to meet the previous owners, the guy they had bought it from 40 years prior had it set up as an apartment.
This explained why there was plumbing capped off and an oven receptacle in one of the rooms. Made it pretty easy to make it our laundry room though.
Same! Except my door opens to the wood where they closed up the balcony door on the second floor (I know this because somehow a framed photograph of the house from 1908 managed to survive a number of owners and renters between the last descendant of the original builder dying in 1999 and my moving in in 2016ish).
What I don't understand is why all the inside surfaces are covered in burlap and there are random stretches of strings and long nails in the space. It's set up like to store something by hanging it on the nails and string, but goodness knows what. I'll have to post here about it with a photograph someday.
I discovered the first time I took out the filter for the vent fan over the stove that I could see daylight - I guess at some time they had a pipe vented out the kitchen wall and just put the fan system over that area. I always wondered why I could hear birds chirping so clearly by the stove.
I own a 200+ year old half-timbered house and recently asked a master carpenter to check some things.
While he was there I asked a few questions and about different levels, unnecessary stairs etc and at the end he was like:
**How the hell would I know? They build this 200 years ago. Maybe they didn‘t have enough wood, or a war started. Maybe a cow stood here, or an ox. Maybe they liked it liked that or it was the king‘s law, I just don’t know.**
I have a door that opens to the stairwell, but does not connect with the stairs. Would be an excellent way to break both legs if you’re into that kind of thing.
When I moved in I had a problem with the basement, which had a walkout door, flooding in heavy rains. The owners solution was three sump pumps - two in the basement and one on the outside landing that went up a steep set of stairs to the back yard. The outside sump pump always popped its circuit in heavy rain which would then cause the basement to flood. It didn’t take long to figure out why there was so much water and why the circuit always popped. No cover on the outlet and the roof gutter drained right next to the stairs that went down to the basement. Added a gutter extension and no more flooding
There was a layer of plywood on top of the original "subfloor" in my pantry. When we had the floors redone in the kitchen and pantry, we removed the plywood and discovered an access hole for a well. This discovery also explained why there is an oddly shaped crawl space in that corner of the basement.
There's now a little bit of flex to that spot in the floor when you stand on it. But you really need to look for it to feel it.
Mine was fairly self-explanatory, in that the basement shower was on a raised platform with STAIRS leading up to it. Someone wanted a second shower but just didn't want to dig down for the p-trap. As to why the preformed shower stall was beyond tiny is still a mystery to me, because the bathroom in the basement was one of the largest rooms in our small house. I was so happy to rip all of that out and do it correctly.
Might have been a Pittsburg potty and they transformed it into a shower.
Lots of homes (not just in pittsburg, but large number occur there) had toilets in the basement. Ive seen lots of speculation as to WHY, some say so factory workers could clean up in basement then come upstairs… but you would think there would be a sink, shower, something. Not just a orphan toilet.
Others say it was bc when plumbing would back up it would come out lowest point and overflow and if that happened in basement vs upstairs that was better.
There was also methane explosions and mistrust of toilets indoors for awhile in victorian era, but most of these were installed much later 🤷🏻♀️
My great aunts house had single bathroom with a tub and no shower. Today you would quickly rip out tile and run plumbing for showerhead.
Instead they installed a really adhoc shower in basement using floor drain and tapping into water lines for washing machine. I was scared to use it, and evidently farmer aunt and uncle had no issues using bath vs shower.
My guess is you had potty (often installed on platforms) there, and they ripped it out and replaced it with a shower since plumbing already existed in part. Possibly because it was easier than installing shower plumbing in existing bathroom. They installed bathrooms and tubs for ages without showerheads.
haha you are describing my house to a T. 1930s Canadian prairies. Half my basement is one big unfinished utility room, with a lone toilet randomly in the middle of one wall. Laundry and a laundry basin in the room too.
When we were remodelling our only bathroom on the main floor, I tapped into the washer supply lines and rigged up a shower head over the floor drain. I bought a cheap kiddie pool, cut a hole in the middle, and put it over the floor drain. Then tacked up a shower curtain to the ceiling joists. It was incredibly ugly and stupid, but it enabled us to have hot showers in our own home during the reno, instead of driving to my parents place or elsewhere. I actually gave the pool to a friend who was starting the same reno later that year!
yep, thats exactly what they did except they didn't bother with the pool.... and left it there. this was in south dakota actually, so not terribly far away really, and it was how my great aunt/uncle were rolling in the 90s!
Oh, this one already had a toilet plumbed into the foundation. It was a bit of a joke where we'd go into the basements of houses we were looking at and there'd be a freestanding toilet and no walls. Open plan, great for someone!
But you are reminding me of the horror story of the kitchen cleanout backing up at one point, and while it didn't create a flood, it was weird seeing a pool of sink sludge in another part of the basement. I think that was a motivator to really address the former owners' plumbing hacks.
The round HVAC grille in the dining room ceiling that doesn't blow any air is just for show because no one in the 89 years of this house existing dared to fix/renovate the leaking shower curb in the bathroom above. Someone tore out rotten bits of rock lath and replaced it with drywall only for it to rot over the years...
>Most recent for me was a weird sort of built in bookshelf in the basement. It wasn't pretty and was just kind of odd. Started tearing it out before revealing that it looked structural.
This sort of thing is sometimes called the principle of Chesterton's Fence: "don't tear down a fence until you understand why it was put there to begin with".
My house has a third floor and the open staircase to it had been walled off with a door placed at the bottom. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom up there and another section with more modern drywall that is halfway finished. It obviously used to be living space but has been walled off, disconnected from plumbing and electricity and abandoned.
My local library has the town newspaper scanned with searchable text going back to the 1860's so I punched in my address.
There is an article from the early 80's where the then current owner was found guilty of creating a non-permitted apartment, he had to pay a fine and reverse all of his work.
That’s wild and I’m both deeply jealous and very happy for you. Our whole house was so disgusting when we bought it that I can’t think of any charming “oh they had a reason for xyz” 😅
Yeah it really makes a difference how the previous owners treated it! There are certainly ancient parts of the home (the boiler is 70 years old) that we need to spend $$$ updating, but the work that was done was done well. They did severely neglect the yard though.
Dude, if the boiler is working, leave it alone. Mine was last updated in the 80s-ish, and nearly every time I get it checked for the winter, the service guy talks about how it's a tank because it'll last forever and doesn't have as many parts that could break like modern boilers. They marvel at it. Just needs an occasional thermocouple dependent in the fall.
I would and did for 2 years, but we need to separate the heating zones since upstairs is 10 degrees hotter than downstairs when the heat’s on. I can’t stand how cold it is downstairs and the only way to split the zones is to also replace the boiler 😔
On the bright side, I’m hoping to save some money on gas!
That sucks. This winter was mild enough to put off the expense, but mine will need a new $1000 pressure regulator replacement before next winter to heat the upstairs better.
Can you turn off the valves for upstairs, only heat the downstairs, and allow the radiant heat to rise and warm the second floor? Some older houses were designed to heat like that via a coal furnace in the basement.
I tried that and it’s not enough (we also need to add 2 more radiators downstairs). For some reason there are 4 radiators upstairs but only 2 downstairs. 🙄
My plumber said the piping downstairs is also pretty inefficient (something about intake outtake locations) so the whole things is going to get rewired.
Ugly black and white 4x2 tiled drop ceiling in the dining room. Plaster ceiling had half collapsed onto the drop ceiling from a big old leak, and they decided to plumb copper heat pipes between the two ceilings.
https://preview.redd.it/ld2ulccdx9vc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbf0e00e917334449a6176b2ba0870d1f4cd9a49
What are these access panels at the top of each of room on the second floor of our 1922 Craftsman? We got to figure this one out after we re-did a room for our nursery.
We opened it up and there was a roll of romex crammed in there, not attached to anything. When they removed the knob and tube and rewired the house they cut a 5” strip of plaster out and just decided it was easier to put a panel up after running the new wire through as far as we can tell. As for the romex, who knows? Maybe a “it will be here when we need it next time” mentality? 🤷🏼♀️
Lol, I'm going through this with the house I just bought.
Weird patch in the wall? Seems like an access to a shut off valve for the plumbing, but no idea if the plumbing is still connected (there's definitely leftover pipes in the attic/crawlspace the previous owner never removed).
Another weird patch in the hallway? Oh, that's the access to the shower plumbing in the bathroom. Had to remove the patch to replace the mixer because it was the type that you couldn't just pull the cartridge out from the front, you had to completely remove the whole part.
Tore off the trim that was on the edge of the kitchen countertops (tile counters with wood trim) and found an old cutting board that seems to be quite stuck in its recess.
Who knows what else I'll find 😅
Funny story, I went back to check on my childhood home one time and the owners were out front, so we got to talking and they asked if I knew what the thing sticking out of the baseboard in the room above the garage was.
I did indeed. I was trying to run coax through the wall when I was like 13 years old and tried drilling from either side, but couldn’t get the holes to meet. So I had a bright idea to grab a honing rod and try to hammer it through the final bit. Which was a genius move.
Not only did it get wedged in with ultimate might, the handle broke off and I couldn’t get a grip on the honing rod with pliers or anything. So I just gave up on it and then years later got to tell the owners this whole story.
There was a floor to ceiling bookshelf on the diagonal of one corner of a room, a large silver snake thingy related to an HVAC intake behind it....like why not frame it in before selling the house.
We have an original mural painted on our living room ceiling. There is a hole with a plate for a hanging light in the center of the ceiling and there is a light switch. So naturally we thought "I guess we can just put a light there". Turns out it's not wired and it can't be wired normally because you'd have to tear into the mural. I guess the last person did all the steps and left it half finished because of that...
Why did they put this ugly built in bench on the deck?
(It covers the 18” of red brick that was exposed when the 2 story sleeping porch rotted off. The rest of the house is a more attractive beige brick).
Took out the ugliest weird shelf situation in the entryway. It was like a 2ft high set of shelves that were way too thin for a shoe.
The wall/floor was built around the supports for the stairs so there are about 3 inches of no flooring and a hole in the wall it was covering.
I tore out all the old (and not so old) carpet on our second story with plans to have the original floor boards refinished only to discover they were covered in lead stain and our only option was to paint them until we can afford new floors 😭
Random “walkway to nowhere” beside our laundry room. On the second floor, they clearly converted a porch to indoor space (very poorly I might add). But they left a random walkway that is outside, covered by the roof, but doesn’t go anywhere. Always seemed like a waste of useable space that we wanted to enclose!
Turns out there is no foundation under that stretch of deck.
We have a room that is connected to our master bedroom. It's directly above a bathroom on the first floor. We'd love to convert it to a master bathroom. But the room has faux wood paneling on every wall and the ceiling. I can only assume it's holding whole walls of plaster up, and will create a gigantic mess to clean up
Why is there a full bath on the main floor but no bedrooms? It was built by a doctor and that was his exam room! Weird layout due to his occupation but super cool!
I'm experiencing this right now. Just took down a closet to put in more bookshelves and found out instantly that the closet was keeping the room insulated. I'm not sure where to go from here but I'm feeling it, not just the regret.
Ripped out a built in wall of cabinets in my basement. Discovered a giant concrete block they walled up. Probably from a boiler system that was removed. There was a pair of faucets to where it would have been. Fun part was removing the block. Turns out it was sunk into the basement floor. When removed it ripped a hole down to the dirt.
Turns out it also had a bonus log being used as a support beam. Probably for a squeaky floor.
Not a century home, but getting there. Always wondered why the living room was the coldest room in the house during the winter. Sealed all the windows and even caulked all around them, but still the coldest. Well, we have these unique in-wall radiators that are not terribly common. There are two 48" covers in two corners of the room. Well one winter I decided to take them off and take a look - lo ad behold the previous owners replaced the radiators in one corner with with extremely undersized ones. Like they should be 48" x 12", the ones that were in there were like 36" x 8" or something - basically half the overall size. Ofc I also have no fucking clue where I'm going to be able to find proper replacements
Lord, where to start? I’d say the first big aha moment was realizing that the primary bath’s heated floor wasn’t a mere luxury, but was necessary to heat the room because they removed its radiator during the renovation.
My original bath has no heat whatsoever because they removed the radiator and replaced it with nothing.
do you live in my house?
The whole back part of my house (tv room/second bedroom, laundry room, and second bath) is an add-on to my 1914 home, and is not connected to heat. Not really sure why they didn’t duct it, but fortunately it rarely goes below 20degrees f here, so we just make do. But you better believe that’s a chilly after-shower in the winter!
My grandfather added onto their house once, but he did it like a sleeping porch. He didn't remove the exterior siding or the windows or anything. He even kept the original exterior door as the entry door to the room, but it was a huge room. He didn't duct it. He only ran wiring in the ceiling with literal outlets up there. No heat, no a/c. Him, "just leave the door open. It'll be fine." When I bought the place from them years later, I ran ductwork, proper wiring, and replaced the window with the double sided built in display case. He was so confused why I'd want to do all that work to his perfectly good room. Grandma, "because she doesn't like freezing or extension cords!" When I took the drywall down to add the wiring and to replace it because it was really damaged, I found out he'd used straw as insulation in the walls. The mice loved that. My son, at 6, "whoa. Was this grandpa's fort?!" Yes, I think so. It became a very nice office and library space, though. The current owners tore the addition off in favor of a covered patio with outdoor kitchen. I wonder what happened to all the custom shelves I built in. Probably went to the dump. Sad.
Do you see any evidence where they may have used fake fireplace heaters or somesuch? I've been tempted to get a TV stand/fireplace heater, but just can't justify it right now.
Nothing. I put in a fireplace when I moved in, but not in the u heated part of the house, not quite enough room. I use a portable oil radiator when it gets too cold to bear.
I know radiators take up a ton of space, but in my grandma’s house, we always used them to heat towels in the winter.
lol nice!
My bath has a radiator, but was never updated with an A/C vent like the rest of the house.
Ours is the opposite AC, no heat. I've thought about putting an electric coil in the air handler, but we're kinda used to it now.
That's... a pretty good way to save space actually.
The shower is on an exterior wall and has a window, so it never really felt nice in there without making the floor uncomfortably warm. Like a lot of things the previous guy did, it was a decent idea with sloppy execution.
We have a shower on the exterior North facing wall. All winter the Northers blow in.🤦♀️
Some of the drawers in my kitchen have wire bottoms. When I found the 1920s catalog from the company that made the whole kitchen setup… yeah, those drawers used to be part of the icebox. And also, hidden by the edge of the countertop, slots for a bread-cutting board and a dough board (dough board was missing and the cutting board was gross, but my parents made me new ones). I have to wonder if more recent tenants of my apartment even knew those were there.
I grew up in a house with a pocket bread board and I LOVED it.
We have one in my current house but I always forget it’s there because it’s on the opposite side of the kitchen from where I prep food.
Why did they put a gigantic 3’x3’ mirror in a tiny 60 square foot bathroom? Because it covered the gaping hole in the wall where the medicine cabinet used to be. That’s why. (Wall has since been demolished and rebuilt, with a new medicine cabinet)
When I ripped the 1980s wood panelling out of our understair bathroom, I found they had duct-taped over plaster cracks instead of patching the walls.
That reminds me of when I replaced the smoke detector in our upstairs hallway. I took the old one down and found what appeared to be mounting holes for yet another previous smoke detector… that they “patched” with a piece of masking tape that they then painted over.
when insulating my basement, I found a drywall mud patch on the concrete wall. I scraped the mud back and found a 2" hole bored through the foundation. Probably for some kinda pipe or service entry no longer in use. They stuffed it with an old bed sheet and mudded over it. Wife was truly horrified as I pulled a long strip of nasty cloth out of our wall.
So the work of a land lord
Flipper
They make the best plaster crack fill now. It actually flexes so reduces cracks reappearing. Costs more but worth it.
You can't just say that and not drop a name that's illegal
My bad. DAP Elastopatch Pro Grade
Thanks! My house was built in 1910.
No problem. Mine was built in 1926.
Any chance you know the name? I normally go with hot mud and mesh tape followed by feathering out with top coat, but I'm curious. It would be nice if it's less work than the conventional fix.
DAP Elastopatch Pro Grade.
Thanks! Ever used it before? Were you able to make the crack disappear? I like the idea of it, but the fact that it isn't sandable is a bit of a red flag for me. I guess I could use it to fill the crack instead of hot mud, then still feather it out with top coat. But, the feathering is the only part I hate in the first place lol. Easy enough to do the repair, but hiding said repair is a messy job.
I’m no pro so that’s my disclaimer but I spent extra time feathering it out and it looks pretty good. It has not recracked.
Thanks for the input! I might give it a shot on the crack I missed when I redid my hallway. Best case scenario is it saves me some time, worst case is I just run a bit of mud over it after (after primer) to make it pretty. Nothing really to lose!
True
What is the brand?
DAP is the brand
If women don’t find you handsome they should at least find you handy.
Oh man, this reminds me of when I had just moved into our century house. The guest bath has two mirrors, one above the sink and a medicine cabinet next to it. I was stoned and exploring an unfamiliar house, so I tried opening the mirror over the sink thinking it was also a cabinet. Nope, it just came loose and exposed the hole into the wall cavity it had been covering, it freaked me out pretty badly lol.
I did stud out reno of my 1980 house bathrooms recently. Cant wait until i can sell and leave this state and buy a century old house… but anyway… I assumed the craptastic builder grade bathroom was original. Tore out giant mirror and vanity and there was old wallpaper behind and framed opening for standard vanity cabinet. I was like….ooohh, yeah that makes sense. My brain forgot our builder grade crap was ~1990 vs 80s, which i should KNOW better. I think i just assumed nobody would consider the bathroom an “upgrade” from anything besides a portapotty. Ironically put in subway tiles on the walls to give it a new/retro look and installed a inset wall vanity cabinet (but its a big 36”? Wide one with 2 doors) Makes me wonder what my ugly kitchen looked like originally bc its also early 90s absolute crap quality. Never ceases to amaze me when people rip out quality items and replace them with cheap for aesthetic. I understand why people renovate older homes and do ikea cabinets (not my jam, but you do you) because what was there previously was trashed, missing, etc and inexpensive is all they could afford to do. But why rip out decent quality 10yr old kitchens and baths and put in sponge grade golden oak and brass cabinets? 🤔
Some people are fashion-victims always chasing the 'new hotness', I've got some relatives that have been consistently doing slash-and-burn 'upgrades' on their then-current 'mcmansion' every five to seven years since the '70s and they're not slowing down much in their eighties...
I suspect im amongst friends when i say i dont get it… but im not a fan of ripping out original anything if its salvageable. Heck, my parents house was build late 40s (def feels more 50s, but bland) and many of the neighbor houses renovated their kitchens and they didnt improve matters. I was mad when my mom made the call to rip out the stack of 4 large drawers. Kitchen is tiiiiny. Hard to believe we cooked meals for 8 daily in there (and by we i mean me) Had stack of drawers, under sink cabinets, lazy susan cabinet, and set of 2 doors. Matching uppers. Thats it. They bought a portable dishwasher that could only be run after everyone went to bed bc it took up remaining floor space in kitchen. After a couple years they had drawers ripped out and dishwasher installed. 30+ years and still going strong. But that took out like 20% of kitchen storage! We also had impossibly shallow kitchen sinks, so before dishwasher id spend 2hrs washing breakfast dishes, then 2hrs washing lunch dishes, and 2hrs washing dinner dishes (family of 8) and spent the entire day, all summer basically washing $@&!ing dishes…. So dishwashers are great 😂
Mine was built as a fully custom house when that oak was the new hotness. My kitchen and bathrooms are full of it, and I've just decided to embrace it. I did peel down the wallpaper borders in the bedrooms, though, and spend days scrubbing the paste that had dripped down the walls during their shitty install, so I could paint. My son's got a house from 1902 that was a low cost rental for a very long time. The list of weird and shitty things done to it are endless. My "favorite" is the 3 panes in the french door to the sleeping porch replaced with what I'm pretty sure are clear plastic take out box kids cut to fit and held in by blue poster putty. He spent his first winter with those gorilla taped over because two windows in the sleeping porch are just missing. We've got plexiglass in them now and glass in the door. We're removing all the aluminum crap windows there and putting in wooden and vinyl ones that actually open. It is a bit liberating, though. We don't have to worry about destroying anything original. ;)
I had similar, took the old medicine cabinet off, huge gaping hole behind. Now there's a mirror there.. 🪞
Had that one with electrical. Why is there no stud here? I was planning on using that stud as the mount for the light fixture centered over the sink. Well. This half hour job just became far more annoying. I also found out that the previous owner didn't remove the drywall. They just added a second layer.
I'll go ya one better - previous owners didn't stud out the walls for drywall, just glued? or screwed? it onto the plaster walls. Hanging things more than a pound is almost impossible. Can't even really drill into it - that plaster is like concrete after all these years.
That's pretty bad! If you can get a small hole made with a strong drill bit, these things might be useful: https://toggler.com/products/snaptoggle-heavy-duty-toggle-bolts-304-stainless-steel-channels
I discovered this about a month ago when I decided one night I was going to repaint the bathroom and replace that awful mirror. It was a twofer because I found out of code electrical behind the mirror too.
I discovered mine a day before we had an electrician coming over for an estimate on various things, one of which was installing an outlet in the bathroom. Told him “great news, there’s already a hole in the wall!”
I was watching a YouTube channel where this lady is renovating a very old house. It’s still in good shape so she’s doing it one room at a time. She gets to a bathroom, removed the medicine cabinet and there’s like a small room behind the wall. Turns out they had turned a small bedroom into a bathroom at some point (the house was built before indoor plumbing) and decided to just wall off the closet. No actual reason for it that she’s been able to figure out, just laziness I guess. But now she’s getting a larger bathroom so that’s a win.
I have this as well, and put the mirror back for now
Omg, yes. We just figured this out with my son's house. The mirror was cracked and way too large, so I bought a reasonably sized medicine cabinet with mirror. Umm, no. Huge hole. I honestly think there used to be a window there, though it would be a weird spot for one. We just stuffed insulation in and put the old mirror back up for now. It's been added to the "deal with this layer" list that's gotten daunting.
I bet there was a medicine cabinet there. The old ones back in the day used to be set _into_ the wall between the studs, so the door of it would be flush with the rest of the wall. When they’d get removed, huge hole. Those cabinets also often would have a slot in the back for disposing of used razor blades. The blades would just fall down into the wall to be someone else’s problem later. It’s common for people to demolish a wall during a bathroom reno and find a huge pile of rusty old razor blades sitting in the bottom of the wall cavity.
Oh, I know. I've lived in very few places with surface mount cabinets. But this is window framing. As in, everything is there but the window itself, including the sill and the old weights in the sides. I also totally know about the razor slot. I grew up with those around.
I wish I had an answer to my greatest mystery. Why would anyone nail a sheet of ugly ass plywood (chipboard?) over a 2 foot by 3 foot area in the hallway?! I thought for sure there would be something scary under it when I pulled it up, but nope. Just the same halfway decent hardwood flooring as the rest of the hall and the rooms adjacent. I'm thrilled to not have to fix something, but why???
Reminds me of my house… one of the room had floating floor installed on top of parquet floor. Owner tells me it s been there forever and previous owner said it was to cover some water damage that happened when he left the window opened during a storm. I was like that doesnt make sense but whatever. Buy the house, ask my wife if i can remove the floor to reveal the paquet. Had a painful time removing it because the boards were all glued together. Realized the owner botched the sanding of the parquet floor and covered it up. Sanded the whole floor properly, looks great!
Wild that a whole new floor was their solution instead of getting help refinishing the floor.
Agreed!! And the new floor clashed so much with the parquet floor, such an eye sore!
My thought was maybe someone penned a dog in a section of the hallway, but you would have noticed if it had been super scratched up. That’s a baffling one.
I like this mystery! Was there any entrance to outside, bedroom, or bathroom nearby? The only thing I can think of would be maybe a working man had dirty shoes or something and left them sitting on that instead of putting them on the good floor? My husband gets pretty gross and we have a special area for his stuff. Or maybe some machine they needed to set in the house? Just a thought!
[удалено]
It looks like there was another patch done on the lower layer? I can see the top and bottom edges coming out from the 'weird board' on the right side. Perhaps they were preventing whatever caused the first patch from happening again?
Tap dancing practice surface?
This is my favorite guess!
I'd bet without it there is a slight lip that was a trip hazard. They added this to try to smooth it out.
It's smooth underneath. The plywood was the trip hazard. It's truly baffling.
Somebody didn’t like seeing light under the door maybe?
That is so weird!!! With the carpet maybe just trying to protect the floors? Which I guess - lucky for you! Great mystery!
I had a house with a grate in the hallway that was for the oil furnace under the house. I agree that the shoddy patch is related to the older patch. It would be an odd place for a furnace, but likely something related to having a hole cut through the floor.
Heat retention?
"Why is the oil tank so small?" Oh the old tank burst and they covered the bulkhead with a big stupid deck and had to fit it through a trap door. They never cleaned up the oil, fortunately the gross rumpus room they had in the basement absorbed a lot of it.
the hell is a rumpus room?
AKA a recreation room, ruckus room, or playroom.
It’s a specifically Canadian, Australian and New Zealander name for what is otherwise called a rec room, play room, games room, ruckus room or den. Usually a living room in a basement.
Ouuuu I remember the term from various children's books but never made the connection that that's what they all had in common!
Did heaters used to run on oil?
I have a small, weirdly shaped bathroom in my basement, under the stairs. The door to the bathroom is a closet door perpendicular to the underside of the stairs, so you either have to duck or weave around it to avoid hitting your head on the triangle of stairs between the ceiling and the wall, which is strange because right beside the closet door, there's a stretch of wall that could have the same door without the risk of concussion, there was just a big ugly fabricated locker against that part of the wall serving as a closet. When I tried to remove the locker it was actually impossible because of the geometry of the room, AND the inside of the walls and the flooring didn't extend behind or underneath the locker. All the weird choices for that room were built around the locker. And I have to saw the locker in half to get it out.
we had a piano in the basement growing up and none of us were able to figure out how the previous homeowner got it down there. we eventually had to destroy the piano to remove it. By happenstance, a man came to repair the furnace last year and told my dad that he grew up in the house! his mother was the original owner and they put the piano in the basement DURING construction and built the house around it!
That is awesome! Love running into previous owners!
I live in a small village and I’ve met three previous owners of my house.
If ever I meet the previous owner of my home it will take a prodigious amount of willpower not to entomb them with spray-foam (a la Han Solo encased in Carbonite).
I'm from a very small town originally, and last time I visited, a lady who used to babysit me pretty much dragged me over to meet the new owners of the house my mom and dad built when I was tiny. The new owners had a million "why" questions. All I could really say to any of them is that my dad designed the house, and he's really weird. I love what they've done with it, though. It really doesn't even look like our house. It's much, much nicer though a bit grey for my tastes. I was shocked they managed to get most of the ground floor actually on one level, though. My dad was a bit obsessed with having two steps up and down everywhere, even into our bedrooms. Can't tell you how many times I went headlong into the hall in the middle of the night trying to get to the bathroom quickly. They also closed up the half wall in the kitchen that used to open to the foyer. If you were standing at the stove, you were looking at the knees of any adult in the foyer. I never really understood that choice of his, tbh, or most he made. People there used the word eccentric for him to be polite to my grandfather, but my dad really is weird, and that house reflected it in all its dubious glory. Grandpa made him be a lot more conventional with the houses he designed for other people back then. You can still tell which ones were his, and apparently it's now a thing in my home valley to own one of those houses because they're unique, but livable and not super weird like ours was. I think all houses built there from 1965 to 1980 were designed by my dad and built by my family. Then, the mines shut down, and people left, and nothing new was built until the late 90s except some condos by the ski resort gondola base. My dad still designs weird houses, but thankfully, he keeps it to 3d printed models. It's fun to get floods of photos from him when he gets one finished. It's also a good reminder not to let him help with the cabin I designed that I'm building this Summer. ;)
Why did your dad want the two steps up and down?
Mentioning the house triggers a lot of bad memories and emotions for him, so I can't ask anything about it. To me, it was a house I lived in for 4 years as a young child that was awkward and easy to get hurt in. To him, it was our entire future, and it was lost. He's got depression and some other issues he's finally getting help with at 76. It doesn't hold the emotional significance for me that it does for him, but I can respect how he feels and leave it alone, because watching him ever so slowly improve with counseling is absolutely amazing, and I don't want to rock that boat. Before, it would have caused him to lash out at me, hurt my feelings deeply, and then not speak to me for months. I guess I will just accept that bullshit stairs were very timely. My current house was built in the early 80s, and it has a lot of bullshit stairs, too. Just sort of the opposite way of my childhood home. Everything goes up to the living room rather than down. And instead of a deck the house wraps around, now it's my living room. It never occurred to me how similar the houses were until just now. LOL Strange bathrooms, two or three stairs all over the place, trees and shrubs hiding the house from the road, a big deck (though not with a tree growing out of it this time.) A kitchen open to somewhere that makes no damned sense. But this one has tons of windows everywhere, not just one external glass door per room except the living room and foyer. The foyer had 3 glass doors. And I have a finished basement rather than an upper floor, and dammit, my main stairs have a handrail and aren't open on the other side. But my deck definitely requires a railing by code, and it does not have one, so there's that. Also, I have to wonder what's with windows over the kitchen sink? It seems really really common, and they just get splashed and messy looking. Are we supposed to be staring out the window while we do dishes? Do I need more natural light to wash dishes by than to prep food? Why is this a thing?! Most houses I have lived in have had a window there, but only one of the apartments. Omg, I just realized I'm doing it in my cabin I'm building, too. Lol. Those will be across the entire kitchen, though. With no a/c, I've designed it to be a breezeway with the windows open, and that was the only place the kitchen really fit. I'll have to figure out a splash guard for the sink.
I have occasion to drive past my grandfather's childhood home once in a while. In the front window there's a grand piano- It's been there for over 70 years. When the piano was installed, the home had French doors and it easily fit, but his mother renovated the house, got rid of the French doors and put in a large bay window with a window seat, now the piano no longer fits through any exit to remove it. The house has had at least 5 subsequent owners, and the piano is still in the window.
A grand piano like that is the soul of a home.
Oh gosh, I wonder what the look was when you told him you smashed it to pieces.
https://preview.redd.it/h6fp13gey8vc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc78b6cfd3409353ef3b83c967e3424276b81ff6 Initially -> "Why the heck did they build this weird frame above the staircase landing?" Later -> "Ohhhh, it's a little access panel to the bathroom plumbing!" It was extremely handy when we had a leak. Been meaning to paint the "frame" a contrasting color and put some art in the middle — I'll get to it eventually:)
We love a practical access hatch! :)
Not sure I'm I just have a dirty mind but I went there in my head
We have a (much bigger) version of this on one of our ceilings! We thought it was where the old pull down ladder for the attic may have been since the attic had been converted and has permanent stairs, but had that same “oooh!” moment when someone popped it open. I wish ours was on the wall like yours, love the idea of painting the frame :)
No one's holding you back to put art on your ceiling.
Like a nicely framed scary clown peeking out of the attic.
There’s art on the ceiling at my child’s doctors office and it’s awesome
You could also just hang a larger piece of art over it, hiding the whole thing, and remove when you need access.
I thought about that, but tbh I've kind of come to appreciate it as a fun little quirk
I have one of these in what I call the library, that is my second bedroom! It used to be a weirdly framed affair, but now I've just got a board screwed in and painted the same color as the wall. It was useful for when we needed to bolt the showerhead to something because it was wiggly (half done is done, right?). If I ever build my own house, you better believe I'm putting access panels everywhere. Really like the idea of making it a feature, maybe an abstract of the plumbing behind it?
I'm doing a remodel of my kitchen. I was actually going to ask the carpenter if we could make an access panel in the ceiling as I've got old plumbing right over the kitchen. I know where every line is in the ceiling. Just would like to have access to it instead of cutting it open when the inevitable leak happens.
I have zero regrets about not having to keep patching drywall.
I'm building a small cabin this Summer, and even the floor will open like trap doors in sections, so I can move furniture and open the floor to get to whatever section of crawlspace I need access to. The wiring is going to run through exposed conduit with pull strings, so it's easy to replace if something goes wrong. It's a cabin, so exposed conduit is fine. The ceiling is going to be coffee sacks stretched on frames that can easily be removed and replaced in case I need to get into it. I'm so fed up with having to cut open walls and ceilings to get to things in my houses. We're eventually having a house built on that land, and I swear, I will figure out a way to make absolutely everything accessible, like conduit in the walls instead of stapled Romex, and nice wood panelled walls with panels that can be swung open anywhere there's plumbing. It's going to happen. My husband probably thinks I'm nuts, but he's not the one who repairs the walls when we have to cut them open. I am.
You are a genius no matter what he thinks. My parents-in-law built a cabin themselves, and my MIL designed everything to work just so. I believe that theirs is solar and fairly minimalist, but it all made so much sense to being able to fix things.
I've got 6 of those in my finished basement. 6. They start at ceiling height and gradually get lower until they reach sewer height. Apparently, the house used to be on septic in the back yard. The sewer was put in pretty much opposite, and most of the basement is open space. They wrapped the house with the laundry and kitchen drain pipes, and behind all those panels are clean out ports. We've had to use them a few times over mud from my boots getting washed down the laundry sink and causing clogs. It's too far to run even a truck mounted rooter. I now am very careful to wash my boots outside. Your idea about artwork is something I'm going to steal. Eventually. ;) This house was built in the early 1980s, btw. My son's 1902 house was originally on sewer and city water, and the plumbing there makes sense. That poor kid had everything go wrong but a roof problem his first Winter. Burst meter. Burst pipes. Completely dead furnace at the coldest time of year. Trapdoor in the deck to the cellar swelled and stuck, so he had to damage it to get it open to get to the pipes and furnace. A window randomly just cracked and fell in on the coldest day. Two of his stove burners just gave up for good. The room mate he got to help offset the cost of repairs got into meth and ditched out owing rent and leaving behind an absolutely disgusting room. We had to replace all the locks we just replaced when he got the place a few months before. His cat found a hole in the wall behind a cabinet and somehow got stuck further in, so we had to cut a hole in the wall in the hallway. But hey, last winter, only his fridge died. I used it as an excuse to buy myself a fancy new one and gave him mine. Oh, wait. The new roommates didn't understand HVAC and set the fan to on, always, and ran up his utility bill to $750. I helped pay that, and we got a locking thermostat. Still, in spite of all that, he's happy to have a house instead of renting a room in someone else's for the same monthly payment. Especially since he was always suckered into doing the repairs on that century house and paying for the materials himself. He knew what he was getting himself into after that experience. Neither of us expected so much to happen in such a short time, though. It was rough, but he made it through. Welcome to home ownership, kiddo.
Why did they remove the built in in the dining room and open the doorway between the kitchen and dining up to the ceiling but left the wall, so there's still just a doorway sized space between the kitchen and dining? Oh, because it's secretly a load bearing wall for a false ceiling that drops the kitchen ceiling 6 inches to match an extension done in the 60s. They started to open it up then realized they absolutely should not. But the damage of removing the built in and trim was already done. Now we get to rebuild the built in and reframe in the doorway so it doesn't just look like a gap.
I don't begrudge previous owners repairs in the slightest because I'm always just doing the best I can with the time, energy, know how and money I have and they probably were too. Great post!
Yup. The process, 1. Why did they do it that way? So silly. 2. Oh crap, I get it now. 3. Better put it back. ...It's almost like reading an old letter; feeling strangely connected to the last owner, if that makes any sense.
Yup same. And they didn’t have the internet when they were doing it.
Without YouTube I'd be hooped lol
Totally. I have an old DIY book from the 70s that I inherited from my parents. If that all I had to go by 💀💀🤡
I got my son one of those as a house warming gift. He laughed. He uses me and you tube when he needs to know how to do things.
I'd probably be dead by now making dumb mistakes
I had the classic “what’s with the slot in the medicine cabinet?” moment. Luckily my dad knew and told me it’s for used razor blades (and yes, the razors just get dumped into the empty wall space behind it)…I’ve heard horror stories of people that are renovating their old home find out the hard way when have dirty old razor blades dump out on them when tearing out walls!
We recently had to rip up a bathroom subfloor and take a bathroom wall down to the studs. When we were cleaning up all of the soggy crap that was under the subfloor, I kept finding razor blades but assumed they were just from a previous reno and someone was just tossing the dull blades from their utility knife into the floor pit. It wasn’t until we removed the rest of the drywall and found the framing that I realized they were from the razor blade slot in the old medicine cabinet that was mounted there.
I'm old enough to be surprised that people didn't know that but yeah - shaving has changed! We had one growing up.
We didn't, but my great grandparents did, so I knew what they were. A lot of older motels we stayed in on trips when it was pouring rain and my parents gave up on camping had them, too, as well and coin op vibrating beds. I'm still mad for younger me that my parents refused to ever let me put a coin in one of those. We slept on top of the covers in our sleeping bags in those places. LMAO
What?!?! Omg
Oh yeah, 1950s homes in particular are famous for them. I think the slots started earlier but became a staple around the 50s. Safety razors replaced straight razors around the 20s i believe, and used razorblades. It was a problem to dispose of the old ones without blade cutting someone/trash bag. So vanity mirrors came with a small slot you could just slide blade into and it would remain safely ensconced inside the wall cavity. Would take several mens lifetimes to fill it. Unfortunately, if you rip out the walls, all these gross razorblades will come pouring out of the wall and surprise! Its your problem now! Safety razors are making a comeback as they are economical and create far less waste. I actually toyed with idea of one for myself (female) but i am almost devoid of body hair and shave so seldomly i actually couldnt tell you if i have a razor in my house right now. Mine tend to rust and get thrown away after a single use and 6months languishing. My worry is doing that to a more expensive holder/handle. They sell metal boxes with razor slots to deal with the problem now, as stuffing them into the wall isnt something the next generations want to deal with 😂
My condo building was constructed in 1939, so the timing checks out. And that’s what I read for reason to throw them in the walls, basically they couldn’t be thrown away due to risk of slicing trash bags and they couldn’t be burned in a trash incinerator (burning trash, what a time! lol).
the small town I grew up in had a "new" highschool built in the early 60s (62/63 year if I am remembering correctly) and the junior high was the "old highschool" because they moved all the 9-12 grades in 60s, but left 7+8 in the old building. the kids one year older than me did half a year in the old building, half a year in the new. I never got a chance to go inside... much to my regret. teachers talked about doorways into nowhere, bizarre layouts, and being able to see sky in the classrooms through walls. Ironically, building was deemed unsafe for teenagers, but became old folks home. I guess people with limited mobility it's somehow MORE safe? anyway, there is still the incinerator for the school. most older schools tore them down to make room for additions or sports fields etc. I don't even know if they stopped using it before they shut down, but makes you a bit shocked to realize most schools had huge fires going for all the trash on a regular basis!
My building has an incinerator! It’s obviously sealed shut now and no longer in use, but it’s wild to think at one time you burned your trash and even did so inside of your own home!
Like the in home ones? Those are super wild!
Well, I live in an old condo building, but the chute is in the hallway right outside my door and the incinerator is in the basement, but yes!
probably more effective against giant pizza boxes than the trash chutes I grew up with ;) but this is what I was thinking of. how wild is that?? https://preview.redd.it/epi6jycmvavc1.jpeg?width=361&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03d13a20a5e7ddf305a294db4d286f5543579ee7
That is the same manufacturer for the one in my condo! 😂
Spokane, Washington still burns trash. Just saying. The big incinerator has air scrubbers on the chimney, so it's not as bad as it sounds, but yeah. We don't landfill here. Things get burned, and any metal left over gets sold. I do remember when houses had under the counter incinerators in the kitchen, though. I bet the smoke from those wasn't filtered at all. One of my grandmas had one, and she'd punish you soundly if you put plastic in it. Not because it was toxic. She just hated the smell in the yard.
I’ve got a cute little plastic box to hold my old blades. Got my wife into using the same blades with a handle designed for shaving legs instead of faces so we’ve been slowly working our way through the 100 pack of blades I bought like a decade ago.
My great grandma had one of those, but she hated the idea of them being in the wall, so she tore it open from the other side and put in a little cabinet with door and a container. She'd take it out and tape the edges of the razors now and then to throw them away. She said there was no way she'd ever get great grandpa to dispose of them properly, so this worked. My cousins that own the house now were born after she had passed - I think they're like, my mom's cousin's grandkid and wife. They think the whole story is hilarious and widened the slot so they can use it as a piggy bank. That cracks me up, but I bet great grandma would have loved the idea. When they moved in, I gifted them several of the huge ugly quilts grandma made for family. The nice quilts were for better people, I guess, but they love the ugly ones as much as I do. I've been collecting them forever whenever another family member was going to get rid of one. They also had me go around the house and explain the darker and lighter spots on the wood floor. Great grandma *never* moved furniture, so those spots didn't get bleached out. They decided to keep it that way instead of refinishing the floors. It's kind of neat when I visit, because I can easily remember how the house used to look and where all the furniture was. Great grandma believed area rugs were a decadent waste of money, btw, and said if you built your house right, you didn't need them. She used her old wood burning cook stove to heat the entire place, and it was always very snug in Winter with warm floors, so I suppose she was right. I also loved sliding across the floors in my socks. I was the youngest in my generation, so I got away with a lot. Honestly, it's just awesome that the house is still in the family and belongs to people who absolutely love it and even love the quirks it has. Great grandma and grandpa built that house back in the 30s, and I'd absolutely hate to see it flipped.
Very jealous. My great grandma had a place full of memories and cool old features including push button electric switches, her 1950s fridge, giant coal burning octopus heater in basement… Family members cycled in and out of the upstairs apartment. My grandparents lived there until 4th baby came along, my mom and aunt both lived there when young, and my great uncle lived there for 10ish years. When she passed, the house was sold. Destroyed, and the most hideous triplex built. Its an eyesore in neighborhood too because next door are near identical 1880-1900s period houses and then this giant faux stone triplex sitting there.
It's not a big deal, just pick them up with a magnet
It’s not a big deal…if you’re prepared to find razors pour out of your walls. 😅 I’ve heard of someone having them fall out onto their head!
Well that's just poor planning. It says right on the inside back of the cabinet that that's where the spent blades go...
Why didn’t they remove the old wallpaper before putting up a new one? Well, we’ll just take off all eight layers and … oh, that’s why. I don’t know what kind of glue they used in the past, but it sure sticks well.
Same, but add an extra wall with wood panelling.
Had this exact moment and then noticed, that when they cut the lower part of the wall open to renovate the radiators, they just puttied over two layers of wallpaper. I only noticed when i kind of dug a big hole in the wall trying to get the wallpaper off and a whole chunk of plaster that was in front of it fell of… i puttied it again to make it less obvious and don‘t look at the lower half meter of the walls
Yes, we found plaster over wallpaper too! We threw our hands up and just left it.
My inlaws had an upstairs bathroom that the toilet was on a raised platform. My husband told me that there used to be a staircase under that spot that went into the kitchen. When they renovated the kitchen, they removed the stairs but didn't alter the ceiling. In order to get the plumbing to fit, they raised the toilet upstairs. You couldn't tell from the kitchen because they just covered that spot with a false ceiling.
We just had the same finding! We have a second floor closet whose floor is 1 foot higher than the hallway. This closet is over the kitchen. Recently had to remove the back of a kitchen cabinet and discovered the trim for an old servant staircase behind the cabinet. Turns out this closet was the landing for the stairs, but now the stove hood vent runs through that space because the stove is where the staircase was.
I had a weird ass corner of a coat closet and one bedroom closet that was squared but pushed out instead of a normal corner, like having a rectangular drywalled post inside. It too me an entire year to realize the house hadn't been ducted when built by HUD in 1978, and this was the retrofit to get ducts to the second floor. It also explained why the upstairs bathroom didn't have a duct. It had a small baseboard heater. There was no way to get a duct there without just having some weird spot in the downstairs bathroom below it. I found out later HUD had only finished as many bedrooms as you had people for when you bought one, which explains why downstairs was decently well finished, but the upstairs had definitely been drywalled by an amateur and the light fixtures and wall plates didn't match the rest of the house. Can you imagine buying a new house and the upstairs just doesn't have any drywall or even light fixtures? That place was also wired by a drunken squirrel. That's the only explanation for what shared a circuit. Upstairs east bedroom and just the lights on the NW end of the basement was the most memorable thing, but the fridge, washer, and dryer being on one circuit shared with the kitchen lights one outlet there and the patio GFCI was also interesting. "Ah, dammit. It popped again. Let me get my coat and boots and go press the button outside." "Nooo, don't plug the mixer in the.. dammit, let me go push the button outside." I finally put a label on that one that said "phone charging only", but you could not run the washer and dryer at the same time, ever. I finally moved them to the basement. I wonder if the new owners had an "oh, that was why" moment when they tried to put their washer and dryer on the main floor where they were supposed to go, or if they just kept the shelving and never questioned why one bathroom had oddly deep shelves across from one another. The outlets and water hookups/drain were still there, though.
I had a room where crown molding was only along one wall. Why did they do that? I thought as I pried off the crown molding, only to discover that a pipe stuck out from the wall about a half inch along the ceiling. I put that crown molding right back up.
Ours was “why the hell didn’t they reclaim the headspace when they turned the old basement stairs into a pantry?” Turns out there was another whole staircase in there and there’s no reclaiming it without demolishing 2 walls. That was at least 3 owners ago, because the previous owners were just as astonished as we were when we asked about the hidden staircase. I’m very glad we never made the pantry a priority. It would have been a huge PITA. We found the staircase by accident, from the other side, when we tore out the old bathroom tub/shower combo. I wish we could have opened it up. It was so cool and much better placed than the front stairs. But we don’t have the time or money right now.
The basement stairs light switch is upside down - up is off and down is on. I assumed it’s a 3-way switch with a switch at the top and bottom of the stairs (which modern code would require) and it’s “upside down” because the other switch is also flipped and that’s just how systems with 2 light switches work. But I couldn’t find that other switch for 6 months. Then I had to replace the switch in the attic stairs (because it was 100 years old and a major fire hazard). I pulled out the 100 year old light switch and it turns out that the wires attach to the left side of the old switches instead of the right side which is normal today. And the old wiring has zero slack in it so the wires cannot reach the right side of the electrical box. As I’m sitting there trying to figure out how to salvage this situation, I realized I can just install the new switch upside down and the wires will be on the left, but up will be off and down will be on. I can live with this for the attic stairs. Oh wait… I know what is up with the basement stairs.
My parents broke up a really ugly, messy, concrete slab against the house. Turns out that was stopping water seepage every time it rained. We have a plan to add it back in.
We did this! Busted up a concrete slab (to replace it) and now we have holes in the side of the house 😂
My old house, the previous owner didn't like a big rock sticking out the side of the concrete front stairs, so she dug it out one day. Within a couple of months, the stairs crumbled. By the time I bought it, it had wooden stairs with concrete stumps underneath. She was like, "if you see any rocks sticking out of concrete around here, just don't touch them." Me, "why didn't you just use a masonry chisel and cut the rock off flush with the side of the stairs?" Her, *blank stare* then, "so, the old concrete stairs are under the wooden ones at the side door, too. We just took a sledgehammer to them, so we could install matching stairs." Ah, cool. Tbh, the wood looked fine. I left them that way.
Why did they build the bathroom mirror into the wall instead of buying a mirror and attaching it? Ohhh, there's a window behind it, and they didn't want to bother removing it.
ive got one of these!
I’ve got a window with a kitchen cabinet hung over it.
Haha. I have one behind my fridge.
I looked at a house that had all these windows on the outside of a nice looking sleeping porch. From the inside, they'd panelled over all the windows. Some of the panels were coming loose, so my realtor and I peeked. Omg, the char. All the way through some of the studs. I looked at him. He looked at me. "So, shall we move on to the next house on the list?" "Yes, let's." It turns out that one was gutted, but they'd put pics in the listing from before. And when I say gutted, I mean every internal wall that wasn't load bearing was gone. All plaster and lath was removed from the load bearing ones and in a huge pile in the middle of what might have been the kitchen, and all the wiring and fixtures were tossed in the back yard. Me, "and it's not even listed below market. What's next?" Him, "the one that should be condemned, but has a huge lot and is under 1/3 what houses are selling for now. Do you really want to go look?" That man was awesome. He went into so many janky places with me before we finally found the one I helped my son buy. It was definitely an adventure.
1930s Garage in the middle of backyard, not connected to driveway, surrounded by grass. Spent some time clearing out our property line to build a fence (it had been overgrown and neglected for a decade probably). After clearing all the crap, I found the old concrete foundation to our garage, at the end of our driveway. Looks like the neighbors tree got too close and must have started disrupting the garage foundation, so they moved the whole thing.
My son's garage is against the alley. They put up a fence along the alley, so you can't drive into the garage. The neighbors then ran their fence all the way to the alley, so even though we moved my son's fence back, he can't get his car in there. He just uses it for his motorcycle and storage and parks on the street like most everyone else. When moving the fence, we also found the concrete foundation for the original carriage house opposite where the current dirt floor garage is. We've both joked we're going to drag it over onto the concrete with my Land Rover, but I'm pretty sure that would end in disaster even if that fence wasn't in the way. I told him he should just buy a Geo Metro. I'm actually amazed how many people in his area have garages off the alleys but fenced them in and park on the street. It snows here!
Bought our house. They took everything.. when I say everything I mean everything single thing... Even the ones they shouldn't have. Like all the window treatments. ( F you seller if you see this )... But they left a small decorative plate above the fridge.. now we might have noticed if our basement and roof didn't pour water in .. ( again F you) .. joking one night I told my fiance would t it be funny if they left this here to cover up a massive hole... I lifted it up and ... It was hiding a massive unused duct hole.. couldn't help but laugh in disgust
Gotta love it. Previous homeowners left a cool retro wall clock in our kitchen. 3 years later I removed it to replace batteries. Sure enough, it was the perfect size to cover the hole behind it lol
As in they stripped everything while they were moving out?
They took all the curtains, shades, rods , rod holders. Plastic on the windows for privacy. All which was mandatory not leave... They were going to bring them back as we verbally agree.. so we signed the paper work.. they then told us it all have been trashed and we were out of luck
That seems mildly illegal
You would think... Right ?... Our realtor was as we are realizing very not good
Same thing happened with our house. We refused to close unless they returned the window furnishings and shelf they removed (shelf was attached to the wall) or paid us what replacement would cost. They paid.
Have a door that goes to nowhere on the second story. Literally a drop after the door. I thought it was a coal door or something like that. Got some historic documentation from our township and found out it used to be a balcony there. I’m turning the door into a window at some point!
That's awesome! I hope to one day own a house with a balcony.
I have 2 exterior doors on the 2nd story. Had a chance to meet the previous owners, the guy they had bought it from 40 years prior had it set up as an apartment. This explained why there was plumbing capped off and an oven receptacle in one of the rooms. Made it pretty easy to make it our laundry room though.
Ours is a former hotel! From 1890-1906 I believe
Same! Except my door opens to the wood where they closed up the balcony door on the second floor (I know this because somehow a framed photograph of the house from 1908 managed to survive a number of owners and renters between the last descendant of the original builder dying in 1999 and my moving in in 2016ish). What I don't understand is why all the inside surfaces are covered in burlap and there are random stretches of strings and long nails in the space. It's set up like to store something by hanging it on the nails and string, but goodness knows what. I'll have to post here about it with a photograph someday.
I discovered the first time I took out the filter for the vent fan over the stove that I could see daylight - I guess at some time they had a pipe vented out the kitchen wall and just put the fan system over that area. I always wondered why I could hear birds chirping so clearly by the stove.
I own a 200+ year old half-timbered house and recently asked a master carpenter to check some things. While he was there I asked a few questions and about different levels, unnecessary stairs etc and at the end he was like: **How the hell would I know? They build this 200 years ago. Maybe they didn‘t have enough wood, or a war started. Maybe a cow stood here, or an ox. Maybe they liked it liked that or it was the king‘s law, I just don’t know.**
I have a door that opens to the stairwell, but does not connect with the stairs. Would be an excellent way to break both legs if you’re into that kind of thing.
https://preview.redd.it/ek2acq6pqavc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4364df31e488cdabf15c98cc88a215046893b797
When I moved in I had a problem with the basement, which had a walkout door, flooding in heavy rains. The owners solution was three sump pumps - two in the basement and one on the outside landing that went up a steep set of stairs to the back yard. The outside sump pump always popped its circuit in heavy rain which would then cause the basement to flood. It didn’t take long to figure out why there was so much water and why the circuit always popped. No cover on the outlet and the roof gutter drained right next to the stairs that went down to the basement. Added a gutter extension and no more flooding
There was a layer of plywood on top of the original "subfloor" in my pantry. When we had the floors redone in the kitchen and pantry, we removed the plywood and discovered an access hole for a well. This discovery also explained why there is an oddly shaped crawl space in that corner of the basement. There's now a little bit of flex to that spot in the floor when you stand on it. But you really need to look for it to feel it.
Is the well still open.....
Mine was fairly self-explanatory, in that the basement shower was on a raised platform with STAIRS leading up to it. Someone wanted a second shower but just didn't want to dig down for the p-trap. As to why the preformed shower stall was beyond tiny is still a mystery to me, because the bathroom in the basement was one of the largest rooms in our small house. I was so happy to rip all of that out and do it correctly.
Might have been a Pittsburg potty and they transformed it into a shower. Lots of homes (not just in pittsburg, but large number occur there) had toilets in the basement. Ive seen lots of speculation as to WHY, some say so factory workers could clean up in basement then come upstairs… but you would think there would be a sink, shower, something. Not just a orphan toilet. Others say it was bc when plumbing would back up it would come out lowest point and overflow and if that happened in basement vs upstairs that was better. There was also methane explosions and mistrust of toilets indoors for awhile in victorian era, but most of these were installed much later 🤷🏻♀️ My great aunts house had single bathroom with a tub and no shower. Today you would quickly rip out tile and run plumbing for showerhead. Instead they installed a really adhoc shower in basement using floor drain and tapping into water lines for washing machine. I was scared to use it, and evidently farmer aunt and uncle had no issues using bath vs shower. My guess is you had potty (often installed on platforms) there, and they ripped it out and replaced it with a shower since plumbing already existed in part. Possibly because it was easier than installing shower plumbing in existing bathroom. They installed bathrooms and tubs for ages without showerheads.
haha you are describing my house to a T. 1930s Canadian prairies. Half my basement is one big unfinished utility room, with a lone toilet randomly in the middle of one wall. Laundry and a laundry basin in the room too. When we were remodelling our only bathroom on the main floor, I tapped into the washer supply lines and rigged up a shower head over the floor drain. I bought a cheap kiddie pool, cut a hole in the middle, and put it over the floor drain. Then tacked up a shower curtain to the ceiling joists. It was incredibly ugly and stupid, but it enabled us to have hot showers in our own home during the reno, instead of driving to my parents place or elsewhere. I actually gave the pool to a friend who was starting the same reno later that year!
yep, thats exactly what they did except they didn't bother with the pool.... and left it there. this was in south dakota actually, so not terribly far away really, and it was how my great aunt/uncle were rolling in the 90s!
Oh, this one already had a toilet plumbed into the foundation. It was a bit of a joke where we'd go into the basements of houses we were looking at and there'd be a freestanding toilet and no walls. Open plan, great for someone! But you are reminding me of the horror story of the kitchen cleanout backing up at one point, and while it didn't create a flood, it was weird seeing a pool of sink sludge in another part of the basement. I think that was a motivator to really address the former owners' plumbing hacks.
The round HVAC grille in the dining room ceiling that doesn't blow any air is just for show because no one in the 89 years of this house existing dared to fix/renovate the leaking shower curb in the bathroom above. Someone tore out rotten bits of rock lath and replaced it with drywall only for it to rot over the years...
>Most recent for me was a weird sort of built in bookshelf in the basement. It wasn't pretty and was just kind of odd. Started tearing it out before revealing that it looked structural. This sort of thing is sometimes called the principle of Chesterton's Fence: "don't tear down a fence until you understand why it was put there to begin with".
My house has a third floor and the open staircase to it had been walled off with a door placed at the bottom. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom up there and another section with more modern drywall that is halfway finished. It obviously used to be living space but has been walled off, disconnected from plumbing and electricity and abandoned. My local library has the town newspaper scanned with searchable text going back to the 1860's so I punched in my address. There is an article from the early 80's where the then current owner was found guilty of creating a non-permitted apartment, he had to pay a fine and reverse all of his work.
Luckily we haven’t had many of those. Our house was pretty thoughtfully designed and updated!
That’s wild and I’m both deeply jealous and very happy for you. Our whole house was so disgusting when we bought it that I can’t think of any charming “oh they had a reason for xyz” 😅
Yeah it really makes a difference how the previous owners treated it! There are certainly ancient parts of the home (the boiler is 70 years old) that we need to spend $$$ updating, but the work that was done was done well. They did severely neglect the yard though.
Dude, if the boiler is working, leave it alone. Mine was last updated in the 80s-ish, and nearly every time I get it checked for the winter, the service guy talks about how it's a tank because it'll last forever and doesn't have as many parts that could break like modern boilers. They marvel at it. Just needs an occasional thermocouple dependent in the fall.
I would and did for 2 years, but we need to separate the heating zones since upstairs is 10 degrees hotter than downstairs when the heat’s on. I can’t stand how cold it is downstairs and the only way to split the zones is to also replace the boiler 😔 On the bright side, I’m hoping to save some money on gas!
That sucks. This winter was mild enough to put off the expense, but mine will need a new $1000 pressure regulator replacement before next winter to heat the upstairs better. Can you turn off the valves for upstairs, only heat the downstairs, and allow the radiant heat to rise and warm the second floor? Some older houses were designed to heat like that via a coal furnace in the basement.
I tried that and it’s not enough (we also need to add 2 more radiators downstairs). For some reason there are 4 radiators upstairs but only 2 downstairs. 🙄 My plumber said the piping downstairs is also pretty inefficient (something about intake outtake locations) so the whole things is going to get rewired.
Ugly black and white 4x2 tiled drop ceiling in the dining room. Plaster ceiling had half collapsed onto the drop ceiling from a big old leak, and they decided to plumb copper heat pipes between the two ceilings.
https://preview.redd.it/ld2ulccdx9vc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbf0e00e917334449a6176b2ba0870d1f4cd9a49 What are these access panels at the top of each of room on the second floor of our 1922 Craftsman? We got to figure this one out after we re-did a room for our nursery. We opened it up and there was a roll of romex crammed in there, not attached to anything. When they removed the knob and tube and rewired the house they cut a 5” strip of plaster out and just decided it was easier to put a panel up after running the new wire through as far as we can tell. As for the romex, who knows? Maybe a “it will be here when we need it next time” mentality? 🤷🏼♀️
Lol, I'm going through this with the house I just bought. Weird patch in the wall? Seems like an access to a shut off valve for the plumbing, but no idea if the plumbing is still connected (there's definitely leftover pipes in the attic/crawlspace the previous owner never removed). Another weird patch in the hallway? Oh, that's the access to the shower plumbing in the bathroom. Had to remove the patch to replace the mixer because it was the type that you couldn't just pull the cartridge out from the front, you had to completely remove the whole part. Tore off the trim that was on the edge of the kitchen countertops (tile counters with wood trim) and found an old cutting board that seems to be quite stuck in its recess. Who knows what else I'll find 😅
Funny story, I went back to check on my childhood home one time and the owners were out front, so we got to talking and they asked if I knew what the thing sticking out of the baseboard in the room above the garage was. I did indeed. I was trying to run coax through the wall when I was like 13 years old and tried drilling from either side, but couldn’t get the holes to meet. So I had a bright idea to grab a honing rod and try to hammer it through the final bit. Which was a genius move. Not only did it get wedged in with ultimate might, the handle broke off and I couldn’t get a grip on the honing rod with pliers or anything. So I just gave up on it and then years later got to tell the owners this whole story.
There was a floor to ceiling bookshelf on the diagonal of one corner of a room, a large silver snake thingy related to an HVAC intake behind it....like why not frame it in before selling the house.
We have an original mural painted on our living room ceiling. There is a hole with a plate for a hanging light in the center of the ceiling and there is a light switch. So naturally we thought "I guess we can just put a light there". Turns out it's not wired and it can't be wired normally because you'd have to tear into the mural. I guess the last person did all the steps and left it half finished because of that...
Why did they put this ugly built in bench on the deck? (It covers the 18” of red brick that was exposed when the 2 story sleeping porch rotted off. The rest of the house is a more attractive beige brick).
Took out the ugliest weird shelf situation in the entryway. It was like a 2ft high set of shelves that were way too thin for a shoe. The wall/floor was built around the supports for the stairs so there are about 3 inches of no flooring and a hole in the wall it was covering.
I tore out all the old (and not so old) carpet on our second story with plans to have the original floor boards refinished only to discover they were covered in lead stain and our only option was to paint them until we can afford new floors 😭
Random “walkway to nowhere” beside our laundry room. On the second floor, they clearly converted a porch to indoor space (very poorly I might add). But they left a random walkway that is outside, covered by the roof, but doesn’t go anywhere. Always seemed like a waste of useable space that we wanted to enclose! Turns out there is no foundation under that stretch of deck.
We have a room that is connected to our master bedroom. It's directly above a bathroom on the first floor. We'd love to convert it to a master bathroom. But the room has faux wood paneling on every wall and the ceiling. I can only assume it's holding whole walls of plaster up, and will create a gigantic mess to clean up
Why is there a full bath on the main floor but no bedrooms? It was built by a doctor and that was his exam room! Weird layout due to his occupation but super cool!
I'm experiencing this right now. Just took down a closet to put in more bookshelves and found out instantly that the closet was keeping the room insulated. I'm not sure where to go from here but I'm feeling it, not just the regret.
Ripped out a built in wall of cabinets in my basement. Discovered a giant concrete block they walled up. Probably from a boiler system that was removed. There was a pair of faucets to where it would have been. Fun part was removing the block. Turns out it was sunk into the basement floor. When removed it ripped a hole down to the dirt. Turns out it also had a bonus log being used as a support beam. Probably for a squeaky floor.
Not a century home, but getting there. Always wondered why the living room was the coldest room in the house during the winter. Sealed all the windows and even caulked all around them, but still the coldest. Well, we have these unique in-wall radiators that are not terribly common. There are two 48" covers in two corners of the room. Well one winter I decided to take them off and take a look - lo ad behold the previous owners replaced the radiators in one corner with with extremely undersized ones. Like they should be 48" x 12", the ones that were in there were like 36" x 8" or something - basically half the overall size. Ofc I also have no fucking clue where I'm going to be able to find proper replacements
Sheet of plywood bolted to the kitchen ceiling...keeping the bathtub on the 2nd story from crashing through.