# What's weird in your house? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 19, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327 "2007-10-19T19:57:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/1 "2007-10-19T19:57:55Z")
My apartment came with a fridge, but my sister already had one. They wouldn’t let us take the old fridge out, so we moved it into my room and I use it as an entertainment center. It always confuses people when I mention that my TV is in the fridge. This is less odd. In my parents’ old house there was a closet under the stairs. My mom cut out the back so it’d hold more stuff. It was a odd little space. So, what’s weird about your home? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/2 "2007-10-19T19:59:28Z")
[QUOTE=Silver Tyger Girl] This is less odd. In my parents’ old house there was a closet under the stairs. My mom cut out the back so it’d hold more stuff. It was a odd little space. [/QUOTE] Harry Potter’s house?! ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/3 "2007-10-19T20:02:53Z")
Well, the basement is unfinished and badly lit, so it gives off a very creepy vibe, especially when the lights are off. And we have a small crawlspace just below our roof and above the second-story ceilings, which makes any clawed creature skittering across the roof–i.e., squirrels–sound about a thousand times louder. Not a whole lot else. (We did find a turn-of-the-century Bible in an old bookcase when we were spring cleaning, though, that was pretty cool.) ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/4 "2007-10-19T20:08:51Z")
My husband is kinda weird. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/5 "2007-10-19T20:13:07Z")
My house was built in 1760 and the main part of the house is still amazingly original. The main part of the house has four identical rooms, 2 upstairs and two downstairs. They each have thieir orginal floors, walls, and fireplaces. On each side of the firplacesare two original closets that pretty are big for the standards of the time they were built. Oops, I said that the rooms are identical. That isn’t quite true. The one that became my office only has one closet and is just flat wall on the other side of the fireplace. However, it is plainly obvious that there is a space of some kind behind the wall about 6 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 8 feet tall. I wonder all the time what is behind that wall. I could potentially drill a hole from the basement, the closet upstairs, or the hall wall but I don’t want to hurt anything. Does any one have a tiny camera I drop done into it? ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/6 "2007-10-19T20:21:15Z")
Besides my family? ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/7 "2007-10-19T20:24:37Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] Harry Potter’s house?! [/QUOTE] My dad’s bedroom used to be a closet under the stairs. Then when he moved out, my grandparents made the closet smaller so they could install a fireplace where the end of it used to be. There was a lot of NQR stuff about that house - it was very old and had been remodeled a bunch over the years. The beams in the ceiling were so low I could reach up and touch them (I’m only 5’ 3"). You had to be careful not to hit your head on the one at the bottom of the stairs. In my current house, we have phones and carpeting in all the bathrooms. The guy who built it was a contractor - I guess he never wanted to miss a call, but I still don’t get the carpeting part. It needs to come out soon. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/8 "2007-10-19T20:27:05Z")
When I married my husband a few years ago, we each had a washer & dryer. I said “why not use both sets?”. After all, we had 4 teenagers. So, our laundry room has two washers and two dryers in it. ---
**Author:** ![lobstermobster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobstermobster/32/10033_2.png) [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/9 "2007-10-19T20:33:45Z")
We have a giant (about 3 square feet) poster of Lionel Richie’s FACE that we found on the street hung up behind the door in the bathroom. Its a nice little surprise when you close the door. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/10 "2007-10-19T21:43:13Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] Harry Potter’s house?! [/QUOTE] Well, no one slept there. I did have a big closet that I occasionally slept in when my bed was covered with stuff. (My preferred method of cleaning my room - pile everything on my bed, then go do something else. Some how this means I end up spending all weekend cleaning my room) The closet had been a office/homework space when my sister had the room. I had half of it as a library (the other half had my clothes) (the OTHER closet had my TV, toys, and stored stuff for when I moved out) (yes, it was a big room) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/11 "2007-10-19T21:53:17Z")
The narrow, shallow, long straight dip in the lawn. Perhaps six inches vertical depression, a couple of feet wide. It’s been there as long as we’ve been in the house, and I can’t help wondering if there’s some archaeological remains under there. There’s never been any pipes or wires laid behind the house, so something could have remained undisturbed at a depth below regular gardening. And there were army barracks near here in the 17th/18th centuries. Or it might just be a bit of a dip in the ground. Or maybe an old farm wall. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/12 "2007-10-19T21:57:37Z")
Until we remodeled our master bedroom more octagonal in shape than anything else. As it stands now, we don’t have a closet in the Master Bedroom, our closet is in the den. When the time comes to sell, we’ll put one in. We have a small bathroom under the stairs. We also have a very steep staircase which my parents bitch about whenever they come to visit. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/13 "2007-10-19T22:00:21Z")
The light switch for my bathroom is outside in the hallway. All the units in this building and the one next door are like that, and I’ve never seen it anywhere else. Although I remember a thread fairly recently where it was discussed as rather common in…Denmark? Belgium? I dunno, someplace European, so I wonder if the architect or the contractors building this place in 192something were European and did it like it was done “back home”. It’s pretty funny at parties, though. You see someone head into the bathroom, and you shout out, “Light’s on the outside!” and they nod and wave and walk into the dark bathroom. Several moments later, they wander out again, looking a little confused. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/14 "2007-10-19T22:03:06Z")
[QUOTE=romansperson] My dad’s bedroom used to be a closet under the stairs. Then when he moved out, my grandparents made the closet smaller so they could install a fireplace where the end of it used to be. [/QUOTE] That’s kind of cozy. In our old house, we used to have one of those. Sometimes my brother joked about how it was my room, just like Harry Potter’s. It wasn’t really big enough for anyone to live in, though. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/15 "2007-10-19T22:03:35Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] The light switch for my bathroom is outside in the hallway. All the units in this building and the one next door are like that, and I’ve never seen it anywhere else. Although I remember a thread fairly recently where it was discussed as rather common in…Denmark? Belgium? I dunno, someplace European… [/QUOTE] Normal in Britain, either that or a pull-cord switch. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/16 "2007-10-19T22:29:31Z")
We just moved into our first house (only renting, but still very exciting!), and it’s a strange beastie - over 80 years old, brick cottage. The living room has windows on all sides (we figured out after walking around it a couple times), but the windows at the back of the room appear to have been walled up some time ago. The garage has been converted, very slap-dash, into another bedroom - again, windows and garage door have been walled up. There is a chimney but no fireplace, as that was taken out some ago. Several of the rooms have been added on in more recent years, so there’s lots of extreme hallways and door frames that don’t quite meet up. Most of the plug outlets are so old they don’t fit modern plugs in them. We actually have a skeleton key! ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/17 "2007-10-19T22:51:42Z")
I have a window in my closet. ---
**Author:** ![SomeUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/18 "2007-10-19T22:53:24Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] I have a window in my closet. [/QUOTE] ## I want a pic of this. I can’t even imagine the purpose and I want a closet. Nine cats, three dogs, two birds, a turtle and fish make it weird enough but… Our house has no closets. None. Nodda. Not even a linen or coat closet. There is a small door in the basemant that leads under the bathroom. I assume it is to access the water pipes but the door seems weird to me. It is not insulted like the rest of the pipes and they almost froze last winter. The upstairs bedroom has electrical outlets every four to six feet yet in the livingroom there are only three. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/19 "2007-10-19T23:12:21Z")
Something else I’ve thought of: the [stained glass](http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g3/owainsutton/?action=view¤t=DSC00415.jpg) in and surrounding the front door. For a fairly unassuming British 1930s suburban house, it seems to be rather an unusual feature. It’s original, although taken from another window which disappeared when we extended the house. But we’re so used to it, we only notice it when we open the door to find visitors looking at it in some detail. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327/20 "2007-10-19T23:56:53Z")
My OTHER house (I’m a victim of the slow housing market . . . anybody need a house in Ohio?) was strangely “remodeled.” The bathroom sinks were attached on one side to the wall and the other side held up with lengths of rebar. The bathroom light switch was in the shower enclosure(!) and some of the walls were rearranged from their original position to curve. My new house (New Jersey) looks like a Fisher-Price barn from the 1960s. I fell in love with the exterior the moment I saw it and it took a few months to realize that it looks just like my beloved play barn. There’s weird stuff in this house, too, but at least the bathroom sinks are on cabinets! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-weird-in-your-house/423327.md?page=2)