{"id":855529,"date":"2026-08-15T00:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855529\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T00:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:02:20","slug":"the-heartwarming-tradition-aussie-home-renovators-are-embracing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855529\/","title":{"rendered":"The heartwarming tradition Aussie home renovators are embracing"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Victorian couple Maddi and Josh King began renovating their Horsham home in the Wimmera region, they had no idea of the touching surprise that had been waiting for them – hidden for almost two decades.<\/p>\n

While unscrewing a large built-in TV unit this week, it was a bit of plaster that caught Josh\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The newspaper and plasterboard message found by Maddi and Josh King.\u00a0Maddi and Josh King<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sitting right on top of the floorboards,\u201d Josh told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

Lying alongside a 2007 edition of The Wimmera Mail Times newspaper was a small offcut of plaster with a hand-written message: \u201cThis was renovated by Ben and Josie Stephens May 2007 + Ernie helped too – the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Maddi and Josh, who bought the house back in 2020, the discovery sparked immediate curiosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maddi shared a picture of their find on a local Horsham Facebook group in the hopes of tracking down the previous homeowners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for the post to take off, and reach Ben Stephens himself, who quickly replied to the couple.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen actually sent Maddi a message, saying that they got married here, had a child here, and seeing the post instantly made their night – just the memories that came back to them,\u201d Josh said.<\/p>\n

The sweet moment struck a chord with the Kings, who also tied the knot while living in the house and are currently raising their three young daughters under the same roof.<\/p>\n

The pair were already thinking about leaving a hidden message of their own during their current renovation, but this solidified their decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided that we\u2019re going to put a family photo in our wall and write a little message,\u201d Maddi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will leave phone numbers and emails and all that behind, so if anyone does find it, we can be contactable,\u201d Josh added.<\/p>\n

A snapshot in time<\/p>\n

Much to their delight, the Kings\u2019 viral Facebook post revealed just how common it is for home renovators to leave snapshots of their life hidden in the walls. <\/p>\n

Aussie homeowners eager to share the details of what they had left behind, or discovered during a home renovation, were quick to comment on the post.<\/p>\n

In some homes, the treasures left behind are not formal notes, but casual items from daily life preserved.<\/p>\n

When Leonie Booth brought in professionals to remove asbestos from her 1970s house in Taree, NSW, the builder pulled a surprising object out of a wall cavity: an intact, 50-year-old soft drink can with the brand name \u201cGay\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This can of lime-flavoured soft drink, branded Gay, was found in Leonie Booth\u2019s wall.\u00a0Leonie Booth<\/p>\n

A quick online search confirmed the drink was a local NSW favourite back in the 1960s and 70s, perfectly lining up with the era her home was built.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought it was cool,\u201d Leonie told nine.com.au. <\/p>\n

\u201cI sent a photo to mine and my husband\u2019s parents – my dad recognised it straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The quirky discovery proved contagious. <\/p>\n

When Leonie\u2019s family later updated their bathroom, they made sure their kids drew pictures and wrote personal messages inside the new framework before sealing it up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Leonie Booth\u2019s children write their own messages on the wall of their home during a renovation.\u00a0Leonie Booth<\/p>\n

Taking time capsules to the next level<\/p>\n

For Kristie Corr, who lives in Doreen, Victoria, tucking bits of history inside wall framing is a multi-generational family tradition.<\/p>\n

Back in 1983, her parents planted a PVC pipe time capsule inside the concrete slab of their Montmorency home while expanding a small bungalow into a spacious four-bedroom property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the many snapshots Kristie Corr and her family have left in their walls of their home.\u00a0Kristie Corr<\/p>\n

Over the next four decades, the family kept adding to the build, leaving behind letters from 1994 and a plastered-over bedroom wall covered in graffiti and birthday messages written by Kristie\u2019s brother and his friends.<\/p>\n

In 2018, when new owners took over the Montmorency property and started their own renovations, they uncovered the hidden history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who bought my mum and dad\u2019s old house found all the things that we had hidden and made contact with us,\u201d Kristie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave us part of the wall where we had written all of our names.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A letter written by Kristie Corr as a teenager (left) was in included in a time capsule at her family home and found decades later.\u00a0Kristie Corr<\/p>\n

That full-circle moment inspired Kristie and her husband to go all out when building their Doreen home in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside their slab, they etched their names, birth dates, and marriage date into the wet concrete. <\/p>\n

Tucked inside the walls is a Weet-Bix tin time capsule loaded with supermarket catalogues, price lists, fidget spinners, and favourite family recipes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kristie Corr\u2019s daughter leaves a drawing on the inside of a wall (right), and (left) a family recipe inscribed on plaster.\u00a0Kristie Corr<\/p>\n

They even placed a magazine story featuring their youngest daughter inside a wall, alongside a feature wall made of 10,743 postage stamps from Kristie\u2019s childhood collection, complete with a note written by her kids on the plaster declaring \u201cCOVID suxs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day someone will find it all,\u201d Kristie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Victorian couple Maddi and Josh King began renovating their Horsham home in the Wimmera region, they had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-855529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}