To insist that Narnia be inside a wardrobe

[whomovedmychocolate]

This thread will out me to lots of RL people yeah, I'm on mumsnet, big deal, get over it, I'm still the harrassed mummy at the school gate but here goes.

We recently bought a massive house, unreasonably big (4500 square feet I think). In one of the rooms on the third floor was a small false window. That is a frame with a blind on it but with no actual glass just a board. Now from outside we could see a window high up on the wall but it appeared to be higher IYSWIM than the internal dimensions would suggest.

Anyway we got curious, drilled a hole and discovered a hidden room. Which we got the builders to check out, floor and insulate and which was plastered two weeks ago. We call it Narnia.

The room has five steps to access it because it's on a different level to the rest of the third floor (so we now have a fourth floor IYSWIM) - it's basically the roof space above the master bedroom which has a vaulted double height ceiling. It's 9X9 but it's a fab little room with a window and now a Velux.

I'm putting a single bed in there and it'll be an extra guest room.

But AIBU to insist that we get an old fashioned wooden wardrobe, take the back off and conceal the steps to Narnia inside it? Then put (vintage) fur coats in the wardrobe.

DH insists this is OTT but I think it'll be funny.

FWIW the entire house is OTT. Note to all mumsnetters, buy a country cottage, do it up and flog it for lots and you too can buy a big house in a city.

How old is the house?

oh definitely do it! The kids will adore it. Tell your husband from me: Springy says you're a miserable git.

A friend of mine had a room like this when she was little. There were two (small) rooms and you could only get to the second one by going through the first, so she had both as her bedroom, with backless wardrobe covering the door between them. She hung her normal clothes in the wardrobe, and the internal room was filled to the brim with books. I first saw it when I was about 13 and was so . Do it, do it! Or do the hidden door behind a bookcase thing.

Paintedtoenails - there is a panic room. It's tiny. You could hide there for a few hours but then you would die. And there is only room for one person.

Weirdness let's see - wine stains on the ceiling. Massive mirrors above beds. Skiddy pants on top of fitted wardrobes, blood stains under the bed (big ones), Poo in the cistern (no, not in the loo, in the bit that feeds the loo with water!), 500 very high quality tiles in the garage which were worth several thousand (which we've used when we refitted the bathrooms), a child's bedroom with a jacuzzi in the ensuite, a teddy bear encased in glass set INTO a wall (not in a child's room), the largest and most gaudy chandelier I have EVER seen (stately home type thing). 106 dead lightbulbs, and a dead dog barely buried in the garden. Oh and a 'spare garden' which was filled with builder's junk and left off the estate agents particulars, as was the workshop, and a futility corridor (forty feet long and six feet wide with a loo at one end which is in a cave like corridor made of stone with no natural light).

Oh and a house in the garden - a real actual two story house, for children, with pebbledashing and double glazing. The previous owners HAD NO CHILDREN in the period it was built OR GRANDCHILDREN.

It is a Very. Odd. House. And we are unpicking it bit by bit and keep finding things and going

SecretNutellaFix - it's not old - 30 years or so. Built by the previous owner.

If he won on having the house, you surely deserve to have your Narnia room in said house?

Oh please do it and then post pictures...

Ooh can we have a bingo game on the things your house does/doesn't have??

• wine cellar?
• pantry/larder? (proper one with a door)
• a well?
• a present-wrapping room?

I can't for the life of me remember the book, but I once read a novel where a couple moved into a house that had previously been owned by an old lady. They kept finding poos wrapped in plastic sandwich bags secreted throughout the house. They found so many the wife ended up moving into a hotel for a few days so the husband could clear the house from top to bottom?

That sounds the bizarrest house I have ever heard of.

But so very VERY cool.

Exceedingly jealous....

"Ooh can we have a bingo game on the things your house does/doesn't have??"

Or rather things they haven't found in the house yet :)

Guided tours OP. Make a few bob...

I think it would be vv funny. And i wish it was my house !

Brilliant idea, go for it! I've been thinking all morning about creating a hidden room in our house. Putting up bookshelves on doors to 'hide' them is the best I've come up with so far. Hmm, we do need more bookshelves...

I would definitely do it! Secret rooms are exciting in their own way, even without snow and Mr. Tumnus! Yes, do the book shelf, and decorate to look all exotic.

Make it a time capsule: 50s bedspread, tweed shorts, fair-isle pullovers

We don't have a well - we do have a buried swimming pool does that count?

Goodness, could you not just buy a normal house everr wmmc?

I would go for a bookcase- there are loads on pinterest, will link later when on my mac.

I could. DH couldn't bring himself to do so swanker.

When we are done (about May I reckon) we're going to shoot a short video of the place - and make public the 'before' videos (they include pants on floors, grot, grime and disgustingness). And then you can all laugh merrily at our idea of 'normal' (clue we have a grand piano in the kitchen).

Just the wardrobe the coats would be over kill and get in the way. Will you be adorning the other side with fake snow?

It sounds amazing. Would you like to adopt a 39 year old with a couple of crazy kids?

What to match my own pair of loopers Haziedoll. Umm no thanks. Wouldn't mind a live in helper though. That'd be very cool. At the minute I clean the entire place myself and frankly quite a challenge.

Meeeeeeee!!

Me, me, me please! And could I paint some mouseholes please?

So you do have a wrapping room??!

Walk-in wardrobe?
Staff quarters?
Claw-footed bath?
One of those Amazon shower things (or whatever they're called) with mid-body jets too??

House in the garden = ideal for MILs, no?

Can I come round and snoop when there's no poo or grot? I could report back for other MNers. It'd be like a public service?

tribpot. No funny creature outfit.

DrCoconut - having now heard wmmc's description of what she has found in the house, a bloke dressed either as a faun or a centaur sounds relatively normal - unless he's been killed, stuffed or turned into a rug.

Minniebar - kind of yes - we have a craft and decoration room

Walk in wardrobe(s) (plural)

No clawfooted bath, oversized corner bath for DD - just got rid of DS's jacuzzi in favour of a traditional bath.

21 jet double shower/steam thing with disco lights (I shit you not the previous owners must have been party people.

House next door for guests.

Yes Stratters you can come - no room for ponies though.