In the house we bought last year, we got left a lot of dusty old books in the loft, some q interesting, even some Sunday School prizes from about 1920 something. The same family had lived in the house from 1935 up to last year. There was an empty old galvanised water tank in the loft, and something quite heavy wrapped in newspaper inside it. What could this be thinks I? Treasure? Gold bars? The old man's stash of porn? A white pottery bedpan ....
We were left with the world's heaviest sideboard, 4 awful dining rooms chairs, a disgusting retro plastic table thingy, and a coffee table. My fiance tried to say that maybe the guy was just being nice by leaving them, in case we could use them. I let him enjoy his Pollyanna moment before pointing out the probable truth, that "the guy" was in fact a lazy b****** who couldn't be @rsed to carry them all downstairs and dispose of them.....
Dirt, dirt and more dirt. A grill pan full of congealed fat. Onions, a 5lb bag of rice. An an ice floe in the freezer. And yet more dirt! (We bought from a doctor and a nurse who could cause a new MRSA epidemic single-handedly.)
We found a box full of door handles - about 20 of them - we've used some of them as they're very nice but it's a 3 bed house and we've only got so many doors!
We've moved around quite a bit.. so here's my award list:
Most welcome pressie: A bottle of champagne, in makeshift chill bucket (black flower sellers plastic bucket), on ice, and a large bouquet of flowers. That was cool!
Most unusual gift: In a house that had replacement sealed unit double glazed panes retro-fitted, the entire cohort of single glazed panes of glass for the entire house in the garage loft. Oh, and in this house we also found a pile of kitchen cupboard fronts to match the kitchen - actually they have been really useful!
Most unwelcome present: Fleas. Thousands of 'em. Took weeks to get rid!
A scary portrait of four Amish type people with staring eyes and sour expressions. It was left outside the french doors from the main bedroom out to the garden and terrified me every morning for the two or three weeks before I took a hammer to it.
my fiurst flat - everything. it was as if the bloke had got up and gone to get a paper. i got it gutted before i moved in, he even left some false teeth behind!!
in my first house - a fantastic sled and some lovely victorian shelves that have moved with me
in my next house - mirrors. one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, one in the airing cupboard, two in the shed, and one in the garage!!!! also a nasty 70's coffee table (very rickety) and old-fashioned push-along lawn-mower.
this house - sixties coat-hooks, bathroom cabinet, a flymo lawn-mower, a really good set of very long ladders, another mirror and lots of little garden ornaments
i have kept all of the above apart from the garden ornaments. what i didn't keep in each house was: the cookers, the carpets, the curtains, the light fittings and all the accompanying dust and debris.
Picture evening 1... cooking dinner. Dropped raw sprout down side of cooker. Thought I'd better pull it out. You know; before it goes mouldy. Pulled out...not a sprout; a meat ball, caked in grease and dust.
Found a table top fridge in good condition, in the garage. I gave it a thorough clean and plugged it in, dead handy for keeping the milk in while we're working on the house. Put the kettle on for a cuppa but the carton of milk was solid, it's actually a small freezer!
In our current house the upstairs came with wood chip wallpaper throughout painted with gloss pink paint and generously adorned with kitten poo!
In the cellar we found an large old wooden chest of drawers caked in dust with one foot missing and a drawer front hanging off. A family friend cabinet maker persueded us not to junk it and restored it to its former glory for about £50. It now sits in pride of place at the top of the stairs.
I found a picture frame with the 'footprints' poem in it stood up on my fireplace and a full silver knife and fork set that had never been used with all the cutelry still wrapped in tissue paper.
This house - ferret droppings in the shed (groo) a boat in the garden - we gave to the 'man with a van' who moved our furniture as fees (!) and several visits from people looking for money..
The house we're renovating - stacks of stuff - lots went to the tip, but it was as random as half a wholesale sized box of Werthers Originals and a piano. Oh, and several scary family portraits, circa 1950.
And, last but not least, a 'gurgling cod' water jug, in green ceramic (one's just sold on ebay for £17...). Car boot here I come, once the weather's warmed up a bit.
Gosh. I've lived in quite a few different places but have never been left anything more exciting than a toilet roll although there's no doubt it came in useful on moving day.
*disappears off to ebay to find out what a gurgling cod is*
In one place that I was renting, I found a bra stuffed down the sofa, about 6 months after having moved in it puts horrible imaginary scenarios in your head
All she needs is therapy. All she needs is love, is all she needs.
our back garden is about 30 yards long, backing onto fields. right at the far end, we found most of the back end of a car, half-buried. how they even got it down there, let alone buried it, and why, defeats me.
behind every successful man is a disbelieving mother-in-law
