Secret compartments

When I was a kid I loved movies and TV shows where people lived in homes that had secret rooms and passageways. You know what I'm talking about, bookcases or walls that swiveled around and opened onto secret hallways, rooms, or laboratories if you pushed a special button...maybe it was a detail on the mantel or if you depressed a certain book on the bookshelf.
This was played for laughs in "Young Frankenstein".



And for chills when Bela Legosi was Dracula.



One of the biggest tropes was the ol' wall-safe-behind-the-painting gag. How many times did you see that? But it was still cool.



I was very spooked by the mausoleum in "Dark Shadows" that was the tomb of the scary vampire Barnabas Collins. You would pull the ring on a wall detail of a lion's head and it would reveal a secret room. Here's an episode where two nosy kids got trapped in there.




Of course, my favorite secret compartment of them all was on the old "Batman" TV show. In Bruce Wayne's booklined library in his "stately Wayne manor" mansion there was a bust of Shakespeare.





If you pulled back William's head it would reveal a special knob when, if turned, would make a shelf of books move aside to reveal two 'batpoles' that would descend our hero (and his "youthful ward", Dick Grayson) down to their crimefighting lair, The Batcave. I was in kid imagination HEAVEN for this.



At the time my sister deduced that they would cut to the animated title sequence "to give them time to change into their superhero costumes". Ah, naivete!
Anyway, you might be wondering what all these fond pop culture memories have to do with The Beautiful Wreck. Well, my little abode has it's own secret places built into it too! Not only do I have one secret compartment, I have two.
Now, make no mistake, mine are not nearly on the scale of Bruce Wayne's...but I love them all the same for being there.
The first one is in the kitchen...and I lived in the apartment a good two months before I discovered it on my own. Underneath the shelves by the kitchen window there is some paneling.



I thought it was just decorative, but in actuality the paneling is...



two tiny doors that open to reveal a little bit of storage space. Right now there's some leftover materials in there from the contractor I have to dispose of. Maybe I can store an exotic stash of rare cooking spices there? Or some fine priceless crystal? (As if I had money for that!)

The second secret place is even more fascinating.
It's in the bathroom. There needed to be cut-off valves in there for the hot and cold water lines. My architect and contractor thought that having them exposed would be an eyesore. So they devised a clever solution. Along the bottom of the marble tiles against one wall...



there's a secret panel that when opened, reveals the valves and a little bit of interior wall space.
Cool, right?





It's four tiles connected from the back by a piece of jigsawed wood; it's held in place with two sets of magnets.
Maybe I can hide my extremely valuable stamp and coin collections in there...or the family heirloom jewels.
Yeah, right.