Hiding things in the walls, part 3

I'm hiding treasures in the walls again. It's like the funnest thing I can think of.

Our basement stairwell had been open and wall-less for many months now, after our leaky pipe plumbing problem. It was old splintery wood and kind of crusty, to say the least. The plumbing was replaced in December, and, lucky for us, the mold/mildew was only on the plaster and lathe, which has been long gone. Safe to say everything had plenty of time to dry out over the past few months. Time to close things up!

But before my dad hung the drywall, we slipped a collection of artifacts inside for future residents of this house to find (if they destroy the walls). An informal kind of time capsule.

Anticipating this hiding, Elise and I created a commemorative painting a few months ago when 2014 was still fresh and new (to let you in on just how slow we are moving around here).

The rest of our package was pretty impromptu and included some more pre-school art, a few 2014 coins, a copy of our community newspaper, and a random assortment of plastic toys we didn't mind parting with, including no less than four SpongeBobs.

See more things I've hidden >>

Buried treasure: Kid's backyard time capsule

Elise has become kind of obsessed with treasures, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, and generally hiding things. She is constantly inventing "games" related to finding treasures and hiding things like her hairbrush in the mornings before school. Fun times.

I've been wanting to create a time capsule with her for a while and thought now would probably be the perfect time. Treasure = time capsule. It's all the same to a four-year-old.

We collected trinkets from around the house: a rock, some figurines, a couple of 2013 coins. I had her draw a picture of our family (what, you didn't recognize us?), and we threw in one of her sunprints from a couple of months ago that was hanging around.

We also took a few photos with my Fuji Instax Mini camera, which was a birthday gift from my brother. I'm ashamed to say I really hadn't played around with it until now, but I suppose I was a little tied up in early March.

We put all the treasures inside a well washed small glass jar...

And then to prevent the metal lid from rusting, we slipped it inside a plastic Ziploc bag.

We dug a small hole in the backyard...

and buried our treasure!

I drew a simple map to lead us to the time capsule in the future. I hope it will be enough for us to find it. Or I guess I could take the Walter White approach and get a lottery ticket with the GPS coordinates. Either way.

Me: Do you think that we'll come find this treasure when you're 20 years old?

Elise: No, we'll come find it when I'm 18.

OK, then. 2027 it is.

At the last minute, I put one of our homemade stepping stones on top as a marker. I can't say it will stay here forever, but knowing me, it will be here at least a few years. And maybe then I can find a better way to mark the spot.

Hiding things in the walls, part 2

I love hiding things in our house for future residents to find. We don't plan on moving anytime soon, but it's fun to think about someone finding things I've stashed in our walls.

This time, I printed up before and after photos of our recent kitchen renovation and slipped the page between the wall and the counter top. No one's finding this one until they rip out the cabinets!

See more things I've hidden >>

Hiding things in the walls

I'm kind of enamored with hiding things in our house for future homeowners to find. Maybe it's because I would love to find things someone else hid long ago.

With the upper stairway walls open, I took the opportunity to stash another piece (the first being under our front porch steps). I printed a recent photo of our house on cardstock, then slipped it behind a piece of drywall before the piece beside it went up.

Who knows if anyone will ever find it (or if I will be the one to find it), but it's fun to think about either way!

I found a hidden note!

I cannot believe I forgot to include this in my post about our bedroom's repainted register. (Well, yes I can. I've been forgetting everything lately.)

After I removed the register cover, I found this little slip of paper in the vent covered in dust bunnies. Who knows how many years it's been there. Oh Amber, such violence!

A letter to the future

As part of our porch step restoration, I thought it would be cool to hide a time capsule inside. I actually wanted to do this during our bathroom renovation, but didn't get it together before we closed up the walls. In execution, what I did doesn't really fit the definition of "time capsule"; it's more like a letter to the future.

I included a photo of us and a photo of our house as it was before the steps were ripped off. It's just an inkjet printout on cardstock, so I hope it survives.

I packaged the letter in a ziploc bag, then a plastic container (from baby puffs) and then inside a larger ziploc bag. I don't expect the cavity under the steps will be hit hard by the elements, so maybe it's chances are good. It might not be the prettiest time capsule in the world, but it's functional.

I'm not including the text of the letter here. It was pretty simple. I introduced us and talked a little about the house. But in hindsight, I got a little sappy toward the end and it'd be kind of embarrassing to share. Hopefully I will be long gone by the time anyone else reads it! Isn't that what it's all about anyway?