A couple renovating their Victorian home were shocked when an architect informed them they had an extra hidden room in their house.
Rachel Gagie from London posted a reel to her Instagram 39andfine to announce “we have a hidden room in our house.” Discovered in the weeks leading up to Halloween, Gagie admitted the revelation concerning their Victorian-era home had left them “a little spooked.”
“I love reading thrillers but it means I have a wild imagination and I’ve definitely been assuming the worst,” Gagie told Newsweek. “I like to make it sound lighthearted but I am panicked that it could be bad!”
Home renovations are almost always fraught experiences. A previous survey of just under 1,000 U.S. citizens conducted by Schlesinger Group on behalf of home renovation and remodeling service Sweeten, found 85 percent of respondents consider renovating their homes to be stressful.
For Gagie, the renovations being undertaken on the South London property she shares with her partner are a necessary part of achieving a long-held ambition. “We really wanted to live on this street, it’s been our dream, but all the houses are done up and we couldn’t afford them,” she said. “Then two years ago this one came on the market and had lots of damp issues etc which made it affordable. So we’ve lived in it the last two years saving up and are just about managing to do it!”
The biggest challenge for Gagie has been keeping on top of costs while also working full-time and running a second business. “We’re really stretching ourselves mentally and physically to do this,” she said. “We hope to do some of it ourselves as well so that we can make it work but we’re two weeks in and already exhausted but it’s worth it.”
It’s early days, but the couple are quickly learning that a project like this comes with plenty of twists and turns. The first of these came in the form of the mysterious area at the back of their property.
“From the back of our house there looks to be a boarded up window and a boarded up door but they are actually bricked up on the inside. So we can’t access it at all,” Gagie said. “From the inside the bathroom door leads to what would be the downstairs restroom and the window we assumed led into a cupboard. We weren’t aware there was anything else there.”
That all changed after Gagie hired an architect to do a measured survey of the property. “The measured survey allowed the architect to have a detailed measurement of the current building so that they can then do their drawings,” she said. “So it was only then that we realized that the measurement inside the bathroom wasn’t the same externally.”
Gagie said they have yet to open up the space and see what is in there. Since posting about the discovery to social media, plenty of theories have been put forward. “All the comments seem to suggest it’s a toilet or pantry which would be great but I’m also concerned it’ll be absolutely foul in there,” she said.
However, Gagie remains confused as to why the space has been bricked off and left dormant for so long. “We can’t believe someone would close off a space in a house that’s usable?! Which is also why we hope it’s something fun!”
Whatever the case, they will be finding out what is in there soon enough. “We’re actually doing an extension so we will need to completely knock it down regardless,” she said.
Followers online are now waiting anxiously for an update.
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