Discussion
You find the weirdest stuff in your walls. Our house was built in 1949 and we're its third owner, and I have *no idea* what those other people were doing, but at one point someone installed a junction box full of live, bare wires that they filled with crumpled newspaper (!); and don't get me started on the decision not to put vapor barriers in the kitchen windows.
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@pluralistic As the owner of a place built in 1907, this old Simpsons joke is always lurking in my sub conscience:
@pluralistic When we knocked out a wall in my grandmother's house in the 70s we found a little .32 rimfire revolver plastered in. Always thought the story about my grandfather's disappearance was a bit unlilkely.
@BradJMurray @pluralistic When we did some renovation a while back, we wrote love notes on the concrete before the carpet was laid, and put poems in the light switch boxes. Maybe not as interesting as a revolver, but hopefully the next owners will have a laugh. :-)
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/10/16/sovereign-it/#boring-stuff-matters
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(We were one good shake away from the entire front of the house falling down when we discovered that one, and while it cost us an extra $19,000 to fix, that was still cheaper than rebuilding the whole front of the house)
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Plus there was the unpermitted drainage system installed down the side of the house that must have attracted some (undocumented) planning inspector negativity; at least, that's the only reason I can think of for someone to have filled those drains with concrete (!!), a fact we discovered during the first heavy rainfall after moving in, when the water rose to shin-height (!!!).
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But the weirdest and most nerve-wracking mysteries were the "structural" members of dubious quality, placement and utility. Some of them only *seemed* to be holding stuff up, but on closer inspection turned out to be free-floating 2x4s, not anchored to anything. On more than one occasion, our builders have moved jacks into position and removed those random uprights, only to discover that they weren't holding *anything* up.
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@pluralistic Thanks for "Epstein Memorial Ballroom".
I hope this becomes a meme.