still looking

Yesterday was our first big workday at Hobbs house. It was a fantastic day. Without any fantastic finds.

The best part of the day was sharing it with our dear ones. So much of Thomas' family and so many of our friends came to be a part of the start of our project. Somehow sorting through dirty cabinets and moldy closets is actually fun when you do it together.

While Micah napped, Thomas, Walker, their helper Brite, and I went through all of Hobbs' things. We had piles for keeping, trash, and donation.

The trash dumpster was by far the biggest! Drapes. Mattresses. A couple cans of pork and beans. Blankets. Years worth of check registers and taxes. 2 Christmas trees. A handheld sewing machine. 3 vacuums. Little screws, brackets, gadgets, and who knows what metal things.

The donation trailer got a little furniture, lots of clothes and dishes, and a complete set of encyclopedias.

Our little keep pile. A few cool cups. Marbles. A beautiful old typewriter. A wooden playpen. A stepstool. A pair of gray leather boots in my size. A brass owl wall hanging that says "nobody's perfect." (this was Thomas' pick. not going in my house)

While we didn't find anything of real value, it was interesting to look for more clues about Hobbs. Surprisingly, we did not find a single photograph anywhere in the house. We did find some pay stubs from Cone Mills. We found tax returns with his wife's name, Frances. We found a couple pairs of women's shoes. And a subscription notice for Penthouse magazine. He kept original boxes for most of the things he bought and wrote the date of purchase on them.

One of my personal favorite finds was several pair of glasses.

One of the oddest finds was a giant glass prescription bottle of morphine from 1988. It was hidden in the back of a cabinet filled with pots and pans.

We learned about how much Hobbs valued doing things himself. His house was full of building materials. Not many people have nuts and bolts in utensil drawers. His paint cabinet was in his kitchen.

His attic is full of scraps of wood from probably every board he ever cut. The access door to the space above the carport was bolted shut and we all waited in anticipation for Thomas to cut it and see what was inside. No treasure. Just wood.


I checked all of the pockets of his clothes. We looked in lots of old shoe boxes and suitcases. We leafed through the pages of books. Just in case!

Thomas said his most exciting moment was pulling up the linoleum in the kitchen to see a patched hole in the wood. As he pulled up boards, there was another layer of wood. The guys gathered around to pull up the levels board by board. As they got to the bottom, they discovered...dirt. It was an access area to the sink plumbing. Still no treasure.

Pulling up the carpet in the living room did reveal a beautiful wood floor. This can definitely be saved. Once we got the moldy paneling out, it created a nice conference room for planning. And enjoying a day of satisfying labor.


Other than that, we will just treasure the memory of this adventure and the support of our sweet family and friends.