15 Concession St. E., Bowmanville, Ont.
Asking price: $1,700,000
Lot size: 151 by 125 feet
Taxes: $8,231.07 (2025)
Listing agents: Dan Plowman, Dan Plowman Team Realty Inc. and Matt Lionetti, Real Broker Ontario Ltd.
The backstory
In the town of Bowmanville, there’s a normal-looking bungalow on a corner lot with something to hide. Secret doors in the home open to reveal features and facets of a unique building.
“When my wife and I first got together 15 to 20 years ago, we actually made a list of all the coolest things that you’d want to see in a house, like secret passageways and tunnels, a billiards room and a tea parlour – like all of the most unique things,” said Ryan Carr, an entrepreneur and real estate investor. That list went into a box, only to be rediscovered around the time they began planning renovations for the Bowmanville bungalow. “We realized this property is actually perfect to build all of the things that we had talked about. So we put the list up on the wall and then built the house.”
There’s a certain theatricality to creating a home that makes use of hidden doors and an almost-made-for-TV quality to the construction of those elements. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mr. Carr and his wife Kiki Carr have been on TV, part of the first season of an HGTV renovation program called Hoarder House Flippers that aired in 2023. To be clear, the Bowmanville house wasn’t a hoarder house flip. In this case, the previous owner was 101 years old and the house, built by her and her husband in the 1950s, had a lot of charmingly dated decor. Among the features that came with the house is a slate pool table that is still in the basement, although, like the rest of the house, it has been given a modern update.
The kitchen has been updated but it is small by modern standards.Pascal Zois/Pascal Zois/Castle Real Estate Marketing
Construction got under way in the pandemic, and the revamp of the main-floor living spaces, as well as the creation of the chambers of secrets in the basement, were in the first phase of the updates. In the second phase, the two-storey workshop, garage, office and podcast studio were added on, with a tunnel connecting the two buildings. “I want to walk to work in my socks,” Mr. Carr said.
The House Today
The structure today is a little unusual for the rest of the leafy suburban street with relatively narrow lots: This corner spot is 151 feet long by 125 feet deep, and the house fills most of that length with garage additions on each end of the original plan. There’s a single-car unit to the right of the front door, and on the left is a three-bay garage (one of which is double-height with a car stacker storage unit in it) that’s connected to the house with a breezeway at the surface level and through the tunnel below.
A modest foyer tiled in marble sits at the exact centre of the original house with the kitchen dead ahead, a hallway to the three main-floor bedrooms on the right, and a door to the large living room, lined with built-in bookshelves, on the left.
There are two smaller bedrooms that share a bathroom, which opens into the hallway. The primary suite has large bay windows facing the backyard. Its ensuite bathroom has been kitted out with large built-in closets.
The kitchen has been updated but it is small by modern standards; more of a U-shaped galley than the open kitchen format popular in many high-end homes.
Off the dining room is a small tea room that also acts as the access point to the basement, where the fun stuff begins.
The Secret Tunnel
At first, the basement seems a continuation of the rooms above; white walls with picture-frame moulding. To the left is a rec room, and past a bookshelf, there’s a hallway to a guest bedroom and the laundry room.
But if you look closely at the built-in bookshelf, you’ll notice the baseboards don’t continue across the lower part of the space, and the hardwood appears to go under the shelves. Try removing a book labelled The Great Gatsby and you’ve found the first secret door, which swings inward.
One of the mirrored arches behind the bar can be jiggled to open the Cigar Room.Pascal Zois/Pascal Zois/Castle Real Estate Marketing
The long room that’s hidden behind the bookshelf seems like a speakeasy of the Prohibition era. On the ceiling is a series of gold-painted mouldings in geometric patterns. Crystal light fixtures and pendants dot the room. The pool table, almost 100 years old, has been restored and the decor honours its 1920s art-deco style.
“It’s just like going to Las Vegas, right? People go to Las Vegas because it’s an attraction,” Mr. Carr said. “I love to have friends over, you come to play pool, grab a drink, sit at the bar and just kind of hang out. It’s a good social gathering point.”
Behind the full bar that fills one end of the room, there’s yet another secret panel behind two quartz countertops.
There are three mirrored arches behind the bar and the one furthest to the right can be jiggled to open the Cigar Room: a chamber where the walls and ceiling are panelled in oak, with leather chairs that would be right at home in a Raymond Chandler novel.
Another secret panel in the corner opens into a brick-lined tunnel with round-topped doorways that conceal spaces for storage. A set of stairs goes right into the garage, on the other side of which is Mr. Carr’s metal shop.
Mr. Carr’s main job is real estate and home renovations, but at one time, he was a mechanic – one with a particular set of skills. “I used to build armoured cars for a couple of years,” he said. “Luxury SUVs for, like, basketball players, that kind of thing.”
The stairs in the garage go to the second-floor office/podcast loft, which is anchored by a large lounge with its own powder room, making this an easy conversion to an in-law suite.