Family Finds 12ft Pool and Hot Tub Under New Home During Renovations

It's usual to find surprising things when renovating an old home, perhaps mold or lost belongings. A 12ft swimming pool and a hot tub underneath your feet, however, is a little less usual.

That's what happened to Emily Jean Henry and her family, who recently went viral on TikTok with their find under their newly-purchased Arkansas home from the 1980s. The home was custom-built for the owners.

"When we were buying this house we were told that at one point in this custom-built house, there was an indoor swimming pool, but that the pool was gone and that they had turned the swimming pool into a ginormous game room," Henry said in a TikTok video posted in August.

They had assumed the pool had been filled in a long time ago—until a home inspection revealed more.

"It said that this game room floor was wavy," Henry, who posts on TikTok under funkyglassworks explained. But still, they believed the support beams must simply be dodgy.

It wasn't until they ripped up the floors of the room that they found that they were "standing on top of a 12-ft deep hole."

As shown in another TikTok video, the room appeared completely normal beforehand. Now, they're left with a huge indoor swimming pool and matching hot tub, still with its original mosaic tiles.

Well… guess what we found under the floor of the house we just bought #houserenovation #whatwefound

Henry enticed her viewers on TikTok to "guess what we found under the floor in the house we just bought" before making the big reveal. The clip has since gained over 7 million views.

The family currently has no hard plans on how they will use the space but would like to keep the pool and hot tub in some capacity.

"Our current idea is to turn it into an indoor koi pond and atrium with lots of plants. Maybe restore the hot tub, but for now, it'll be an indoor skatepark," Henry said on TikTok. "Stay tuned."

Henry posted an update several days later revealing what the space looked like after uncovering more of the secret pool and hot tub.

"It's going to take a lot of work, professional guidance and $$$ to turn this into anything but we are excited for the possibilities," Henry said in the video.

Update. It's finally empty & ready for the professionals to come in and tell us what we are really looking at in terms of repair or renovation 👍 #homerenovation #whatwefound

For now, the family is simply trying to figure out how to stop snakes from getting in the empty pool, and enjoying the online love it's been getting, she said.

"That's like when u buy food from 5guys and they put 1.3 metric tons of fries in the bottom of ur bag," a wistful TikTok user named Carlos Santana (no, not that one) commented.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE LIVING MY DREAMMMM," Raven K wrote.

"Why can't this happen to me," asked another TikTok user.

Newsweek reached out to Emily Jean Henry for comment.