For anyone taking on a renovation project, make sure you look under your floorboards before they get nailed back down. We did, and this is what we found…
- A corner of a sandwich (circa 2009)
- Empty bags of crisps
- Enough rubble to construct another house
- Wire casings and discarded electric and plumbing packaging
- A label from electrical wire bought in 1969 (lovely packaging, actually)
- And, our favourite…a pair of men’s underpants, and I assure you they were not from the 1930s
Because so many of our floorboards were not nailed down, we were easily able to find this treasure chest of glamourous goodies. I did not personally fish it out, though my husband did have the honor of removing the delicious looking sandwich lurking under out bathroom floors. No, I made the building company fish it all out before they nailed the boards down as part of the snagging list. The boss was mortified by what he saw as I gave him a sub-floor tour, room by room.
I was not upset the pants, more intigued, really. What exactly went on when we were not here…? A construction site by day, Chippendales club by night? Did we unknowingly have some naturalists working on site?
A little bit of rubble is acceptable, but a lot is not. And food is most definitely not! Underpants? Well, that’s a bit of a grey area. More a question for the pros: George, Sarah, Rich, what are your views…?
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I grew up with serial house renovators as parents. I still hear stories like yours from my Dad! Not sure about the pants either.
Good to see you are being thorough!
When restoring period properties we have found items such as an Elizabethan Child’s shoe under the floorboards, a Roman Coin wedged into the mortar of Georgian building (how that got there I’ll never know), and a Rose Bush root!
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