Most people have normal home requests for contractors- a nice entry way, a walk-in closet, and such. Here are 25 homeowners whose requests were anything but typical.
Officially Creeped Out
“Architect here. I once worked at an office that designed houses for the mega-rich. We did a project for a Russian oligarch once who requested a room with no windows in his basement that was totally empty for an unspecified use. Normally we also populate rooms with furniture etc. depending on how the room will be used so it was already a little weird to leave it empty. This room -by his request- had only a water outlet for a hosepipe, was all tiled so that it could be completely hosed down, and had a drain in the middle of the floor….
I didn’t work there much longer after that.”
Everyone has Hobbies
“I was a draughtsman for a while. My clients were two super wealthy Chinese parents were building all three of their children houses on their massive property. I was asked to design the ironing room for the eldest daughter. She…genuinely liked doing ironing? And laundry? I ended up designing this massive room with bay windows overlooking the lake with all sorts of storage compartments and a variety of ironing stations. She loved it, I got a healthy bonus, and I’m still confused to this day.”
Wow…
“Not so much ‘built’ into the home, but what they were doing with construction materials….during the end of framing and beginning of rough-ins and drywall, we would come back to work on Mondays to find crap tampered with EVERYWHERE. Not vandalized, but stuff like 100′ of romex unwound and rolled back up, large ladders being placed in different rooms or drywall joint compound opened with hand prints smeared here and there. Little things like that. It really just looked like a bunch of kids messing around but this was a quiet, secluded, luxury neighborhood and the neighbors around only reported seeing the new homeowners visiting the site on Saturdays or Sundays. In fact, the architect lived around the corner and kept an eye on the home and never saw anything suspicious either. No big deal seeing that nothing was ever missing or destroyed I guess.
Fast forward to move in time, I was walking through with the homeowners for a final punch list. I saw some of their decorations and artwork being put up throughout the home. There were several very ‘artsy’ photographs in black and white of the lady homeowner in the nude…..tied up with romex….or drywall mud and paint smeared on her….or giving full view shots from up on a ladder….all taken inside the home during different stages of construction.”
Oh Snap
“My dad was a building inspector in an affluent town for many years – you had your standard crazy stuff (20,000 sq ft houses, ripping out a year old kitchen because the homeowner was ‘tired’ of it, nine-car garages, etc.).
He’s been gone many years now, but I remember these 2 stories as my favorites…
1) Couple is doing a master bath renovation. My dad goes to inspect the rough-in plumbing and asks the contractor why he ran pipes for 2 tubs. Ends up the 2nd tub was for the couple’s dog. And, when my dad when to do the final inspection, it was marble and had brass fixtures. Some dogs live the life…
2) Rich businessman owns two houses on a corner lot. They’re each on an acre, so they’re fairly far apart and one faces one street and the other another street. Pretty normal, nice colonial houses. Ends up there was a TUNNEL put in connecting the two houses. Guy had his wife and family in one and his MISTRESS in the other and he wanted to go back and forth between the two houses without the neighbors seeing it.”
That’s a New One
“Somewhat related: I’m not a contractor but I am a truss designer. I once received a floor plan for a new build of a 3000 sqft (give or take) 4 bedroom that just had a strange floor plan. I couldn’t put my finger on why. It was a very open floor plan but oddly done. So I’m talking to my boss and he tells me that the drafter and contractor were having a ball with this one because the customer insisted on a house design with no hallways.
Apparently she was afraid of being murdered in a hallway.”
Totally Age Apropriate
“I am a contractor- I built a nightclub in a guy’s basement that had a $250k commercial sound system and a full blown nightclub lighting and video rig.
Also, an underground waterfall flowed down behind the DJ Booth from the main entry, driveway water feature.
The whole thing done in glossy black marble, with a bar kitted out with commercial appliances.
Total fit-out cost would have been north of 750k USD.
First time it was used was for the 15-year-old daughter’s birthday party.”
So Stupid
Shutterstock/Jan Schneckenhaus
“Landscaper/stoneworker here. For very specific types of jobs, after we lay a path/patio/etc with interlock stones, we pack the cracks with a special polymer sand and run a heavy vibrating machine with a flat plate at the bottom overtop. It sets the stones and settles the sand. The homeowner saw this and insisted we run the machine over his other walkways, made from thin cheap cement slabs. Finally we did it and smashed ’em into shards.”
Awkward
“I had a women client that wanted my guys to paint her bedroom walls and ceiling but before they did she had them take down had to be 15 nude pictures of herself from the walls. Everyday she would take a shower and would come out nude and flash my guys. I forgot to say the women was in her late 60s to early 70’s. Thank god I never saw any of it or I might have gone blind!
In terms of other memorable clients, I also had a client one time feed my guys lunch from food he was able to get from the dumpster behind the market. Yes my guys were real sick from it too.”
This Client was Legendary
“I work at a contracting company but as an administrator. We had this house that was highly discussed and kind of legendary around the office. Mainly because while our subs were doing work the family insisted 1 employee from our company be present during all work hours with the subs & family. And not like a project manager, but 1 office employee. So lots of our admin met them. The family had weird pasty-pale kids who ran around like Donnie Thornberry all wild and dirty and stuff. They all apparently had ring worms.
The house was historic and the woman who owned it wanted everything done perfectly historically accurate. Which is fine, but some ‘historic’ methods are not necessary to keep a house as historic. For instance, she wanted the walls PLASTERED not drywalled. We tried to convince her to do drywall but she insisted on plaster.
Creepiest thing though was all the closets had these pre-existing tiny little doors in them. Like for freaking Keebler elves. They were maybe 2 feet tall little doors all around the house in the closets that connected to little tunnels. You can imagine the number of theories we came up with about those.”
Hidden 2-Way Mirror
“I do home renovation for myself and friends, but I am not licensed. I typically talk them out of the strange stuff! But we did find a full length 2-way mirror that looks into basement bathroom. It had a secret door hidden in the utility room, so you could watch someone unobserved.
I had my wife stand on the other side and use the mirror. The hole is chest height and you can see everything. This was very intentional and very thought out. The least horrifying explanation I have at the moment is that there was once an above ground pool just outside the downstairs door. So if you were swimming and visiting, you likely changed in this bathroom. Still horrible.
Every other mirror in the house is an old leaded beast. This thing is modern and lightweight. We don’t know who put it there or when, but it is recent and we know what it does. Thankfully that room has since been gutted. It was unnerving just being in there.”
I Want to be This Rich
“Not a contractor, but used to deliver wine for a few years, from a facility where people kept their collections.
These are high-end wines, that people were paying good money to keep in prime conditions, and as such had decent homes to go with them.
One client had us hold the wine while she was doing renovations, and whilst they were still in progress, we had to bring them back to their newly built wine cellar. The only catch was, we couldn’t take them through the main hallway, as the floor tiling hadn’t gone in yet – and the floor needed to be carefully prepared, kept level, etc. Seemed a bit pedantic, but ok.
Over a few days we gradually got all the wine back in the house, meanwhile this floor was gradually going in.
Around the time we finished up, the floor was done too, and we decided to take a look.
The floor was comprised of large tiles, about 2ft x 2 ft, made of thick, clear glass, and led to a large open kitchen/living area with floor to ceiling windows looking out over a very expensive view.
The tiles weren’t just glass though – looking closer, it was two panes of glass, and in between were thousands of little plastic people.
All the people were reaching up and holding up the pane of glass that the occupants walked on – and these tiles covered the whole floor in this hallway – you had to walk over them to move throughout the house.
They were literally walking on top of little people, which, considering the excess of this home, was mind boggling.
There was another home built on a cliff side we had to deliver to, that had about 2 flights of stairs to get to the home, which itself was tiered with about 4 stories descending the cliff, with a pool room (ie pool table)/gym situated on the floor beneath the pool (actual pool for swimming in).
2 flights of stairs must have been a bit too much effort to get to the house, since they also had a fully enclosed electric lift installed to take them from street level to the front yard. that was also not a fun place to cart wine around in, since the wine cellar was through the pool room on the lowest level.”
‘Survival Bunker’
“Electrician here. Have done a few. The coolest was a secret passage-way and attached room in a in a very nice house. It was hidden by a movable bookshelf on both ends. The guy said he didn’t have a specific reason for building it, he just always thought it would be cool to have a secret passage-way in his house.
The other one that stands out was an underground survival bunker accessed through a hidden door in the back of a garage. It had an additional exit by means of an underground tunnel that lead almost 100 feet in the bordering forest. The strangest thing about it was that it was a survival bunker that he had us wire with outlets and lights, despite there not being any type of of back-up/off-the-grid power. Makes me think that he actually had an alternative purpose for the shelter.”
Can I Live Here?
“This one to me is the coolest. We have a family friend who is a builder, and built his own house (obviously). I haven’t been over to his house in a while, but last time I was there, they were still finishing it (they’ve been finishing it for several years, and you’ll see why soon). Their house is 7 stories tall (4 above, 3 basement levels), has elevators, a full size basket ball court (in doors), several kitchens and living rooms, a huge theater room, an apartment that is attached with its own kitchen, living room, dining room, and 4 bedrooms, and the main house has countless bedrooms and other multipurpose rooms. The house is gianormous.
BUT the coolest part is the house has those McDonald’s slides in it. There are 2 in it (maybe more now) of these slides. One goes from the top floor to the bottom, and one goes from the top floor to ground level. In the biggest one however, there is a secret passage, thats kind of hard to get to. When the slide gets to its steepest point, you have to brace yourself against the walls so you stop. If you can, the slide actually has a tunnel to the side that you can take. When you go through that secret tunnel, it takes you to a secret balcony in their in home theater, with a fridge and chairs and stuff. Its a pain in the butt to get to, but its really cool.
They do have a few other hidden rooms, but unfortunately the guy who owned the house wouldn’t tell us, he said we had to find them on our own. Every time I was there spent the entire time knocking on walls, inspecting bookshelves, etc”
That’s a Basketball Team
“One house we did the drywall in had a bunch of extra plumbing in the garage. we ended up finding out it was for a urinal.
It sounded strange at first, but later we found out it was a family with 5 boys.”
Can I Come Play?
“A bowling alley in the basement. It had quite a lot, like a phone booth shipped from England, a table for a large train set, tile painted to look like that map carpet in every kids room but bigger, a wooden rotating shelving unit for full blown lazer tag equipment, secret doors, and a video game room with a projector black lights and neon.”
Impressive!
“I’m not a contractor but when traveling we visited my wife’s aunt who had been widowed by her electrician husband. Our first hint that the house was strange was that the doorbell was a large red button like you’d find on an industrial machine. Very weird considering this was a typical middle class bungalow in Calgary.
Once inside we asked the aunt about the button and she started showing us other odd electrical setups, several that she did not know how to work properly. There were drawers you had to open to get get light switches to work. There was a large industrial panel near the front door with about 20 buttons on it that controlled different things in the house. There were microswitches hidden all over the place.
By far the strangest thing though, was the master bedroom. It housed a large circular water bed and the walls were covered with 4″ long shaggy fur. Hidden inside the fur were many tiny switches that controlled things such as spotlights or a radio.”
But Why?
“A client wanted a toilet in the middle of the master bedroom. I didn’t want to know why, I just plumbed it the way the owners wanted.”
Lifestyles of the Obscenely Wealthy
“I hung a $10k Swarovski crystal chandelier in Papa John’s house, it was even motorized so it could be raised and lowered for cleaning and service..
I swear his basement looked like a 15th century dungeon…
I also worked on a very old house that was built by the Bingham family of publishing fame.. part of the basement had a dirt floor with 2 tombstones in it.”
That’s a Marriage
“Years ago I installed a kitchen in a house for an older couple (60-70’s), whilst we were there they showed us their ‘play room’.
… a huggge room set up for his toy train sets, that go in a circuit around a central platform stage area for karaoke. It was actually pretty damn impressive.”
Creepy Mirror!
“Funny room in a house called a ‘dressing’ room; which made sense as it had huge closets and a table with one of those make-up mirrors surrounded by lights. A door off this room led to a full bath, which had a second door leading to another bedroom. In the ( first ) door was a ‘one way’ mirror so that someone could look from the dressing room into the bath, but from the bath side of the door, it would be a mirror. Good for seeing if the bathroom was occupied, but also for viewing someone stepping out if the shower.”
Tears
“I am a recovering architect. Had a Jewish transplant couple here in San Diego with beach front property in Del Mar. the view was worth several million. First pass I put the master bedroom upstairs with giant windows so they can see the ocean. I meet and the wife says, ‘Oh I’m really into Feng shui and can’t have that window there or all the energy will go out my feet and through the window’. … So after discussing what to do they came up with a solid wall, no view, just wall.
They built it like that. Apparently gypsum board holds in your energy but glass won’t.”
Bathroom Shenenigans
“Two bathrooms from one bathroom because, ‘I can’t stand sharing a bathroom with my husband and his smelly craps’.
They are at this house maybe 3-5 months a year. The original bathroom was probably somewhere in the $35,000 range. The new bathrooms were about $85-90,000. The tile guy decided to buff the polished marble floors with a car polishing compound dulled the whole thing.
We are currently doing a hidden gun storage room. It will have a flush door inset in a paneled wall.”
Aztec Sacrifice Chamber?
I have a friend whose neighbor has a small pyramid in their backyard. It’s all granite, with a golden top, and a room on the inside. This guy’s friend who lived there took him over to see it once, inside was just a sink, a mirror, two beds, and a floor drain.
LOL!
Shutterstock/Kues
“I don’t usually get asked for crazy design ideas, just ones that are literally impossible to produce. For example, I had to explain to one client that they couldn’t put a skylight in their living room. Why, you might ask? Because the skylight would be in the middle of the floor in Billy’s bedroom.”
Was His Principal A Less Cool Adam West?
“I used to do some construction work on schools during the summer. The principal wanted, in his closet, a door to slide up where he could keep a safe for special school records, and a mini-fridge. Although it wasn’t very big or that cool. It was the coolest work I ever was involved in that summer. Plus, who wouldn’t want a mini-fridge hidden in their wall?”