5 ms·

Ask HN: Have you discovered hidden parts (e.g. rooms, tunnels) in your home?

7 points by kulor 6y ago

Having moved into a new home, I'm finding interesting nuances (secret ducting) which made me think of the wonders others have found in their homes...

allwein 6y ago
"Secret tunnel" is one of my favorite TikTok genres. I find these fascinating as well.
- kulor 6y ago
  Just installed TikTok to peruse this genre. To my surprise, better content than Instagram & others for the subject
throwaway889900 6y ago
Nah the only things I found were serious electrical problems.
frompdx 6y ago
The house that I live in today technically has a secret tunnel that was built by my grandfather for my brother and I. There is a large pantry built next to the stairwell to the basement. The side of the pantry has a hole cut in it so that you can move from the area beneath the stairwell into the pantry. It's a secret room if you are small enough to enter it. Someone I knew growing up really had a secret room in their house. Inside of a closet there was a wall that opened to a room that was really just the space between the walls of the room to access some ducting and the water heater. The secret door was definitely not obvious.
- kulor 6y ago
  Love the architectural lineage there, thanks for sharing. I'm feeling inspired to build some "hidden" crannies for my kids and thus bragging rights for their friends when they come round to play (when people can meet in houses IRL).
  - frompdx 6y ago
    You bet, that was just one of the many things my grandparents did that made childhood fun for my brother and I. Depending on how young your kids are they may also like the hidden treasure routine. My brother and I went on a streak of trying to find hidden treasure. One weekend we convinced my grandfather to drive us around to scope out spots to look. My grandpa told us to give him directions where to go. Eventually we found a spot and started digging. After digging a few shallow holes my grandpa pointed to another spot and to our surprise there was something solid about a foot down. It was an old Neiman Marcus tin full of loose change and candy. We were thrilled and for years we would tell anyone who would listen that we had found buried treasure. When I was an adult if finally occurred to me that my grandpa had set the entire thing up. There is just no way my grandparents would have let us eat candy we found buried in the ground. But he had set it up well enough that my brother and I didn't notice. We believed we had given him directions to the place it was buried and we believed we found it after searching the area thoroughly. Really, he had buried it earlier before we came over and gave us subtle hints until we found it. We were four and six at the time. When I realized it had been set up I called my grandpa and we had a good laugh. He told me not to tell my brother before he hung up. Keeping the secret is key.
apache909 6y ago
Found a hidden storage room in the wall next to a kitchen in a church when I was younger. A friend of mine showed me a room he found under their house in a basement(which isn't common in South Africa) in the storeoom he found a bunch of unlicensed firearms. Think they belonged to his dad, but there were so full of dust even if the police had found them they might have thought they belonged to a previous owner.
el_dev_hell 6y ago
Not sure if this counts, but a buddy and I found a secret extension to his shed when we were teens. It was a sliding wooden door behind a woodworking shelf (the door blended perfectly with the handtool holder wall). The room was about 3m by 2m. When we found it, it was empty and had hooks on the ceiling with two power outlets. We didn't tell his parents and thought it was a "cool" after school hangout spot. A few months later, we went back and a new shelf with weed plant cuttings was in the room. My buddy asked his dad and it turns out he had been growing a few weed plants hydroponically for the prior few years.

7 points by kulor 6y ago

Having moved into a new home, I'm finding interesting nuances (secret ducting) which made me think of the wonders others have found in their homes...

allwein 6y ago

"Secret tunnel" is one of my favorite TikTok genres. I find these fascinating as well.

kulor 6y ago
Just installed TikTok to peruse this genre. To my surprise, better content than Instagram & others for the subject

throwaway889900 6y ago

Nah the only things I found were serious electrical problems.

frompdx 6y ago

The house that I live in today technically has a secret tunnel that was built by my grandfather for my brother and I. There is a large pantry built next to the stairwell to the basement. The side of the pantry has a hole cut in it so that you can move from the area beneath the stairwell into the pantry. It's a secret room if you are small enough to enter it. Someone I knew growing up really had a secret room in their house. Inside of a closet there was a wall that opened to a room that was really just the space between the walls of the room to access some ducting and the water heater. The secret door was definitely not obvious.

kulor 6y ago
Love the architectural lineage there, thanks for sharing. I'm feeling inspired to build some "hidden" crannies for my kids and thus bragging rights for their friends when they come round to play (when people can meet in houses IRL).
- frompdx 6y ago
  You bet, that was just one of the many things my grandparents did that made childhood fun for my brother and I. Depending on how young your kids are they may also like the hidden treasure routine. My brother and I went on a streak of trying to find hidden treasure. One weekend we convinced my grandfather to drive us around to scope out spots to look. My grandpa told us to give him directions where to go. Eventually we found a spot and started digging. After digging a few shallow holes my grandpa pointed to another spot and to our surprise there was something solid about a foot down. It was an old Neiman Marcus tin full of loose change and candy. We were thrilled and for years we would tell anyone who would listen that we had found buried treasure. When I was an adult if finally occurred to me that my grandpa had set the entire thing up. There is just no way my grandparents would have let us eat candy we found buried in the ground. But he had set it up well enough that my brother and I didn't notice. We believed we had given him directions to the place it was buried and we believed we found it after searching the area thoroughly. Really, he had buried it earlier before we came over and gave us subtle hints until we found it. We were four and six at the time. When I realized it had been set up I called my grandpa and we had a good laugh. He told me not to tell my brother before he hung up. Keeping the secret is key.

apache909 6y ago

Found a hidden storage room in the wall next to a kitchen in a church when I was younger. A friend of mine showed me a room he found under their house in a basement(which isn't common in South Africa) in the storeoom he found a bunch of unlicensed firearms. Think they belonged to his dad, but there were so full of dust even if the police had found them they might have thought they belonged to a previous owner.

el_dev_hell 6y ago

Not sure if this counts, but a buddy and I found a secret extension to his shed when we were teens. It was a sliding wooden door behind a woodworking shelf (the door blended perfectly with the handtool holder wall). The room was about 3m by 2m. When we found it, it was empty and had hooks on the ceiling with two power outlets. We didn't tell his parents and thought it was a "cool" after school hangout spot. A few months later, we went back and a new shelf with weed plant cuttings was in the room. My buddy asked his dad and it turns out he had been growing a few weed plants hydroponically for the prior few years.