Unexpected things found in an old house
By Porcospino
@Porcospino (31366)
Denmark
September 8, 2012 4:28pm CST
This is a true story about a Danish couple who bought an old house. Before they moved in they decided to renovate one of the rooms and they started removing the wallpaper. There were several layers of wallpaper and they removed them one by one.
Under the last layer of wallpaper they discovered a door that had been hidden for many years. When they opened the door they found a small room with old and valuable things.
At one point one of the previous owners must have decided to hide the door under the wallpaper and he or she probably died without revealing their secret, so the next owners of the house just added wallpaper on top of the old wallpaper and never found the door.
Have you or any of your family members or friends ever found something unexpected in an old house? What happened and what did you find?
4 people like this
16 responses
@vidhyaprakash_2 (7116)
• India
9 Sep 12
Hi friend, good to hear about this story, some times our ancestors will hide some unique and precious things in this kind of old house, we will find this kind of things while cleaning or searching, i saw this kind of incidents in some movies, but till today i don't have any personal experience with it.
2 people like this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
11 Sep 12
I don't have personal experience with that kind of things either, but it could be fascinating to find something that was hidden in the house for instance a hidden room like that couple found when they were renovating their house. Unfortunately I don't think that there are any secrets in our house. Or if there are we haven't found them yet.
@much2say (53959)
• Los Angeles, California
9 Sep 12
If we were all only so lucky! We bought this somewhat old house just a few months ago. Nope, no secret doors . . . and from this layout, I just know there can't be any secret rooms (but maybe a secret compartment within the walls??? I can only fantasize!).
However, we did have the kitchen renovated - it was just too old and not practical for us. We had the kitchen gutted entirely - all the cabinets and such were removed. The guy who did the construction found some old photos and postcards that probably fell too far inside and behind the cabinets for anyone to reach . . . that was kind of neat to see. But most likely not valuable of course (except for sentimental value). Oh - and he found a bunch of black widow spiders too - eek!!
But that's about it!!
2 people like this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
11 Sep 12
A secret compartment within the walls that would be fascinating. When my husband and I removed all of the wallpaper in the bedroom I was hoping to find something interesting. I found out what they kind of wallpaper they used in the 1920's, but aside from that I didn't find anything interesting 
I know for sure that there are no hidden doors in the walls because we have seen all of the walls.
It is interesting that you found some old photos and postcards. They are not valuable, but they do tell you a little bit about the previous owners and their lives. The story about your kitchen reminds me of something. When I was a child my grandmother had a kitchen cabinet under the fridge and she placed all of my drawings there. One day they fell down behind the cabinet and it was impossible to reach them. My grandmother doesn't live in that apartment anymore, but one day when someone decides to renovate that kitchen the drawings will be found by some strangers...
I know for sure that there are no hidden doors in the walls because we have seen all of the walls.
It is interesting that you found some old photos and postcards. They are not valuable, but they do tell you a little bit about the previous owners and their lives. The story about your kitchen reminds me of something. When I was a child my grandmother had a kitchen cabinet under the fridge and she placed all of my drawings there. One day they fell down behind the cabinet and it was impossible to reach them. My grandmother doesn't live in that apartment anymore, but one day when someone decides to renovate that kitchen the drawings will be found by some strangers...
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
9 Sep 12
Hello Porcospino. How interesting for the Danish couple. I often dreamed fo finding an old deserted house and finding all the families furniture and the diaries to tell about their lives. Possibly one of the previous owners was a Jew and hide those items during WWII and then never made it back. That is if the Germans made it into Denmark. I'm not that familiar wit that part of the history there. We Used to have TV show called "If walls could talk". It was about old houses and things learned about the history and some things found in the walls. The history of those house was very interesting. Sometime rooms were found just like the couple you spoke of. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-wXJcU5R2o&feature=related
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
11 Sep 12
Yes, Denmark was occupied by Germany during the second world war, and I think it is possible that someone hid those those things in the room, covered the door with wallpaper and never came back to the house. I imagine that he or she was killed and didn't share their secret with other people. If the Danish couple hadn't decided to renovate the room and remove every layer of wallpaper they wouldn't have found the room, because they had no idea that it existed.
I watched the video on YouTube, it was very interesting to hear how he discovered the story of the house. I am going to look for other videos from the same tv show. I share your dream about finding an abandoned house. I think that it would be fascinating to look at the things that the family left behind and try to put the pieces together and find out who they were and what made them leave the house and their belongings.
@urbandekay (18278)
•
9 Sep 12
While renovating a house it became necessary to take up a few floor boards in a room upstairs. Under the floor boards, which showed no sign of having been lifted was an bulging envelope. Well it was with some trepidation that we opened it.
Inside were old polaroid photos, for those unfamiliar with this technology it was an old system whereby the camera would develop the photo rather than producing only a negative.
The photos were of bee hives and the mystery remains unsolved to this day
all the best urban
2 people like this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
11 Sep 12
That sounds very mysterious. I wonder why someone would hide an envelope with photos of bee hives. Do you know anything about the previous owners of the house? We haven't found anything from the previous owners in our house, but I sometimes wonder who they were because our house is almost 100 years old.
@Kashmeresmycat (6369)
• United States
8 Sep 12
That is just so totally awesome! Can you imagine the excitement of these people? I would have been jumping for joy! I love old antique items and I surely would have been in my glory.
I hope they try to see if there are other things under more wallpaper, or try to find other hidden things behind walls, etc.
Do you know what they found? It's almost like it was meant to be...really, since the other people never found anything.
I found items, but never anything of interest. I'll be keeping an eye open here to see if anyone else has found something. Super cool!
It reminds me of going to a garage sale and finding some treasure, like you see on Antiques Roadshow. Love that show!
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
This can be true because some of the old house doesn't have a plan anymore. So they might not able to know the exact design. I like the story and if I were them, I will try to find the relatives if there is of the first owner of the house to give them back those things.
2 people like this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
10 Sep 12
As far as remember the couple who found the hidden room decided to sell the antics. I don't know if they didn't try to find the relatives of the previous owners or if they tried and didn't manage to find them. I think that the story is fascinating and when I was renovating my own house and removed all of the old wallpaper in one of the rooms I was hoping to find a hidden room like that couple did, but I found nothing but ordinary walls. I guess there are no secrets in my house, that is too bad 
@shaggin (71664)
• United States
9 Sep 12
I think things like that would be so exciting. I always wished there was a secret room in the house I was growing up in but my parents had torn the old house apart to the beams and rebuilt it so there was no chance of that. When I lived out in my father in laws house with my husband before we got married there was half of the house that hadent been redone. I went looking all over in there but there wasent anything exciting.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
12 Sep 12
Yes, it would be really exciting to find something like that. When my husband and I renovated our bedroom we removed all of the wallpaper and rebuilt the walls, so I know for sure that there is nothing hidden in those walls. I was hoping that we would find something interesting because our house is almost 100 years old, but we were not that lucky and we didn't find anything interesting in the bedroom. In the rest of the rooms we didn't remove the wallpaper and if a secret is hidden somewhere we haven't found it.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
8 Sep 12
hi Porcospino what a thrill that must hav e been to the D anish'
couple and how odd for it to be hidden all those years.I am
glad for them to discover valuable things there.,The only thing
I ever discovered w as that the house which was our first honme
had an ugly pink painted living room. I detested the color
and one day found a patch where the p aint had peeled off and under it was gorgeous real walnut wood panelling so we got all the paint off and had a beautiful living room in an old house with real walnut paneling.sadly we finally had to move from there to California for my husband to find decent jobs at decent wages.now with the economy here I wish we had stayed in Arizona as prices are lower rents lower and j obs are scarce but so are they here an every thing is obscenely high.
2 people like this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
8 Sep 12
The couple must have been very excited to find the hidden door. I am sure that they never expected to find anything at all when they decided to remove the old wallpaper. The story makes me curious and I wonder who chose to hide the door and why.
Sometimes old secrets are discovered by coincidence like the walnut paneling that was hidden under the pink paint in your home. It was nice that you were able to remove the ugly paint and turn the room into a beautiful living room. I don't understand the previous owners who prefered pink paint instead, but people have different taste. When we removed the old wallpaper in our bedroom we also found many different layers of wallpaper. Our house is almost 100 years old and the first layers of wallpaper where from around 1920.
1 person likes this
@bhanusb (5709)
• India
9 Sep 12
Hi Porcospino, the story is very interesting. The Danish couple discovered a hidden treasure. It can be a plot of a fiction of mystery. You can write a story. However the couple can publish a notice in a newspaper about these hidden valuable tings so that the true heirs of the first owner of the house can claim these valuable materials.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
12 Sep 12
I also find the story interesting. It is a fascinating thought that the couple found a secret room that had been hidden for so long. It makes you wonder what happened in the past and who decided to hide the room and why. In one of the other responses someone suggested that it would have a Jewish person who never came back after the second world war and I think that could be a possibility. I guess that we will never find out what actually happened and why the things were in hidden in that room behind the wallpaper. As far as I know the couple didn't try to find the heirs and they just sold the things that they had found.
@myfb2009 (8296)
• Malaysia
11 Sep 12
Porco, that couple must be rich by now after discovering those valuable items. By the way, what items that are being discovered by them by chance? So far, non of us here have such a luck to find something valuable in our house. I heard from one of my ex-colleague before that there is a farmer living nearby to her village who found gold necklaces while digging the soil in front of their home. In fact, he was digging the soil planning to plant some fruit trees. It was his luck to found something which able to change his life within a short period of time. What i heard is, he donated a sum of his fortune to some charity associations and he bought himself a large home in the town area. He even open a shop with the money which he got by selling those gold necklaces. Some people are indeed born very lucky...
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
12 Sep 12
I am not sure what kind of items they found, I only know that it was different kinds of antic things that they were able to sell. It must have been tremendous surprice for them to find that room and they must have been very excited when they discovered all of the antic things inside the room, because those things were very valuable. I enjoyed hearing the story about the farmer who found some gold necklaces. He was really, really lucky. It is amazing how some people are able to able to find things when they least expect it. I have never found anything valuable, but it would be fantastic to find something.
@eltobh (231)
• Indonesia
9 Sep 12
Hello there!
Well, my story is not exactly like yours, but this is also real. I have a relative and she married a rich man. So, they are a rich family. His husband has passed away, and one day my relative decided to renovate her old house. So when all these workers were renovating her house, they knocked down one of the wall, and guess what they found? They found a quite huge carton box containing many gold bars in it. Well, it's good that the workers let my relative knows about this! She was also shocked that they found it. Apparently, she forgot that she once buried / hided that box if gold bars in the wall! Gosh, you will never know what can you find in all those old houses :D
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
12 Sep 12
I wish I could find a carton box with gold bars in the wall, that would be a wonderful surprice and I would sell the gold bars and spend the money on travelling 
Unfortunately I don't think that there are anything valuable hidden in our walls. It is just an ordinary house without any secrets.
Unfortunately I don't think that there are anything valuable hidden in our walls. It is just an ordinary house without any secrets.
@jaiho2009 (39142)
• Philippines
9 Sep 12
Wow, this sounds exciting a bit scary.
It's fine if I found something valuable and not scary secrets (like skeleton-ehh)
No, I haven't had any experience like this.
But I will try to check some parts of my grandfather's old house when I visit him soon.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
12 Sep 12
I would be excited if I found a hidden door, but I would also be a little scared that I was going to discover an unpleasant secret like a skeleton 
In the story about the Danish the person who hid the door simply wanted to hide his/her valuables, but there could be other reasons why someone had decided to hide a door. They could have murdered someone and hidden their crime behind the door 
Things like that happens sometimes and one family from the city where I was born found a sketelon hidden under a porch (one of the previous owners of the house had murdered a woman and hidden the body there)
In the story about the Danish the person who hid the door simply wanted to hide his/her valuables, but there could be other reasons why someone had decided to hide a door. They could have murdered someone and hidden their crime behind the door Things like that happens sometimes and one family from the city where I was born found a sketelon hidden under a porch (one of the previous owners of the house had murdered a woman and hidden the body there) @KOSTAS499 (1624)
• Greece
9 Sep 12
Unfortunately no stories from me. I wish I had. Some old stuff are worth a lot of money.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
12 Sep 12
I don't have any stories from my own house either, but I wish that I was able to discover a hidden secret here Maybe a room with lots of valuable antics that I could sell.
Maybe a room with lots of valuable antics that I could sell.@KOSTAS499 (1624)
• Greece
12 Sep 12
My dream (as I am a motorcyclist), is to find an old motorcycle in a barn or somewhere else and fix it.
