These ideas really appeal to me. They have been the stuff of many dreams I have had. I especially liked the post about the bricked-up wall with the hidden Victorian kitchen. There's a display like that in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney here - particularly have a look at the panorama in the top right corner.

Over the years I have often dreamed that I am in a house - most often my grandmother's house - and I discover secret rooms that nobody knew about, or secret spaces in the roof full of treasures. I think suggestions have been made by those into psychology that dreams like these represent hidden parts of oneself, and supposedly one's potential. Maybe - I don't know.

When I moved into my present house 3 years ago, I was rather enthusiastic about discovering the nooks and crannies - it's an old house. I discovered a fireplace behind a stupid set of doors that someone had built, and although the space is there and it looks like a fireplace, unfortunately the chimney has been bricked up. I'd be tempted to try and unbrick it, if it was my house - not just because of the prospect of hidden items, but just to have a working fireplace, but alas we are renting. So it will have to stay bricked up. Up in the roof of the garage showed some potential at first, I thought, but there only seems to be junk up there :-(

I LOVE old houses!