Things you "inherited" when you bought your house

Yard art. I once bought a house from a lady who had so much yard art that it was overwhelming. I wrote it into the sales contract that all of it had to be taken because I knew in my heart that she would've left a ton of it for me to deal with. Even though it was in the contract, she still left me several pieces that she said she'd pick up later, but did not. Large metal flowers, bumble bees to nail on the side of the house. Those kinds of lovely things.

The former owner of ours was "an electrical engineer" who did a bunch of questionable work that electricians still marvel about. It's a fucking wonder that the house hasn't burnt down. Is one thing they say. I can't believe it passed inspections

When I bought my apartment I inherited a mentally ill neighbor across the hall who would open her door in the middle of the night and flicked lit cigs at my door. That went on for 15 years.

Nicotine on the walls

A patch in the ceiling from when the previous owner fell through the attic.

I bought my house this time last year. The previous owner left all of the very nice window treatments - which are still up. A wall clock/piece of art that the previous owner made himself. He said it would have damaged the wall too much to take it down. Not my style, but cool that it’s a piece of art he made and functional. Also two deck chairs and a table.

R1 we have one piece of yard art the sellers left. It's ugly but for some reason I can't get rid of it.

We also have a bit of outdoor wall art from them - a smallish metal piece that looks nice, but needs to be painted.

I'd really like to see pics of some of these "yard art" items that posters have said they'd inherited. Also the clock.

I know nobody will probably grant my request, but as they say - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A mezuzah. We left it there, though we're former Catholics, now atheists.

Consider your zip code, Syl (I used to live there, too, and had a few free mezuzahs.)

In the home I once owned in Decatur, GA I was left with:

(1) A decade's worth of National Geographic magazines in the attic and also in the attic,

(2) Two clothes racks that looked like they came from a retail store.

Another nicotine on the walls victim here.

Hot tub, disconnected and probably broken and we told the realtor that it must be removed. I hate those bacteria frappés. A broken gas lawn mower and stacks of tiles and construction materials in the garage. A few half feral cats. Like another poster, a mental ill neighbor who, a year after we moved in, has piled her front yard with other people's junk functioning as a swap meet for facebook 'anarchists'. Our neighborhood isn't exactly 90210.

Nothing, which is probably just as well because I'm fussy and like my own things.

I've got some new neighbours who moved in about a month ago. The previous occupants had a complete refit/redecoration less than a year before they moved out (they only did so due to financial pressures) but the new occupants have done so much work since moving in.

I get you want to put your own stamp on a house when you move in, but they've ripped out a perfectly nice greenhouse, taken down a fence that was less than a year old to put a new one up that looks no better and there seems to be a painter/decorator there most of the time, so they must be redecorating the whole house, even though it looked lovely on the estate agents listing (of course I looked and I'm a picky bastard so I'd be quick to say if it looked bad). Must be made of money.

I was hoping someone would have inherited a cute little something or other, but that doesn't seem to be happening. LOL

8 starving feral cats. I trapped and neutered them and now they're fat and follow me everywhere ugh.

[quote] I trapped and neutered them and now they're fat and follow me everywhere

ugh, sounds like an ex of mine!

I inherited neighbors with a Japanese beetle infestation - what was once a shaded ravine looks bald without their tree line and my property’s side of the ravine had shade loving plants.

I also inherited asbestos pipe insulation, termite damage, and 1950s DIY shelving systems that sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.

A nude poolboy. I kept him.

R19 was his name Giancarlo?

I rented an apartment in a decrepit formerly grand building in Geneva in the 90s. It came with 2 "caves" (cellar spaces) and 2 "greniers" (attics). Very unusual. I only lived there 2 years. Anyhoo, one of the caves was dark and very long. There were many cases of excellent wine and brandy. I sold half and had parties with the other half. Best wine I've ever "owned" in my modest life.

Bought the house just over 4 years ago right before the pandemic from an old lady (92, I think) whose husband passed a couple years earlier. She was house-bound, and was moving in with her daughter on the other side of the country, so had to get rid of everything. The realtors hate it when you talk to the seller, but she was so lonely and depressed over the move that I couldn't not talk to her. Turns out her husband had worked for what became the CIA prior to WWII and she had all sorts of juicy details and confessions, but that's for another thread.

After selecting and packing the items she was keeping, she told me to pick out whatever art I wanted, so left me several nice pieces. She also was going to remove all of the outside art, but I asked her to leave it. Turns out her parents knew my hubby's grandparents who worked in the same industry (clothing) in the first half of the 20th century (does that make me sound as old as I am?).

Like R2, her deceased husband considered himself a handyman and did he ever make some interesting mods to the electrical in the house. It is a wonder the place didn't burn down, but I also inherited a garage full of tools, and a very nicely organized bin of assorted screws, nails, and various electrical components all labelled and most with original packaging. Great, but also somewhat worrisome when you find something like wire crimper caps and wonder where he used the two missing from the pack.

And a mezuzah. Hubby's Jewish, so it stayed put.

R22 just curious - is this Sylvia again, or do we have two mezuzahs in the thread?

I have a summer house I bought several years ago that is 65 years old. The house was built by a couple and the wife lived there until she died about 13 years ago. Her relatives left several pieces of furniture in the house, most of which I donated to Goodwill. But they left a beautiful 100+ year old buffet in the dining room. I kept that and had a local furniture refinisher bring it back to its original glory.. Some idiot had painted it completely white.

Some outdoor furniture, ac units, very acceptable window treatments in the main bedroom, and various cleaning supplies and lightbulbs.

Our sellers gave us a fireplace screen. Now, it had been custom-made for our large fireplace, so what were they doing to do with it?

But the wife (they were divorcing) decided she liked us so let us have it.

Tile was the great find in the apartment we bought, encaustic/hydraulic tile on every floor and fantastic tile from a 1929 international exposition held in the city. The man in charge of tile ornament for the expo designed the tile for our place, some leftover from other expo buildings, some unique designs and pictorial panels signed by the designer.

Most of it could not have been more obvious and was the reason we bought the place. The kitchen, however, was very rough looking. It had been stripped of any cabinetry, furniture, and appliances and the walls were covered in layers of thin plywood and wallpaper discolored by cooking grease. I suspected there might be tile underneath, but it's really lovely, a design taken from tile ceiling of a 15th Century monastery and adapted for the main expo building that is now one if the top tourist attractions in the country. The design is the same but with a slightly different colorway and used in a slightly different pattern.

The kitchen tile was the one great find in the place, nicely preserved behind the disgusting lining paper glued to the walls for many decades.

Wow that's great R27.

A nice fiberglass canoe (will never use), a soccer goal net thing (ditto, the dog likes it as a cave), firepit, some outdoor decor stuff (it can go, not my thing).

earrings

caftans

R23 Two mezuzahs. I've been in my house for ten years, and the prior occupant was a Jewish Crazy Plant Lady.

A box in the attic which we hoped might be filled with some kind of treasure, but it just contained a bunch of sea shells.

Everything right down to the toilet paper. The house was fully furnished , There was a death in the family…a 28 yr old and they didn’t want to take a thing when they sold the house

An old Hustler magazine under some wall-to-wall carpet that we ripped out. One of the young guys who was working on the renovations asked if he could have it and I gladly gave it to him.

My sister once bought an old Victorian house that had been in one family for most if not all of that time. It was in surprisingly good shape considering the last owner had been quite elderly. The kitchen though was bare walls, just a porcelain sink hanging off one wall. No cabinets, no shelves, nothing. It must have been all freestanding pieces. At any rate, my sister got to design the kitchen of her dreams.

The other thing was the attic. It was huge and had been swept clean. The only thing left was a wooden trunk filled with very old newspapers and magazines.

R2. Now I am not saying the "electrical engineer" didn't fuck up the wiring. But I have found over the years that every electrician says the previous electrician(s) wired it wrong.

Plumbers always say that the previous plumber did something wrong, as well.

Nothing... our house belonged to a now deceased relative, and she was the one and only original owner of the house built in the late 60s.

Maybe the termites?

'[quote]A decade's worth of National Geographic magazines in the attic...

I closed on my house during a snow storm, and I wasn't able to inspect the house on the day of closing.

The sellers, who were the heris of the former elderly residents, failed to remove much of the contents of the house as they had commited to.

Among the other garbage, I got many decades of National Geograhic, also stored in the eaves of the attic.

My contractor said he saw them in almost every old house he remodeled. We had to rent a construction dumpster to clear it all out - it was expensive and annoying.

R31 Thanks for clarifying, Sylvia!

If I ever come back east and buy a place in Regent Square or Sq Hill I'll consider it a good luck charm to find a mezuzah.

Several cans of paint that I can't properly dispose of because I can't get the damned lids off! They need to be filled with cat litter before I can put them out with the garbage.

A garage minus the closet my neighbors all have. The previous owner turned the garage into a workshop. I've got outlets and power cords where no outlet or power cord needs to be. I'm thinking of having one of those closet designer companies come in and restore the garage to what is should be. I could use that closet.

A mini fire extinguisher. A beautifully designed landscape, because the wife was an avid and talented gardener. I foolishly ripped out all of it because I was under the impression landscape design was easy and I wanted to do my own thing. Turns out I have no talent for landscape design. At least I kept the arborvitae trees that border each side of the lawn.

Their ghosts.

A washer, dryer, and a spare old fridge in the basement were the most useful items left behind. The neatest were old surgical instruments.

[quote] Plumbers always say that the previous plumber did something wrong, as well.

I once had a guy working for me whose father was a building contractor on housing developments. We were chatting one day about what goes on during the construction of houses. He said if the majority of people who buy brand new homes were to go up into their attics and search around thoroughly they'd likely find one or more desiccated piles of human shit. He said construction workers rarely climbed down out of attic areas to go to the porta-potties on site, especially if was during the cold months, but just dropped trou, squatted, and let it fall where it may, usually covering it up with a layer of insulation.

Yikes, R45, that's truly disgusting.

The fetus behind the boiler in the basement.

The housekeeper. Her rates are reasonable. She comes once a week and she's used to the stairs.

A tin of caviar in the fridge and a small plastic statue of Saint Joseph - protector of homes.

we bought our house from a man who was a serious gun nut. when we toured it, it was empty, except for giant gun lockers and boxes of ammo in the garage and NRA lanyards in drawers. he had moved a few months prior to listing the house, so otherwise the house was empty. when our offer was accepted, i suggested to the realtor that we write him a letter of thanks, from his bi-national, interracial, same sex gay couple buyers, but she said, um, no, just move in and be happy

I forgot; we also inherited an outdoor Mary-in-clamshell statue and a jockey. I donated her at a drop-off box to avoid bad luck and dumped him in the trash.

A smoker in the shed, an entire “pack” of shingles, some drywall, an 8’ rat snake living in the ancient garage and a ghost.

Also, some beautiful peonies that I only discovered when I ripped out the completely overgrown bushes, along with some irises and lilies.

Christmas ornaments! The wife had passed away first, then the husband went into a board & care. I think they only had sons, because we tried to contact them and no one was interested. There some beautiful vintage ones I kept. But there were also boxes and boxes of themed ornaments that were kitschy. Like all different ceramic angels, or little holly hobbie type ornaments. And some really loud looking 60’s style giant ones. Oh, and some little wooden animals in the style of the Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer special. They were all in the attic, probably 20 boxes.

R42 is former virst ladee.

[quote] A washer, dryer, and a spare old fridge in the basement were the most useful items left behind.

Lucky!

I got a recycling bin filled with stale beer and cigarette butts.

I inherited a huge chandelier in the dining room. I wish I had taken a picture. I replaced it immediately and learned later from neighbors that the previous owner loved to entertain and everyone enjoyed her elegant dining area and accouterments. Everyone asked what happened to the chandelier and I felt bad for not holding on to it and offering it to a neighbor.

I saw a comedy routine once where the guy pointed out that new owners usually redecorate, so when doing his house up for sale he likes to write I WILL KILL AGAIN in red paint on the wall and then wallpaper over it.

A hunter green velvet couch. A bunch of medical supplies/equipment. Tools.

Kept the couch, gave away the medical stuff, use a lot of the tools.

MAGA neighbors

A beer can and bottle collection lining the top of the kitchen cabinets at my first sublet out of the dorms in college. We were moving in as the previous tenants were moving out. My roommate pointed them out and one of the guys said "It's a housewarming present!" Ugh.

Amaryllis belladona/surprise lillies and a calla lily in the back yard, along with a long-defunct water feature that became a cesspool/mosquito breeding pit. Old family photos in an outbuilding that I let a former renter take to give back to their original owner. The crawlspace that served as an underground clubhouse for neighborhood cats until I sealed the entrances.