Treasures under the house or surprise # 42

Well lets see, lots happening around here, the latest is we are getting ready for the foundation work to begin. They will be patching the foundation there are holes everywhere and its crumpling. Support beams will be replaced and we are hoping that once they get into it we wont have any more surprises, keep your fingers crossed.

So this is kind of cool, for me not so much for Joel. There is a crawl space under what will someday be the library it needs to be cleaned out so the workers can get under there and so we can insulate, this house is over 100 years and no one along they thought to put insulation under the house or even in the attic, that’s another story but I am getting side tracked.

The former owner had to get under there and had a small hole cut in the floor, apparently our workers did not feel it was big enough so Joel had to make it bigger. This is right up his ally as he was able to use lots of tools, I don’t get it but whatever, Lol. Once this is all done he will rebuild the “door” in the floor complete with handle. He will do an awesome job as woodworking is his hobby.

Anyway as the story goes, as it was told to us.....the old farmer that once owned this property apparently liked to drink, a lot. The people we bought the house from said for years and years they picked up liqueur bottles all over the grounds. Now when they moved in they noticed a hole in the floor and even though it seemed odd they did not give it much more thought as the condition of the house when she bought it was really something. They showed up pictures you would not even recognize it as the same house we bought, ok again I am getting side tracked. So... when they went under they found hundreds of old bottles! Now it makes sense, the old guy must have sat in this room drinking and getting rid of the bottles by throwing them into the hole.

What we were left with was bucket after bucket of broken glass and other bits of trash. We had to haul it out one bucket at a time. When all was said and done we now have about 200 old bottles that we will try and sell. Some we will keep as they are part of the history of the house and some I will paint as still life objects. I am thinking a painting in the library as a reminder might be nice.....maybe not, LOL.

Here are some pictures so you get a better idea of what I am talking about...

Cutting the floor

My first peek under the floor, no I did not go down there just the camera, LOL

First bucket full

First load of many

Now I have done a little research on bottles and one thing I read was that people got rid of bottles by throwing them in there privy (outhouses) why not they had a hole in the ground and it would be filled in. Apparently if you are into old bottles that’s were you want to dig, to each there own, LOL So I am thinking that the hole in the floor was made for this purpose. We have so many poison bottles and other household bottles that I don’t think it was just a place to stash the empties. I do however like the other story much better, it also explains the cigaret burns in the floor!!