Over the weekend we cleared out the living room at The Tall House. We have been using the space to house all the cool things we’ve found at the house, so I decided to make a record of them as we worked.
Old tools, a dusty soap block, a pantry with jam and wine, vintage wooden boxes, and a whole bunch more. Come see.
I have more treasures to show you, but that seems like a good stopping point for now. I’ll share more another day. You can also see these Stories on Instagram in the Treasures II highlight.
Have you ever found anything cool when you moved into a house? Did you keep it? Use it? Learn about it? Toss it? I’d love to hear.
I am so in love with your found treasures! We found boxes of books and old alcohol bottles when we moved into our farmhouse built in 1900. After living in the same house the last 41 years as a married couple with children, we completely understand why Books and Alcohol are still so very relevant!
Not exactly the same as your story…
Our son was very good friends with our elderly neighbor Al. He’d go over and just listen to Al tell stories about his time in Korea, how every weed on their property were actually native and completely necessary to the ecosystem, and help him out when Al needed to lift anything heavy -including helping with his wife Rose, who was blind. Scott was happy to visit them and checked in on them at least every other day for a few years because although they had children, they never visited because they lived far away.
When Al passed away, he had “willed” (not legally but on a piece of notebook paper on his fridge) the contents of one of his 3 sheds, Shed #1, to Scott, then 15 years old…which the family challenged, but his wife Rose insisted was what Al wanted. They allowed Scott to go into the shed and take “Only what [he] could hold and leave the rest.” Rose asked Scott to come close and whispered to Scott that she didn’t care what he took but she knew Al wanted him to have the coffee can with the bolts, because the bolts were special and he would know how to use them.
So he went in and looked at the bulging shed full of random stacks of old TIME magazines, broken weed whackers, and decaying boxes full to the brim with all sorts of things Al couldn’t let go. After spending a few minutes he found the a Chock Full O Nuts coffee can with 3 large heavy bolts and a bunch of rags stuffed in it, a set of 6 really cool saki cups made of porcelain china, pale flat paint blue with delicate hand painted cherry blossoms that, when you finished your drink and held the glass base to the light revealed the head of a Geisha, a souvenir samurai sword, and a pocket knife.
After a week or so of Al’s things sitting in his room he finally got around to seeing why the bolts were so important… the only importance they had was to hold down two oily rags that sat on top of a thin grocery store produce bag full of silver Kennedy half dollars and Mercury dimes. He gifted me the saki cups, which were cool even if we would never use them as intended, and he gave one of his best friends the Samurai sword. He saved a few of the coins for sentimental reasons -never using them, gave some away as a donation, and used the rest as needed when he got married a few years later.
This is such an amazing story!
This was the best story! It played like a teeny tiny hallmark movie in my mind. How awful of Al’s kids to fight over the shed contents.
My parents had (have!) one of those glass spheres at home, I used to play with it and pretend it was a crystal ball!
The wooden box with the screen is used for straining soil. I have one and find it to be very useful in the garden..
We found a mini spatula in our first apartment 12 years ago. It’s my favorite little kitchen tool to this day. :)
We found this pretty, old fashioned sled in the shed of our previous house. We have kept it and polished it up and put a pretty bow on it and we use it as Holiday Decor in the wintertime.
We found a milk bill from the 1950s inside the kitchen wall when we were renovating. And I find broken treasures all the time in the garden and I put them all in a giant pickle jar. So fun and interesting!
My parents found a little glass fronted cabinet when they moved into their first home 55 years ago. Fast forward, they gave it to me when I moved into my first apartment 25 years ago. And now, it’s in my daughter’s room. I love found treasures with some history!
We have never moved into a home old enough to have such treasures. I just wanted to comment how in awe I am of your family and the patience yall have with restoring and renovating! It’s inspiring!
We found ( in the wall when the kitchen was renovated) an old Spaulding’s Sport’s guide from 1894, a piece of the son’s homework from early 1900 which was a little essay about President Lincoln, and some receipts for dues paid to a Boston fraternal club by the owner of the house. We left these items for the next owner and hope they will pass them along, too. Our house had been built in 1890.
Our house was built in the 1920s, we are only the third owners. While power washing the patio, my husband found handprints from the kids that lived here- they were the original owners- and they were covered with moss and dirt. We also have found little letters, stuffed animals, photos, and a secret cabinet in the basement with random newspaper clippings.
Really good finds!
The bottle of Marc (or eau-de-vie = homemade brandy) might be worth tasting. Marc last a long time and it’s quite a common staple in French houses.
As for the red currant (groseilles), it’s my favorite gelée.
What a feast!
When we renovated our 1930’s house three years ago, we found a sandwich wrapped in a newspaper from when the house was built. It was still recognisable as well!
Dear Gabrielle,
Those green spheres might have been floats for fishing nets.
All the best,
Claudia
A second vote for Claudia’s guess.
The green glass balls remind me of the ones my grandparents and parents salvaged when they were commercial fishermen off the coast of British Columbia. My grandma had several in her garden of various sizes (the bigger ones were about the size of the exercise/stabilityballs that sometimes get used as desk chairs) until they were stolen one night. I was told they were floats for Japanese fishing nets — not sure if they were also part of the fishing gear for French or other Atlantic ocean fishermen?
Groseilles = currants. I bet it was delicious originally but wouldn’t eat it now!
Love your finds!
You could do a seating bank “à la Gaudi ” like in Park Guell with your tiles! What do you think?
The mystery fruit is … redcurrant jelly, gelée de groseilles !
A very hard one to pronounce, that’s right!