We made a small time capsule to leave behind, and it turned out to be much more enjoyable than packing. Our hope is that someone finds it decades from now—ideally when gadgets and lifestyles have changed enough to make the discovery feel like a real blast from the past. It would be a little sad if the new owners found it the same day they move in, so we hid it carefully. The hiding place is clever enough that it might never be found; think of it as “built into the walls” rather than something obvious like under a sink.
Inside the capsule we included a handwritten letter and a sheet with two photos: one of the three of us—me, John, and our daughter Clara—taken this year, and another from our backyard wedding in 2007. Each photo was labeled with the date and the occasion. Here is the exact letter we tucked inside:
Dear finder of this note,
We lived in this house from May of 2006 to December of 2010. Our names are John and Sherry Petersik. We moved in as a 25-year-old engaged couple and left as a family of four. During our time here we got married, adopted a puppy, and welcomed a daughter. We were married in the backyard on July 7th, 2007, surrounded by friends and family. This was our first house, and because we loved it so much, it felt natural to get married here.
In 2007 we started an online blog about our life and the renovations we did here. You may still find it online when you read this note if we were still writing about home projects at that time. We had many projects while we lived here, from gutting and renovating the kitchen and bathrooms to paving the driveway and adding a cobblestone patio in the backyard. We also closed a doorway that connected the kitchen to the room behind it (which used to be a formal dining room) to create a true third bedroom; that room later became our daughter Clara’s nursery.
We hope you enjoy living in this house as much as we did. May it be full of laughter, repairs that turn into improvements, and memories you’ll treasure.
-xoxo, Sherry, John, Baby Clara & Burger the chihuahua
The “Dear finder of this note” opening always makes me smile—John came up with that line. I keep wondering who will eventually find the capsule, and how they’ll react. Will they rush to a friend’s house to proudly display it? Will they pause for a moment and imagine our life here? Only time will tell. The mystery of a hidden note is part of its charm: it creates a secret connection across years between the people who once lived here and whoever calls this house home next.
We tucked in small details about the house and our projects because we hoped future occupants would enjoy the snapshot of a particular time and lifestyle. Renovations, like memories, add layers: the kitchen and bathrooms we remodeled, the patio we added for summer evenings, and the bedroom conversion that created Clara’s nursery are all traces of how we made this place ours. Leaving those notes felt like passing a small piece of that history forward.
Finally, a quick aside: we recently announced the winner of a weekly giveaway on our blog. If you want to know more, check our site for the announcement and details about a discount we offered that week.