Glad to see the wealthy share some of the same interests. The pics tell the story. Hopefully they are not behind a paywall.

Alex de Hondol, 50, enjoys hunting, and eating, collared peccaries, or javelinas, found in the mountains two hours outside of Phoenix.

So when he and his wife, Cindy de Hondol, were planning to build a new home in the area, he decided to take his shooting hobby a step further. He installed an $850,000, 1,900-square-foot professional shooting range in the basement of the new $3 million house, where his family moved in June 2020.

While his wife initially resisted the idea because they have young children, he assured her that safety would be paramount. Now, Mrs. de Hondol, 48, and their three children—ages 12, 16 and 19—use the range.

“I wanted something different,” says Mr. de Hondol, a vice president at First American Title Company’s Phoenix office. He is hoping to get good enough to enter pistol-shooting competitions. “The only problem is that there is a shortage of ammunition now, due to hoarding.”

The 2,650-square-foot basement of the 9,000-square-foot, two-story house includes the shooting range, which the family can also use as a safe room, a den and an adjoining powder room. A small storage area holds hunting gear, and there is a separate utility room. The property’s value includes the cost of the gun range, an outdoor pool and a pool house.

While the home sits on a single acre, neighbors can’t hear the pistols firing. (Mr. de Hondol only shoots pistols inside.) The 64-by-30-foot, double-lane range is encased in 8-inch-thick concrete and sound-baffling materials.
A medical-grade HEPA air filtration system rids the windowless gun range of toxins caused by firing lead bullets.

At the end of each lane, rubberized berms can trap up to 4,500 rounds of bullets before having to be serviced. The gun-range equipment is by Action Target in Provo, Utah, which makes ranges mostly for law enforcement, though the demand for home ranges is increasing.

Steve Humble, founder and CEO of Gilbert, Ariz.-based Creative Home Engineering, which makes custom secret-door systems, said his business is up 90% in the past year.

“It’s due to the events of the last year: the pandemic and civil unrest,” he says. Otherwise, he adds, most of his clients are men wishing “to play out their James Bond fantasy.”

Mr. Humble designed and installed the passageways and three reinforced doors to the range area, adding a speakeasy-style window—of bulletproof glass—to the door to the gallery.

For privacy and security, Mr. de Hondol’s gun range is accessed by a hidden door between the kitchen and the dining room. The door opens to a wood-panel stairway that leads down to the basement den, decorated with a mural of swirling gun smoke in grays and purples, installed by designer Jenny Slingerland, owner of Black Ink Interiors in Scottsdale, Ariz. She also decorated the custom home’s interiors. “We decided on a James Bond-meets-Al Capone theme, with modern elements,” she says about the basement.

The room’s 13-foot barrel ceiling is covered with faux restored brick and is based on a ceiling Mr. de Hondol admired at a California winery. Photos of Al Capone hang in the bathroom; the den has framed target-practice artwork on the walls, a concrete coffee table and a black leather sofa and chairs. There is also a television and, just outside the door, a small built-in bar.

A second door behind a concrete wall in the den opens with the touch of a button to a buffer zone containing the small closet for gear. A biometric scanner programmed for Mr. de Hondol and his wife’s thumbprints unlocks the 500-pound, bulletproof door to the gun range. The vaulted door is similar to what would be installed in a bank. Mr. de Hondol stores his guns there, in a 1,000-pound Liberty safe. The space also has cabinets for storage and an area for gun repair and maintenance.

Although using the range as a safe room wasn’t the original intent, Mr. de Hondol says, “My 12-year-old daughter feels safe when she’s home alone, knowing she can go down there.” He can override the security features from his cellphone to allow access.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/s..._major_pos3#cxrecs_s

Pics are behind a paywall.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Pics are behind a paywall.

^^^^^^^
Sorry. Was afraid of that. Sometines the Incognito window works.

Seems a little silly to publish in a national newspaper a picture showing the exact location of the hidden door and what’s behind it.

quote:

Originally posted by DaveL:
Seems a little silly to publish in a national newspaper a picture showing the exact location of the hidden door and what’s behind it.

I had a chuckle at the "For privacy and security" preamble to giving it away in a national publication

quote:

Originally posted by DaveL:
Seems a little silly to publish in a national newspaper a picture showing the exact location of the hidden door and what’s behind it.

Yeah, that doesn't seem like a good idea.

We do quite a bit of work like this all across the country. And although I occasionally post photos of what we do, it's with the owner's permission and there's nothing in the photos that would give anybody the ability to deduce where it was taken.

One of the biggest homes I was in had 4 panic rooms. Each panic room was behind a vault door, and each of those rooms had another vault within. The vaults were for the storage of weapons and valuable, while the rooms themselves were like small apartments. There were beds, a couch, entertainment system, kitchenette and pantry stocked with food, and a bathroom complete with shower. Each room could house 4 persons for a month.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Pics are behind a paywall.

Here's a non-paywalled link to the article and pics: WSJ link

Joel, thank you for the link. It’s a pretty great article when you can see the photos.

Thanks Joel

Lol, that's the title company we used when we bought our house. Nice to know the fees went to a good cause . . . .

Must be nice to have that kind of money . . . .

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Must be nice to have that kind of money . . . .

flashguy

But can't resist the urge to show it off. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a "secret" panic/gun room & range.

“Collection”? If you say so.

yes because every collection needs a skull faced ar15 lower.

I am sorry, sometimes, and if I piss anyone off here it isn't meant to, but no matter how much money you make you can't wash away the bad taste of folk.

What do they do for backup power? How about fire proofing? I’d imagine any perp outside the panic room would cut the power to the house, or perhaps burn it down around you.

Beadwindow!

Releasing "classified" info to the whole world.

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Must be nice to have that kind of money . . . .

flashguy

But can't resist the urge to show it off. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a "secret" panic/gun room & range.

Some people enjoy the things they have for those things' sake. Others enjoy the feeling they get from showing off what they have more than they enjoy the thing itself. I suspect most people experience both (me included) but I've been around long enough to know the latter is a dangerous road.

There's always someone with more and better stuff, and I've seen guys bankrupt their families trying to be that person. I knew folks with really awesome boats in 2006-2008, only to learn in 2009 that they used all of the now-extinct equity in their homes to buy them and were in foreclosure as a result. The guy in the article might have that kind of money, he might have it on paper today, or he might be in debt up to his eyeballs and lose his house when the real estate market cools off and he can't pay his mortgage.

quote:

What do they do for backup power? How about fire proofing? I’d imagine any perp outside the panic room would cut the power to the house, or perhaps burn it down around you.

Depending upon the conern of the owner there are solutions for all of these issues. In some cases there are even backups for the backups for the backups. When money is no object, the sky is the limit.

Full name , place of residence with pics , location of " secret door " including pics . Oh by the way , his 12 yr old daughter stays home alone .. WTFO ?