Old house proves to be a find for antique hunter
A dilapidated farmhouse on the cold Prairies with no heat, stacked more than one metre high with clutter, would scare most potential home buyers.
Antique hunter Alex Archbold, however, is not like most people.
The 40-year-old Edmontonian, who grew up on ’80s adventure flicks like the Indiana Jones franchise
and The Goonies, knows antiquing gold lurks in unexpected places.
A 100-year-old house in northeastern Alberta is his latest treasure chest.
“When I’m clearing cobwebs and finding artifacts (inside the house) I feel like I’m Indiana Jones,” Archbold said recently in his Glenwood antique shop, Curiosity Incorporated. “It’s great, it’s fun.”
Archbold heard about the house from a longtime customer months ago.
They told him there was “a bit of a mess” and they needed help getting rid of it. He made a road trip and started digging and documenting.
“I started finding so many things that I just said, ‘Well, what would it take to buy the whole property?’” he said.
After a day of picking through the home and a quick call to his wife, Archbold made an offer and the property owners accepted.
It was a whim, but one Archbold felt would pay off as soon as he started his search (simultaneously
letting him achieve another life goal: to pay off a house before the age of 40).
He got a great deal because of the mess accumulated through years of hoarding, a habit that can be caused by any number of mental illnesses and is difficult to control.
Archbold is not identifying the previous property owner due to those circumstances, but said it was a well-known potter whose work has been featured in a number of galleries around the world.
“I ended up finding over 40 pieces of original artwork throughout the house and I’m still digging stuff out now,” he said.
“Some of the items that were on loan to the Government of Canada at one point were insured for $5,000 to $10,000 each about a decade ago.”
Ten days into cleaning the two-storey house and unfinished basement, Archbold had cleared a large swath of the kitchen and living room — the majority of the clutter being clothing and newspapers.
Wearing a protective dust mask and gloves, Archbold trudged through a bedroom with a garbage bag in hand, quickly separating old, faded newspapers from the treasures he desired.
An armful of paper was tossed into the trash without a second look, while an old book and a framed picture were placed to the side. Once Archbold uncovered a number of treasures he wanted to take a closer look at, he squeezed through an obstructed doorway and added to a pile he’d stacked in the living room.
“It’s not for the faint of heart,” Archbold said as he continued to dig. “It’s an adventure but it can be gross.”
Archbold said he has removed more than 20,000 copies of newspapers and countless articles of clothing. In the basement he cleared enough trash out to discover an unexpected room. Crawling in to continue his search, he found a bike and a large industrial light.
Everything he doesn’t throw out
or keep, he will donate to charity. Outside the home a pile of furniture, clothing and other items wait to be donated.
But there are plenty of items from the house making it into his “keep” pile.
On top of the pottery, Archbold has found soapstone carvings, model toys, and a number of antique pictures and books. One A&W restaurant apron from the 1980s will sell for close to $80, he said. Along the way, he’s documented his adventures on YouTube, something he’s been doing since 2016. The first “hoarder house” video had more than 950,000 views as of Wednesday.
Moving forward, Archbold hopes to have the house emptied and cleaned by the middle of March and on the market by summer. Archbold said he already knows new plaster, paint and flooring is needed, but he will have it inspected to see the full extent of the work that’s needed.
For now Archbold just needs to find a place to put all his new-found treasure.
“The problem is my store is only so big and I keep finding all these really great collections,” he said, “so we’re trying to play a little bit of catch up.”
The problem is my store is only so big and I keep finding all these really great collections, so we’re trying to play a little bit of catch up.