Aug 18, 2008
Not all yuck is created equal: What disgusting stuff has been in houses you've bought?
One expects some nastiness in an old, foreclosed-on house, but a vial of rotten teeth?!
I’m sure you can top this, though.
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Dude! That is disgusting! I can’t top it.
I need to brush my teeth. Right now.
The lady who owned our house before us left a very,
-ahem-, “personal” but probably pricey item of clothing hanging in our closet. We didn’t really know what to do with it. Throw it away? Seemed to expensive to toss. Send it back to her? Seemed like it would embarrass her. We still haven’t done anything with it other than throw it down the laundry chute, where it’s been for almost 2 years now.
That doesn’t top rotten teeth, though!
You win.
An urn. It was closed and full……need I say more?
An antique enema device.
Great White Whale! All we found was some old tools in the garage and a few LEGOS behind the radiator.
That’s truly gross.
And courtney … I can’t even imagine what you’re talking about. Photo? ;-)
Just kidding. Please don’t post a photo.
that is sicker than sick.
My friends Shane & Devin found this interesting treat in their home in the wall: a snake!
i can’t top this. wow. can i ask where this was found? do i see roots on some of those teeth? wow. gross.
Wow.
The only thing I can think of is what my parents found in the house they now live in (foreclosure). The fridge was filled with food. That had been there for two years, in a house where the electric had been turned off. I’ve heard that this was not fun to clean out, and that in the end, they tossed the fridge rather than try to make it clean enough to house new food.
Plus, there was a pizza in the oven. Not very fresh, either.
We found multiple piles of cat/dog poop from the 10 cats and 3 dogs that lived in the house. We had the same refrigerator that was mentioned above. Cat spray so thick in some rooms that the linoleum was peeling up and it took 6 months of working on the room before we got most of the smell out. Oh, and he also left us several indoor rats, TONS of cockroaches, and so many fleas that I thought it was a design on the bathroom floor (seriously).
Our office was once an OBGYN office. I found a drawer full of stainless steel, er, tools, for, uh, separating things.
That is totally disgusting…no way I could top it. However, it gave me a good chuckle.
oh my gosh! i had no idea that people leave houses this way or that it’s common to find disgusting things. after this and the above comments, i laugh… nervously… and am much the wiser.
The worst we’ve found in any of our houses was lots of cat hair and odor (even in the fridge). The worst I’d heard of till this point was a couple we knew who moved with a small baby, but accidentally left behind quite a bit of mother’s milk that they intended to bring with them on the road… I’m sure that was a surprise to the new owners.
But you definitely win. Yuck-o-rama.
If your house was ever owned by people who lived in certain parts of europe, the vial of teeth is common.
My great grandpparents were from eastern europe and when their friends and family died, they would pull out their teeth for fillings becuase the metal was considered valuable. Thats what happened when my great grandfather died a few years ago. My great grandmother had his teeth pulled out and she (dont pass out!) passed on some of his teeth to me becuase she thought the gold was valuable. Its a cultural thing in some places, driven by economic need, if you want to see it that way. But that doesnt make it any less pleasant for us westerners who leave our teeth intact, even when we die. =)
you asked, they answered. where do you file a post like this?
A cat skeleton. Somehow, half of it still had some skin on it. Not nearly as gross as your treasure.
C., Lyle Lovett has a song about inheriting grandma’s gold tooth called “Creeps Like Me.” One of my favorites.
Here’s my three items that we found in our first house:
1) a dead bird fell out of the chimney flue.
2) boogers on the wall
3) the former owner’s high school year books and scrapbooks.
Creepy.
All we found was a punch bowl and a pair of plus sized women’s underpants. At least they were clean.
Can’t top the teeth.
A friend of mine found the fridge unplugged and filled with rows of dead crows
Wow! That is pretty gross! I’m not sure anyone could compete with that…..
Well, except maybe the dead crow thing…. ewwww
It wasn’t something I found but I had to use a chisel to scrape up layers of dry urine at the base of the toilet. And in one of the closets there was depressing writing on the wall about suicide.
Multiple vials (re-used prescription type) of kidney stones passed by the previous owners.
Wow, so could have lived without that post.
wow….the only things we found were nice suprises: a pampered chef can opener, some Frontline flea treatment thingies for dogs we sold on ebay…
I live in Seattle and after our earthquake in 2001, someone in my area had to have repairs on their large chimney. When the workmen began disassembling the chimney they found a corpse mummified by the charcoal.
They believe that it was probably an attempted burglar who got stuck at some point in years past.
I tore out the bar that was our previous tenants poker room in the basement. It was being transformed into a guest bedroom. Under the bar was a large glass jar of pickled eggs. It looked to have been there since the Kennedy administration.
We found a will written by the previous owner of our house. It was actually a will and suicide note in one. Oh, and a murder. The man who owned our house had planned to kill his wife and then himself. In the will that was pretty clear. He also made it clear that he didn’t want his son to inherit any of his estate.
Strange thing is when we bought the house the man and his wife were both alive and still married.
This wasn’t necessarily gross, but definitely weird.
What, we’re NOT supposed to leave teeth to our successors?!
My friend bought a foreclosed house and flipped it without ever seeing it. The new owner found a dead body in the dumpster behind the house. He was not happy.
[...] in the rental unit (downstairs unit). Had hardwood floors redone. 4 tons of painting. 16 tons of cleaning. It was seriously horrifying that people choose to live in such conditions. And believe me, in this [...]
The previous owners left cockroaches infesting the kitchen and food in a broken garbage disposal. We did get our house on sale, but still… We ended up taking the walls down to studs and spraying them with petzyme to get the smell out. :)