OhCripes.com

On this page I will catalog the process and items found during the process of excavating in my basement underneath the bathroom.

Some back story.  My house is 120+ years old and has one bathroom which was added on at a later date like many older homes.  It was updated in the 1950’s at which time it appears the South facing wall was knocked out and the bathroom extended to accommodate the addition of a bathtub/shower.  The owners at that time decided to throw all the debris from the wall along with sand and dirt back in to the area underneath the tub rather than haul it away.  Since this bathroom was added on, 3 of the 4 walls are exterior which in Wisconsin is not good during below zero temps during winter.  I decided some time ago to start removing most, if not all of this debris and dirt from underneath the tub so that I could better insulate along the walls and pipes as well as have more room to actually stand underneath instead of crawl in what was a 2′ space.  I had removed some dirt last winter after a yearly pipe freeze but only enough to better access the frozen pipes.
So begins the riveting catalog of excavation and findings.  Don’t expect a lot of frequent updates to this page since I don’t particularly enjoy digging and carrying out debris/dirt.
Last winters excavation work.

I found a doorknob, silver spoon, cloth and a button last year shown here.

9-13-08
I started today by hauling out a dozen or so 10 gallon buckets of dirt and sand.  I came across the usual garbage such as tar paper, lathe, siding, mortar, bricks and insulation.
I also found a couple small beads and some bones.  Yes bones.  I wasn’t really expecting to, even though I have often said that there is probably a body buried down there.  Now these aren’t large bones by any means but smaller fragments as you can see below.  There are two different bones, I took two pictures of each.

Bone 1

Bone 2

I must also say that I have found a number of bones in our garden every year since we have owned our house.  The garden is directly behind where the bathroom is so it is not a huge surprise to find more bone fragments in the dirt beneath the house since it would have been part of the same area.  In fact, the first year we have turn over the sod in the area for our garden we came across a fair number of bones.  One was actually part of a jaw bone.  We call our local police about it because the jaw bone was about the right size to be human.  Though there were no teeth in tact.  The officer who responded looked at them and told us they were most likely animal but that he would send them in to the state lab to be analyzed.  Sure.  A month or two went by and we never received a call.  So I called them and asked if any results had been received.  After a long time on hold I was told by some other officer that they were animal.  He couldn’t tell me what type or any other details.   If any out there reading this has knowledge of skeletal remains and can help me identify them I would love to hear from you in the comments.  I can provide higher resolution closeups as well.  If I found a human skull that would certainly make it easier and explain a lot of the unusual activity in our house.  For now I’m considering them the remains of the previous owners dinners.  …to be continued.