The Room of Requirement

If you are a Harry Potter fan you'll know all about the wondrous Room of Requirement. It is the room which magically appears and opens for people who need it and provides them with whatever they need too. I too have my own Room of Requirement. 

I remember when I was being shown around my house by the estate agents. The lady who showed us around opened the door in the kitchen - it looked like a door that would lead to a pantry cupboard. But instead I saw a flight of stairs. Walking down them I gasped. It was a whole basement flat down there. A blank space to fill your dreams with. It was at that moment I knew I wanted this dream house.

How the Room of Requirement looked when we bought our house. 

What would I do with all this space?

The first thing we did when we moved in was to make it a party room. With no furniture it was the perfect dance floor for a big house party. We strung it up with fairy lights, brought down the sound system and invited all our friends.

After that we decided to turn it into a gym - complete with Wii Fit, weights machine, spin bike and rowing machine.

Then, when I needed to find a way of keeping up with mortgage payments I made it into my bedroom and rented out the master bedroom. Before moving my bed down I freshened up the white paint, got a door fitted to block off the utility room, put up curtains and matched them with a bright yellow rug.

After I had renovated the basement bathroom I was able to move back upstairs and rent out the entire basement - splitting the room into a sitting room and bedroom.

The basement has had many purposes and it has been my biggest asset and the thing that allowed me to keep my house when the going got tough. Like Harry Potter's Room of Requirement it has been perfect for everything I've ever wanted it to be.