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

Brie

When we moved into our current place it was absolutely pristine which meant it was a bit of a surprise to find a large plastic box full of all of their baking supplies in one of the kitchen cupboards.  Easy to return to them at least!

When I was a young teen my family moved to a house where there was finally 4 bathrooms/toilets for the 6 of us and a separate room for each of us kids - two of which had en suites.  Weirdly my oldest brother got the top floor room which had a toilet and sink in a small en suite - with a window from the toilet into the bedroom.  There was also a doorbell in the kitchen which rang in his bedroom.  We couldn't decide if his room was originally a maid's room or if it was built for a lazy teen who slept in too often.

Brie

Oh and on renovating the very old farm house my mom currently lives in there was a contract written on the back of a door in the pantry which described an addition to the house being done in exchange for $50 and the large white horse.

Sunsaru

The surprises I got when i got the keys to my house were the following

1) The little white box next to the front door was a panic alarm
2) It was active
3) The house alarm worked
4) It took a phone call and an hour sitting outside the house before the EA called me back to tell me what the alarm code was.

Oh and 3 car loads of stuff to take to the tip after I ventured into the loft....

amyr

Not me, but my parents: a shared attic space, with a single video tape on the neighbours side. Nothing else.

They never took it to watch and I really admire their constraint!

theartfullodger

A car in the garage

White_rose

A week after moving in I discovered my loft packed (first time buyer error, didn’t ask to see the loft) with masses of pristine baby things.

The couple I bought off didn’t have children so I worked out from speaking with neighbours, these were from a couple who lived in the house 10 years ago who had split up and my sellers clearly ignored the items for years. 

I then found a wedding photo album from this couple which looked like it was from the non-digital era and could be the only copies.

I hung onto the album as I couldn’t bring myself to bin it, it clearly had pictures of elderly relatives that someone might want despite being divorced.

I recently had a plumber come to the house (not local but recommended) who said he recognised my property. Turned out he had done work here before for the divorced couple 10 years ago and I mentioned the album and he recognised their pictures. 

After a bit of detective work on Facebook from the plumbers wife tracking down a friend of a friend who knew the couple years ago, my details were passed on. 

She confirmed it was her album, thought it had been destroyed by her ex and was absolutely over the moon I could return it to her - as I suspected she wanted the photos of her family. 

Sapindus

Davesnave said:

Also, on a sunny spring day some time between the above events, a nice guy from the council came to enquire if he could inspect the horse burials. 

In my grandparents garden down in Devon there was a summerhouse, the floor of which was the granite base of an old cider press.  Buried under a paving slab in front of this was a horse's skull.  Some sort of tradition to do with the cider press.  My grandmother showed me once but I always wondered if after they died and the house was sold the next owners would have found it, because I doubt anyone else knew it was there.

Davesnave

Sapindus said:

Davesnave said:

Also, on a sunny spring day some time between the above events, a nice guy from the council came to enquire if he could inspect the horse burials. 

In my grandparents garden down in Devon there was a summerhouse, the floor of which was the granite base of an old cider press.  Buried under a paving slab in front of this was a horse's skull. 

I'm in Devon and our our burials were close to an orchard containing cider apple varieties, but there the similarity ends. I don't like cider, having experimented far too much with illicit scrumpy, bought at the rear entrance to a local pub in my mid teens. 1s 6d bought a quart if you took your own bottle and it was memorable for all the wrong reasons!

Splatfoot

Oh, I forgot about this. From 1969 🤭

Splatfoot

And this from 1939...