A young woman who bought a house during the pandemic without ever seeing it in person has gone viral after discovering a secret blocked-off attic inside the home.
Sissy Hankshaw and her boyfriend recently moved from Pennsylvania to Missouri, where they purchased their first home based only on photos they’d seen online.
So Sissy was surprised when she finally got to see the place in person, and discovered that a windowed room on the second floor that’s visible from outside the house had no access points inside.
New house! Sissy Hankshaw and her boyfriend recently moved from Pennsylvania to Missouri, where they purchased their first home based only on photos they’d seen online
Wait a minute! There is a second floor in the back of the house that serves as her office, but a similar high-ceiling part of the front of the house is inaccessible
‘When you buy a house without ever seeing it in person before, check for secret rooms I guess,’ Sissy captioned her video
‘When you buy a house without ever seeing it in person before, check for secret rooms I guess,’ Sissy captioned her video on the discovery, which has gone viral on TikTok.
‘So because of the pandemic, we bought this house on the internet without ever seeing it before, and when we finally saw it in person after two months of looking at it online, we realized that it had something really weird about it that we had not noticed from the 18 pictures we had stared at for, like, the past couple of months,’ she explained.
‘So part of the house is like a house shape, and then the back has this little tugboat-y sticky-up situation,’ she narrates as the camera pans over her house,’ she went on.
The house is red, and the ‘tugboat sticky-up situation’ she refers to is a second floor that rises just above the back of the house, big enough to close one room.
That’s where Sissy has set up her office, and she shows off the inside of the room.
No doors! Sissy showed off her office, pointing out that it didn’t offer access to the attic
‘We realized that it had something really weird about it that we had not noticed from the 18 pictures we had stated at for, like, the past couple of months,’ she explained
But wait! Soon, they discovered something worth investigating in the closet
Got it! They found a boarded-up area in the wall near the floor, which they used tools to remove
But on the other side of the house is another area that sticks up higher than the first floor, with a triangular roof and even a window.
The mystery, however, is that that second area isn’t accessible from any other point in the house — not her office, and not the floor below.
‘As you can see, there is no access to the other part of the attic, at all, anywhere,’ she says, swinging her camera around her office. ‘There’s no way to access the other part of the roof that sticks up on the front of the house.’
Her video, which was uploaded in April, has gone viral and earned 1.2 million likes — and plenty of replies begging for more information.
So Sissy and her boyfriend investigated, and eventually found a way to access the hidden attic — through a board that had been nailed into the bottom of one wall in their closet
Open! There, they found not so much a usable room as a small attic with very low ceilings
Why? What Sissy found odd, though, was that a previous owner had put latching windows in the unusable attic
Interesting: It also had finished the floors, which are now covered in insulation
Score! The home was also a bargain, with the pair paying just $12,365.63 for their down payment with an $800 per month mortgage
Using tools, they unscrew the board from the wall to reveal what was on the other side.
There, they found not so much a usable room as a small attic with very low ceilings.
What Sissy found odd, though, was that a previous owner had put latching windows in the unusable attic, and had also finished the floors, which are now covered in insulation.
Later, Sissy answered more viewer questions, explaining that she works in real estate and felt comfortable buying the home without seeing it — but also noted that it was necessary given that they were moving from another city in the pandemic.
The home was also a bargain, with the pair paying just $12,365.63 for their down payment with an $800 per month mortgage.
Home sweet home: Meanwhile, Lindsay Grummett recently purchased a 148-year-old home in Paisley, Ontario
History: The home was built in 1873 by local industry leader J.C. Gibson, who lived there with his wife and their six daughters
That’s strange: She discovered a mystery door halfway up the staircase that didn’t seem to lead to anything
A Canadian woman has also gone viral after discovering a mystery door in her new house — and then prying it open to see a hidden staircase behind it.
Lindsay Grummett purchased a 148-year-old home in Paisley, Ontario, and was confused when she noticed a door halfway up the staircase that didn’t appear to lead to anything.
She went on to investigate, taking TikTok users along for the journey — and earning over 13.5 million views in the process.
‘My house may or may not have a secret passage… and probably a few ghosts,’ she captioned the first video.
‘I bought a 148-year-old house a few months ago,’ Lindsay explained.
‘Basically I bought it because I fell in love with that wall behind me,’ she said, pointing to an exposed brick wall.
Interesting: The door sat on a landing halfway up the stairs in the old home
Hidden: There were only a few stairs, and wood was used to block off the passage
Discovery: After prying it open, she found a boarded-up staircase behind it
‘All of you commenting about ghosts and spirits and all the kinds of weird s*** that might arise when I go into that space — I’m not willing to do it alone,’ she said
‘[There’s] still a lot of work to be done but we’re getting there. We are not here to talk about that wall, though. We are here to talk about this door,’ she continued, pointing to the door in question.
The simple door sits halfway up the staircase on a small landing and has no handle. Based on its placement, it seems to line up with the upstairs bathroom — but there is no passage between the door and the bathroom.
Curious, Lindsay pried open the mystery door and discovered a set of hidden stairs behind it.
Panning around with her camera, she showed that only the bottom two stairs are visible, and anything above that has been boarded up.
She also showed off a few ‘retro’ stickers on the inner side of the door, including Charlie’s Angels and The Fonz.
‘I have no idea what’s back there. Let me know if you think I should try to figure it out,’ she said, ending her first video with a cliff hanger.
Lindsay admitted she was too afraid to investigate on her own.
‘Basically confirmed it’s just a hollowed-out space behind the toilet where the plumbing’s accessible,’ she said
Why not a closet? Right now, it’s an empty cavity with cobwebs
‘All of you commenting about ghosts and spirits and all the kinds of weird s*** that might arise when I go into that space — I’m not willing to do it alone,’ she said.
But with the help of a man, she discovered that behind the door were actually four stairs going upward — which were cut off at the top, leading to nothing.
‘Basically confirmed it’s just a hollowed-out space behind the toilet where the plumbing’s accessible,’ she said.
But the mystery as to why the stairs were there was soon solved thanks to a local woman named Debbie who was familiar with the house.
The Gibson House, which was built in 1873, sits on the Paisley Heritage Tour. It was built by local industry leader J.C. Gibson, who lived there with his wife and their six daughters.
‘Since there was no plumbing in 1873, the bathroom was probably a bedroom, and that means that this was a second staircase up to the second floor,’ Lindsay explained.