THE SECRET ROOM

We spent last week in Napier at The Old Girls's cousin's place. Her cousin and husband were away in Nepal doing the Annapurna trek. We were there to keep an eye on the cousin's 90 y.o. mother who is in a retirement home (a nice one) nearby and to take her on daily excursions. She had a stroke last year and cannot be trusted to live in the house on her own during the day hence the retirement home. The home is a new Ryman Village one and has excellent facilities. I'd be happy to live there (many years in the future hopefully).

The house we were staying in is rented by the cousin but the owner advised them before they left that he was going to put it on the market. While they were trekking they thought about it and decided to make an offer to the owner which was accepted, conditional on them selling a new-build property that they own and were planning to move into soon. This house is the same one we stayed in two Christmases ago (the one where I took a lot of selfies, see: HERE and HERE). It's a large rambling house on 3 levels with a huge tree covered section. I really like it and am pleased that they may end up buying it. The current owner lives overseas and has given them until October to organise their finances. Their offer price was below the CV and the homes.nz valuation so they should end up with a good deal.

I took some photos of it which hopefully shows the rambling nature:

Driveway down to the property

Greenery and trees

More greenery and trees

Pool

Deck

Dining room

Living area

Study

Living area

Main bathroom

  

TV area

Foyer

Spare bedroom

Lounge

Another spare bedroom

Another spare bedroom

Master bedroom at top level

Basement bedroom

The basement area is set up with a large double bedroom that is accessed from the main living area upstairs and has an exit out to the pool area. It has a separate bathroom and laundry where there was another door.

This door led to a storeroom with another hatchway to a large under house cellar and a door to one of the two garages.

Storage area accessed from basement area bathroom

Walkway from storage area

 Now here is where I wanted to lead you. This is what this post is about.

There is a secret room down here that on looking at the house from the outside isn't obvious and, unless you go via the basement living area's bathroom and a passageway you wouldn't discover it.

Secret room at end of walkway

Other view of secret room

 Chris, The Old Girl's cousin's husband has this set up as a hideaway where he plays his guitars and practices his stand-up comedy routines.
The Old Girl when she first saw it said to me "I bet you wish you had a secret room like this Matey".
I of course replied "No, no darling, I'd miss your company" to which she said "yeah right!"

This room would be ideal for Richard and his family of musical instruments and far enough away from Shelley and the main part of the house.