Secret Passageway

Guys, we have a brand new house!

Seriously, I'm so excited to tell you all about it.

So, yesterday I left for a Visiting Teaching appointment.  My partner drove, so I left everything at home - purse, keys, phone.  As I was leaving, I asked my husband to pop by the bank while I was gone.  (Best part of having a husband who works from home = divvying up the chores that I used to do solo.)  Maybe you see where this is going, but when I got home he was gone and the doors were all locked.  My husband locked me out!

I walked over to the neighbor's house - the one who has a key to my house, just for such emergencies.  Not home.  And the other neighbor who has a key, not home either.  Bummer.  So I was stuck.  And FYI, it was cold yesterday.  Not horrible, but not pleasant when you have to stand outside wondering if someone is going to show back up soon.

After some time I decided to walk over to my elderly neighbor's house and ask to use their phone, which was a total throw back to 1999 when we all were familiar with such requests.  They were very polite and allowed me to use their corded wall phone (LOVE! - People still have these!). 

When I got finished, I didn't want to go back out in the cold, so I asked if I could sit on their couch and watch for Rob.  They said of course.  I made pleasant chit chat.

Me:  "I love your living room.  Did you guys get it re-done?"
"Yeah.  A few years back."
Me:  "Well, it looks great.  I love the paint color.  Did you do it yourself, or did you pay someone to do it?"
"We paid someone."
Me:  "Good call.  Well it looks great.  And I love these archways you have in the back corner.  They're charming."
"You have the same ones in your house."
...
Me:  "What?!"
"Yeah.  We have the same exact house layout.  He [previous owner handiman] covered the archway up with that wood paneling."
Me:  "Are you kidding?  We assumed that he covered the wall up because it was damaged or something."
"No, I don't think so.  He just wanted to cover the archway for some reason.  I think they put up a bookshelf in that corner."
Me:  "They covered up these charming archways to put in a bookshelf?!"

At this point my head started to explode in slow motion.  Years of confusion dissipated into absolute clarity.  The living room with awkward dimensions - the kind that makes it impossible to utilize that particular corner - BECAUSE IT'S NOT A CORNER, IT'S A WALKWAY!  The tiny, tiny "hallway" leading to my bedroom - terrible lighting, one tiny wood panelled wall, an awkward closet door, and not enough walking space - BECAUSE THAT WALL ISN'T A WALL!  The reason for the simple, charming archway leading from the living room to the dining room - IT'S NOT THE ONLY ARCHWAY IN THE HOUSE!  You can stand in their living room and see 3 archways.  THREE!

When Rob got home I called him over.  He had to see it.  "Look, this is where we have our closet door.  It's not a closet entrance.  It's an accent wall.  ACCENT WALL.  Brilliant!" 

...  Not being one who is skilled at waiting, I went home and immediately started taking down the wood paneling.  ("Can we start right now?"  "Tamra, right now's not a good time."  "Okay, just tell me where the tools are and I'll do it myself.  DID YOU SEE THOSE ARCHWAYS?!"  Rob decided to help after all - nice guy.)  We were a smidgen afraid that the archway wouldn't be there.  After all, it had been many years since our neighbors had seen them.

You guys have no idea how excited I was to see it.

Our archways.

I told the kids it's a Secret Passageway - which is not only fun, but I think the term technically qualifies in our case - it's a passageway that was previously secret to us.  Rob prefers Passageway to Narnia.  Either way, it's now ours.