Surprise In the walls

Living in a construction site

You have not seen many new posts from me lately and there is a good reason; our son and his partner are doing a renovation of their condo, putting in a new kitchen, modernizing the downstairs powder room and redoing the front hall. With both of them working very hard at keeping the Canadian economy going strong to support us retired seniors, they find it hard to actually get involved in supervising the work going on around them. Fortunately, they have retired parents living close by who can cook them meals (Their kitchen is currently completely torn out) and walk over to supervise the workers who are turning their accommodations into a temporary disaster zone. 

Having done extensive renovations on our house, including a complete Kitchen redesign and renovation, built a new bathroom in the basement, and redesigned the back hallway, I felt qualified to act as “supervisor” and I actually enjoy going over and letting the workers in and checking on the ongoing work. 

Prior to the actual work starting we went over and help them organize things to get the condo ready for the renovation. One of the things I did was clean up and organize a handy storage area they have in an empty space going up the stairs between the dining room and the kitchen. As I was sorting through things there I noticed that although there was a floor to the room, the walls were simply the stud frame of the surrounding rooms and the floor only extended to the studding leaving a little space between each 2 X 4 stud which was not covered. Over the years, things had fallen down these openings and as I cleaned I pulled up a pillow, one mitten and various other things that Ryan and Ben did not recognize. That however was only the start . . . . .

The Kitchen?

Renovating the kitchen  involved moving walls to make room for a bigger fridge, and changing the size of the front hallway coat closet, so a lot of the old walls were being taken apart and the extent of the items that had fallen down from that little storage room became evident. 

In the wall above the fridge and coat closet I discovered a sleeping bag, a pillow, a blanket, a brand new unused air mattress, and a brand new 5 foot long centre section of a bed frame. Had this storage room been used as a bedroom sometime in the past?

In the wall

Above the kitchen door I pulled a little envelope containing a diamond (well this has not been confirmed yet - it might be only glass), and then later a few other similar envelopes containing diamonds were found - was this condo the hub of a smuggling operation at some time?  

Then in the wall behind the kitchen stove, one high heeled shoe, a purse (not even change in there let alone diamonds), a rack from a fridge, a paint brush and various other items fell out as a section of wall came apart. 

Other than the dubious diamonds, nothing of real value was discovered. The wall held no shocking and horrifying discoveries, and everything was just added to the construction debris to be hauled away, but I think I should probably go up and cover all these gaps in the wall or the next owners will be finding more surprises if they renovate.