Homeowners: did any of you discover your new place had a surprise feature AFTER moving in?

ouraggie

I lived in a ground floor flat for 10 years. Victoria terrace conversion. High brick wall at bottom of the garden. I assumed that the rear neighbour's garden ended at this wall.  The week before I moved out I noticed an old wooden door between 2 houses, about 4 doors down from me. Yep, it was the entrance to an overgrown back alley which ran behind all the gardens, giving rear access. If I had known I could have kept my bike in the back garden rather than the dining room!

JIL

We found loads of stuff in the loft. We got a man to come and take the rubbish away (checked he was registered) I still smile at the sight of the large teddy bear sitting on the Van's front seat with a seatbelt around it as it drove away. 

MissRMB

Other then the previous owners leaving bags filled with bags filled with bags (etc.), we have found: a leaf blower in the shed, graffti under the wallpaper with some interesting drawrings and an old washing line thing (those ones you stick in the ground and open) but it has been covered in ivy and shrubs so will take some work before we can dig it out... We haven't taken the carpets up yet, so who knows what else we may come across! 

writer5

Discovered beautiful oak herringbone floor thoughout the ground floor, all hidden by manky, stained carpet. Result!

Slinky

writer5 said:

Discovered beautiful oak herringbone floor thoughout the ground floor, all hidden by manky, stained carpet. Result!

We discovered 1960s parquet flooring under our carpets.  Last year when we took out the old gas fire and had the fireplace blocked up we discovered an old Daily Telegraph from 1976 under a piece of slate which the gas fire was standing on.  I put it back in the wall along with a recent Sunday Times for somebody else to find in the future.

Bluebell1000

JIL said:

We found loads of stuff in the loft. We got a man to come and take the rubbish away (checked he was registered) I still smile at the sight of the large teddy bear sitting on the Van's front seat with a seatbelt around it as it drove away. 

Did you buy our old house? It wasn't until after my Dad had moved that he said he'd left some bits in the loft, including two large teddies I'd had when I was little. Still a bit gutted about that.

Davesnave

Slinky said:

writer5 said:

Discovered beautiful oak herringbone floor thoughout the ground floor, all hidden by manky, stained carpet. Result!

 when we took out the old gas fire and had the fireplace blocked up we discovered an old Daily Telegraph from 1976 under a piece of slate which the gas fire was standing on.  I put it back in the wall along with a recent Sunday Times for somebody else to find in the future.

Ah, but will they thank you? Under the bathroom floor in our old semi, I found a local newspaper with an advert for the last two houses on our little estate. I photocopied that bit and included it in the paperwork we gave our buyers a few years later.

They'd just paid us 135 times more for the property than it cost when brand new!

Murphybear

writer5 said:

Discovered beautiful oak herringbone floor thoughout the ground floor, all hidden by manky, stained 

We bought a lovely bungalow and removed the lounge carpet to find parquet flooring in near perfect condition.  We also found a clock in the shape of a teapot in the kitchen.  

It makes you wonder how many more hidden floors there are 

olgadapolga

writer5 said:

Discovered beautiful oak herringbone floor thoughout the ground floor, all hidden by manky, stained carpet. Result!

Whereas we had beautiful wooden flooring throughout the ground floor which was hiding manky, stained, infested carpet.

We discovered this when stripping wallpaper; the skirting fell off with the wallpaper (or maybe it was stuck to the wallpaper) and a load of insects crawled out . . . ugh.

The flooring had to be removed to get to the carpet, which was the most disgusting thing I had ever set eyes on (including the multiple sodden, filthy duvets under the seven liners of the garden pond). Wondered where the 'cat urine' smell that permeated the ground floor had originated from. Couldn't afford to replace it so ended up with carpets and tiles.

Other little treats included buried rubbish (stuff that the everyday folk would put in the bin, like plastic meat/chicken trays, crisp wrappers, bags for life), and a pond full of things like lawn mowers and fire pits. Oh, and the garden also had the remains of a wall (ie, the bricks and mortar) that had been removed when an extension was added. Previous occupant decided to bury rather than dispose of it. Bits keep floating to the surface, two years later.

ka7e

In our current house we discovered parquet flooring under the hall carpet, unfortunately nowhere else. Also the garden was 10 foot longer than we thought - there was an impenetrable wall of conifers (ex-Christmas trees planted by the family) and overgrown shrubbery so the EA couldn't measure to the back fence. We found 3 compost bins, a galvanised dustbin, a garden roller, a rotary line, a bird table and loads of plastic panels that had probably been a greenhouse at some time

When my son was decorating his first house he found the names of a previous owner's children and grandchildren under the wallpaper. One of the grandchildren was my daughter's ex-boyfriend.