# Secret Apartment Discovered **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 15, 2021, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918 "2021-03-15T06:10:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![velcro](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velcro/32/7102_2.png) [@velcro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velcro)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/61 "2021-03-16T01:39:49Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > A full sized window? If the window in our bathroom hadn’t been walled up our neighbors and anyone walking or driving by could see someone showering. I’d have to put up a waterproof curtain up. It was just a very odd location for a window. It was probably 2 ft wide, 3 ft tall, starting 4 feet off the ground. It was 2/3 back from the shower head, and faced the back yard. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/62 "2021-03-16T01:45:44Z")
Didn’t she wonder why there were things she didn’t put in there that were facing “backwards”? ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/63 "2021-03-16T01:53:52Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Googling indicates that people are already drawing comparisons to the scene in Candyman. Which I suspect was itself inspired by the story @gdave mentioned: > > > [@gdave](#): > > > > For the true life horror version of this, back in the 80s an older woman in a Chicago low-income housing project [reported that a man was coming out of her bathroom mirror to threaten her.](https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/they-came-in-through-the-bathroom-mirror/Content?oid=871084) Before clicking on the link, be warned, the actual, real life case really was horrific. The journalist who originally wrote that story [certainly thinks that is the case.](https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/03/14/how-a-story-about-the-horrors-of-housing-projects-became-part-of-a-horror-movie) I’ve also seen the connection pretty much taken as a given in commentaries going back to the late 90s/early 00s. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/64 "2021-03-16T01:57:10Z")
So, did Cedars Sinai Hospital have porn in the rooms? Inquiring minds want to know! I’ve heard of those in-between floors, usually used for HVAC. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/65 "2021-03-16T02:26:48Z")
I’m guessing only ice cube tray(s) were put in there and they were pretty symmetrical. I would think finding a tray of water when you knew you put the tray in to freeze yesterday would be more likely. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/66 "2021-03-16T02:47:09Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > So, did Cedars Sinai Hospital have porn in the rooms? Inquiring minds want to know! I’m not sure what their pay-per-view options were. Probably just _Patch Adams_ on an endless loop. That would explain all the dirty laundry covered in vomit. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/67 "2021-03-16T02:49:29Z")
One of the houses I lived in had a window in the shower, but it was the only place in that room a window could have been put. We had an opaque shower curtain cut down to size for it. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/68 "2021-03-16T02:52:30Z")
> [@velcro](#): > > It was probably 2 ft wide, 3 ft tall, starting 4 feet off the ground. It was 2/3 back from the shower head, and faced the back yard. The window I found was 4x3, it began just 18 inches high from the ledge of the tub, and 2 feet from the shower head (right where someone would stand while showering) And it faced our front yard. In other words, without being covered the entire world would see everything! And this was the original bathroom from construction of the house. The other 2 were added years later, one of them by me. It’s almost like they put that window there as a sick joke. Imagine my surprise when I pulled the tiles down and found that window! But that’s not the only strange thing. There is a tiny little urinal closet in the garage. It’s so small that it is impossible to close the door once inside regardless of how the door is hung. Plus, there is no water hookup in that garage. I have no clue where liquid goes down that urinals drain. The house was built in 1958. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/69 "2021-03-16T03:17:36Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > The window I found was 4x3, it began just 18 inches high from the ledge of the tub, and 2 feet from the shower head (right where someone would stand while showering) Sounds exactly like the window in the shower of the apt where I currently live. It’s right on the front of the building overlooking a busy street in a NYC high rise. The glass is frosted but we also have a curtain over it. The house I grew up in also had a window in the shower, as did another apt I lived in. It seems perfectly normal to me. A shower without a window makes it seem dark. And to bring this back to secret rooms, one of the walls in my childhood bedroom is a sloping dormer that ends about 2 feet above the side of the bed. So if you sit with your back against that wall you may have to angle your head down. My dog loved to run and jump onto my bed and one night he took a running leap onto my bed, slid into the wall and _disappeared_! My bed was flush against the wall so imagine my confusion when he was just _gone_. After a few seconds of stunned silence I realized that he had actually knocked a hole into the wall and was now sitting confused on the other side in this weird empty space on the other side of the wall! It was about 2-3 feet deep and ran the length of my bedroom. Apparently it was somehow connected to the attic but no one ever used it and I had no idea it was ever there! (Doggie was fine btw! Just confused!) ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/70 "2021-03-16T04:12:49Z")
Try Ursula Vernon’s [The Hollow Places](https://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Places-Novel-T-Kingfisher-ebook/dp/B084G9KFDF). Unexpected hallway found behind a wall leads to a place of portals inhabited by … beings. You’ll never look at those silly little roadside attraction museums the same way again. Pray they are hungry. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/71 "2021-03-16T04:16:38Z")
Funny. My sister just sent me this and I commented on how it’d be better if midway through it changed into the animation from that video. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rBgMeunuviE/maxresdefault.jpg "Take On Me by a-ha, North Korean Style") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBgMeunuviE) ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/72 "2021-03-16T04:38:16Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Before we moved in I did some renovations. In one of the bathrooms I discovered a 4x3 window behind the wall in the bathtub/shower. Couldn’t see it from outside because it was covered there by siding. > > Makes absolutely no sense. The way the plumbing is set up the shower has always been in that location. Who the hell would want a big window right there? And a shade or curtains wouldn’t do any good, they’d get soaked I lived in an older house that had windows in both bathrooms, main floor and upstairs, on one side of the house towards the rear. side. No shower head, just a tub. Never even gave it a second thought. I wonder if it wasn’t more common before whole house cooling. Yeah, I don’t see how it’s a big secret if there is a door to the hallway. Also I would be amazed that a NY landlord would accidentally lose a rentable apartment. That is easily over $1000 a month, tho I didn’t catch where in NY she lived. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I went to Narnia. I was a Queen there. Then some bad shit happened. You know, I think I read about that. Narrow escape! > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Are you sure that wasn’t just an A-ha video? Good call back! ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/73 "2021-03-16T05:02:28Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Also I would be amazed that a NY landlord would accidentally lose a rentable apartment. That is easily over $1000 a month, tho I didn’t catch where in NY she lived. I believe it said Roosevelt Island. Yeah, there’s really no mystery there. It looked like an empty apt that was in the middle of being renovated. The bottle she found looked like it had been left pretty recently. It’s _weird_ that she could get to it through a hole behind the bathroom mirror, and that’s a huge safety concern for reasons shown above, but the fact that there was another apt behind a wall in a NYC apartment building seems so obviously normal. Like, did she not realize that that wall was not an exterior wall? Of course there would be another apt there… ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/74 "2021-03-16T05:16:39Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Like, did she not realize that that wall was not an exterior wall? Of course there would be another apt there Really, it’s so obvious that I think this was an attempt to get a video to go viral. Looks like it worked. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/75 "2021-03-16T06:51:30Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I think what you are talking about are usually called “mechanical floors” or “service floors” and they are common in tall buildings. I recall reading about some issues ( in NYC, I’m sure) where builders were trying to put in 200 ft worth of mechanical floors because the mechanical floors didn’t count as floor area for zoning Wasn’t there something in the news not too long ago about Trump wrongfully counting (or not counting) “service floors” in his buildings to fudge the figures, for tax or loan purposes? (I don’t recall specific details, and I can’t find anything real specific about it now. Am I imagining this? Anybody remember?) ---
**Author:** ![Nayna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ebca7d/32.png) [@Nayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nayna)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/76 "2021-03-16T07:47:58Z")
My house has a window there - we had frosted glass put in. I love to open it on warm days! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/77 "2021-03-16T08:09:35Z")
When I was a little kid I thought that our house had several fairly large empty walled-in spaces that would make great secret rooms. It was only later that I realized I was failing to account for things like closets in adjoining rooms taking up the space. Another childhood fantasy dashed by reality! Other than that I got nuthin’. My brother once owned a house that dated from the 19th century that had a servants’ staircase leading up to servants quarters, but they weren’t particularly secret. It was unique by modern standards, though, because in keeping with the times it was deliberately designed to all be self-contained to minimize interactions between lowly servants and the family. If the staircase had been hidden you’d basically have a whole hidden apartment. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/78 "2021-03-16T10:45:15Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Another childhood fantasy dashed by reality! Damn! I hate it when that happens. My 1926 Craftsman house has two windows in the bathroom. I love them. Every room in the house has several windows (five in the living room, five in the bedroom) and they all open. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/79 "2021-03-16T11:08:11Z")
Lot’s of articles about Trump’s creative numbering, but his seems to have been mostly to get people to pay more rather than loans or taxes or even zoning. But he also practically just made up floor numbers, calling the floor above a 300 ft atrium the 30 fl based on 10 feet per floor so 30 floors, when it really should have been more like the 20th floor based on the high ceilings in that building ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918/80 "2021-03-16T15:00:47Z")
Nobody’s mentioned the low budget creeper [Bad Ronald.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Ronald) A kid kills another kid, so his mom fashions a secret room for him in the house. She dies and another family moves in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-apartment-discovered/937918.md?page=5)