Did anything "extra" come with your house?

[southern_redhead]

The house we are in now came with some mouldering drapes and ancient, rusted curtain rods all thrown into the insulation in the attic. It also has these weird "cabinets" built into the walls in one bathroom and YDS's room. In the one in the bathroom we found a 13 gallon trash can (empty THANK GOODNESS!!)

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

We bought my grandparents house, which my mom still lived in, and we got the majority of the contents, most of which we would have needed anyway. Quite a few antique pieces, which I treasure and some junk in my grandfather's basement, which we have done away with, some of which was old scrap, DH took to the scrap yard.

And some danged old onion grass in the backyard, we can't get rid of, it makes cutting miserable for DH.

Suzanne

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We didn't have anything left to deal with. The folks even took the curtain rods and the key that turned the gas on in the fireplace. Our real estate agent had to get the key back for us before closing.

My neighbor was left a beautiful patio set which she still uses 9 years later and a stairmaster which she sold.

 

[DefLepard]

Nosey neighbors

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Not mine, but a friend in high school moved into a house where someone left in the basement a plastic bucket filled with water and an approximately 1 lb goldfish. This thing was seriously ancient and huge (well for a goldfish) and blind. Didn't tell the buyers it was there, they found it moving in.

A) I can't imagine just leaving an old pet like that behind

B) How old was that fish?

 

[Pakey]

The first house we purchased (we have built 2 since then) came with a custom playhouse in the backyard that matched the "big" house. It was so cute. Sadly, we had 3 boys who were not thrilled with it. We ended up dismantling it to make room for the pool we installed.

The last house we sold (the first one we built), we sold all of the furniture with the house. They also bought the rugs, comforter covers, etc. Everything had been done custom for that home and the buyers were thrilled to get everything. It certainly made packing/moving easy. They also purchased the riding lawn mower. I also left them an extensive diagram and care instructions for the 2 acres of yard and various high maintenance plants. I've driven by a few times since (we sold 10 years ago) and they obviously didn't follow the instructions.

 

[disykat]

Our first home was a fixer we bought from an elderly couple going into a home. They thought it was perfect, were insulted when we asked for stuff to be removed - insisted they had emptied the place, and had to eventually lower their price by $25K because we were their only interested buyer in a year and wouldn't pay over the appraisal!

We brought in a 9 yard dumpster and emptied it 6 times. We did save some stuff, and we also had a garage sale. My husband still has a lot of the tools -the workshop was full.

The things we didn't appreciate were shampoo in the shower, butter in the fridge, sheers from the living room windows we found shoved in the kitchen cabinets, etc.

In our current house, the only things they left were the big wheels their grandchildren played with in the driveway. They asked us first and our boys (who were 3 and 5 at the time) were thrilled! They didn't even care that one was pink.

 

[debf]

When DH and I bought our house my grandfather came with it.

 

[si-am]

There is a HUGE old-school antenna in our attic (not a true "storage attic," but more of a crawl space above the house.) I don't know how it got there because there's NO way to get the thing out, short of taking off the roof. It has blocked all access to one side of the house (not cool when we had a leak and were trying to figure out where it was coming from.)

Seriously, I'd really love to know how it got there.

 

[teacup princess]

Nothing came with our house when we bought it but the people who buy it from us are going to "inherit" a bunch of family photos and time capsules that I have stuck inside the walls. We've done alot of work on the house and for some reason I feel the need to stick a dated family photo or other personal family items inside any wall that we have ripped open. They'll probably think we are nuts, but I guess its just my way of saying "hey, we were once here and have left our mark".

 

[DisneyMissy318]

When DH and I bought our house my grandfather came with it.

We got my parents(!) and all of their stuff! Plus 4 cats and a dog! We LOVE it though and wouldn't want it any other way (well my DH has his moments!)

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

For some odd reason, there was a tire in one of the basement itty bitty windows. Outside, that window is ground level. Inside, the window is 7 or 8 feet in the air. The basement is a finished basement.

But we got a tire.

 

[declansdad]

Yeah, they were nice enough to leave the stairs to the attic brand new still in the box. Woo hoo, we didn't have to pull out the ladder every time we wanted to get up there.

But when we opened it, the thing was the wrong size, and they knew it. AND we found out they, behind our backs, added $50 to our price for us to pay for it.

But I can't be too angry, because shortly after they sold us the house, (and basically gypped us) the husband passed away at age 59 from a heart attack.

If you live in the NYC area and need pull-down attic stairs for free (brand new and still in the box, although 16 years old), PM me and come take a look. Seriously.

You got "gypped" with a $50 increase in the price on a house and you felt good about the former owner passing away???? Nice!

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

Our first house was nearly 300 years old, and came with the oddest assortment of junk I could imagine and proof that there have been shoddy home repairmen for 300 years. We loved the house, and actually had a lot of fun putting things back to rights, but it was amazing what people had passed off as repairs through the years. The best was the reversed polarity throughout the house, making it impossible to turn off any of the circuits (that was an electrifying discovery).

Directly to the point, in the basement the previous owner left the old boiler, expansion unit and oil tanks (which had probably been left by the previous ten owners, in turn, since the house had been converted to natural gas in the 1960s!), so I got to be the person to finally drag it all out to the curb for "junk pickup day".

 

[Theosus]

I got a nice set of ceramic "pampered chef" bowls they left under the kitchen cabinet... Probably $300 worth of bowls.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Our first house was nearly 300 years old, and came with the oddest assortment of junk I could imagine and proof that there have been shoddy home repairmen for 300 years. We loved the house, and actually had a lot of fun putting things back to rights, but it was amazing what people had passed off as repairs through the years. The best was the reversed polarity throughout the house, making it impossible to turn off any of the circuits (that was an electrifying discovery).

Directly to the point, in the basement the previous owner left the old boiler, expansion unit and oil tanks (which had probably been left by the previous ten owners, in turn, since the house had been converted to natural gas in the 1960s!), so I got to be the person to finally drag it all out to the curb for "junk pickup day".

Our house was a 200 year old farm house and oh boy! Yeah. The past two owners had updated and spiffed and rewired and updated all the plumbing, but there were still times you looked at something and realized someone 150 years ago had started a DIY project, gotten irritated and just said "well. Good enough." and left it half-a**ed.

We also found all sorts of traditional 18th century Scotch American good luck things in the walls, under the flooring, up in the attic and down in the basement. Didn't think about that. Found shoes and bowls and bottles and such. (And put them back.)

 

[lakelandgal70]

A couple of years ago my dad bought me a Cheryl Bear CD because he thought it was so hilarious that there was a song on there that talked about a dog coming with someone's house...and it reminded him of me. We got a very large dog with our house (previous owners moved to a covenant community that didn't allow large dogs).

Along with the dog we also "inherited" a very nice cat, a riding lawn mower, a standing freezer and the largest entertainment center I have ever seen in my life. We agreed to all of this, of course. In fact, agreeing to the large dog was a tie-breaker between us and a competing offer, and the dog turned out to be a fantastic addition to our family.

So how about you? Did you "inherit" anything with the purchase of your home?

Lets see there were some shovels in the attic and some really groovy brown velvety furniture that were left here. Other than that nothing exciting.

 

[torinsmom]

You got "gypped" with a $50 increase in the price on a house and you felt good about the former owner passing away???? Nice!

I saw a sad, crying smiley after the mention of the old owner dying. That would lead me to believe she started out being mad, but couldn't stay angry when she found out he had died. As far as being upset for being charged for something that was the wrong size, I would be upset too.

 

[powellrj]

we found a truck cab on blocks behind the garage! We found someone where DH worked that came and took it thank-goodness!

 

[PollyannaMom]

I got the curtains in my house! The previous owners were building, and changing decor, so we asked if they could be included for a little extra $, and they said yes! I wasn't planning on any redecorating soon, so it was great to have the chore of finding new ones to match taken off my list.

They also left the little cans of touch-up paint, extra tiles, etc. that they had saved from all their previous projects. They were really organized!