Hello and goodbye

[Blainslie]

Hi all, I’m a returning member after forgetting my login details a few years back, doh!

Currently living in a 1700’s whinstone terrace in Scotland and about to handover the keys to new owners next week. Finding it really hard to let go after 13 years of sanding, stripping, painting, building ,weeding & love,sweat,tears.

So, I’m thinking of hiding a little memory box up in the loft, a letter, photo & some pieces we’ve found in the garden.

Have any of you found or left behind messages in your homes? Would love to hear your stories or borrow ideas to add to my own.

Cheers x

 

[TheSpid]

Why hide it? I would leave it out to be found - I'm sure the new owners will love the story of the house.

 

[Bevmarley]

When we took the plaster off our living room wall we found a hole and we have put a time capsule in it with pictures etc. This has now been repaired and repointed. I wonder I’d it will ever be found..

 

[Flyfisher]

Why hide it? I would leave it out to be found - I'm sure the new owners will love the story of the house.

I tend to agree, it would be a shame if the new owners never enjoyed such treasures.

These days it’s easier than ever to leave a photographic record of our houses, with our houses, and I think it should be encouraged.

Does anyone remember that Blue Peter ‘time capsule’ that was retrieved some years ago now, on a live programme I seem to recall? The contents were totally destroyed by ingress of water and lost forever.

 

[Cubist]

Hi There,
I agree with the Spid. Let the new owners, and all the future owners to come, play the game as well. In our case while I have been replacing floorboards I have made sure to leave access to the ceiling light fixtures and other junctions boxes below and will be using these to secrete a time capsule or two. Remember though to use a tin box or other sturdy container so the mice do not munch the contents
Cheers,
Cubist

 

[CliffordPope]

True time capsules are left just in the offchance that someonein the future might be interested about our way of life, etc, with a few mementos and examples . They do not encapsulate the totality of precious knowledge with the risk that it will never be found. That's like hiding the theory of relativity and letting someone else work it out.

You might just as well hide some dodgy wiring and hope they don't find it

You owe it to future custodians (owners) to leave full documentation of everything you have done to the house and everything you have discovered. That's one of the duties that comes with the privilege of owning such a place.

 

[Cubist]

You owe it to future custodians (owners) to leave full documentation of everything you have done to the house and everything you have discovered. That's one of the duties that comes with the privilege of owning such a place.

Too right, but while I would welcome the records of the craftsmen that worked on this place the dodgers contributions would have to be anonymous else I may go a hunting. :twisted:

 

[88v8]

When we had the stone staircase out of the cellar for repairs we left a 'time capsule' inside. I'll be surprised if it's ever found.

Pictures, yes, not only of you, and of the house inside and out but also the surroundings. Currently we are in countryside but it only takes a few generations of idiot politicians with the notion that we have a 'housing shortage' and it will be in town.
And the garden. Gardens can also change radically, for better as ours has, or worse.

Pictures... not so easy. On usb sticks, they may be unplayable in a few decades. Obsolete technology. On paper, they need to be on good photo paper. And black and white, because colours will fade and vanish.

Same goes for anything paper based. Needs to be on acid-free paper. Or parchment. And then there's the ink.
Hmmm.

There is of course advice on the web https://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/storing
I wonder what the web will look like a hundred years from now.

Ivor