Sara Bareilles Makes Surprise Discovery Inside Door She’s Been Trying to Open for Years
“And it's a skull. And it's a skull. It's the bone of a maggot-filled skull! I don’t know what this thing is, it’s a giant dragon.”
If you’ve ever lived in a house with a fireplace, a mysterious little door in the wall, and more wildlife than neighbors, you already know this story doesn’t end well.
Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles—the two-time Grammy winner behind “Love Song”—learned one of country homeownership’s harshest lessons the hard way.
On March 18, the 46-year-old took to Instagram to share a five-minute video of herself cleaning out the chimney of her country house, and what she found behind that little metal door was the stuff of every rural homeowner’s nightmares.
That little door you’ve been ignoring? Yeah, about that.
Every homeowner with a masonry chimney knows the one—the chimney clean-out door. It’s that small, unassuming metal hatch typically located at the base of a chimney, often in a basement or on a lower exterior wall.
Its purpose is straightforward: it provides access to clean out ash, soot, and debris that accumulates at the bottom of the flue.
Bareilles described having the house for several years and said she “loves” it. But there was always one little door on her wall—the chimney clean-out door—that she could never open.
She finally got it open. And what she learned is that some doors are better left shut.
The video started with Bareilles singing a made-up tune, narrating her discovery in real time like only a songwriter could.
“When you live in the country and you open a door ‘cause it’s always been closed every time before. And you see some stuff falling out you think, maybe I should see what’s inside,” Bareilles sang.
“And it’s a skull. And it’s a skull. It’s the bone of a maggot-filled skull!” she continued. “I don’t know what this thing is, it’s a giant dragon. What the f–k, what the f–k?”
Anyone who’s ever pulled a long-deceased critter out of a crawl space or wall cavity knows exactly the cocktail of horror and dark humor she was feeling.
Sara Bareilles’ reaction goes viral
Bareilles’ reaction was exactly what you would expect from someone discovering the unexpected.
“It’s, you know, the carcass and remains of some kind of giant rodent,” she said in the video, adding that she thinks it might be a raccoon.
The “Love Song” singer was surprised at the size of the carcass as she cleaned it out with a shovel.
“This body is big. It’s like a turkey! Oh my god, there’s a long tail. It’s like birthing itself backwards,” she said in the video before claiming that there are multiple carcasses.
Her screams were every bit relatable as the soot and bones were scooped into a bag.
“That was traumatic,” she added—a sentiment that needs no further explanation for anyone who’s dealt with a decomposing animal in a confined space.
Her ‘first short film’ was a huge hit online
To her credit, Bareilles handled the cleanup with more grace than most of us would muster. She described what she planned to do with the bones.
“And I want you guys to know, for what it’s worth, I am going to give these little creatures a little blessing and set them back into nature, even though they’re quite, very, very dead,” she said.
“And then I’m going to sage the place and take a shower,” she concluded.
She later joked in a separate Instagram post: “I don’t think I’ve ever posted anything online that has gotten more interaction than me removing cat carcasses from an old chimney in my house.”
Comedian Wanda Sykes commented under the video with a response many of us can relate to: “I would’ve just moved.”
“Please know the sheer JOY and RELATABILITY we all experienced today because of you,” another user commented.
Even PetCo weighed in, adding: “this is a very unexpected cameo for us,” referring to the fact that the carcass was placed in a brown PetCo bag.
Bareilles captioned the whole ordeal as “My first short film.”
For those of us who have wrestled with the unglamorous realities of older country homes — the mystery smells, the unexplained scratching, the things that go bump in the chimney—it was less a short film and more a documentary.
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