I've got a book started that will stay with the house. It will have all the info I have on the house and it's PO's.
When we do some serious work I will do as you have done. I've even added one hidden compartment in the house for someone in the future to find and wonder a bit about.

Watch what you put in the walls.

Worthy, that story was on our local news! We live north of Berkeley about 2 1/2 hours away - if you work around commuters...

We have a smallish hidden "cement" safe in our basement. It doesn't lock but it's located in a very remote location. It is cement walled with a cement lid - looks like it was inset into the cement when the house was built. (No body would ever fit, worthy.)
When we discovered it, the only thing we found inside was a black widow spider. Yikes!

We're going to do this. :o) (The time capsule, that is - not burying a body in our walls!) I have a big folder filled with blueprints, wallpaper samples, pictures, and historical info that we'll pass on to future owners (plus some framed blueprints and an old framed photo of the house), but I'm also excited to leave some things behind for someone to discover years from now. We put some stuff in the newel post of our last home, but I think this time we'll put it in the ceiling above our new laundry room since that ceiling isn't being raised to the original 10 ft.

We've just started our remodeling, but we've already found old photos, receipts, a ring, and a Mercury dime. A couple of years ago, when we finished our third floor, our contractor found a turn-of-the-century breast pump in the walls, LOL!

i did in both my homes.The one home we built,I put a short story on history,who built it ,when,deed copy,info on the family,when we built the garage,newspaper,some photos,money,1.00,50cents,quarter etc.
In this house 1700 I put copies deeds,newspaper,basically the same stuff.we found things in this house while restoring it,bible,pocket knife,a few other things.

My DH was putting new drywall in our dining room of our 1929 home and religious tracts fell out and he found a plastic army man. So DS (9 at that time) decided he wanted to make a time capsule to put in the wall. He took a Ziploc bag and put in a Hot Wheels car, a Pokemon card and a piece of paper with his name and the date. DH stapled it to a stud and finished putting up the drywall.
Sheree

ps. the PO gave us all the legal deeds and documents from the house and land. It starts in 1858!!! It's so cool, she had owned the house since 1931. I don't want to leave it for the next owner, but I will :(

I'm doing the same thing too. I'm not sure what sort of container I should put my items in though. If I put paper or photos should they be in plastic or what? Is it okay to put all my items together in one container? I like the idea of putting money in there too. I found an old penny from 1897 when we redid our kitchen, so I want to put that back.

jedwards,

I think I must have answered this privately but I went to the craft store and purchased clear magazine holders. They are acid free and you can reseal them.
There are different sizes and I paid around $.35 each for them. If this won't work, at least wrap them in acid free tissue.

Funny about money - when we ripped out the old bathroom we discovered the mirror we looked in wasn't original. The original one was behind it. In between was a sealed envelope. Of course we had to open it. Inside was a hand written note that said "Sorry. No gold or money." We laughed and laughed and will put that back too.

I think it sounds like fun. I would include current magazines like Time and People, maybe a home magazine or woman's magazine. A letter telling about yourself and any history of the house and a picture of your family and current pictures of the house would be good, too.

I shop at a medium size, three family owned grocery store. SPD. Stands for Burt See, Jeff Painter and Frank Dilley. My parents knew them all. I used to shop with my mom, all of them independently, when I was very young, before they got together. So they have known me since I was quite young. And I went to school with most of the employees. We know each other - well enough to even comment on what I purchase... "This looks good... What are you making... This is the perfect color of food... How is Isabelle?" (The name of our dog and their child)

When I was standing in line, considering purchasing the magazine ('Time' with Obama on the front cover), I told the others why I was considering buying it. There was a big response. "You need to buy it. You have to! That is a great idea!" So I did. It upped the cost of our renovation a few pennies but someday... someone might just appreciate the hidden effort.

We live here with a rich history. (The Gold Rush) Where some made money but most went broke.

Maybe I should hide a floppy disk, some of my old Beta tapes and Culture Club paraphernalia.

That should have them puzzling.

Absolutely! If I could fit my Mac SE30 inside the wall, I'd do it! It has a 4MB hard drive and cost me more than any computer since. When I first got connected to the internet with it, I had to have a handicap sign. (1994) Couldn't do searches but if I had the address, I was good to go.

With my still functional external modem, it could still function pretty well as an email box - until someone sends me a photo!

We have a large closet upstairs that we call 'the thrift store'. Whenever someone asks where something is and I say it's in the thrift store, they say, "Oh, no! Not the thrift store!" I seriously considered walling it all up and let someone else deal with all the junk in there. Now that would be a real time capsule. It might not look like junk down the road a hundred years.

I just put in a bunch of old stuff I found in the attic that I didn't want to keep but didn't want to throw out either (some kids homework from 1942, old newspaper, etc.) some of my photographs & big stack of Y2K manuals from my job - which has all this stuff in there about stocking up on food and filling your bathtub with water in case civilization as we know it comes crashing down. I'm sure whoever finds it will be amused by that if not somewhat mystified.

Oh yes I'm sure all that Culture Club paraphernalia and all that other stuff will be appreciated someday. Maybe even valuable! It seems that stuff that is most quirky and unique to a period - or representative of it - is what has ends having the most value - stuff goes through a phases of being hated and considered hopelessly outdated before its rediscovered. Like Victoriana was considered weird and dark and ugly for a long time - now the most outrageous over-the-top Victorian things are whats really appreicated

"If nothing else that picture would keep the rats out of the attic"...

The house we're looking to buy comes with both furniture and documents from the original and second owner (who finished the house in the early 1890's). I suppose I won't bury those back in the walls, but I think something from our family might be nice. Perhaps a CD with pics of the house as we got it (1980's victorian flower barfing decor) and then finished "afters" which they might describe as 2000 something barfing decor....but at least it will show we made an effort. heh heh

I'm hoping that when I go to get rid of the flower hell, I might find layers of original paper down below. If so, that would be a nice find to keep for the future as well.

Here's a "time capsule" for you--
My house was one of the last in our area built as part of a public works project in 1939. When we first started doing work after move-in 11 years ago, we discovered, behind most walls, empty gin bottles from local distilleries that had been bottled in the late 30's. Seems our sturdily built house was built by a bunch of gin swillers (unskilled labor, my rear!) We've kept them, labels intact, and haven't decided how to display. We did indeed leave some in the walls during this last go at remodeling...

I've also made a shadowbox of "discoveries" from behind the walls that we are hanging in the dining room and will stay with the house: bakelite childrens bracelets, indian head penny, old salt shaker, sheet music, embroidery hoop, religious medal, etc. We're only the second family to own the house so much was here to discover when we moved in.

Great ideas and stories. It's funny that strangers across time have senses of humor, never knowing who will see their joke-- (leaving empty envelopes between the mirrors!)

Deedlesmom, why don't you keep the originals and leave photocopies in the time capsule?

I like the idea of leaving Y2K information! It already seems so long ago, doesn't it?

photos would be an exciting find.....

egganddart, that's a great idea to photocopy the old records. I don't know why I didn't think of that..... I scrapbook and I could place the originals in with my pictures of the house.
thanks.