Vendor Dug It Himself
Three bedrooms, two receptions, and 1,300 square feet of hand-excavated accommodation reaching fifteen metres below the garden. Offered with no onward chain.
Behind the curtain+
One story, the Reading house with fifteen metres of hand-dug tunnel under it, chosen because the comment thread was the happiest thing on the front page and because an estate agent is the only person on earth obliged to describe a shaft as an amenity.
Written as property particulars, the UK spec sheet, so the form itself supplies the deadpan; the house gets two lines and the hole gets the rest, and the Seymour Cray anecdote enters as a comparable rather than as prose.
READING, BERKSHIRE. Guide price £300,000.
An established three bedroom semi detached residence occupying an elevated position, offered with no onward chain.
Ground floor. Entrance hall. Two receptions. Kitchen breakfast room.
First floor. Three bedrooms, family bathroom.
Lower levels. Approximately 1,300 sq ft of further accommodation, arranged informally over several depths and extending to fifteen metres, comprising linked passages and four storage chambers, all hand excavated by the present vendor. Spoil removed by bucket. Lighting installed to minus four metres; below this, torches are provided.
Amenities. The elevated position affords a low water table and a flood risk rating of Very Low. Scope to extend further, subject to the usual consents. The vendor has established that the ground will take it.
Comparable. A broadly similar scheme was carried out at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, by a computer engineer of standing, and is understood to have assisted his work.
Measurements taken at widest points. Viewing strictly by appointment. Hard hat provided, sensible footwear essential.
Tenure: Freehold. Council tax: Band D. EPC: E. The surveyor declined to descend.