You know how we hid a secret note in our first house to hopefully be discovered in a few decades? Well, we found one in our new house! It doesn’t appear to be very old, so we’re guessing it’s from the previous owners (who lived here for 22 years, so it’s still pretty amazing). Where was it? Tucked behind the large wall mirror in the hall bathroom. See that tiny nub sticking out under that wonky orange arrow?
While John was giving Clara her bath I was hanging out with them slash standing-around-staring-at-things-I-can’t-wait-to-update when I looked up and saw it peeking out of the top of the mirror. So I tugged on the corner, revealing a nice little printed note.
In case you can’t make it out, it read:
May today bring you peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are both of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
Isn’t that sweet? I dunno if it’s leftover pregnancy hormones or what, but it totally made me tear up. Because it’s exactly how we feel. Like we’re exactly where we’re meant to be. How cool are the past owners of our house for hiding this little gem? We think they’re the bee’s knees.
Have you guys ever found any messages in your home? Any initials with hearts scrawled in a kids closet, letters carved into concrete outside, or beer cans and old newspapers in the walls? Somebody tell me you found vintage “men’s magazines” somewhere. Scandalous.
Michelle@Sustainably Chic Designs says
We found some magazine pages tore out of a 1986 Playboy. It was behind some paneling we tore out when we remodeled our basement. Before we sheetrocked, we returned it for the next owners to find someday!
Nik says
My parents live in an old home that was built circa 1900 and when I was a kid (living in the house) we found a postcard from 1923 that someone on vacation had sent to the owners. It was behind an old radiator under the wallpaper. My mom framed it and still has it displayed on a window sill near where it was found.
Nancy R says
In our first house, after taking everything down to drywall and drywalling, painting, etc., we replaced the back door of the garage and realized we’d missed many opportunities to leave our mark (probably exhaustion from trying to finish before our wedding). So, we nailed a 1995 penny to the exposed studs – the year we were doing the replacement.
We bought our current house from my grandparents – they built it in the early ’70’s after the coal mine bought their farm land. I still have Grandma’s instructions for getting stains out of Tupperware pasted inside a kitchen cabinet. Grandpa left his mark by rigging up four closets with a switch that turns the light on when the door is open…I don’t know how people live without them!
Dana Jones says
we found a dead sparrow and an empty pack of cigarettes under our jacuzi tub. I cried too!
Laurie says
We live in a Cape Cod that was build in the ’30s. There are two posts in the basement and on the West post every family that has lived in this house has signed it. You can seen where children were added in in different ink etc. We’re repainting and making the basement water tight the, but we’ll leave that post untouched. It’s so cool.
I was also recently in my Mom’s house that my parent’s built in the 40’s. There are ten of us kids and all of our heights are on all the edges of all the doors. I always love that.
Linda says
My children pretty much all grew up in the same house, but when my 18 year old went to college, my 12 year old wanted his bigger room. So before the wallpaper lady came they wrote all over the walls with magic marker. It was 1986, the year my son graduated from HS. I know that the wall paper has been replaced (it was pink and very girly) and I didn’t think at the time that if future owners wanted to paint instead of paper they would be pretty ticked at me. Kilz I’m sure had to be applied by the gallons.
But they had fun and I really don’t regret it.
Erin says
When we moved into our house, we refinished the hardwood floors, so my husband pulled up all of the shoe molding. underneath the shoe molding in the living room, he found a necklace with a pendant that spelled out the name Dorothy. Through public records, we found that Dorothy and her husband were the original owners of our home, who bought this house in the 60’s. I love having a home that several other families have called home!
stephanie says
I’ve never found anything – but strangely enough a friend and I were talking today and she told me she grew up in a really old house that was at one time owned by a photographer – there was a window that was painted black in the basement from where his dark room had been, and they eventually found a box of really old wedding photos he had taken. She said she used to go down to the basement and stare at the pictures in amazement and daydream about her own wedding! How cute!!
Katy says
So beautiful! Reminds me so much of the St. Therese prayer of gratitude. I googled it and found it here:
http://sippiambrose.blogspot.com/2006/02/st-teresas-prayer.html
Tara says
My husband and I bought a house built in 1923 and in the garage out back, there is a built-in wooden tool cabinet. Inside the doors of the cabinet, someone penciled in the dates of some of the major battles of WWII, along with dates of home projects and when pets were buried. I can just imagine the original owner spending a lot of time out there, tinkering and thinking, back before anybody had thought of a “man cave”!
Liz Penley says
i haven’t found anything but my parents have lived in the sae house for over 30 years and when we were younger the basement was unfinished and we used it was our playroom. there was a support pole in the middle of the room that my parents used as a growth chart for all 3 of us. The pole is now in a closet after the room was finished. i would love to see our growth chart and i’m sure it will make someone smile one day if the ever find it!
Leah says
In our previous house (a rental) we found a note buried under a rock in the backyard from the previous tenants “warning” us about the property manager and how two-faced she could be…not the nicest note to leave behind!
Stephanie says
We found a pair of women’s underwear shoved up in the fireplace of the house we used to live in. Not awesome.
Christine says
Our home was rented by a sketchy family with a drug-dealing teenager, so the storage eave off our bedroom closet is full of drawings of pot leaves, “Always 4:20”, etc. – but when we were cleaning back there we found a sweet innocent note from a child in the 70s.
“Age 13
My name is James Maloney. I wrote this in 1977 (May 27,) any writing, (exept this) such as PEACE etc. was not done by us but by the previous owners.
This is a cool room. all it needs is some tidying up and a light or 2.
Down the crawl-space is a hole with a single board over it. I have noticed many toy soldiers down it. Good luck getting them!”
Pictures here:
http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k39/xineymarie/Notes%20in%20Eaves/
DeAnna says
It’s right on point and a good reminder that you are doing just as it says, “using the gifts that you have received, and passing on the love that has been given to you.” If I had typed up this note, I couldn’t have been happier to know that it was read by the two of you. <3
Erin says
You have no idea how perfect this is. I have been in a constant state of struggle lately, trying to figure out what to do with my life. These were exactly the words I needed to hear.
Shavon says
My good friend is an anthropologist, and her firm sometimes get called out to historical sites to check them out before they are remodeled. A few years ago, here in San Francisco, she was working on the building that is now the Walt Disney museum. It used to house POW’s during WWII I think. She found magazines, officers hats, laundry lists, notes, and even a lipstick!
Cynthia says
In my childhood home, my father casted our handprints (including our family dog) in the cement that held the outdoor clothes drying stand.
I really want to go back to the house and ask for it, especially since my fathers passing. I wonder if they would object?
Laura Jinkins says
We bought our 60 year old house in March 2000 from the original owner. The house had been built in 1950 (a 2 bdrm/1 bath), but in the early 60’s, he turned the house sideways and converted the living and kitchen into a master bdrm/bath and a sitting room. He then built a new entry/living/dining/kitchen and laundry. It was a real kick to discover the original blue prints for the original house in a drawer in the kitchen — to figure out that our bedroom windows were once the living room windows, and that the front door was once where the bathtub is now! The print is not very large, so I’m thinking of having it framed to hang on one of our walls.
Also, about a year or two after we moved in, I discovered the original owner’s gold high school ring in a cabinet in our bedroom. From the late 1930’s, it was a real pleasure to return it to her … I am fairly sure she thought it was long lost.
elaine says
This question is related to your old house. What color was the hallway painted?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Elaine,
Wishes by Glidden. It was a soft cream.
xo,
s
Han says
Not quite so exciting and nice as yours but I happened to find in one of the kitchen drawers the name and an address (not ours) of the previous occupants hand written, backwards, so it had to be read in a mirror.
(we knew it was the previous tennant because of the many letters and visits from bailiffs!!!)
Vicki says
My paternal Grandmother grew up living over the pub in England her parents owned. When the pub was shut she was given free reign to run around and play in the bar area.
A couple of years ago, the owners of the pub decided to renovate it and when they ripped up the seats, they found letters and postcards written by my grandmother aged about 7 to her parents. They somehow tracked down my Nana and gave them back to her!
regina reyes says
When I divorced my husband, I moved into this renovated one bedroom that had once been a book store. I was planting next to the house and I dug up a brass unicorn. Wierd, but he became my mascot for a new start.
Sherry says
We live in a house that was built in 1920. I was standing around one day doing basically what you were doing and I was noticing how crappy looking our basement door was. Then my eyes drifted off to the trim (original mahogany trim too…soo gorgeous!) and I noticed these little divets that seemed to go most of the way up the side of the trim. I got closer and ran my finger along them and noticed that there were also names engraved next to each divet. It turned out that the divets were etched-in lines marking the growth of “Johnny” from 22″ tall, all the way up to 6’2″!
Misty says
I must admit it your note made me tear up too and my youngest just turned 3 so it’s not just pregnancy hormones. What a sweet little note and treasure to hold onto for years to come!
Our home is 14 years old. My parents built the house in 1997. My husband and I got married 8 years ago and 2 years ago we bought my parents. While we didn’t find any notes from them we do have out on the back patio my and my sisters hand prints in the concrete from when the house was built. It’s such a great little memory. My little boys both know that that is Mommy’s hand print from when she was younger. I treasure that.
Renee S says
When remodeling our basement last year we tore out all of the old paneling and sheetrock and the ceiling between the basement and the main level was insulated with thousands of old newspapers from the 1940s. There are a ton of them about the war, and the old advertisements are awesome! I have a big box of them saved but haven’t had the chance to dig through all of them yet. I’m planning on picking a few favorites and framing them.
Whoever built the house also used nails to write out “1945” in the ceiling joists. Pretty fun discoveries!
Leanne Chambers says
I live in my grandparents house, my dad grew up there. I have found a few places where BH+ RC (my parents initials)was carved into door frames, one desk drawer and a closet. An old desk that was in his room has her old phone # stickered onto it (in those really cool old foil numbers). It’s a nice reminder that they were silly teenagers once!
Erin J says
We remodeled an old farm house that had actually been moved from its original location on to our family farm. When we tore out the plaster and lath walls to insulate and sheetrock, we found several items that had most likely fallen down inside the walls from up in the attic. Some of the things we found were old farming magazines, newspaper, notebooks full of hand written math problems, and a very old ladies’ black hat with netting, something like you would see a grieving widow wear. During the remodel, we incorporated a little mark of our own too. We carved a heart with our initials E.J. + C.J. into a floorboard in the back entry way before staining and varnishing the board. That board also came from a maple tree in the yard. We still own the house, but no longer live there, and each time we go into the house, that little mark is a sweet reminder to us of our years in that house.
Erin J says
I forgot to write that most of the items we found were dated 1908 – 1910.
JR says
My parents renovated their home in 1988 and there was (and still is) a built in on one wall with a corner desk. It wasn’t until recently when I was playing hide and seek with my niece that I got down and under that desk and déjà vu set in. I sat cross legged, looked up, and found myself staring at my old masterpiece: colourful doodles, signature practice (including what my name would be if I married various classmates…!), my friend’s names, my six-year-old troubles and, of course, “my sister smells”. Not one inch was untouched; it was a sea of colour and squiggles and me– circa 22 years ago. That was a pretty cool find.
Jennie says
We live in a 60 year old house where multiple families have raised children. All of the closets have one little girl’s hand-writing (Heather), noting all of the boys she loved and the bands she liked. As an avid closet-writer myself (my childhood closet is chock-full of little notes!), my husband and I have started leaving notes in all of our closets in our new home. When we painted in the closets, I painted around Heather’s notes so that we will always be able to read them. I think they are endearing. Her brother, Matt, left notes behind the basement fireplace. Very cute.
Kelly Mann says
When my hubby and I gutted and re-did our kitchen this summer {we did it all ourselves!!}, we found a piece of newspaper from 1952 stuffed into the wall. I guess it was just a little extra insulation when some kind of renovation was done on the house {our house was built in 1944}.
I thought it was so cool that I had to blog about it AND frame it! It currently hangs on the wall in our kitchen as a little reminder to what we accomplished! Here’s my post about it:
http://kmanndesigns.com/blog/2010/06/24/making-and-finding-history/
In that same post, I took a picture of the wall before we hung our cabinets… I did go awfully cheez-y and drew a big heart with our initials and the year in it! :)
Here’s where you can find all the posts about the kitchen renovation… IF you’re interested:
http://kmanndesigns.com/blog/renovations/the-kitchen/
Love you’re new house and can’t wait to see what all you will tackle over time! Have a great Monday!
Faith says
Haha, when I was 14 I moved into an old house in rural Kansas. On the day we moved in, I was looking through the massive floor to ceiling cabinets in the bathroom, and I saw what I thought were a couple of phone books way up in the top. I opened all the doors and climbed up the shelves, only to discover that it was a big stack of vintage playboy magazines!
Wendi says
Some friends restored a home built in 1883 and I was fortunate to rent it from them. I helped here and there with the restoration process. In removing paneling from a wall, we not only uncovered a doorway but the signatures of some of the former occupants from the early 1900s. We also tugged on a piece of straw sticking out from the baseboard and a dime from 1910 fell out of the wall! Love finding little clues to the past!
Kelly says
I love all these stories! Mine is not so sweet or romantic… when we were excavating a strangely designed hall closet in our first (only, so far) home, we found the previous owner’s, ahem, adult video collection!
When I dug it out and realized what I was holding I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my ladder. Then I washed my hands.
Christina says
I really wished we found something cool. Our house has a lot of history (Sugar Ray Leonard partied there) and we were hoping for some piece of history or maybe a stash of money from its gambling club days. Unfortunately, all we found behind the walls was termite and water damage and a dead rat or two.
Jessica says
We never found anything in the house I grew up in but we left something. I lived in the house since I was one and my family moved after I graduated from HS. In one of the doorways, you can see where my parents had marked my height when I had grown some. I went back a few years after I meet and it was still there..its been 13 years now and I know the house has sold again, and I wonder if the new owners still have it up.
Also, the house my dad grew up in, they re-did the end of the driveway one summer. My dad and his second brother left their hand prints and initials in the wet cement. its funny cause now he lives only a few blocks (after some 40 years) from this house and was coming by the house and decided to stop by. He told the owners he grew up there and those where his hands in the driveway. To his surprise..they thought it was so cool to have him stop by!
Jen T. says
Am I seeing things odd, or is the word May in blue? If so maybe they left one for every month?? That would be fun to find 12 notes around the house! We’re just starting to tackle our home…maybe I’ll leave some notes too!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jen T,
Yes, the first word is blue! We thought it was just a design decision but that would be cool if they left one for each of the other months!
xo,
s
Karen says
Records say our house was built in 1900 (aka it was built already when they started recording it in 1900). The previous owners left us a box of appliance manuals and such. In the box was also a much older envelope reading “Save for new owners.” In it was included the deeds to the house dating back to 1924, the plot plan blueprint from 1924, and a photocopied image of the house almost 100 years ago. We plan to frame the blueprint while we live here and preserve the memories to gift to the next owner.
Karen Wangensteen says
We didn’t find anything, but our laundry room has a secret room. It’s about 3 feet deep, by 6 feet long and has an electrical outlet. It opens with a magnet. The false front wall has shelves on it and everyting. I wonder what they were hiding in there?
Traci says
Hey there,
We are in the middle of planning out a baby blessing for our son, to be performed on his first birthday in March. We are interfaith which makes things tricky but I have just decided to use the message left for you on your mirror as one of the readings at the blessing.
THANKS!!!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so sweet! Congrats on the wee one’s first b-day!
xo,
s
montana says
Other than handprints and initials in concrete, we haven’t found anything from previous owners. Oh, unless you count evidence of when one of them tried to burn the house down by pouring gasoline on the basement stairway and lighting it on fire. Charred steps underneath carpeting that had to be repaired when we removed the carpeting.
We let our young son draw on the floors before replacing carpeting. Someone someday will find lots of Star Wars vehicles and light saber battles depicted in all their glory.
Carolyn K. says
We didn’t find any notes…however, we did find some dirty VHS movies in the drop ceiling, along with maps and posters of women in bikinis. I’m assuming the boys of the house hid these things so their mom wouldn’t find them.
We will be moving in a few months and I am looking forward to hiding our own note, very cute idea!
Andrea Gracia says
I just found your site today through “The Homies” and I love it! On topic with this article though, my boyfriend and I were remodeling the kitchen and underneath the tiles we found, written on the walls “Andrea is a pickle brain”. I thought it was too good to be true (my name is Andrea). There’s something written underneath too, but we couldn’t decipher that one. Here’s a photo!
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs639.snc4/59983_479903826001_703746001_7176036_1840831_n.jpg
YoungHouseLove says
THAT’S AMAZING! Love it.
xo,
s
Jen says
When my fiance and I removed the light and outlet covers in our office when we painted, we found that someone had written their name and “was here” on the back of one. We decided to do the same and date them, just as a little surprise for any future occupants. We felt it gave the house a little more character and love. :)
Ali says
I grew up in an old house in NJ and someone had etched their name in one of the downstairs window panes, in beautiful cursive. No one had noticed it before because it was hidden behind curtains and the sun had to hit it just right. I did some research while working at the library one day and found out that the man had lived in my town in the late 1800’s! It was such a special, secret gem :)
Celia says
How wonderful! Yes, we’ve found a few things in our current home. We purchased a 75 year old house one year ago and have been doing major renovations. When we demolished the bathrooms, we found old 1935 newspapers stuck to concrete. And upstairs in the play room we ripped out some old desks and found where the children all wrote their names on the walls in chalk or something. It was so cute to think of the kids back then writing that… thinking of who might find it one day! We’ve found old photos, etc too.
Love your blog and all the projects you guys are doing! Good luck!
Kate says
I am sure y’all have found this since you just won the Homies on Apartment Therapy, but I thought of y’all when I saw this!
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/a-demofree-bathroom-reno-138632
Refinishing your tile for 10-15% of the cost of retiling? Sounds like YHL to me!
YoungHouseLove says
We actually had the tub in our last house reglazed and loved the effect! We’re definitely planning to try to work with the black border for now, but who knows where we’ll end up…
xo,
s
Christie says
We bought our current house about a year ago and were tipped off by the sellers that there was a time capsule in a hidden compartment (I won’t let on where). When we found it, it was full of photos of the house, old postcards, books, an old camera, antique razor and other odds and ends. When the sellers’ children found the capsule, they added their chemistry book (someday they may be viewed like old alchemy books!) and a few photos. We’ve already added a few items, including a copy of the original deed in 1902 when the area was developed, which we found researching our home at local archives. We didn’t get to experience quite the same thrill of discovery, but it was an absolutely great time digging through all of the items that someone thought was a good representation of their era!
Love this idea, there are plenty of places in this old house that would be perfect for a personal note to the future inhabitants!
Abby says
When we were corporately relocated from our beautiful-labor-of-love Victorian home in central Illinois only a mere 11 days after the birth of our first baby, me & our newborn daughter flew while my husband stayed behind to handle the moving company and tie up all the loose strings. He later told me that he carved our initials “PK+AK=SK” into a tree in our old house’s yard…SWEETHEART!!
Here in our new house, he found a mini bottle of Chardonnay that he keeps in his man-cave…:)
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so cute! Love it.
xo,
s