What treasures have you found renovating?

[mic-d]

I've just demolished a verandah floor on a 1915 queenslander in prep for rebuilding it and found an 1866 english penny and an Australian 1917 halfpenny caught under one of the window sills. Not worth anything but it's curios to think that they've probably sat there for nearly 90 years, unmoved and waiting to be discovered. Which made me wonder, what little treasure have you discovered?

Cheers
Michael

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

A few years ago we renovated an old weather-board farmhouse and found a silver spoon under the door sill. A bit more work and we found thrupenny coins under the window sills; we reckoned 'twas originally constructed by an Irish owner/builder. "Silver" used to be put under (or over) entry points to keep the boojums out. :)

The new owner had us put 'em all back under the new fittings, which was perfectly fine by me; I've enough hassles without adding boojums to the list.

[ozwinner]

It was custom many moons ago to put a 2 bob (2/-, 20 cents)on top of a chimney when buildng it.

Al :)

[katydid]

Apart from chunks of building refuse, old nails, bits of tile etc. etc. I have dug up heaps of old stuff all not worth a stuff!!

[bsrlee]

Cleaning out the garage (work-in-progress) - a large 1950's (600x1200) hand painted Coca-Cola shop sign plus Dad's old business sign. Piles of dust, dead leaves....

After I get the gardening stuff rounded up, I get to go thru 60 odd years of accumulated junk hardware - I already have a taker for the old slotted screws!

[Slow6]

my only find was a chimney full of dope while painting up a &&&&ty rental flat.
the dope was no good (been there for years) but I pulled every last bag of it out thinking that the next one might just be cash.. lol, no luck.

[journeyman Mick]

It was custom many moons ago to put a 2 bob (2/-, 20 cents)on top of a chimney when buildng it.

Al :)

Al,
worked with a Finnish chippie some years back who told me that it was traditional to put on a bottle of vodka for the brickies when they built a chimney - otherwise the chimney wouldn't draw. He worked on one job where the tightasre owner refused, result - house full of smoke:eek: . Called them back and put on a bottle, they polished it off then got on the roof and dropped a brick down the chimney - straight through the piece of glass that had been built into the flue to block it off:D ;)

Mick

[mic-d]

I gave the coins to the owners and told em your stories, which put the wind up them! The coins will be going back;) They were telling me the last builder found a bunch of really old newspapers during an earlier reno but kept the best for himself, so hopefully I've earned a few brownie points there. (I didn't tell them that I also found a 1930 penny tho)

Cheers
Michael

[ozwinner]

Called them back and put on a bottle, they polished it off then got on the roof and dropped a brick down the chimney - straight through the piece of glass that had been built into the flue to block it off:D ;)

Mick

Хорошая идея Mick
http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

Al :p

[Wood Butcher]

Not really renovating but when my folks where building their new house they had to dig into the side of the hill on their property. When the backhoe was cutting in they found 5 buried deposits of tallneck beer and wine bottles. Also buried with each collection of grog bottles was around five Alka-seltzer bottles.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[journeyman Mick]

Хорошая идея Mick
http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

Al :p

Hey Al,
I went to the Babel fish link and they don't have enough languages, no Suomi (I think that's what the Finns call their language)

Mick

[ozwinner]

Hey Al,
I went to the Babel fish link and they don't have enough languages, no Suomi (I think that's what the Finns call their language)

Mick

I thought Vodka :rolleyes: , Russian. :rolleyes:

Al :D

[gnu52]

Have found coins in the frame work, near new titan chisel on a nog:D , interesting papers under lino, 30's fashion catalogue under bath ( Still dry), sawn off .22 in a wall, a lot of builders/ carpenters names usually in chalk:p , a lot of syringes & sharps in odd holes :eek: , some rag/sponge paint effects from the 20's on vj sheeted over with asbestos fibro (Guess they thought it was an improvement) , a few skeletons; snake, possum & rodent but nothing related to the .22 and last but not least a wall full of used sanitary products thoughtfully placed there through a hole under the nog line.:o :mad: Thankfully the studs were 450 centres which limited the volume . HepB shots required on that job.
In concrete floors we have found an endless array of bottles, rabbit trabs, old steel pipes, fence posts, bed ends, a stanley level, old gears and a heap of sundry scrap steel. Almost anything to avoid buying mesh. Oh, & a slab with mesh where the chairs were empty 3X bottles. Historical.
We also found a cellar when digging post holes. Put the Hitichi & pick point into a hole, pulled the trigger and the thing disappeared. There was a complete cellar down there that wasnt recorded anywhere. Red faces for the soil testers.
Regards, Bill

[Clinton1]

3 sticks of Powergel under Mums house.
Always wondered what the summons and warrants the cops were trying to serve on the previous owner were for.

[stevebaby]

my only find was a chimney full of dope while painting up a &&&&ty rental flat.
the dope was no good (been there for years) but I pulled every last bag of it out thinking that the next one might just be cash.. lol, no luck.How did you find out the dope was no good?:)

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Have found coins in the frame work, near new titan chisel on a nog:D , interesting papers under lino, 30's fashion catalogue under bath ( Still dry), sawn off .22 in a wall, a lot of builders/ carpenters names usually in chalk...

Somewhere, some day, some lucky renovator's gonna find a near new 48V Hilty sitting on a noggin. :(

If I knew which site the apprentice left it at I'd go a-visiting, stud-finder in hand. :rolleyes: Couldn't ask the apprentice... he was too busy down at the DSS; he'd had "one of those days" and unluckily for him I'd had "one of those weeks."

[la Huerta]

alway love reading the old newspapers one finds under the lino...i's almost like steping back in time...

finding a suitcase full of loot would be nice...or gold maybe...

[joez]

BIL bought a house from a widower, the old gals husband was an alcoholic and died of some related illness.

When the BIL started renovating he found about 2 dozen bottles of whiskey and scotch. He had a stash hidden in little openings beside every chimney (there were 5 chimenys).

He also found about 3 dozen bottles of home made wines, all were off though.


joez

[Termite]

Many (a bloody lot) of years ago Mum owned a butcher shop. One of the local oldies, who looked like a derro, died. His son-in law demolished the old bloke's house and Mum said he paid his bill with gold soverigns for about 2 years. Face value was 1 guinea ($2.10), mum used to take them to chinatown in Sydney and get 12 pound 10 shillings ( $25.00)for them.

[Shedhand]

I'm just demolishing the old outhouse/garden shed in preparation for the extensions and found.

1. one old frilly bra (very large);:eek: (this was poked down behind the old cast iron cistern :rolleyes: )
2. two old toilet rolls (dark brown with age not turdies):rolleyes:
3. a piece of wooden crate stencilled with a lot of french text "au lait preparee" is part of it. Looks like some kind of clear grained pine.:confused:
4. two old coat/hat hooks
5. an axe head
6. a big horseshoe (draught i think)

Boring junk in other words. Except I reckon someone was havin' some solo fun with the large over the shoulder boulder holders.:D

[Clinton1]

Except I reckon someone was havin' some solo fun with the large over the shoulder boulder holders

Was having or Is having, Sheddie? ;)

[channa]

Hey Al,
I went to the Babel fish link and they don't have enough languages, no Suomi (I think that's what the Finns call their language), Mick

Try Russian to 'Strine ;)

[Slow6]

How did you find out the dope was no good?:)

I made the aprentice smoke it to see... nah, I just figured damp and mouldy = bad.

[julianx]

I had to rebuild a room under my house a while ago as it was built badly and the window was falling out. I couldn't figure out how anyone could build anything so badly out of plumb and level. I discovered how after I removed the last sheet and found a level in the wall cavity.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I had to rebuild a room under my house a while ago as it was built badly and the window was falling out. I couldn't figure out how anyone could build anything so badly out of plumb and level. I discovered how after I removed the last sheet and found a level in the wall cavity.

ROFLMAO! http://www.ubeaut.biz/laughing.gif

[Wildman]

My mother-in-law found $800 cash hidden in the kitchen during her kitchen renovation. Tradie doing the job was nice enough to hand it over. She has had the place for 10 years, had been there a while but all plastic $50 and $20 notes in a zip-loc bag so cannot be too old.

Somone will get a nice 25mm Tajima rock hard snap knife when my current place gets demolished. Had already plastered the joints in the villa board in the bathroom before I went looking for it, remember leaving it on a nog the day before.

I found some nice secret compartments underneath my place, all decked out to secretly store model trains. The house had a model train room, unfortunately the trains were no longer there.

[mag]

When digging footings for a reno on our 110 ish old home I found about 60 intact bottles, including three marble bottles.

Still havn't cleaned them all up!

[ozwinner]

, including three marble bottles.



Codds!!
Seriously, thats what they are called.....

Al :rolleyes: :p

[Iain]

Kitchen reno, about 20 kilos of antique mouse and rat poo, is that worth anything?
The bathroom was precious, took of the plasterboard surround and found it was an old clawfoot bath from the previous house on the property.
I hate them, too many bad memories from hospital when I was a kid, sold the bloody heavy thing and put in a spa.,

[mudgutts]

I was asked to remove a shed and it's contents to the tip in outback NSW so we got there started to remove contents (1) Furgi (1) 1955 chev (1) TK bedfood truck tools galore bugga the tip my shed now has all the tools sold the truck brother got furgi and i drive the chev, Owner was happy with the job didn't want the contents of shed at all nor the shed which we scrapted.
And got paid to to it gee i love my Uncle (the owner)

[BobL]

It was custom many moons ago to put a 2 bob (2/-, 20 cents)on top of a chimney when buildng it.

Al :)

It was a custom about 500 years ago in France to bury something alive under the hearth stone of a fire place. For extra special magic, or luck, or whatever. a person, often a child from another tribe was used!

Anyway, rennovation wise nothing much at all from our circa early 1920's house apart from some newspapers under the lino and some almost certainly asbestos containing tiles under the carpet in the hall. While landscaping outside we found a heap of old bottle, a large metal wedge and 2 lead cast toys, a battleship and a horse.

[leeton]

While digging up the garden, I found a very old diamond ring, 80-100 years old, gave it to the wife thinking it was a bit of costume jewllery, upon getting a valuation from the jeweller, was worth in excess of $2000, a nice pick-up, but I should have thrown it back in the dirt, the wife decided she would like the diamond set in a new ring, cost me $800, so while I found $2000, I actually lost $800...women!
True Story.