check your crawl spaces

[grasswire]

Today I was in the crawl space under the front porch of this old house, built in 1911. Spidery, creepy crawly crawl space. I had glimpsed a pile of old clay pots that I want to use in the hot sunny driveway for some more tomato plants. Dragged them all out, put them in the radio flyer to take them for a good washing.

I noticed a greenish blue one in the pile. Cute thing. Turned it over, turned the hose on the bottom, and McCoy pops out, clear as day. Wow. No cracks, no chips, beautiful crazing. About ten inches high. It has probably been under that porch for forty years or so.

Whee! I felt a lot better about my day's dirty tasks.

[Vinca]

1. I've taken the crawl space checking to a whole new level.

A few years after we bought our house, which was built about 1772, I bought a metal detector and went into the crawl space under the rear addition with it, hoping to find Colonial remnants since the addition was put on after the original house. I found nothing. Zero. I've searched high and low for evidence of old dumps, outhouse locales, anything. So far it's amounted to 1 unremarkable button. Where's the damn, million dollar gold coin???? Congratulations on your find.

[grasswire]

2. lucky you to live in such an old house

The treasure probably lies in the old wood, the beams, the posts. Still, perhaps there's a false panel somewhere, or a loose floorboard. Keep looking!

[yy4me]

4. I have to laugh at your description about rummaging

around your old house. Ours was also built in the late 1700's and when we bought it, the first thing I did was scrounge around for stuff tucked under floorboards, hidden closets, secret hidey-holes. Found a lot of chipped pottery, nothing else. We had to rebuild this old place from top to bottom so we've seen every square inch of this old house. Nobody left anything here except 250 years of living. We are one up on you, however. There was an addition to the rear that had to come off, it included a 3 seater. They must have had no modesty in the old days. It was piled high with liquor bottles. The last owner was trying to hide a bad habit.

[Vinca]

5. Someone told me back in the old days they used to throw all the trash

into the outhouse and move the thing every so often. You'd think something would pop up. There were renovations to this house before we bought it, so if any treasures were in the walls, I imagine they're long gone.

[Duer 157099]

9. I guess the prior owners had the same idea you had and cleaned it all out

Finding *nothing* is astonishing though - but it really must mean someone else already did it, and thoroughly.

How disappointing! I have a metal detector that I used to play with years ago, but haven't touched it for quite awhile. That has to be one of the funnest things to do -- even more fun than thrifting and garage sailing. Well, unless someone has combed the area ahead of you, then it's really no fun at all.

[eleny]

3. That's a tall McCoy pot!

A very good find. I've got a couple of smallish ones found years ago at the tag sales and some that mom had. Nothing that tall! :thumbsup:

[Longhorn]

6. We found a bunch of record albums in a storage building

of a house we were renting about 30 years ago. We contacted our landlord but he said he had no idea to whom they belonged and that we could just keep them. There were a bunch of Beatles and Elvis albums, among others. We still have them. :)

[eleny]

7. Hang on to those album covers!

[Longhorn]

8. You betcha!

They're in the same condition now as they were in '76 when we found them -- a little worn but still intact.

You know, orange is absolutely my favorite color! ;)

[eleny]

10. Hee!

Orange! :wow: