Homeless in Arizona

Source Also see: ^{1 2 3}

With the insane "War on Drugs" this might be a fun business to get into.

But remember, keep your mouth shut and don't tell ANYBODY about it.

Source

Want a secret door to a hidden room? Gilbert company's engineering makes it possible

Georgann Yara, Special for the ABG Published 6:00 a.m. MT Feb. 17, 2018 | Updated 12:14 p.m. MT Feb. 17, 2018

He can’t recall which movie it was, but one big facet of it proved to be the unforgettable inspiration behind Steve Humble’s unique business, Creative Home Engineering.

About 15 years ago, Humble was watching an action flick that showed a scene in which a door masquerading as a bookcase opened to a secret passageway in a house. At the time, he was living in Utah in a large house with 10 friends. The house had rooms that weren’t being used. An engineer, Humble started thinking: How cool would it be to create something similar for that house?

“That’s where the idea originally came from. I thought, I could totally make that,” Humble said. Spy doors and hidden passageways

Other movies — "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and "The Saint" among them — fed this interest. He couldn’t do it at his Utah home, which was a rental. But when he Googled the topic, nothing came up.

“I was astonished that there was no one for any price who’d put one in your house. I can’t be the only one who thought it could be interesting,” he said.

Humble’s personal curiosity became professional in 2004, when he launched his Gilbert-based company that specializes in crafting custom spylike doors and passageways.

What looks like a bookcase or mirror gives way to a closet, small room or a large one when a button is pushed or a switch is pulled.

These custom doors start at $10,000. Humble’s most expensive project cost $200,000. He has delivered doors to 50 countries, including China and Australia. Creating a bulletproof door to a safe room

One of Humble’s largest projects was made for Anthony Helmstetter’s second home in a Costa Rica beach town. What appears to be a well-crafted bookcase is a steel, bulletproof door that operates like a bank vault. It is the entry point to a safe room, which Humble also designed, that’s built into the house.

Helmstetter, a digital marketing consultant, wanted extra security measures for his wife and young son while he’s away. His search led him to Humble.

A hidden switch activates the impenetrable door, which is accessible even if the power goes out. The room is equipped with all of the amenities necessary for short-term survival and comfort; Helmstetter also stores his sensitive electronics and other items of value there, too.

The fabrication was done in Arizona and components were shipped to Costa Rica in two large crates in 2015, culminating five years of work and collaboration between Helmstetter and Humble.

“He was fascinating to work with. Very knowledgeable with lots of different applications,” Helmstetter said.

Among the details that impressed: Humble took the time to get wood samples of the doors and furnishings in Helmstetter’s home and stained the bookcase to an exact match.

The custom door weighs more than 700 pounds and required a very tricky maneuvering and timing procedure that needed to be precise. Humble foresaw this and engineered an intricate assembly guide so that it could be done onsite, which took a team of workers to complete, Helmstetter said. Humble even crafted the shipping crates so they could be used as tools in that process.

“He was not able to oversee the installation, but he did think it through, taking into account the labor that would be available here,” Helmstetter said. “With little training, I knew how to direct the actual assembly.”

From custom to off-the-shelf models

After graduating with a mechanical-engineering degree in 2003, Humble worked for a company designing robotic equipment that tested surgical lasers.

Then, Humble caught the secret-door bug. He said he never seriously thought about it as a career but was starting to feel cooped up in his cubicle and fantasized about more liberating professions.

“One day, a song came on the radio. It goes, ‘You were meant to live for so much more,’ ” Humble recalled. “I thought, 'I was.' ”

He quit this job and moved from Utah into his parents’ Valley home, a sound financial move for a budding small-business owner. After countless hours of research and taking architects and builders to lunch, Humble was ready to take the plunge.

Fourteen years later, Humble runs his company from a 10,400-square-foot facility. He also started a second division in 2017, called Hidden Door Store, which offers off-the-shelf standard models that range from $1,500 to $3,000, and resemble a bookcase, shelving unit or armoire. They are designed to be installed by the homeowner and can be done in less than an hour, Humble said.

Humble admitted he resisted the more economical line for years. But constant unmet demand by prospective customers turned away by the high price tag of custom doors persuaded him

“It was a risk. I didn’t know if it would take off. I’m glad it did,” Humble said.

In 2017, the company experienced double the growth compared with the previous year, Humble said. This year, it’s on track to surpass those numbers. The Hidden Door Store accounts for about one-third of the company’s revenue.

Products can be engineering challenge

About 70 percent of Creative Home and Hidden Door’s clients seek security, either in the form of a safe room or a discreet place to store valuables. The remaining 30 percent of clients just want a secret door for fun, either in a kids play room or movie room. In these cases, they retrofit an existing closet or room door and replace it with a Hidden Door one.

Humble carries a perfectionist streak. He looks back at the first doors he made, and although he’s proud of them, says, “They weren’t great.” A few years from now, he’ll likely think the same about his current designs.

“I look back and see it function and think, how could it be better? I have no complacency. Every secret door has to be better than the last.” Steve Humble, owner of Creative Home Engineering

“I look back and see it function and think, how could it be better?” he said. “I have no complacency. Every secret door has to be better than the last.”

Times have changed since Humble was the only kid on the spy-door block. He’s seen copycats, including one company that tried to pass itself off as his and used his photographs on its website. Humble discovered this when someone from that company called him, explaining that it agreed to a job it couldn’t pull off and asked him to take it.

“Everybody likes the appeal, but nobody really realizes what goes into it … to make it look good so it can fool someone. It’s challenging from an engineering standpoint. Others have tried, but it didn’t last,” Humble said.

It’s common for Humble to get calls from cabinetmakers who pledge to fulfill a secret-door request from a customer, knowing they are unable to. Humble is asked to either take the job on an outsource basis or correct their inferior product, he explained.

Although many groundbreaking small-business owners might understandably be bitter about others attempting to steal or replicate their work, Humble is not among them. Actually, he couldn’t be further from it.

“I don’t believe I’m entitled to anything at all. If someone can build a better door, then they deserve that business,” said Humble, who travels the globe to check out other secret doors or passageways to not just critique but to learn.

It’s this openness that keeps Humble and his business thriving in a lucrative niche in which few have been able to remain. He understands that when clients come to him, they are looking to keep what’s most precious to them safe.

“It’s more important to maintain my integrity. The fact that I can trade on my name and reputation has been a real asset,” Humble said. “I choose to do things the harder way so I gain more experience and get better. It’s made a bottom-line impact on the money I earn, but I’ve never been tempted by making a lot of money.’” Company details

What: Creative Home Engineering

Where: 1325 N. Melba Court, Gilbert

Employees: 10

Interesting stat: Approximately 33 percent of small businesses survive 10 years or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Details: 480-899-3477, http://hiddenpassageway.com

Here is an article in the East Valley Tribune that ran on the guy

Source

'Secret passageways' serve myriad purposes in E.V. houses

Christina Vanoverbeke Mar 10, 2007 0

When you think about a secret passageway, images of dark, dusty hallways veiled in mystery and intrigue typically spring to mind. But East Valley homeowners are building passageways into their homes that serve far more utilitarian purposes.

When you think about a secret passageway, images of dark, dusty hallways veiled in mystery and intrigue typically spring to mind.

But East Valley homeowners are building passageways into their homes that serve far more utilitarian purposes.

Wheneveer Louise Kircher gives the tour of her home in the Las Sendas development of east Mesa she always saves her little secret for the grande finale.

After crossing the short hallway to the master suite, she shows off her bedroom, the beautiful master bathroom, the see through gas fireplace and connected patio space. Then she leads her guest up a short flight of stairs to the exercise room, with gorgeous views of the Red Mountains. Coming back down the stairs she pulls from her pocket what looks like a car door remote. She stands back, presses one of the buttons and says, “And this is the secret room.”

The stair case begins to raise and below it is a another set of stairs, this one leading down to a small dark room the same size and shape as the exercise room above it.

“Watch your head,” says Kircher as she crouchees slightly and makes her way down the stairs.

The ceiling in the room is not much more than 5 feet high, so while Kircher can stand up in the room, her husband, Dennis, cannot.

Once inside, the room is not much to look at —— concrete floors, a couple of framed pictures and a few boxes and furniture pieces pushed off to one side.

She said the ideal use for the room would be to turn it into a playroom for her grandchildren someday.

“I think that would be really neat,” she says. For now, it serves as extra storage space for the family.

The hidden room at the Kircher residence is really not much of a secret.

“My friends tease us and say, “It’s not a secret anymore, you show it to everyone,’ ” says Kircher. “It’s really a novelty.”

Secret rooms and passageways are romanticized in history and fiction with stories of people narrowly escaping danger by fleeing through a secret passage. While they’re not on the run (that we know of), there are a growing number of families living in subdivisions and communities across the East Valley who’ve built a secret room in their homes that serves a purpose much like that of the one in the Kircher residence.

Helping see these projects from concept to reality is Steve Humble, owner of Creative Home Engineering in Tempe, a company specializing in building secret rooms.

“The first rooms we did were totally integrated into the framework and electrical work in new homes,” he says. “Now a large percentage of our clients are adding this to an existing home.”

Humble can take a closet or unused room and conceal it using a number of options, from a fireplace to a bookcase or faux closet. He can build a false wall to hide a panic room or a safe that raises and lowers out of a recessed area in the wall.

The staircase in the Kircher home in Mesa was built as a secret passageway to the small room below, but the Kirchers decided to have the hydraulic system installed after they moved in a year ago so that the stairs raise and lower with a push of a button. (Leigh Shelle Robertus, Tribune) He says his clients call for a variety of reasons — from wanting to buttress security in their home to just wanting to add something a little fun and unexpected. He’s been featured on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and CNBC’s “On the Money.”

The fully motorized rooms and passages Humble creates are operated by a number of options, from remotes like the one in the Kircher home, to books that when pulled from the shelf act as the trigger. He can even program the secrets to be revealed by a series of knocks on the paneling or from twisting the correct bottle of wine in a rack. Imagination is the only limit that seems to be placed on what homeowners can do. Humble has built a hydraulic system that raises and lowers a pool table in a room and is working on a chair where the seat lifts up to reveal a slide that leads to a secret room.

Kircher, a retired teacher, says she would like to build a lift in their home that covers the indoor jacuzzi and, when activated, lifts the people standing on it to the second story.

“There are windows in three directions up there,” she says. “I climbed up there on a ladder, and the view is amazing. I think it would be really neat for people to be able to go up there and look around.”

Also see: 1 2