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.
lonely wife project says
What a sweet thing to find! Me and my cousins used to scribble boys phone numbers on the inside wall of the closet in my childhood home. Except we attempted to
girl-ify the names in case our parents found it. Like Joasha and Adolphine. You’d think we were living in the 19th century ;)
Kristin says
We’re the 4th owners of our 1950’s Cape Cod, and the previous two only had it for a total of three years before we did, and hadn’t done much updating. The back of the guest bedroom door is COVERED with all kinds of old stickers, lottery tickets, Mad Magazine cartoons, 1960’s and 1970’s campaign buttons, and all sorts of memorabilia. We’ve been in the house almost three yeras and so far we haven’t had the heart to take it down; it was pretty neat that none of the other owners did either! Our next-door neighbor knows the guy who grew up in that house and we keep telling him to tell the guy to stop over and see his old bedroom door is still intact!
Marcie says
We found letters (from the 1930’s), receipts and old keys behind the pull-down flour bin in the kitchen of our 1920’s house. There is a drawer just above it and we assume it was used, as it is now, as a catch-all drawer and things fell behind it. We also found names written in chalk in the crawl space under our back porch, which were those of the daughter’s of the original owner. One of them, elderly by then, lived near us and it was fun to hear her tell tales of life in this house that her father built himself, including playing under the porch. We wrote some notes on the walls behind the drywall when we remodeled our bathroom.
Christine says
It is not the house that we bought, but it was a house we TRIED to buy. (http://canoland.blogspot.com/2009/02/movement-on-home-front.html) The house belonged to my husband’s grandparents for 3 decades. We found out it was going into foreclosure and tried to buy it from the bank. We were walking through it with our Realtor and found a note, from the wife to the husband that lost the house, inside one of the kitchen cabinets that said:
“I don’t need diamonds, furs or a BIG HOUSE. I just need you. I love you.”
It made the whole situation even more real.
Pamela says
I grew up in Connecticut and was the youngest of 3 and was my father’s shadow and helper. Back then wallpaper was all the rage and I spent an entire day helping my dad hang a flowery wallpaper in my bedroom. I was about 8 or 9 years old and we wrote messages on the wall before putting up the new wallpaper. I put my name, date and a note about helping to put up the wallpaper and drew pictures. My dad and I just recently were talking about it and fessed up to mom how we hung one wall upside down and we never told her, nor did she realize it as there was such a pattern to it you couldn’t tell. Only Dad and I knew and many many many years later now Mom did too.
Cori @WhereYouHangYourHeart.com says
How special! When I move, I will definitely do something like that for whoever lives here next! These kinds of stories restore my faith in humanity. Thank you for sharing!
Katrina says
We found a fortune underneath our floorboard trim after a long night of sanding when we had just started the blog. It read “Use your abilities at this time to stay focused on your goal. You will succeed.” It was a good omen!
We also found some hideous posters in the crazy blue and star bedroom. But we didn’t like those as much!
Lindsey says
Aww that’s uplifting!
We have the names of the previous owner’s scrawled into concrete on the patio with the date they did it. So sweet because they built the house in 57′ and lived here together until they passed away. Whenever we leave here I’ll make sure it gets a solid place somewhere so that there is a little slice of “Viv and Van” here forever!
vee says
Also that quote made me tear up as well
And I thought lisa’s story about her cousin was great too!
Elizabeth says
Who knew there was such a market for pensioner-porn? Yikes!
These stories are GREAT! Thanks for entertaining us on a Friday afternoon, Sherry!
MS says
When we took our kitchen and one bathroom down to the studs at our old house (built in 1940), we found some very random things behind the vanity and medicine cabinet. A couple of pictures and a ton of pennies randomly. But what takes the cake was on a 2×4 that was placed sideways between two vertical studs with a metal nail file just resting on it. Like 67 years ago (at the time) someone filed their nails on the construction site, set it down, walked away and then whoops! Wall put up over it!
Amy M. says
No notes or messages, but we did find 4 layers different layers of linoleum flooring when we ripped up our kitchen floor! I felt like it told a story all its own.
Jim says
A box of love letters from the war is what I’ve found, my wife loves them:)
Patti says
What a sweet note! Our home is 75 or so years old. When we renovated our bathroom, in the wall was a crumpled up soft pack of no-filter Chesterfields, looked to be from the ’40s. I don’t even think they make those cigarettes anymore, very old school.
Stephanie says
My husband and I bought our first house when we got married (just last year!). Anyway, we found a few odd things in our new/old home. The first, several inappropriate magazines from decades ago… stashed in the ceiling of our basement storage room. Second, an old suit in the mudroom that fit my husband quite well which was odd since he’s tall and slim —all suits must be tailored. Lastly, when my husband removed the dishwasher you could see a mural painted inside of a prince and his princess… dancing. These items gave us a good laugh!
Amber says
Beer cans…. lots of beer cans. The folks before us really liked their Bud.
That and we found a potato gun, which let me say, has gotten some good use out of it since we took it over.
The best thing they left us though? The original for sale sign on the lot before they built the house. It’s hanging up in our garage now, and I love it.
:)
Annie R says
Sherry, that is awesome! I love the note! It’s perfect!
We didn’t find any notes, but we found all kinds of amazing “treasures” when we started remodeling our home: Newspapers from the 40s and 50s, a old army crate, wooden marbles, a brooch and lots of other fun stuff (and not-so-fun – we found a plethora of cigarette butts in the attic). I’m contemplating a shadow box/shelf/something to keep a little shrine to our home’s history…
Amanda- Hip House Girl says
That is sweet!
My friend found a less-sweet stack of British… um, exotic magazines behind a kitchen drawer, and I found an awesome (disgusting) old Jello cookbook. http://hiphousegirl.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/hidden-treasures/
foo says
I don’t think we ever found anything in my childhood home’s attic, but my Dad would throw TV guides, magazines and newspapers with headlines of historic events up there every once in a while for future owners to find.
He could easily do this from the garage where this was the only open access into the attic for that section of the house. He’d just stand down on the garage floor and gently lob them up there as we sat and watched.
My parents moved out of that house around 1998, so I wonder if the new owners have found those treasures yet.
Erin says
I definitely dug a hole in my parents back yard when I was a kid and put one of my mom’s nice silver spoons there for someone to find hundreds of years later and wonder, “hmm what is this mysterious piece of metal and what was it used for?” haha I definitely thought it was an awesome idea at the time.
Kris @ the expat diaries says
I love all of these stories of found “treasures”…and the not-so-treasured items as well.
We moved a lot as a kid (my Mom was a lot like you guys…giving old houses some love, and then moving on!), so we had more than a few new houses to explore as kids. My sister and I found toys, inscribed books, secret doors…all sorts of good stuff. But my favorite was a growth chart in one of our houses. The family had four kids and had lived there for 40+ years…everyone was on it, marked through the years…including the family cat and dog. So sweet.
Our family kept up the tradition on a different door frame and each house we moved to, we’d start a new one.
Probably kind of an annoying thing, actually, if you weren’t a sentimental person and had to replace all of those frames…
Such a fun post!
Bobishi says
In your first ever house, under layers and layers of dust on to of some very tall cupboards we found “the sex maniacs guide to cooking”! Interesting recipe book from the early 60’s:) lots of giggling from all the people helping us move in:) we put it right back up there for the next tennants to gave a giggle too:)
Erika says
That’s a St. Therese prayer … one of my favorites! Don’t be surprised if a red rose, her symbol, makes its way to you soon.
In true YHL fashion, I’m sure you’ll find a great way to display it, right? :)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Erika,
We stuck it right back in the mirror to be discovered again someday!
xo,
s
Tracy says
We have found a lot of things in our house and even under our house in the crawl space. I guess when you buy a house that is 100 years old that you are bound to find something. Let’s see, we found a hustler magazine tucked into the walls of our garage! Then there was a child’s growth chart on one of the door frames. Oh, a license plate to help level out the floor in one of the bedrooms. There have been some pretty cool old glass bottles and a kettle in the crawl space. Um, and a dead bird underneath the flooring of the bathroom (well, that’s not a note, but we still discovered something crazy).
jessicookie says
Totally! Just two weeks ago, actually, we found a hidden message painted two layers deep on our dining room wall… I documented in my blog. The post is linked!
tarynkay says
My brother recently bought a foreclosure. He found a stack of Playboys in the kitchen cabinet and was actually able to determine that the previous owner had been squatting there for quite some time after the foreclosure by the dates on the magazines.
We found a weekly meal plan from the 1950s in our kitchen- I kind of want to replicate it, preparing all of the meals and all- but I can’t quite bring myself to fix tuna loaf.
RLB says
The names “Christopher” and “Danielle” are etched into our garage floor. Our house was built in 1989.
We finished our basement when we moved in in 2006 and before they drywalled a closet under the stairs, I put a fedex flexible envelope filled with an autobiographical note, a $10 bill and two small toys from my sons under the stairs. Not unless some future owner guts the basement will they find it.
heather says
It is a verse from St. theresa of avila. my mother asked me to read it to her daily when she was at the end of her battle with cancer. seeing this brought me chills, then a smile.
Lauren H. says
There used to be a rather large (about 8′ x 10″ at least) hole in the back of my closet. When I went to patch it up, I discovered a hidden vintage beer can, circa 1980 when the house was built (it was a new construction when my family moved in). Given all the “character” of our house (that’s a nice way of saying wonky electrical work, things not being level, etc.) the beer can is not surprising. Someone was obviously drinking when they built this thing.
Sanja says
What goes around comes around :)
A Country Farmhouse says
That is a wonderful find! We never found anything of much interest in our house. A wall full of nuts and seeds from the squirrels…Far from scandalous or inspiring I’d say.
Congratulations again on the new house – I love checking in! You two are so inspiring!
Trina
Amanda@reno366 says
We found lots of random things around the house when we moved in. We recently found a senior picture from a girl given to the boy that grew up in our house in the 60’s or 70’s, hiding behind wood paneling. Here’s a link to the picture:
http://reno366.blogspot.com/2010/12/niki-was-here.html
Kerriann says
I’ve never found a note, but I’ve left one. We lived in this huge, old colonial on a military base when I was a kid where my brother and I happened to find this “secret room” under the house. It was an old coal room that that had been sealed off. It had a tiny door several feet above the ground in the basement that blended in with the wall. We were building a tent in the basement using the clotheslines, and I looked up and saw it. We got some toys, stacked them and somehow got it open. Inside, the floor of it was covered in a sandy material and had all kinds of trash in it, like beer can that we surmised was from the early 1900s (pabst!). It was pitch black in there so we used our flashlights and played archeologist in there. We didn’t tell my mother about it for awhile because it was “our secret club.” Anyway, when we moved out when I was 13, and the last thing I did before we locked the door was run downstairs and write a note on a paper towel (the only thing left in the house) that I put on the inside of the door with our new address and phone number so they could call me and tell me they found it. Still waiting on that call!
JiLL says
What a neat discovery!
We remodeled our 1930s yellow and black art deco bathroom recently (the tiling was beautiful but deteriorated… in the end, we kept the art deco inspiration but updated the colours and tile). ANYWAY, as the workers were demo-ing, they found this vintage joke book/magazine thing in the walls. I’m still trying to decide which of the pages to frame for our home.
I read your blog all the time — you guys do great stuff!
Christina says
When we moved into our house we found toy soldiers and a toy tank glued to the rafters in the attic. We thought it was pretty funny. (Especially since the former owner was a single guy and he bought the house new five years prior.)
When I was in high school, my parents decided to move away to Dallas, so we had to sell our beautiful new house that we had lived in all of four years out in the country. I felt so sad for them since they had put so much time into designing the floorplan and building it, so I left a note hidden in my half of the jack and jill bathroom up high on a shelf. The man who bought it later found it and told my grandfather about my heartfelt note pleading the new owners to enjoy this beautiful home that my family loved so much since we couldn’t anymore. I thought my dad might be mad once he found out, but fortunately I think he just got a little teary eyed.
Alicia says
We haven’t found any notes in our house, but we’ve been leaving them. Every time we do a renovation to our house, we write our names and the date in a place that someone will probably remove years from now during their own renovations and see. I thought it would be cool for them to see how our family grew over the years and how much work we put into our little house as well.
Mary says
We’ve been in our home for 7 months and I just found a hidden “treasure”. I was reaching into the blind corner cabinet in the kitchen to retrieve a cool whip container and discovered an empty space between two cabinets. Found a dusty Parkay container and a baby food jar from 1987. Woohoo!
Your find was definitely a lot more special!
Kerriann says
(And remind me to not write out a story like that while watching Ellen. Terrible grammar!
sophie says
nothing exciting in our house, but friends, when pulling off drywall, found a stash of costume jewelry from the 1920s behind a basement wall…the interesting thing is that it ws a man who lived down there and that same man drywalled the walls later on…wonder if it was his jewelry?
Meredith says
That made me tear up too! How wonderful and what a good idea. Think I’m going to do that in our home before we leave.
Quick question, where did you buy that cute soap dispenser?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Meredith,
Target! It’s recycled glass and we love it so much we actually have two!
xo,
s
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
wow, I wish I would have found something like that. But no, instead we found phone numbers in closets and drawings, phone numbers on the inside of kitchen cabinet doors, a needle in a cloest, a bong in one of the kitchen cabinets, nude barbie dolls outside, headless barbie dolls, every little toy you can think of throughout the house and outside, beer bottles and caps everywhere outside, old paper plate with food stains, a bag of chips under the stairs and pennies everywhere. So nothing nice at all. And lots and lots of grossness. They were trashy and we found out they dealt drugs out of the house for a period of time. Scary. I would have rathered the note over what we found. (they had 4 kids). They they loved to use 4 inch nails for everything they did on the house. {rolling eyes}
I would frame the note and put it up in that bathroom to remind you guys everyday what you found and that it’s special to you.
Sarah for Real says
I found a big “REJECT” stamp on the bottom of a cabinet drawer. The cabinets are original to our 1941 home and apparently were made with reject wood. Interesting find, though not quite as heart-warming as your note.
Chelsea@ThisFreshFossil says
Aww, that’s so sweet!
We found several interesting things in our house: an antique cigar box, a hidden shower (disguised as a linen closet), and a buried cement patio.
Apparently the previous homeowner(s) of our house were a little on the wacky side.
~Chelsea
andrea says
When we renovated the basement in our home in Virginia we pulled off the old wood paneling to find pink and blue walls. One wall had been written on with the kids’ names and peace signs and a drawing of a donkey’s rear end with the initials LBJ… guess we know what they thought of the President.
We recently moved to Arizona and met the previous owners of our new home. The husband made a point of pulling my hubby aside to tell him that he was leaving him a large box of 1960’s Playboys in the attic. Uh, thanks?
Sara says
We did find some girly magazines! A few days before the closing we were doing our walk-thru and the owners now-grown son was there and he asked us if we had moved anything around in the basement. It was odd and we said nope. Seems he couldn’t find something he was looking for…Cut to a few months later we ripped down some old basement ceiling tiles and out came some biker chicks baring it all. yikes buddy, wish you’d found those before you left! :)
Katie says
The past owner of our house put her Initials on everytihng! Inside the kitchen cabinets, inside the closets, etc.
We found a stack of old, (1950’s) photos, including a picture of what our house looked like when it was first built. SO COOL! We mailed them to the seller :)
Christine says
I’ve never found anything cool – but my friends moved into an old house in Minneapolis in college and found Garrison Keiller’s draft card behind the fireplace!
Erin C. says
Aw, cool find! The only thing we’ve found hidden in our new house is termite damage. haha
andrea says
I almost forgot about this one…
We bought a house from a couple that was moving onto a houseboat. We told them to go ahead and leave anything they didn’t want – intending to donate the furniture to a local shelter. They took that literally. We found used soap in the shower, food in the freezer, pickles and beer in the wetbar fridge, tupperware in the cupboards, and toothpaste in the medicine cabinet. I think they packed their clothes and toothbrushes and walked out the door.
Joy says
We found a crack pipe in our basement’s drop ceiling! And we bought the house from the original owners who had the house since it was built in 1941…very interesting.