Last time on Dragon Ball Z…
Our heroes found a mysterious coat closet, unopened for over a decade. What could it hold?
Now, the thrilling conclusion!
Go figure. Coats. Among other unrelated items.
I’m not sure what I really expected.
Our second round of cleanup for the hoard finished up the last bits of rubbish from the corners of the living room, and started in on the dining room. Let’s see the before!
From the kitchen doorway, looking towards the living room fireplace.
Looking towards the kitchen from the living room. I wasn’t kidding about the 18 inches of paper.
Today’s top finds:
- Millenio’s Cereal Box (flattened)
- Star Trek TOS Cloth Badge Patch
- Menard’s Grand Opening Circular
- House and Garden Magazine, House Plans Special, 1928
- New In Box Wire Storage Shelves
- Safe
- Four Boxes of Domin… WAIT DID YOU SAY SAFE!?
Yep. A rusty old locked money box.
This is the part where post authors would normally dangle the opening of the box in front of your for a few days. I won’t make you wait that long; I’ll tell you what was inside at the end of this post. It’s got some weight to it, and rattles when its shook…
In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of our other spoils of war!
The start of a dynasty. This indicates that the pile is from the early 2000s.
Worth a buck or two in good condition. This one? Not so much.
Two of the four sets we found.
What is that supposed to mean?
A few tin canisters.
My hero.
A painting so nice she bought it twice.
There were a few magazines of this era in some comb-bound books; very much worth flipping through.
A fine addition to my collection.
That’s cool and all, but the safe?
Here we are just getting started into the dining room:
A bit earlier in the day. We started clearing towards the window first since large boxes are easy and satisfying to remove.
The plastic was torn off the windows to get it a bit brighter, but not by much.
The shovel wasn’t particularly helpful.
A bit of big news, though: WE FOUND THE BROKEN STATUE’S OTHER FRONT LEG!
There’s hope for you yet, kitty.
Will they price match with inflation?
This person was a guaranteed trekkie.
A very cool 36″ dutch door from what appears to be a school’s band room. The bottom half has a counter shelf!
Ok… and about that sa-
Among some of the tapes we found were a few in bubble mailers. Apparently the ex-owner or someone with an identical last name was involved in a trial up north…
Once the rest of the living room was cleared out, in order to mitigate the musty smell a bit, we opted to remove the rug and all of the shredded mouse bedding upon it. This revealed the fact that this house is not atypical; it has pine boards filling the center of the rooms.
To save money, the edges are oak and the centers are inexpensive pine.
Builders knew that people would be putting down large rugs anyway, so why waste money on nice wood that’s going to be covered up? The floor in the closet was actually well protected by… wood grain laminate.
Why cover wood with wood-grain laminate? Really?
I agree but SAFE!
Oh, that?
Here’s how we were looking once we got through the living room and the pocket doors opened up.
Still looks like a tornado came through.
The beautiful bay window is uncovered! There is also a school desk in the corner for some reason.
Just about up to the top!
Alright, NOW SAFE?
It’s nothing, really. Just forget about it.
We set up the wire shelving we found to help store and organize our finds.
Wish it had one more shelf though.
Another macabre find, a parrot skull. Odds are, it was one of hers.
Nearly missed it by the back door.
PLEASE
Alright alright. I told you it was nothing, really.
Without a key, we struck the lock face to break off the pins. Being old and thin, the rivets popped easily to reveal… nothing at all.
Nuts.
Yeah. Speaking of locks, we found a small number of deadbolts in the hoard, and knowing that we don’t have a key to the front door (it’s secured from inside each night), I wanted to replace it with one we did have a key for.
There is, however, a problem.
Where’s the screws?
This double-sided keyed deadbolt, which are pretty popular on doors with large glass panes, has the added security of a rotating plate that only reveals the screws when the key is inserted and partially turned. The key that we don’t have. I would have thought that the deadbolt in its unlocked state would have the holes lined up, but this is not true.
Further, the jamb is busted out right where the bolt enters. Look’s like we will be starting construction a bit earlier than planned.
