Mmmm...well......on the move from our small garden home to our present home (which we built), I lost all my underwear. Yes.....it has become a family joke and I still get comments from rarely seen relatives asking if we ever found that basket of clothes that was lost.

The night before the move, I had washed the last load of clothes that included my unmentionables along with a few items that belonged to my 2 1/2 year old daughter....like a few little jackets that belonged to sets of overalls. My husband and I remember seeing the basket of clothes in the living room the morning of the move. We had several friends helping with several trucks. Got to the new house and it was that evening that I realized the basket was missing. It had not been left and no one had access to the old house as the closing was not for several weeks. None of the helpers had the basket.....the basket has never been found. All my undergarments (well, the good stuff, anyway) gone!

I still wonder about one of my husband's friends that was helping....did always find him kinda strange. LOL!

I kind of have a sour look on my face right now because you kept the ring and seem proud about it. Especially since the house was a foreclosure, it makes it even sadder.

I would bend over backwards trying to find the P.O. and return the ring.

Sorry to be a party pooper. :(

I guess we're lucky. The only thing "left behind" in any house we have bought was a wild bird that was flying around in the family room. It had pooped all over the walls and floor, and was terrified. The PO had left the chimney damper open, and the bird had apparently flown in. DH and our realtor were able to get it to fly out the door.

OK, did I say I didn't try to return the ring? No, I don't think I did. Funny, though I mentioned that as part of the question.

So, extra special for those who'd like to think I'm a heartless biotch... here's the rest of the story:

The POs had divorced and mailed the key into the bank long before we came along. Only one left a forwarding addy (in another state) to the bank, we tried mailing and calling (this was pre www and cell phones). No luck. The ring was a tiny pinky ring with diamond and emerald chips, it was not old and it could not have been worth much. As far as sentimental value goes, did I mention they got a divorce?

Happy pam/oak?

Riosamba - the PO's must have been nasty or crazy or both. Freaks!

Riosamba, I agree with kelp. I hope you knew how to deal with squalor (and not get sick) or hired a specialty company (and not get sick). That is terrible especially after you are exhausted from moving.

"...for those who'd like to think I'm a heartless biotch..."

I didn't think or say that.

greenthumb, I'm sorry that you have been given such a hard time over keeping the ring. I'm glad that you tried to track down the previous owner, it can be especially hard to find people who have bailed on their house.

We've bought and sold quite a few houses. With one, the POs took every single light bulb in the ceiling/wall fixtures, and left hundreds of dry cleaner hangers. They also took utility overhead lighting fixtures from the basement and all the mini-blinds.

With our next hour, the PO left us a good-luck broom, bottle of champagne, and flowers! A nice change :)

This has been an interesting, although, maybe not really surprising, thread. In the times in which we live, it seems that more and more people believe they are 'entitled' to take whatever they want from a house they are selling, no matter what the contract or understanding is at the time of sale.

And while I wondered what you did with the ring, GTF, I also assumed you kept it from your wording, especially with the little happy face at the end of your sentence. I also assumed that there was no good way to find the P.O.s. But no one called you what you called yourself in your disclaimer. They simply commented that they would have returned it, hoping, probably for the explanation that you finally provided. No reason to get twitterpated over any of that...

Red

If anyone regularly saw the condition of foreclosures, you would not feel bad for someone who kept a ring, whether they tried to find the PO or not. Some people are very angry with the bank and do some nasty damage before they leave. Often, the new h.o. is saddled with a lot of remedial work only necessary because of the prior owner's spite. I do feel bad when I see height markings on the wall or a nursery recently decorated, but the fact that someone was foreclosed was not the bank or new people's fault. Often, I'd see expensive new kitchens, hot tubs and baths and used wonder why the PO did not have a larger rainy day fund. Now that the economy has stunk for so long, I know that many people are jobless for extended lengths outside of their control.
In previous years, I had sympathy but not as much as now, and more so when the house was left in decent condition. I have seen bathtubs and everything imaginable stripped from some houses. People have defecated or urinated on the floors and walls, and spray painted awful stuff all over the place. Anyone can find themselves in a bind, but there is no need to act so badly.

For the 2 houses I bought, nothing was left unless you count dust bunnies and old grease/dirt, etc... Both times I was in tears when it would take me a whole day just to make the kitchen clean enough to unpack. I know I left my old places scrubbed and Windexed on my way out yet have awful luck in what I buy. I lost a large sapphire cocktail ring in my last house and never heard about it. I am hoping it turns up when I unpack some stuff from that move in the coming weeks (we have 2 weeks to go to our reno). My boys were little when it was lost, so I am hoping it was shoved inside something or put somewhere safe. It was lost within a week of buying it and we had months before we moved. I scoured that whole house so chances are it is not there. I sure hope one of my darlings did not throw it away. I'd rather the new owner had it than it was lost. She was a nice single mom and it would be appreciated. Of course, I'd really rather have it back myself!

Kelp and PJ, yes the move in process was very taxing. The house itself was not that dirty,(which made the whole thing even weirder) but we spent many hours disinfecting EVERYTHING. DH replaced the shelf- not enough bleach in the world to sanitize the old one!

Shortly after I moved into my house and took down the knotty pine cabinets in my kitchen, a friend asked if I would donate the cabinets to a couple she knew. They had moved into a foreclosure only to find that ALL of the kitchen cabinets had been taken. They were devastated and too broke from buying the house to afford to buy even cheap replacement cabinets.

I thought it was odd that this couple hadn't thought to do a walk-through before closing. They were both real estate agents.

I'm currently wearing a 14K gold ruby and diamond ring that my grandmother gave me a week before she died. She lost the ring in her previous home in Iowa (where she lived for 60 years.) The next owners found it when they began to demo for a remodel. They tracked her down in CA, and had it shipped to her some 26 years after she lost it. I'm certainly glad they did - it's very special to me. My grandmother didn't have a lot in the way of "earthly possessions"...and I know it meant a lot to her, too, to be able to pass it down. I'm glad no one else was "surprised" with it!

Green, thanks for explaining. It does make me feel better. lol.

BUT...even though it was an inexpensive ring and they divorced doesn't mean the ring came from him to her, and it could have been a gift from another family member.

But I'm glad you tried to reach out to them. :)

One of the things I loved about my current home was the cedar lined closet that I lovingly gazed into every time I walked thru the house prior to closing. When I got possession of the house after closing, I discovered that all of the cedar paneling planks had been removed from that closet! What a surprise!!! Never thought to specify that permanent wall coverings be left in place. Now if only the po had taken some of the knotty pine paneling..... THAT would have been fabulous!

Some people just aren't overly bright when it comes to this type of situation and it has little to do with their overall intelligence.

I had a client who thought she could rent out her house with the basement half full of junk. She also thought she could show it when she put it up for sale looking very cluttered and messy. But she had bought the house dirty and run down and before the days of "staging" so she didn't know any better. She also doesn't really know what "clean" really is either. I finally convinced her to get a cleaning lady ---who shocked her by telling her that it would take at least two or three full days to get the house clean enough to clean, in the way a typical cleaning lady does. (I had been telling her this all along)

She now owns a beach house and they had problems with the first couple renters because the house was not absolutely pristine when they unlocked the door. They made the rental agent drive over and replace a lightbulb. Of course this same family broke the outdoor spigot, a window screen and hid bags of garbage in the attic rather than taking it offshore with them. They move in expecting the Ritz and move out of the Motel 6. People think their own dirt is a lot less dirty than someone else's.

Both houses I moved into were dirty with things left behind.
The place I left was clean with all the owner's manuals in a folder and all the paint labeled as to which room it went into.

When STBX and I built our first house together - we moved in before completion so there were workers coming in and out.

My diamond stud earrings - came up "missing". I didn't lose them, someone just walked off with them. I guess it was my fault for not putting them away securely On My Ears!

Since we moved into a foreclosure house the only thing the most recent PO left was a mess. Unfortunately from what we understand, he didn't care for his animals well and the house was filthy, the carpet was full of urine and his color choices for the wall were obnoxious. I felt terrible for this house almost like we had to rescue it. LOL

Anyways, a week or so after moving in, I was in the garage and noticed there were pencil markings on some drywall next to the garage door. It was where the original owners had kept height measurements of there kids back in the late 80's. There were 2 kids and they dated each new measurement. This was finally a sign of better times for our house.

I've told a neighbor who still occasionally hears from the Original owners that if they want that piece of dry wall I'd be happy to cut it out for them so they can have it. From what I can tell, the kids are now in their late 20's.

We bought our grocery store while it was in "pre-foreclosure" proceedings and I had spoken to the PO many times (this place was also his dream house, then he fell on hard times and never got to do anything - put it on the market when things got really bad for him, and a developer wanted to snatch it up for condos. He refused the offer and the house sat on the market for nearly a year. We came in just as the bank did and made him an offer that paid off his indebtedness and left him with a little seed money).

I tried to keep in touch with him because when we demo'd the master bedroom there was, on the closet door jamb, a height chart for all his girls (3). We pulled it off and I stored it in the attic because I would have wanted something like that.

On the other hand, when we moved out of our house I had cleaned out the closet and packed one box for donations and one to take with us. Well, guess which one my husband put out for the AmVets? Yep, the one with all my expensive linen summer clothes! I spent all of last summer in too small, not quite right summer clothes...guess it wasn't so bad because I also spent most of the summer at a construction site!

Our purchase contract said that the AC unit -- worth $5G -- was not included. To our surprise and relief it was there when we moved in. It was a hot summer.

PDP, did you contact the previous owners to correct the situation? To see if they were coming back for it or if you could offer to pay for it since it was not in the contract you had signed and knew that it wasn't included? Besides that the article in question is bigger and harder to move, how is it different keeping it without trying to return it to the rightful owner? Because a ring might have sentimental value?

Can we stop with the posts sniping at each other? This post had some interesting stories in between the snarky ones.

My current home/farm was purchased from a relocation company. The previous owner had already "moved" from NY to MD. Thank goodness, I closed on the farm first before I closed on the home I sold ... I had 2 full weeks to clean and paint before moving in.

Every outbuilding had leftover junk in it. 13 years later, I still haven't finished throwing everything away. The trunk with the old liquor in the baby's closet was an interesting find ... couldn't imagine how it ended up in the 2nd floor baby's closet ... that filled the 1st garbage can.

We bought our current home from a retired couple who were moving to their out-of-state condo. So, in our offer, we said that if they left their almost new riding lawn mower, they could also leave anything else they wanted. We knew it would be difficult for them to clean everything out, as one of them was disabled, and they knew we couldn't afford more than the lower offer we made.

It worked fairly well, except there was way more cleaning than I expected when we moved in. They left the lawn tractor, but they also left a bunch of other random stuff-including slippers by the bed and some hot dogs in the fridge, LOL! They left some useful furniture, too. We had a truck come by from a charity to pick up the useful items, and made a trip or two to the dump for the not-so useful things.

My favorite "find" is all the bricks that were in and around the barn that the kids collected and stacked-almost a full pallet of 4x12 bricks that I have been using as edging for paths and garden beds.

The house we sold had a garden full of veggies and herbs almost ready to harvest. I sure hope they did-the husband of the couple who bought our house said that he planned to plow the garden under. It would then be a good spot to park his boat. :(

My sister did dig up all the bulbs when she left one house. However, it was likely that the house was going to be converted to student housing (as it had been before she lived there). The bulbs also started with my great Aunt or in her mother's garden. So some of them were 85 years old, from the time of her first house. I hope to have some of them when I have a garden.

palimpsest

Leaving that kind of info is a nice touch. I also left our buyers a packet of all the owner's manuals, including some that had been left for us by the original owners (and I mean, they bought it in 1959 and we wer ethe second owners!) I also left a list of good contractors and notes on who not to hire, as well as some Atomic Ranch magazines since it was an MCM house. The original owners also left a big box of 1960s wallpaper that I left as well.

I did lose a watercolor done by a friend when I moved across town once, and when I realized it and went back the new renter said he had thrown in out.

Timber, your brick story reminded me that I we did find something here.

We built on an acre in the country. There used to be a house here but it was demolished many years ago. If the house was still here it would have been over a 100 years old. "Old" people keep telling us of the dances they had here on Friday and Saturday nights!

We found a large pile of the original stone foundation to the house, it had grass growing in the stones and my dh knew he found a gold mine.

One by one, he used them to decorate around our new storm cellar. He made several staggered ledges around it and it reminds me of an old fort!

This is such a wonderful thread!

My son-in-law moved into a house a few years before he and my daughter married. Hiding under a deck, within the fenced back yard, he found this...........................

{{gwi:1618038}}

LUCY, my grand dog, now happily lives with her daddy and new mama (my daughter) in another home.
{{gwi:1618039}}

When we sold our previous home, we added in the listing that we would be taking the guest baths antique sink and mirror. We offered either cash (so that the new buyers could by a new sink and mirror) or said that we would replace them. The new owners never specified their wishes, so we replaced the items with a nice, large pedestal sink and mirror. When they arrived for the walk-through, we were still packing up the kitchen. After the new owner looked in the guest bath, she had an odd look on her face. Made me think that the realtor never told her about the exclusions. However, she never said a word.

We always leave the appliance instructions, and this last time, we left an article about the history of the orchard stone that the house was built of. Also left a set of the house plans.

We hired my housekeeper to clean the house as we were moving out. The new owners said that the floors were clean enough to eat off of and she had never moved into such a clean house.

Unfortunately, the downstairs fridge that we sold to the new owners, quit working a couple of weeks later and it flooded their carpet. :( Well, actually what happened was that the fridge started making a noise, so the owner unplugged it. No wonder it flooded, the thing defrosted onto the carpet.

We have an insane garage...it's just a hair bigger than 1800 sq ft, and when we looked at the house, it was mostly empty and tidy, but the garage was packed FULL. There were two paths to walk in all of that mess, and the rest was floor to ceiling "stuff." Lawn tractors, furniture, boxes and boxes of I don't know what. The PO's were to have it emptied before closing, but there was some decent furniture in there, so we were flexible about it. Our position was clean out what you can, but whatever is left on closing day becomes ours.

Well, they mostly cleaned out the garage, but they also took all of the garage shelving. The attics were full of old (empty) cardboard boxes that had become housing for mice, plastic bags that had desintigrated in the heat, and an assortment of other junk. The yard had multiple piles of trash...old burn piles of things that don't burn (carpeting, drywall scraps, brick, hardware) another huge pile in the back corner of construction debris and trash.

We're still cleaning up the yard, and I suspect we will be for years to come. There must have been something tiled with pale blue tile a long time ago, because I've found pieces of it all over the property...flower beds, off the back porch, in the back forty, on and on. I'm saving the tile shards, and I'm going to make a mosaic tabletop out of it someday.

The one treasure they left us, was that chadelier in the attic. I saw it up there when we first looked at the house, and I'm so happy to have it back in the dining room. I never mentioned it to them, or I'm sure they would've taken it.

The last rent house we were in is a whole other story...blood on the walls, burnt carpet, weeds hip high, and rotting food in every cupboard and drawer. Oy! When we moved out, I left behind all of the iris bulbs that I had planted that had come from my Mother's garden. Turns out there was a flower bed and installed edging underneath all of the weeds! I should have taken at least a few of those bulbs. After we had totally cleaned the place out and I had cleaned and sanitized floor to ceiling, I replaced one of the toilet seats and all of the blinds. I hope the landlord was grateful.

The POs were at home when we viewed the house we bought last year, the elderly gentleman showed us around and when we went to look out back he pointed and said 'That's Christine, she's staying', I was sort of expecting to maybe see a neighborhood cat or a bird that lived in the trees but what we saw was a huge (6 foot or so) fountain with a swagged lady in the middle, my husband was so charmed with the couple we bought the house (and he loves that fountain!).

They were moving to assisted living and left behind a fair amount of stuff they wouldn't need or have room for, I bought a dresser from them so they didn't have to move it (and donated the large one we had so we didn't have to move that), lots of gardening tools, a ladder, all the cleaning supplies under each cabinet, and a wood chair that I rehabilitated, we haven't heard from them since a week or so after moving in, I hope they are happy and doing well.

Every house I have ever moved into, rentals or purchases, has been dirty. With discarded items/junk I(nothing of value) left behind. One rental, when I was a young single mom, the renters moved out in the middle of the night. It was owned by two elderly sisters and they gave me the first month's rent free for hauling away the garbage, rotted food. etc, and painting all the rooms.
After I married DH and we sold our house to move 800 miles away, my cousin, who was keeping an eye on the place, drove up to find the REALTOR loading the decorative mirrors from one of the bathrooms in his car.
When I move, I always try to leave everything spic and span, usually cleaner than when I lived there. lol.

Thank you Justgotabme & Pjtexgirl. Justgotabme, maybe it's true what they say about "you can never go home again". I once took DH to the neighbourhood where I grew up. It had changed so much, that I wished I hadn't gone. This is our first and very likely last home, but if we leave here I hope I can be as sweet & generous to the new owners as you were to yours.

When we moved in it was a long weekend & we were going away for the weekend - we only had the Friday to move. We put the first load in our truck & arrived but they (& their furniture/stuff) were still here. We waited around for awhile & finally asked them to call us when they were on their way out. Long story short. We had to move a lot of it back into our old house. DH was exhausted & went to bed (having taken the day off work for nothing). At 10:00 pm they called to say they were done. Saturday we dropped everything at the new house, put away only the groceries before going away. Of course we came back to find that we had missed putting away one box of perishables. Found out later from the lawyer that per the contract they should have been out by 6:00 pm on the Thursday. We were just so glad it was over, we decided not to take it any further. Oh and they did take the mirror from the bathroom.

Ever see the show on ABC called "What would you do"?

Here's the view from the other side. When we sold our house, I spent a full day cleaning everything--closets, shelves, floors, the kitchen and bathroom. It was a real chore, especially since I had a 6-month old and we were still working hard on getting the house we'd moved into fixed up.

However, since we had moved literally around the corner I was chagrined to see that the new owners didn't even move in until they gutted the place! So, all my hard work was for absolutely nothing--the kitchen and bathroom disappeared as did all the built ins that I'd cleaned so diligently.

Don't plan on moving again and I am incapable of leaving things dirty. But the phrase broom clean will be the one I'll aim for if I ever do!

Ann

bless little Lucy's heart! i'm so glad they DID leave her behind. anyone who would do that shouldn't have her! that just makes me sick... and makes me wonder what kind of a life she had prior to hiding there. Maybe she hid FROM them so they couldn't take her...

and darn, I wish someone would take the mirrors out of my bathrooms! it'd save me a bunch of hassle and work!

Ha! Yeah, if they'd only taken the big honking wall mirrors in the upstairs bathrooms ;-)

No, the normal stuff... they left ugly left over paint and pool chems in the garage, tile and yet another ugly chandelier (wish they'd taken it's twin!) in the attic, oh, and a window shade for an F150 pickup, woot!

These stories are all fantastic and you all told them so well. Thanks for sharing, I've enjoyed this thoroughly!

I had a rough day at work and loved coming home to this thread again. I also Love Lucy. So sweet, glad someone with heart found her there.

I guess we've just been fortunate in our house purchases. The one we bought in 2002, that we still live in, was purchased from the original owners. About 4 days before closing, he called to tell my DH that when they moved their sofa, they discovered that something had happened to discolor the carpet in that spot and that they were having the carpet dealer completely re-carpet the house for us. He was just calling to make sure that we were not planning to replace the flooring before he paid for the labor. The carpet guys left a couple of hours before we moved in. The house was extremely clean, with new beige carpet and a bottle of champagne/2 glasses on the kitchen counter.

Red

To give you an idea about the condition of our first house... when we moved in, I went to vacuum one of the kids' bedrooms. When my vc popped open, I knew it was time for a new bag. Luckily, I had one left. I put it in and kept going. It popped again, so I figured something was wrong with my vc, but when I took the 2nd bag out, it was full too. I can't imagine how they had their young kids in such a filthy house. I know some people stop keeping up once they get in contract, but I would not have wanted our kids to walk on that floor much less sleep in that room or, heaven forbid, play on the floor. Good thing our sons were not born yet, lol... They had a shedding dog, so I suspect a lot was fur.... yuck!
We went through several more bags despite it only having carpet in the 3 bedrooms and den (all normal size rooms, nothing big).

dianalo Yech! That reminds me of an apt that my cousin moved into. I helped her clean the place up before moving and it was seriously gross. The previous renter was a heavy smoker and had lived there for over a decade. After vaccuuming and finding tons of straight pins in the carpet, we shampooed those rugs and even though it was a small apt, we had to change the water in the machine a half a dozen times. Don't even get me started on the walls, windows, and cabs. Yuck.

decordummy, you can go home sometimes. My parents gave the home we grew up in to my little brother. This weekend when we visit DH's family in Rochester, I can go home to my brother's house. As much as he's painted and changed things up, it's still home.

This has been an interesting read.

Chiming in as I have another unique "Lost" to add. Our house was empty 6 months when we bought it, in the hands of a relo firm (a company assisted move). The PO had removed E V E R Y T H I N G. Including most window treatments, including in the bathrooms where there are full size windows not even a rod was left.

And uniquely including......THE OUTLET COVERS! Yep, rough holes in the walls of most rooms, including DS's new BR right next to his bed. First thing we had to buy.

The house also had no central a/c, but a single window unit was sitting on the floor of an upstairs BR. The relo company had been emphatic the house was As Is, they weren't doing anything. About a year later the PO swung by and had the nerve to ask for the little old a/c unit!

I didn't have the nerve to ask for the outlet covers......

"bless little Lucy's heart! i'm so glad they DID leave her behind. anyone who would do that shouldn't have her! that just makes me sick... and makes me wonder what kind of a life she had prior to hiding there. Maybe she hid FROM them so they couldn't take her... "

The house that Lucy was found in was a rental that belonged to my SIL's family. The previous owners had moved out 3 days before he moved in, which means that Lucy was there without anyone for 3 days. For a while, she was skittish and remained under the deck, only to come out for food. She has slowly warmed up to everyone, although she still takes time with strangers. She does not like children, however. Makes you wonder if the previous renters children beat on her. :(

WOW Red! New carpet... that's fantastic!

I cannot believe I didn't post the following, earlier, although i know I have mentioned it before on this board. (that's a good thing, means I am recovering.)

Hope you enjoy this long winded story! Sorry, I cannot go into too much detail on why the following happened.

In 2001-2002, while building our dream home, we sold our previous home and had to move out for just a few short weeks before moving into our new home (BTW - That new home is not the home that we are now in.) We felt lucky to find a patio type home for rent where the owner did not require a lease. We stayed in the home for 5 weeks. We stored our belongings and furniture in every nook and cranny of that patio home, with the bulk of our furniture in the garage. Most of the storage boxes were stored in the dining room or attics.

The day we were moving out, the movers had already made one run to our new home. We still had personal possessions, paintings, art work, china, and a garage full of furniture to move. The movers were going to grab a bite to eat, and then meet me at the rental for the last load.

I left DH and children at the new house, and headed to the rental to wait for the movers and straighten up a bit. We had already cleaned the bathrooms, kitchen and most rooms. All we lacked was to vacuum the den, dining room, and sweep the garage once those items were moved out.

When I arrived at the rental and walked up the sidewalk, I noticed that the dining room window blind was falling down. I didn't really think anything except "Great! I am going to have to rehang that blind." As I started to unlock the front door (had a code type lock) the front door blew in, taking me with it. The threshold of the door (about 5" high) caught my feet, and I stumbled into the front foyer and was surrounded by smoke. I don't remember leaving, but I ended up in the driveway and calling 911. The falling blind was really a melting blind.

Long story short, the patio home had been set on fire by someone while we were away. Luckily, I was not badly hurt, although a fireman did have severe injuries from a fall. We were fortunate that the fire did not spread to the garage before being put out. We did lose everything else left in the house, as well as some rugs and fabric furniture in the garage where the smell of smoke was not removable. To top it off, when the movers arrived to see the house on fire, they asked for a check for the time they had put in, and then they left! We had to have friends help us load up the things from the garage and move the rest ourselves.

Our insurance was wonderful, and we were able to replace lost items pretty quickly. However, I went through a period (and still do to an extent) where I was afraid to leave the new house. Now, when I am out and hear a fire truck siren, I have a small panic attack and cannot wait to get home to check on the house.

I mentioned earlier that our dream home was not the home we are currently in. One of the reasons is because that house reminded me of what happened. I even had to repaint our pretty coral walls in the Master bedroom because it reminded me of fire. Plus, we had to ride by the rental home (which stayed burned out for over a year while the fire was being investigated by the FTA and owners insurance company) whenever we went anywhere. So, after 4 years in that home, we sold it and moved into our current home. I really miss that home, though. I have gotten much better about the panic attacks. I mostly worry because of the dog being left in the house.

Oh, when we were set to move into our current home, the new home wasn't quite finished, but we had to move out of our previous home. We had the movers store our things, and we lived in a hotel and out-of-town relatives homes for over a week. The day we were to move in (ready according to our builder), we arrived to find painters, carpenters, plumbers, landscapers, etc. still working on the house. The house had not even been cleaned! I was not a happy camper.

The one that got away for me was in our last house. It was a farm house that was originally built in the 1800's. The PO right before me renovated almost the whole thing. There was a detached root cellar and a safe in the wall of the basement of the old part of the house though that I don't think the PO right before us ever went in. Who knows what was in either. We tried to get someone to open the safe but no one would do it or wanted to charge a fortune. I can't remember.

So we moved never having been in the root cellar or one of the many outbuildings, or opening that safe.

I wonder if the safe was empty or had anything in it (oh forgot to mention the handle was broken off!)

Newhome, how awful for you! I'm so sorry that happened. I'm glad the arsonist didn't kill anyone,but sad the fire fighter got hurt. That is truly freaky.

I can't imagine not having access to parts of my home. Then again I'm no where near brave enough to take on a very old home either. Knob and tube wire...yeah right NOT!

Mine is definitely on the vent side!

We sold our house last year. We left several things the buyers expressed interest in, but we were by no means required to give them. We also left several things we couldn't use, but knew they could (like the leftover paint from when we last painted, so they'd have touch up paint).

So...

They were scheduled to take possession on a Friday. That Tue my DD (just over a year old then) had to be hospitalized and we didn't know when she would get out. We had our realtor contact theirs -- she said they understood, and "were willing to give us until Saturday." A whole day after they moved in. DD ended up being in the hospital for 9 days, and the house was the last thing on our minds. When she finally got to join us back at home & things were settled, it was about two weeks after they moved in. Our realtor called for us, and was basically told "too bad, so sad." They were keeping our things, and if we showed up to get them, the police would be called.

So they got a grill, smoker, patio furniture set, several planters, etc.

Jerks.

I forgot to tell you what we did find. When DH was installing roof vents, from the outside looking into the attic he could see boxes. So he came inside to check out the attic. There were several boxes of very hard core biker porn magazines all from the early 1960s. There was also a brand-new box of glassware (drinking glasses). The glasses got washed & put in the cupboard, the porn went straight out the door.

We bought our home from friends who were building another home. While they could move in, there were still workmen around, so they kept their extensive art collection in what was now our home. It was very nice to have such wonderful art on the walls, which actually went better with our decor than with theirs.
Eventually they did take their artwork. We're still friends.

Good question HH :). As to jewels....I found a pretty little pearl broach (antique) in a townhouse we purchased a few years ago. I still have it...they were drug dealers who were thrown out by the PO and they and the other six people who roomed in the place trashed an already trashed place. It took a six person cleaning crew a week to clean it up including all of the broken glass (because why not break the windows before you go right?). I don't care if it was the druggies grandmothers broach...karma left it in the place and I wasn't hunting down drug dealers.

So that's a good and bad story. My other townhouse is more fun.

We purchased within a few hours of listing despite the place being overpriced because I wrote the contract at asking price or bank approved appraised value, which ever was the lesser knowing that it would appraise about fifty grand lower than our offer. That man thought he was so smart lol he had his brother do the appraisal :). But it was not a huge town...people knew of the relationship so the bank rejected the appraisal and did another, coming in exactly where I said it would. He tried to get out if the contract so we sued for breach...ugly ugly but we won of course. So out if bitterness I guess he removed the horrific chandelier from the dining room which he said his wife carried on her lap on the plane from a castle in Hungary. I don't know why she bothered because you can buy them all day long at lows for about 22 bucks but whatever....it saved the price of removing it from our costs lol. They also left the new fridge and washer and dryer (not addressed in the contract either way). They didn't have time to take them because we had forced closing before they started packing the day prior to moving (they thought that we would give up). They came back two months later saying their kids wanted them for their new house so they would go ahead and take them now. I laughed and suggested they try a better storage facility and closed the door. Those appliances didn't come close to our legal fees and weren't going anywhere.

Then there is this house....we purchased lock, stock and barrel. Not only did they bake a quiche and leave it in the fridge with juice, coffee and creamer but they left a dozen roses in a silver vase that belonged to the original owner on the dining room table with two glasses, a cheese plate and a bottle of wine. They also left a toy on the table for our son and a few others were hidden around the house for him.

The house was spotless with freshly made beds and fully stocked bathrooms. If I ever buy a house again I'm going to pay someone to do that for me again lol. It was heaven!!!!

The PO asked if we wanted this cute little chair, which they purchased to match their lavender bedroom. DD has used it in her room her whole life.
Please ignore the paint splotches on her floor! As dd grew, the room turned into her br and art studio.

Such an adorable chair, deedee!

I'm loving all of these stories, what a good idea for a thread. :)

Thanks ghostly! DD would probably have preferred the PO had left Lucy the adorable pup instead of the adorable chair:)
I am enjoying everyone's stories too!

LOL Lucy is a cutie, and lucky someone came along to give her the home and family she deserves.