We’re Hiding a Time Capsule in the Hill House Renovation!
THE HILL HOUSE
As we’ve been closing up walls upstairs at the Hill House, Garrett and I both had the same thought at almost the exact same time: we need to leave something behind. Old houses hold stories. Sometimes it’s layers of wallpaper. Sometimes it’s newspapers used as insulation. And sometimes it’s letters, coins, books, pictures, or other memorabilia tucked between 2x4s for future owners. It’s a special old house tradition, and we wanted to join in. So upstairs at the Hill House we’re leaving behind a time capsule.
Where We’re Hiding It
Upstairs on the landing near the kids’ bedrooms, we’re building in a bookcase (eeek! I’ve always wanted one for the kids!). Beneath the lowest shelf, there’s a small hidden cavity, a false bottom of sorts. And that’s where we’ll house our time capsule.
The only way to find the capsule is to know it’s there (we decided not to permanently install the panel, but it won’t be obvious that it’s removable) or to tear this bookcase apart. Owning an old house is a bit like being a steward and of course someone else will find this hiding place eventually, but I hope it’s decades and decades from now.
What We’re Putting Inside
So far, here’s what’s going in:
A newspaper from this week with coverage of the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl win, Olympic news, and local headlines
A $2 bill
Pennies (since they’re no longer being produced) and a 2025 quarter
Last year’s Christmas card (with lots of photos)
A family letter
A note from one of our kids and their school photos
An old photo of the house (from 1960, before the exterior changes)
A square nail found in the renovation
A sports card of our favorite Gonzaga player (he grew up nearby in our small town!)
A newspaper felt obvious. It captures a snapshot of culture, sports, politics, and the small local stories happening around us in 2026. I left it at the Cottage, but we have the front page of our local paper and the Seattle Times and will add them in.
The $2 bill and pennies? Well they may be rare by the time this capsule is found, especially since pennies are no longer being produced, so they’ll hopefully feel like fun mementoes from the past.
The letter feels like the most important and we tried to fill it with info about the house and previous owners, a bit about us and why we moved here, what we love about this house, and then we tried to capture a bit of the feel of the times. Daphne wrote a short note, too, and we included their school photos.
The old house photo shares what the Hill House looked like before all the exterior changes (so charming!) and we may tuck in a few renovation photos too, but we’ll see.
We’re tucking it all into a ziplock bag and a metal tin if we can find one that’ll fit our exact cavity.
But what else? We’re still open to more additions before sealing up this time capsule. I dated it for Valentines day, but we’ll probably close it up next week! So…what would you want to find if it was your house someday?
psst: here’s what Ashley included in her 2020 capsule.
Why It Matters
Renovating an old house can feel very practical - budgets, timelines, material orders, electrical rough-ins, etc. But underneath all that, there’s a very human story with a long timeline. This house was built in 1910 and families have lived here for more than a century. Kids have run up and down these stairs. Parents have read bedtime stories. And several generations of children have called these bedrooms there’s before us. We’re just one chapter. The time capsule is a way of acknowledging that and saying “we were here”.
Let us know what else we should include in the comments!
xx
