We Hid a Time Capsule in Our First Home
We made a small time capsule to leave behind when we moved out, and it turned out to be a lot of fun more fun than packing. Our hope is that someone discovers it decades from now—when who knows what life will look like—rather than the new owners finding it the day they move in. That would be a bit of a bummer, so we hid it very, very well. The hiding place is the kind of “inside the walls” trickery you wouldn’t find by accident; it’s not something taped under a sink or hidden in a drawer.
What We Put Inside
The capsule contains a handwritten letter, a sheet with two photographs, and a few small keepsakes. One photo shows John, Clara, and me from this year; the other is from our backyard wedding in 2007. Each photo was labeled with the date and the event or our names so whoever finds them will have context. The letter sums up our time in the house and who we were when we lived there.
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 years here we got married, adopted a puppy, and welcomed our daughter Clara. We were married in the backyard on July 7, 2007, with friends and family gathered around. This was our first home, and getting married here felt right.
We started an online blog in 2007 about our life and the renovations we did here called younghouselove.com. You might still find it online if we’re still posting when you find this note. We spent countless hours renovating the kitchen and bathrooms, paving the driveway, and adding a cobblestone patio in the backyard. We also closed off a doorway that once connected the kitchen to the room behind it—originally a formal dining room—to create a true third bedroom, which later became our daughter Clara’s nursery.
We hope you love this house as much as we did.
-xoxo, Sherry, John, Baby Clara & Burger the chihuahua
Why We Did It
Leaving a note felt like a way to pass along a bit of history and personality to whoever lives here next. When you pour your energy into a first home—painting walls, replacing fixtures, planting a backyard garden—you develop an attachment. The time capsule is modest, but it captures the milestones that mattered to us in that space: our wedding, the start of our family, and the small renovations that made the house feel like ours.
We couldn’t resist adding a little theatrical flourish to the note’s opening line—“Dear finder of this note”—which was John’s idea and makes us both laugh. It’s fun to imagine the day someone stumbles upon it: will they show friends? Will it become a family story for them? Or will it be tucked away again until another curious moment? Time will tell.
About the Blog Mentioned in the Letter
We referenced our blog, Young House Love, because it began while we lived in this house and documented many of the projects we completed here. If you find the note, you might enjoy reading those posts to get a fuller picture of the work we did and the memories we made. The blog chronicles the decisions and mistakes we learned from as new homeowners, which is part of what makes the house meaningful to us.
Finally, a small aside: we recently announced the winner of this week’s giveaway on our site—if you’re curious, check the blog to see the announcement and any available discounts or offers shared there.
All in all, the time capsule is a simple, heartfelt gesture meant to connect the past occupants with the future ones. We hope whoever discovers it smiles, learns a little about the people who lived here before them, and perhaps feels encouraged to leave their own trace for the next curious soul.