One of our most memorable jobs was a home that had been abandoned for almost 10 years. This home spanned a little over 1500 sq ft and was filled with items that had once been a collection of treasures, now long forgotten.
The homeowner who had long since moved out, built this home back in the 70s. I always find stories like these fascinating. Maybe in part because it encompasses the idea of what it means to live out the “American dream”.
When the homeowner had gotten married, his wife had a love for collecting things. At one point their lives and home had become so overrun by her love for collecting things. It became more than one could bear to live with. Sadly, this led them to move out with hopes to one day return and remodel the home that once was. In the end, time and age had slipped away. Never to return again.
When taking on this job we were not only tasked with the clean up, but were asked by the home owners daughter if we could spot 2 things. 1 her father’s cherished arrow heads, and 2 his old coin collection. In the end we found 1 but sadly not the other.
Clean up day….
I knew the minute I walked in, this would be a huge undertaking, but to say I love a challenge would be an understatement.
I rounded up my team and we quickly got to work. My daughter Hailey and I took the kitchen. There was all kinds of old things from kitchen equipment, pots and pans, even old fashion tins, and spices. It was as if we got a history lesson with each item we touched. There was even an old wall phone that my daughter seemed puzzled by. If only our youth knew what life was like before the cell phone. I bursted out laughing when she proceeded to tell me the phone had a low battery and needed to be charged.
While cleaning out the kitchen sitting right behind the fridge was a box that looked as though it held baseball cards. Curious, I picked it up in the box. It felt too heavy to just hold baseball cards. I went ahead and proceeded to open it. To my surprise staring right back at me were old half dollar coins. I thought there had to be more and sure enough there was. A total of almost $800, a mixture of dollar and half dollar coins.
We reached out to the homeowners daughter and granddaughter who were the ones entrusted to handle the estate sale. We wanted to surprise them with what we had found. They were shocked, and rightfully so. Over these last 10 years, this home had fallen victim to squatters. Some I’m sure, looking to see what this home could benefit them with, and others just looking for a safe place to rest their weary heads. How they did not find this was a mystery to all of us. But a grateful one. These coins were something the homeowner collected but sadly thought had been stolen especially with as many break ins his home had been subjected to.
Another room I had fallen fascinated with was her sewing room. This room was a vintage sewers dream! It felt sad to toss as much as we did. But with time pressing there was only so much we could do.
The wife had 3 filing cabinets consisting of carefully organized sewing patterns and craft magazines. She marked each magazine with projects she would intend to do one day. She even had old sewing machines with every attachment known to man.
Tucked into the corner was an old antique medicine cabinet, that if I had to guess must have dated back to the 40s or 50s. Inside were old medical instruments and medicine bottles, one labelled ether. This room was a true time capsule for what once was. It brought back fond memories I had as a child walking into my grandmother’s sewing room, we’ll minus the ether. I don’t think a good grandma would have kept something like that just lying around lol.
Over the course of 3 days we had loaded and dumped 7 truck loads. Each load weighs in at a whopping 2,000lb. Later we would be hired to come back and tackle the back yard, a work shed full of miscellaneous items, a very heavy piano, and an old freezer that still had food from long long ago. With my good ole hazmat mask, that freezer was no match for team McHaul or I should say team Michelle because my husband almost died when we opened the freezer lol. Now this home has officially been “McHauled”.
Rarely do we get the chance to meet the new homeowner, but in this particular case we did. With pure excitement he shared his plans and ideas to transform his new home. It felt almost poetic that he could see what most would overlook. He truly embodied the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” and what it really meant.
This long forgotten home will now sit proudly, with new memories to be made. If there is one thing each homeowner has in common, it’s that they both had a dream. One built it, the other transformed it. Forever bonded by the love they shared for this one home!