We made a little time capsule to leave behind and it was actually a lot of fun more fun than packing. Our big hope is that someone finds it at least a few decades from now (when there are flying cars and precogs) since it would be kind of a womp-womp moment if the new owners discover it as soon as they move in on Monday. Which is why we hid it very very well. So well that it may never be found. Of course we can’t reveal its location because that could ruin the surprise, but consider it to be something along the lines of “inside the walls” trickery. No “taped under the sink” easy stuff.
Anyway, the “capsule” included a hand written letter and a sheet of paper with two photos on it (one of me, John, and Clara from this year & one of our backyard wedding from ’07 – both of which were labeled with the date and the event/our names). Here’s what the letter says:
Dear finder of this note,
We lived in this house from May of 2006 to December of 2010. Our names are John and Sherry Petersik and we moved in as a 25 year old engaged couple and left as a family of four (we got married, adopted a puppy, and had a daughter all during our time here). We actually got married in the backyard on July 7th, 2007 among our friends and family. This was our first house, and we loved it so much that getting married here just made sense.
We actually started an online blog about our life and our renovations here in 2007 called younghouselove.com. You might still be able to find it online if we’re still blogging about our home improvement adventures when you find this note. We had a lot of fun here, from gutting and renovating the kitchen and the bathrooms to getting the driveway paved and adding a cobblestone patio in the backyard. We also closed off a doorway that led from the kitchen to the bedroom behind it (which used to be a formal dining room) to create a true 3rd bedroom, which eventually became our daughter Clara’s nursery.
We hope that you enjoy your time here as much as we have enjoyed ours!
-xoxo, Sherry, John, Baby Clara & Burger the chihuahua
The “dear finder of this note” line makes me laugh. It was all John. I wonder who the heck will find it! And when they do, will they teleport to a friend’s house and show it to them? Only time will tell. Or will it? (Cue the ominous duh-duh-duhhhhhhhh sound effect).
Psst- We announced the winner of this week’s giveaway. Click here to see if it’s you (and check out a sweet discount for everyone).
Tara says
When my dad and step mom were gutting the house they would find things like this all over. in the attic they found pictures (it was of 2 little girls and the picture was taken in front of a barn that we later found out was in the exact location of our current home), in the living room behind the fake fire place they found an old red tin kids toy iron. then the wall between the kitchen and dinning room was news paper articals glued to the back side of the drywall. We kept everything we could manage to salvage.
amy says
cute idea!
Jenn L @ Peas and Crayons says
What a cute surprise! =) Most previous owners of the houses I’ve rented leave behind random stuff…
like a tacky-tastic circus soap pump.. or hair rollers with hair still stuck to them…. gross gross gross
glad you guys are 120% cooler than that =)
xoXOxo
Jenn @ Peas & Crayons
megan e says
On a similar note, our neighborhood hosts an annual 4th of July block party and has made poster boards with photos of previous events (dating back to the 50’s). Since the event takes place on the corner in front of our house, it’s in the background of all the photos. Me and my husband loved getting to see photos of our 1940s home and how the exterior changed throughout the decades. I think most people take pride in their home and enjoy “uncovering” a bit of its mystery from the past. I hope to put together a simliar letter for future owners of the house to share.
Amber says
In my parents first house we remodeled a basement room for me when my sister was born. In the wall we found a time capsule with many things, odds and ends. A photo or two, batteries, matches… weird stuff. In response my dad put beer cans in the wall and my mom put some pictures.
Mel says
When my dad replaced the mantlepiece in the house I grew up in, he found a note scrawled on the large beam supporting the top of the fireplace: “Installed on (date) by (name). Call me in 40 years to replace it, haha!” Well, we found it within four days of that 40 years. So Dad added another note: “Uncovered (date) by (name). What’s your number?”
I hope someone who loves that house as much as I did finds that exchange and laughs.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s too funny!
xo,
s
stephanie says
our last house was a 1917 bungalow. we found a calendar in the attic. It had a metal base and tear away pages. It was from 1925. We hung it in the kitchen. We left it with the new owner when we sold the house. I hope he liked it as much as we did.
Ann says
Oh my gosh, that is such a GREAT idea!! I have been following your blog for a year or so but have never commented, but wanted to send you a virtual high-five! I hope I hear about its discovery one day when I’m old and gray and your baby Clara is finishing college :)
Niki says
I love this idea and I actually started to tear up. I’m not pregnant either. I am so happy for you to be moving, but I am going to miss your first house. I love how much you love it, because it is how much I love ours. Did that makes sense?
YoungHouseLove says
Totally! We’re still kind of in denial I think, but it’ll definitely hit us when we close the door that last time…
xo,
s
Martha says
Perhaps the “dear finders of this note” will blog about it.
Kyla says
Did you leave behind any of the items from the previous family? We live in a 1950 cape cod, and have the original blueprints from our home. If we ever sell, we are writing in the contract that they always stay with the home. They don’t belong to us. :) Just curious on your plans.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! We dug them out and left them in the “house folder” that we’re leaving for the new owners (along with manuals and receipts for work done, etc).
xo,
s
Jessica says
Hey you guys think about adding the info about the previous owners that you found? Pics of the old things you found? Along with a copy of the letter from that lady whose dad did a lot of the building of the house? That way the history of the house can be passed down. Such a fun idea that I might need to try it.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jessica,
Well, we left the old things we found in the “house folder” for the new owners (scroll down a comment to see more about that) but it’s a good idea to add the letter from the lady whose dad built the addition! If only we hadn’t hidden the capsule already…
xo,
s
christy says
EEK!! i havent been to your blog since the summer and was SHOCKED to find out you are moving!!?? to where??! why?! i went back in the archives a month or so and couldnt really find the answers to those questions but i may have overlooked!
YoungHouseLove says
So much to tell you! If you click the “topics” tab up by the search bar, these categories are full of posts for ya:
Operation Sell This House
The House Hunt
Our New House
Moving Madness
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
erin m. says
What a fun idea!!
LittleMissEclectic says
And if your buyers read your blog they may be tearing apart the walls to find it!
Irina@CanDoGal says
I got a little choked up reading it, too. That is really the nicest thing and it’s great that you thought to do it.
The previous owners left us quite an inventory, found in various nooks and crannies while cleaning: a couple of vases (I kept one), a pillow case, a thermos, a bunch of lightbulbs, a few hand weights, a tiny desk with a missing drawer and a wobbly disposition (which I’d love to fix somehow, because it’s rather nice.) and some broken rakes. I have a feeling that won’t be the last of it.
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
We did something like this when we completely gutted our Family Room. We wrote our names and the date we were working on the room before we put the sheetrock back up. So it’s on the beams in the room behind the sheetrock. And we also put our initals in the cement of the new floor we had poured for the Family Room. It was a garage conversion that they never filled in the step down for the garage. We are in a Hi-Ranch. It was fun doing something like that.
We on the other hand, only got phone numbers and names in closets all over the house. We heard they dealt drugs out of the house. Nice, real nice right? And we also found some homework, a needle and other drug related stuff in the house. Not really what we were hoping to find in the house. LOL!!!!
Ashley says
What a wonderful tradition to start with your family when you move from place to place throughout life! It just so happened I read this post at the right time since my husband and fur babies will be moving in a couple of weeks! We are moving from the place we celebrated our first year of marriage in. Quick question, if you plan on leaving the time capsule outside is it ok to put in a envelope and ziplock? Will weather or rain damage it? Thanks and keep bringing us more great stuff! =)
YoungHouseLove says
If we were going to bury it out back we probably would have used one of those metal gift card tins with a sealed ziplock envelope inside for a bit more protection. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
renae says
We moved into our new-to-us home in July of this year. We removed a spindly railing and replaced it with a beefy knee wall. During the week we did that there was a story from our small town that went viral: http://journalstar.com/news/opinion/blogs/lincoln-life/article_feff7358-8e98-11df-b33f-001cc4c03286.html
So I took that section of the paper and tucked it inside the wall before the drywall went up. Hopefully someone will have fun finding that in a few decades. Wish I had thought of leaving something at our old place. We rehabed it from top to bottom and brought both of our babies home to it.
Erin says
Great idea. We found a note from the builders dated July 1938 when we started our renovation this year. We saved that piece of wood (we’re going to do something cool with it) before it was demo’d and then we left our own note to a future owner.
We blogged about it here: http://theimpatientgardener.blogspot.com/2010/11/leaving-our-mark.html
Josh G says
This is an amazing idea….We know a little about the story of our house, just form the previous owner and the neighbors, but finding something like what you guys just hid, would be amazing. I think we will do that when we sell our first house….and show the horrendous before pics :) LOL Good luck with the move, hope it all works out beautifully for you guys.
shereen says
Fun! That is such a fun idea! It reminds me of an episode of This American Life” called “House on Loon Lake” where a young boy finds an old abandoned house and tries to unlock the mysteries of what happened to the family that once lived there…it’s a bit creepy, but such a fun story! http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/199/house-on-loon-lake
Snickrsnack Katie says
That is just beautiful, Sherry and John! I got a little tear in my eye just reading it. :) I think it is absolutely wonderful that you left that note, and I hope that someone finds it one day in the distant future and realizes what wonderful people lived there before.
Skooks says
I’m not planning any reno anytime soon (nothing major anyway), but I love the idea that if I do I may find something cool. My house is over 100 years old . . . there’s got to be stories in these walls!
Deb Ramsthaler says
This is so sweet; bitter-sweet for sure. I’ll be thinking of you on Monday when you lock the door behind you. Try not to be sad, just think of all the good times to come in your new home!
Best of luck!
Deb
Christine says
I love this! I live in an 80 year old craftsman style house. I keep looking for a time capsule, but haven’t found one yet. The thing I always try to figure out about my house is the original floor plan. There have been obvious changes in the layout… the hardwood in the master bedroom goes in two different directions… half longways and half short ways… its pretty obvious there once was a wall there.
If you can still get to yours maybe throw in an “original” floor plan and what you changed it to!
Ashley says
So cool. Kind of reminds me of Amelie (one of my all-time favorite movies!), when her lid bumps the tile and she finds the keepsake box. Maybe whoever finds your time capsule will be inspired to find you and then do good deeds for everyone they encounter. :)
Ashely says
P.S. If you guys had a wall air conditioner, I bet you would’ve hid it in there a la Dexter!
YoungHouseLove says
True! We totally would have. With some fake slides of “blood” (ketchup). Hahah.
xo,
s
Kayla says
OMG, are you guys freaking out yet? You are moving in three days!?
YoungHouseLove says
YES! CROSS YOUR FINGERS FOR US! WE’RE ON THE EDGE OF OUR SEAT FOR CONFIRMATION THAT MONDAY’S CLOSING IS STILL ON. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Moving is so stressful.
xo,
s
Stephanie says
If it’s not too late, you should add the date of this post or specific URL so the “finder of the note” can read all of the comments!
Jill says
This is great. I would love to find something like that to tell me a little more about who lived in our house before we did.
You should leave a copy of both pages out for the new owners. I’m sure they would love to know more of your story!
Ana says
That’s a really good idea. The son of the original owners of the house I grew up in stopped in with one of his kids one December as we were putting up the tree. That was after we’d lived there for about 10 years, so by then my parents had made a lot of changes (though nothing structural, just cosmetic to tone down the ’70s craziness).
Of the two houses I’ve owned, everything I know about the previous residents was from neighbors or realtors since they had passed on. My first house (built in 1960) was owned by Fred and Miss Margaret, who didn’t have children but were apparently much beloved in the neighborhood and lived there until their deaths. My current house (built 1950) was originally owned by Miss Florence, who was a meticulous housekeeper. Both of my houses have had happy auras — and if there are ghosts, they’re friendly ones.
gemma@thesweetestdigs says
What a lovely idea!! It will be such fun when “the finder of the note” actually FINDS the note!
Much nicer than what we found in our first home upon knocking a couple of walls and ceilings down… hint: starts with a ‘p’ and rhymes with corn. NOT quite the lovely little treasure you hope to find that will reveal some of your home’s history.
Good luck with the move!
Jackie says
I would LOVE to know more about the history of our 80 year old house. I could easily reach out to the previous owners who lived in the house for 25 years and then owners in laws lived there before that, but I am not sure how to do that without it feeling creepy, haha.
The sellers of our house left us a nice note and a planted gerber daisy in the kitchen. It was such a nice thing to come home to for the first time. I think I will do that for any home that I sell in the future!
Ami @ beyondpeasandcarrots says
love this! So fun :)
Megan says
My boyfriend and I are gutting our basement and refinishing it, and we discovered stuff from the original owners of the house (it was built 1955). We tore down built in bookshelves, removed wood paneling and found 12 inch tall stickers on the cement walls of people from 70’s (think disco costumes) and a loaded BB gun from the 80’s. It was so neat!
Mary says
I love this idea. But I’m a little shocked that you didn’t include more photos! I guess the internet will always be around and whoever finds this, if interested can always see more. I did something similar in my parents house when they filled in an old floor vent and layed hardwood floors over it. It always makes you wonder if and when someone will find the little slice of history stashed secretly away!
Debbie says
I love this idea! Hopefully I’ll remember to do something like that whenever we get to renovating our house.
My dad is an electrician and he finds so many neat things in the walls of old houses and most of the time the owners of the house let him keep it. A few things that I remember are an old tobacco wrapper, an winnie-the-pooh necklace and a still sealed and full glass soda bottle.
The little things left behind are always really neat, even if they were left unintentionally.
PatC says
Didn’t you include a picture of Burger?
…tsk, tsk!
YoungHouseLove says
He’s actually in the wedding pic!
xo,
s
Karen says
I found a note from the daughter who lived in my house. It was a heartwarming surprise. She said how wonderful her life was living there and hope our time living there was just as wonderful.
Rachel says
When my dad was a child in Pennsylvania he somehow lost a plastic toy cow down in one of the walls of his house. He cried for days, but there was nothing his parents could do short of knocking down the wall to get that cow out. About 40 years later the house had come to belong to my dad’s younger brother. They did some renovations and knocked out that wall and found the cow! Instead of telling my dad right away, they just mailed him an envelope with only the cow, no note or anything. He loved it!
Jess says
My dad and his siblings hid stuff in the stairwell wall of their old family home. The home has since been renovated into a bar and my aunt always talks about contacting the owner to see if he’ll let them find their stuff. I think it would be so cool to find something like this!
Lauren @ Beautiful Fight says
My husband and I renovated our bathroom last year. We took out the old tub and replaced it with a new one. We wrote a note, grabbed a picture, shoved it in a ziplock bag and put it underneath the tub before we tiled. I’m pretty sure no one will find the note for a VERY long time. I think we hid it a little too well.
Megan Elizabeth says
This is such a cool idea. I remember when I was a kid my mom was repairing a hole in the wall and I slipped a note inside. I have no idea what it said. But it’d be cool for someone to find it years from now.
Monica says
What a cute idea!
Jaime A. says
/sigh.
favorite tv show of all time?! HGTVs – If walls could talk.
my house… is brand spankin’ new (built in 2010) and is boring stucco.
i want an old house to love!!
Chrysalis says
This is the best thing ever. Seriously, I want to tear down the walls of my house and see if the prior owners were this clever.
Greatest thing in the world. This, and Tina Fey. Greatest thing ever.
Meredith says
We are only the fourth owners of our home. We talked with the family of the original owners and have compiled a book of stories from our house. We hope to pass it along to the next owners.
Meredith
jenn says
thats a very cool idea! what did you guys put it into? a jar or envelope?
YoungHouseLove says
We slipped it into a paper envelope and slipped that into a ziplock bag to ward off moisture.
xo,
s
jenn says
when i was a kid i use to leave my hubba bubba gum in the holes for the vacuum. we had the kind that went into a hole and air was sucked through it into the garage. i would smell them all around the house. every single one smelt like strawberries. i wonder if its still there, and if it still smells of hubba bubba.