...because home doesn't happen overnight.
06.20.11 / Attic Finds

It seems the Underdog’s attic and its contents were left untouched when the house was turned over to us.  Who would’ve touched them if they didn’t have to?  As I mentioned way back when, the laundry dryer vents into the attic {not to the outside like it’s supposed to} so the attic and everything in it was covered in a thick layer of dryer lent.  Ick.  In order to make room for electrical upgrades and to vault the ceiling in the kitchen/living room, we had to empty the attic.  Well, more like Handy Hubby had to empty the attic and I got to sort through all the stuff.  As much as I was hoping to come across a stash of cash or a treasure chest of gold coins or even a rare antique worth thousands, it didn’t happen.  What I did find was mainly a slew of Christmas decor – the majority of which was either broken or hideous or both.  Seriously, how many Christmas ornaments does one household need?!  I’m still trying to figure out where all the decorations went when they were on display.  There’s just not that much room in the Underdog!  Anyhow, all the shattered ornaments and broken-beyond-repair string lights made finding the most irrelevant unbroken items seem like worthy treasures.  I even decided to keep a few of them.  Wanna see?

First up is this faux leather suitcase.  It’s pretty beat up but still in working condition and I actually adore the patina.  It looks well traveled, no?

It comes complete with a Delta Airlines luggage tag {which looks to be anything but recent} and locking key.  Apparently, the leather lookalike exterior is Tolex which was most commonly used as material for guitar cases and boat upholstery in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s.  Layne has already claimed this ‘new’ suitcase as his own.  I can see it being used as hidden storage for either toys or out of season clothing in his bedroom.

Luckily, so as not to cause a brotherly fight, I found this plaid suitcase for Everett.  It’s more petite than the Tolex luggage.  The luggage I.D. tag still has the name and address info of the previous owner…the Underdog’s previous homeowner.  I haven’t found the need to remove it yet.  I may just slide Everett’s info right over top and keep it with the bag.

I also came across a little bag for myself.  I wonder what its use was back in its heyday.

Laptop bag?  Nah.  Probably not.  But I think it makes a great preppy one.  Slightly Ralph Lauren-esque, don’t you think?

I found multiple sets of these vintage Nestle glass coffee mugs.  They’re from the ’70’s and not too rare as I found multiple listings for them on Ebay, Etsy, etc.

They have a global scene etched onto them that I immediately fell for.

I only kept 4 mugs, a creamer dish and a sugar bowl since we’re going to have limited cabinet space in our next kitchen.  There was also a small matching coffeepot that I didn’t think I’d use.  It seemed a tad redundant to pour coffee from my regular coffeepot into another coffeepot and then into a mug.  I don’t need any extra dirty dishes, thank you.  The boys have already enjoyed using the glasses as their pretend coffee mugs.  I pour chocolate soy milk into the mugs and Layne and Everett mimic coffee convo and the gestures that go along with it.  It’s pretty darn cute.

I was curious about this 1956 Lowe Brothers Paint ad program that I found.  It’s not my intention to keep it forever…just long enough to research it and take some pictures of it for the blog.  The booklet contains all kinds of information on how to market and advertise a Lowe Brothers Paint store franchise.

Very cool.  Especially considering Handy Hubby and I have done our fair share of painting walls, furniture, cabinets, etc.  I wonder if the previous homeowner owned a franchise or offered painting services?  She was a painter/artist after all.  According to the Paul Laurence Library at Wright State University,

“The Lowe Brothers Company was founded in September of 1872 by brothers Henry C. and Houston Lowe. It began as a small store on E. Third Street, between Jefferson and St. Clair streets in Dayton, Ohio. The Lowe Brothers began by selling paint produced by others. However, in 1882 the Lowe Brothers Paint Company opened and the Lowe Brothers incorporated their business in September of 1893. The Company reached national notoriety before being sold in the later twentieth century.”    – Amber McPherson

The ad program is on the cheesy side.  Definitely in cahoots with the general 1950’s mentality. Check out one of the suggested radio ads…

“The quarterback is fading – looking for a receiver – there’s the pass.  Right into his arms…forty yards!  What a beauty!  Another breath-taking beauty is Lowe Brothers Mello-Gloss, famous semi-gloss enamel for walls and woodwork…”

Nice segue, huh?  Check out this beauty…

The last attic item that made it into my keep pile was this framed canvas art.  It’s a painting {I’m guessing not original} by John Ford Clymer who created it for the June 23rd, 1956 Saturday Evening Post cover.

After a little research, I discovered it’s either titled ‘Painting the Garage’ or ‘Helping Dad Paint.’ Here’s a view of it on the original cover…

I have no idea if the canvas I found is worth anything.  I should probably ask Handy Hubby’s sister. She’s an art museum curator.  Even if it’s not worth a penny, I still like it.  I think it’d look cute hanging in one the boys’ bedrooms since it shows a young boy helping his dad paint.  I may try to stain the frame or just leave it as is.  It will be exactly 55 years ago this Thursday that the image was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

So even though I didn’t find a secret cash stash, I had fun looking at all of the attic contents and making up stories about how the pieces fit into the previous homeowner’s life.  Do you remember me telling you that the previous owner was a female artist?  In my mind, she was a well traveled, coffee drinking artist who also owned a local paint store franchise and had an affair with a talented male painter.  At the end of their short romance, her lover gave her a copy of one of his paintings to remember him by always.  She couldn’t bear the pain of looking at it every day so she stowed it away in her attic.

See that?  See how my mind takes the teeniest bit of info and runs with it?  Craziness.  In all reality, I’m probably waaaaaaay off.  Have you ever found something interesting in your home left by the previous owner?

images:  1-18 )  Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  19)  my mags

41 Comments

20.June.2011

I about blew a blood vessel when I saw the blue and green plaid suitcase. I bought that exact one from a Salvation Army about 5 years ago. I loved it on sight. Sadly due to age it couldn’t handle any actual weight in it and the handle broke off. Once I find a replacement handle that fits the look of the case it will be repaired. Until then, and most likely after, I’ll continue to use it for its current purpose: housing my underwear since I don’t have a dresser. Here’s hoping your family enjoys it as much as I do. Use it gently; love it well!

20.June.2011

We love all things historical, so I think the suitcases and Lowe’s book are especially cool! Its kinda fun to imagine how she lived her life…

http://www.twogradstudentsandspittie.blogspot.com

20.June.2011

Umm… We found a huge, exotic snake in the upstairs of our house when we moved in. Does that count as “interesting”?

I would have preferred broken Christmas ornaments.

20.June.2011

The only thing the previous owner of our house left here was weird wiring and mice! We’ve gotten rid of the mice so far…

I am in LOVE with those Nestle mugs, creamer, and sugar bowl. Very cool find!

20.June.2011

Katherine – Oh my! Guess I should be thankful for those broken ornaments.

20.June.2011

Lauren – Good to know! Luckily Everett’s stuff is little and light.

20.June.2011

I covet all of it! Much more interesting than what we found in our house! Um, “men’s” magazines and “appliances.” Ugh. Showers were not enough. We wanted to scrub ourselves with bleach.

20.June.2011

The red plaid case held a thermos and a plastic container for sandwiches, etc. We had one just like it for family trips in the car.

20.June.2011

This is too neat! The luggage is a great find. I love the tall, red plaid one. Very RL as you say! This motivates me to check out my own attic – I’ve lived in my house 3 years and have never even seen the attic! Who knows what could be up there…

20.June.2011

My home’s previous owners left me a great swing set, which I ended up selling on Craigslist a few months later. They also left me a fondue set, which I found tucked away in one of the many children’s play sets they left behind, the cabinet they’d placed their microwave on, some sippy cups and toys, a whole basket full of travel-sized toiletries in the basement bathroom, and multiple stains in places I didn’t know could be stained. My absolute favorite thing they left behind though? The children’s training potty. I still laugh about that one. Seriously though, the previous owners left me the strangest things I’ve ever seen anyone leave behind, and they left the house in a disgusting mess that required three days of cleaning up before I would move anything in!

20.June.2011

I wonder how many graphic designers out there would love to have found the Lowe Brothers manual :)

20.June.2011

The painting you found is pretty cool – great for creating a vintage feel for your boys’ room.

As for finding cash, I can’t help but think of the television show “Storage Wars” and what I’ve learned from it: one of the men on the show, every time he finds an old, framed painting, he immediately takes off the backing – apparently that was a VERY common place for people to hide cash decades/a century ago. If there’s backing on it, worth a try, no? :-)

20.June.2011

Our apartment’s previous renters left a (used) pregnancy test on the bathroom floor, behind the toilet. What a happy, happy surprise and lovely gift. :)

20.June.2011

love your suitcase find!

we found an old Archie comic book and some horse-shoes when we were renovating…mm

i love that first tan suitcase, and how fun is that painting. art curator-wowzers-very convenient. we found something interesting in our house when we were redoing one of the bedrooms….way, way up at the very top of the closet was a book. the kama sutra. from the 70s. in cartoonish form. not pretty.

love your finds Dana. How very cool. I would have loved to have found what you found, instead of what we found. We found drug related materials {not drugs} in one closet and in one of the kitchen closets. My mom actually found them and said “I know what this is for.” Oh the 60’s Mom. LOL. Wouldn’t you think they would have taken these sort of things with them for goodness sakes. Oh and they left us shovels, brooms & a lawn mower. We still have some of them, but some broke already. Otherwise, they left their grossness behind as well. That house didn’t feel like it was clean until we remodel and put in everything new. ;-)

20.June.2011

Stacy – Never thought of checking within the framed art! Come on. Big money, big money…

20.June.2011

Heather – Good to know! I never would have guessed it was a ‘lunch box.’

20.June.2011

your finds were way better than ours! we found an old-fashioned (and still working) toaster, receipts for tools purchased in 1963, a butterfly-net, some old paintings and lots of dusty empty boxes. :)

What fun finds in the Underdog!

20.June.2011

I found a small dresser in the attic of my first house. Strange thing was, there was no way I could figure out how to get it down the stairs. The attic ceiling slanted over the top of the stairs, making a very small opening to squeeze through. I finally realized I could remove the top of the dresser, and it would just fit! After I got it down the stairs, I reattached the top, refinished it, made a cushion for the top, and used it as a changing table for my 3 children.

20.June.2011

The red plaid bag also had a matching red plaid woolen picnic blanket (in addition to the thermos flask and sandwich box someone else mentioned). We had one just like it when I was a kid. The blanket was itchy to sit on and couldn’t be thrown in the washer so it was kind of pointless. Except, of course, that it fit nicely between the flask and the box in the bag, making it seem more practical than it was.

21.June.2011

Wonderful treasures!

21.June.2011

Those are some seriously delicious finds… and in your own attic no less! How fun!

21.June.2011

Hi Dana. This is a little off the topic of attic finds, but did you have your house assessed before you listed it for sale by owner? Was there other “behind the scenes” work you did before listing?

21.June.2011

That plaid case reminded me of my sister’s bowling bag, but the shape was wrong. When I saw the post above that said it was used to hold a thermos and lunch, it all clicked. I had at least one plaid Thermos bottle that I used to take coffee to work. The bottles had a glass insert, and I can’t even estimate how many I broke by dropping it.

I remember those great coffee cups, too. Very “chi-chi” back in the day!

21.June.2011

I totally do the same thing, make up stories for people. Great story and nice finds too. My favorites are the laptop bag and the painting.

21.June.2011

The handy dandy Lauren preppy looking bag WAS an old thermos carrier! Typically, there were two thermos containers…both tall and slender with a silver top….with the same gorgeous plaid on the outside! I would suppose I have one in my mom’s basement as we speak! It made me giggle when I saw it!

22.June.2011

Lisa – We had our home appraised twice last year by an unbiased third party {which we paid for} when we were interested in refinancing. Both appraisals came back at exactly the same amount, so we priced our home based on that…well, actually we listed it at $100 less than the appraisals. We have copies of both appraisals available at all showings. We also looked at comps in our area via our county auditor’s website {some realtors will do this for free for you} which basically consisted of me going through all homes in our neighborhood that had sold in the last 6-12 months and seeing what they sold for. Pricing your home just right is key. We didn’t hike up the price thinking we’d leave room for bargaining down {although we realize we probably won’t get exactly what we’re asking} because we didn’t want to turn away potential buyers in a lower price bracket who may mistakenly think our home was out of their price range. In today’s market, you can’t expect to list your home just by using the price at which you bought it at and then adding on the cost of any improvements you might have done. In reality, we probably aren’t going to recoup every last cent we’ve put into the house since we bought it 3 years ago but we should still get a good amount of equity from it.

I would like to share in detail how we listed ‘for sale by owner’ and how to DIY it but I feel it’s a little premature until we actually do sell our home. We did sell our first home {our previous home} for sale by owner so we do have some knowledge about the process. I promise as soon as this house sells, I’ll be sharing every last detail. It might be a weeklong blog fest, there’s so much to cover! Until then, I’ll take all the well wishes, prayers and good vibes you want to send my way in the hopes of getting this house sold so I can tell you how we did it.

22.June.2011

We found some strange things in our house when we moved in. The previous owner was a sweet old lady who lost a short battle with cancer. She had been widowed for many years and was a “keeper” (my nice way of saying hoarder.) She was a clean hoarder anyway! We had a vast collection of those themed light switch covers, a box full of paper grocery bags, some very old laundry bluing solution, some fabric, tons of old paint supplies, a bag full of twist ties, a fly swatter, and my favorite— several old Tang jars full of Mt. St. Helen Ash! (We live in WA state.)

I love all your posts about the underdog because we bought an underdog too! Its encouraging to me to follow how you guys are going about your reno. I sometimes feel so bummed out that my house isn’t where I want it to be yet. I like to know I’m not the only one who bought a house that needed some love and elbow grease. :)

Thanks for all you share!

22.June.2011

Great finds! I hope they didn’t get too musty up there. My father in law gave the kids a bunch of stuff from their great g’pa that he had stored in the attic (pictures, books, stamps), and it’s all smelly…they sneeze like crazy every time we look at it :(

We just insulated our attic, and I found a box that we stuck up there–it had stuff that had been in storage when our house was on the market…oil lamps from the family farm, a crystal devilled egg tray from my grandma…not exactly everyday use things, so I hadn’t been looking for them, but I was so happy to find them!

22.June.2011

I just about gasped when I saw those Nestle coffee mugs! My mom has that same set, and it instantly brought on a feeling of nostalgia. When I was a kid, I loved watching her drink coffee out of those mugs, and I would sneak spoonfuls of sugar out of the sugar bowl when she wasn’t looking. Thanks for sharing your wonderful attic finds!

22.June.2011

Oh yes the red plaid case with thermos and sandwich contianer. My mom has the same one and still uses it to this day!

22.June.2011

Great finds! Plaid suitcases are a trend that needs to come back, and it’s neat to see you finding uses for your finds. I dream of buying an old house some day and finding tons of old interesting stuff that hasn’t seen daylight in decades.

23.June.2011

When my parents were remodeling our old house (quite like y’all are with the underdog) we found the original blue prints for the house in a wall that we tore down. It was really interesting. My dad owns a contracting business so he loved to look back at how they were in the 60s. Cool huh?

23.June.2011

Sarah – Blue prints?! Very cool!

04.July.2011

I love the art. I’m so much into art. Where are you going to hang it? Check out my art collection at http://thecouponmommy.blogspot.com/2011/07/affordable-art.html

10.July.2011

Wow – I stumbled across your blog a few weeks ago and just now got around to reading some of it. I’m originally from Dayton, Ohio – I know exactly where those Lowe’s buildings are! Random!

16.August.2011

My first house was in 1974 a Portland bungalow style, it needed lots of love and cleaning. We found on top of a stack of old curtain rods in the basement a stained glass window. 37 years later I still have that window, I always felt the house “gifted” it to us for bringing it back to life! Love your blog,has been great inspiration.

15.October.2011

I am late reading this post, but I live in the St. Clair Lofts here in Dayton. Lovely space. Moved in here in January, and I am still making it my own!

29.August.2012

The red and black plaid bag would have been used as a tote for thermoses, I actually have the same bag with two thermoses…love the repurpose idea for a laptop bag!