# Rosemary's Baby-like Mystery **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 21, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061 "2014-08-21T02:42:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/21 "2014-08-21T13:54:40Z")
Ah, it must be storage for the cleaning bot. They haven’t been invented yet, so you can’t get in there. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/22 "2014-08-21T14:02:40Z")
Squid. Squid are behind the door. squid, squid, squid. Sorry, I needed that. How is it sealed? Screws, nails? If so,why haven’t you opened it!? ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/23 "2014-08-21T14:05:11Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > What are you still doing out here? > > open it open it open it open it _joins in_ open it open it open it open it open it ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/24 "2014-08-21T14:07:26Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Squid. Squid are behind the door. squid, squid, squid. Sorry, I needed that. > > How is it sealed? Screws, nails? If so,why haven’t you opened it!? According to the OP, it’s painted shut. Next real guess: It’s a closet of some sort, and some time in the distant past somebody did a very bad job of painting and didn’t realize how fast the paint was going to dry. He tried to open the door, and it was stuck, and rather than risk breaking it, he just left it that way. Several other people have painted it since then and now it looks like a giant dip candle shaped like a door. There are several anonymous lumps of paint affixed to the walls of my apartment that look like this; I think one is the door buzzer, but since the door buzzers don’t work (guess why…) I have no way of knowing for sure. Good news is, there could be an entire closet-full of goodies behind the door. Might be clothes, might be guns, might be a vintage vaccuum cleaner… And I just have to say… > [@Dung Beetle](#): > > What are you still doing out here? > > open it open it open it open it This made me laugh out loud. And I agree with DB. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/25 "2014-08-21T14:21:07Z")
> [@PorchePine](#): > > So in my new flat, right by the kitchen, I have a door. Door-frame and hinges are showing, but there’s no knob. The door is sealed/painted shut. > > With my tape measure, and measuring walls and spaces around this door, I’ve been able to ascertain that the space behind the door is about 3 feet by 6 feet. > > What could be behind there? Since you used the word “flat”, I assume you live in Great Britain. Could it be the ghost of some knight from Camelot? Or maybe the sword that Arthur pulled from the stone? ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/26 "2014-08-21T14:22:48Z")
Mid World? ---
**Author:** ![PorchePine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/27 "2014-08-21T16:01:34Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > According to the OP, it’s painted shut. > > Next real guess: It’s a closet of some sort, and \*\*some time in the distant past somebody did a very bad job of painting and didn’t realize how fast the paint was going to dry. \*\*He tried to open the door, and it was stuck, and rather than risk breaking it, he just left it that way. Several other people have painted it since then and now it looks like a giant dip candle shaped like a door. There are several anonymous lumps of paint affixed to the walls of my apartment that look like this; I think one is the door buzzer, but since the door buzzers don’t work (guess why…) I have no way of knowing for sure. > > Good news is, there could be an entire closet-full of goodies behind the door. Might be clothes, might be guns, might be a vintage vaccuum cleaner… > > And I just have to say… > > This made me laugh out loud. And I agree with DB. Except there is no knob. That’s part of the mystery–it seems intentionally sealed. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/28 "2014-08-21T16:14:26Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Fortunato. WIth the remains of a very nice cask of sherry. The easy answer seems to be that it was some kind of closet, but that begs the question of why they would seal it up. Good closet space is hard to come by. The fact that it had a door and isn’t just a closed space between two walls rules out a lot of the things I was thinking of, like furnace flue pipes and things like that. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/29 "2014-08-21T16:25:49Z")
Maybe it’s a bathroom. You don’t happen to have a pipe organ elsewhere in the vicinity, do you? If so, for the love of gods, LEAVE THE DOOR UNDISTURBED!!! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/30 "2014-08-21T16:29:36Z")
Whatever you do, don’t throw your shoulder into it to bust it open; might be an air shaft. 37 stories to the basement and then you end up on “Bones.” ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/31 "2014-08-21T16:37:54Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Whatever you do, don’t throw your shoulder into it to bust it open; might be an air shaft. 37 stories to the basement and then you end up on “Bones.” On the plus side, if you find an air shaft you could always take a leaf from Lord Vetinari’s book - “You’re perfectly free to exit via that door . . .” Oh, and joining in the chant: open it open it open it open it open it. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/32 "2014-08-21T16:39:36Z")
If the doorknob is missing then isn’t there a hole you can peek through to the space behind. Or are you saying. . . Cue creepy music There _NEVER WAS A DOORKNOB?!?_ :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: Is the building old enough that your flat and the one below might once have been connected? It might be the top of a staircase thats been sealed off to make two flats? If so, and there’s a lady in a white dress on the other side, seal it back up quickly, she’s nothing but trouble.\* \*“The Seven Year Itch” reference ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/33 "2014-08-21T16:43:01Z")
Are all four walls within your flat? Because if not (the space backs onto another apartment or the common hallway), the space may be in use by someone else. But if it’s entirely within your flat, then it might be space you can use. And three feet by six feet is a good-sized space. ---
**Author:** ![PorchePine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/34 "2014-08-21T16:48:09Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > If the doorknob is missing then isn’t there a hole you can peek through to the space behind. Or are you saying. . . > > Cue creepy music > > There _NEVER WAS A DOORKNOB?!?_ > > :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: > > Is the building old enough that your flat and the one below might once have been connected? It might be the top of a staircase thats been sealed off to make two flats? If so, and there’s a lady in a white dress on the other side, seal it back up quickly, she’s nothing but trouble.\* I’m on the bottom, but that may be a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![PorchePine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/35 "2014-08-21T16:50:53Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Are all four walls within your flat? Because if not (the space backs onto another apartment or the common hallway), the space may be in use by someone else. But if it’s entirely within your flat, then it might be space you can use. And three feet by six feet is a good-sized space. Yeah. The space is 100% mine. Unless it’s a pit of despair used by the tenants above me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/36 "2014-08-21T16:55:49Z")
Chuckie ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/37 "2014-08-21T17:07:15Z")
Oooh, how old is your building? If it’s old enough that the original apartments might at one time have had a different configuration, it might be a back stairs leading up to the next floor. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/38 "2014-08-21T17:18:37Z")
Cut through the paint, pop the hinge pins out, and open it! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/39 "2014-08-21T17:29:28Z")
Open it! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061/40 "2014-08-21T17:37:49Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Is the building old enough that your flat and the one below might once have been connected? It might be the top of a staircase thats been sealed off to make two flats? If so, and there’s a lady in a white dress on the other side, seal it back up quickly, she’s nothing but trouble. I lived in a college town where lots of old, large houses were renovated into apartments, and a lot of people had walls with permanently sealed doors. In some cases, a short hallway that had two doors entering two different rooms was transformed into a bathroom, with the doors sealed, and a new door put on the bathroom, and new entry doors put on the rooms (if they didn’t already have two doors), and the bathroom was for the use of everyone in the hall. So basically an upstairs with four bedrooms became four studio apartments with a shared bathroom and very tiny kitchen areas. I’ve seen servants’ quarters on a top floor turned into a two-bedroom apartment with a living room, and the door to the interior stairway sealed so there was no connection between the floors, and an outside entrance was built. I’ve seen houses that were big and had more than one furnace from when furnaces came into use, renovated to have a central system, and some of the old furnace rooms shut up, because they weren’t useful as closets. I’ve seen doors between rooms shut up, to essentially make a duplex out of a regular one-family house. A fairly large house becomes a smaller house with an attached one-bedroom apartment. I’ve seen fireplaces removed, and the area walled off, instead of being turned into useful space, like a closet. I suppose someone cheap might use an old door instead of bricks or studs and drywall, if he already had the door. The space is probably the result of secondary renovation. Probably at one point, it just separated two apartments that were originally connected rooms, then someone renovated one of the rooms again to put in a sink, or something, and maybe wanted to push the wall out, but couldn’t, because it was a supporting wall, so he was stuck with dead space. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosemarys-baby-like-mystery/696061.md?page=3)