WHAT is in my garage attic?

The defused E36 M3 crystals of everyone who's ever farted in your home.

2x4 trusses, a light layer of cellulose insulation R-19ish and a broke incandescent light bulb.

Half a hooker.  And not the good half, either.  Oh wait, that's *my* attic.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

There is a bad half?

Well...yeah. The half that's full.

The quality install that needs fixing.

Oh - that's not good.

Is there an access hatch?  

Sounds like the space above my ex-s old kitchen and dining room before we demolished it.  I made an access panel from an adjacent room to install insulation.  When we demo'd the dining room, we were almost impaled by a falling crow-bar that had been left there 30 years prior during construction. 

In her other attic space, she found an old WW1 photo history book and a WW1 gas mask.

You never know what's you'll find.

The previous owner of my house was a neat-freak and the attic and basement were spotless and mostly bare when we moved in.

An entire motorcycle , unassembled in boxes.

In reply to Appleseed :

This one case where half-empty is better than half-full for sure.

Duke said:

Also, my interior basement door has a chain lock on the upstairs side of it...

At some point in the last 100 years, some previous owner of my house installed a lock on the outside of the bathroom door.  I've always wondered about that.

It is pitch dark.  You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Robbie said:

dculberson said:

This is weird to me. I've only lived in my current house three years and I've been in the attic a couple dozen times. Setting mouse traps, checking on light fixture boxes, running ethernet wiring, etc etc. I put in a nice set of pull down stairs to make it easier.

The house has an attic and I have been up there a few times. The 'attached' garage was originally detached and I expect to see nothing up there but a tiny bit of conduit for the lights and garage door opener power. No heat, no comm, no water, no gas, and the attic doesn't connect to the other attic. I'll be surprised and probably a little mad if I find insulation up there.

I've been in my place ~18 months now and have also never been in the attic above my detached garage. Hornet activity kept me from venturing up there the summer we moved in and I haven't ventured up since, because A) I've never had a reason to and B) fear of finding a hornets nest the size of a Volkswagen has deterred my curiosity. 

Well, this is a good start. Conduit and a random loose cord (seems like black Romex or similar) right over the top of the access panel, which is a slab of drywall.

If this is another Al Capones vault, I'm going to come and drive through your yard again.

Guess I'll need to get the ladder ready. 

Woo! Spare tire!

First thing I see is this bad dog (score!!!) I've been wanting to install an antenna in my attic for HDTV reception, and if this can be used it saves me a lot of steps!

Anyone know what kind of antenna this is and if it might work for uhf/vhf? It doesn't seem to be pointed at Chicago tv towers, more like it's pointed at the middle of lake Michigan...

Also, there are 4 of these Goodyear RSA tires. 255/55/17. Pretty decent tread. 

Probably wasn't a cheap tire when new.

In 2002. I'd guess that puts the most recent person in this attic in about 2005 or so.

In reply to Robbie :

Before you move that antenna you definitely need to see what it's picking up!  Maybe it isn't aimed incorrectly, but in fact is picking up something interesting...

That tire looks like it has good tread left. And major score on the antenna! I want to know how many more channels you pick up with it. 

That's pretty much where the fun stuff ends. I did find that the rafters go perpendicular to what you would expect, they are perpendicular to the roof a-frames. That is actually great news for me though for fixing the garage door. 

I still had more digging to do though.

Some old shingles, nice if I ever loose a few.

Also, there is a secret passage to the "middle" attic!

Who guessed cat/raccoon/something substantially bigger than a mouse crap?

I don't think you can see in this photo, but the middle attic connects to the main attic through another secret passage. That will make plumbing the antenna to the TV easier.