Ask the Builder: Uncovering — and hiding — treasure at your home
I took over weekly grocery shopping duties to give my lovely wife a break after more than 40 years.
I continue to be astonished at the prices of ordinary food staples like bacon, eggs, bread and milk. Do you suffer from the same sticker shock? Do you have dusty cartons of egg money hidden in your garage or basement? I’m quite sure you do and you don’t even realize it.
Right next door to my grocery store is a regional hardware store. Weeks ago, I needed some toggle bolts to reinstall a running board on my truck. My bill for the four bolts, the toggle nuts, four fender washers and four lock washers was just under $10. I was aghast at this price. One would think the hardware was silver plated, but alas it was all zinc.
A year ago, I had a similar experience. I bought six 1-pound boxes of coarse-thread drywall screws at a big box store, thinking they’d have the best price. I wanted them in various lengths, as they come in very handy for any number of projects. I had to trade a $50 bill to get these pieces of hardware. I was in shock when I just got back a few coins in change.
A few days ago, I started a decluttering project in an effort to reclaim my garage. You might be like me and have too much stuff. I had so much that I had to park my truck outside all winter. Living in snowy New Hampshire, I found that inconvenient.
On one wall of my garage, I have 8-foot tall shelves packed with plastic bins of all sorts of hardware. Many of these bins used to be in the utility-body truck I drove each day when I built homes. I had my own traveling hardware store, so I rarely had to make a special run to get certain nails, screws or bolts. Since these fasteners don’t go bad, I’ve kept them all these years.
While they’re not in perfect order, I’ve come to realize I have thousands of dollars of hardware in my garage. It’s possible there could be nearly $10,000 worth based on current prices. How much treasure disguised as nuts, bolts and screws do you have in your garage or basement? How often do your kids make fun of you for saving it all? It appears you were wise to do it. The trick is to have it sorted so you know what you have.
How about power tools? How many corded power tools do you own? Based on the stratospheric prices I see for replacement batteries for new power tools, I can assure you that corded power tools are going to be worth lots of money in the future.
In fact, you may want to take any spare money you have and buy common corded circular saws, drills and belt sanders – and keep them warm and dry in their unopened boxes. The day will come when someone thinks it’s smarter to deal with an extension cord, as I did for decades, rather than pay $200 or $300 for a replacement battery each year.
Now let’s discuss hiding treasure. I happen to know a lot of you are quite interested in this topic. I’m in the process of completing a book about all the things people want in their homes. While doing the research, I discovered the second-most popular wish items were secret places to hide valuables in the ordinary home.
As you might suspect, I received lots of great suggestions to add to those I already knew about and use myself. It’s important to recognize water dangers and fire dangers. Some irreplaceable items you own may be susceptible to damage by both. Then again, there are some metallic objects that don’t mind water and quite high temperatures.
One of the challenges is outsmarting burglars. I’m guessing not many would read a home improvement column like this, so I feel safe sharing some ideas. Small items can be hidden inside a paint roller that you, cough cough, forgot to clean. You took it off the frame but then got distracted, remember? Even the roller pan didn’t get cleaned. You’d be surprised the number of small valuables you can fit inside the roller as you slide it back on the frame.
Did you know you can buy a tiny can of paint that’s the exact same color as mayonnaise? Imagine if you carefully cleaned a used jar and then coated the inside of it with the paint allowing it to dry. Fill the jar up and put it back in the refrigerator or pantry.
What about creating a hidden drawer under your workbench top? Can you envision how simple this is to do? Lots of thin objects could be stored in a workbench that measures 20 inches deep by 7 feet long!
Are you remodeling? Think about creating a 30-inch wide secret space with a bedroom wall on one side and a closet wall on the other. Assuming the end of this cavity is in a hallway or another room, the opening to the space could be covered by a tall, thin mirror that hangs on a french cleat. Or, you might just use a big poster of Raquel Welch or Cary Grant. Who would ever suspect there was a hole behind the poster?
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