# The house, and every secret in it

Machines get the cheat sheet. Humans have to look.

The human site is a recreation after a 1970s residence designed by Shanna Kellogg, with its arched roof structure engineered by Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, and built by Pat McGriff. This version is built in the visitor's browser with three.js, from code: no photographs, no scans. This is a personal fan project by Matthew Bacon, not affiliated with the house or its owners. The terminal, the card, the print, and the koi are mine, not the house's.

## Places

Each place is a section of the page. The human anchor and its plain-text twin share an id: [/#bar](/#bar) and [/machine/#bar](/machine/#bar) are the same place.

- 00 · The threshold, the opening ([/#top](/#top)): standing on the terrace at the corner of a long timber vault at dusk. Through its arched glass end, pale decking glows between dark ribs, and a concrete chimney rises behind the roof.
- 01 · The vault, the house ([/#thesis](/#thesis)): low in the sunken living room, looking up into the vault: dark glulam ribs, pale decking, and slot skylights in the crown.
- 02 · The hearth, the build ([/#model](/#model)): eye level with the concrete chimney. A see-through firebox opens to the dining room on the other side, and three limestone steps run past it.
- 03 · The table, the rules ([/#bar](/#bar)): up three steps, a long plank table under the vault.
- 04 · The study, the process ([/#how](/#how)): a slab desk in the study under the cross vault. A 1970s terminal sits on it, and a window looks out to a koi pond.
- 05 · The gallery, look closer ([/#who](/#who)): upstairs, looking west through the arched glass end, past the balcony and a Norfolk Island pine, to a thin line of Pacific.
- 06 · The door, say hello ([/#door](/#door)): a mahogany door to the garden stands ajar. Daylight falls on the limestone, and a small print hangs beside it.

## Moving through it

Scroll, and the camera walks to the next place. The arrow keys (or J and K) do the same, and 0–6 jump straight to a place. On a desktop, a gentle drag looks around a little and settles back when you let go.

## Look around

On a desktop, choose "Look around" or press W. The page steps aside and the house fills the screen.

- Drag to look, or hold Shift and use the arrow keys. Touch works too.
- Every place has a label. Click one to walk there.
- The arrow keys and 0–6 still travel between places.
- Everything you can pick up or open still works, wherever you're standing.
- Press Esc, or choose "Leave," to come back to the page where you left it.

It isn't offered on phones or when the house is off. With reduced motion on, every move is a cut.

## Light

The light follows the real time of day at the house: marine layer in the morning, six patches of sun from the crown skylights at midday, low light raking through the glass at golden hour, and the cove uplight at night. Press L to change it.

The last light in the cycle, Photoreal, is the same house rendered ahead of time in Blender, in late-afternoon sun, with real timber, stone, plants and sky. It downloads only when you choose it, and if it can't load, the page goes back to golden hour. The terminal, the koi, the chair, the card and the print stay live on top of it, so every secret still works. [/?look=photoreal](/?look=photoreal) opens on it.

## The terminal

In the study, on the desk. Click the screen, or follow "Use the terminal." Commands: HELP, LS, CAT <FILE>, ADVENTURE, GO, BREAK, CONTACT, MACHINE, CREDITS, CLEAR, EXIT. A few more aren't listed in HELP: try LS -A, WHOAMI, and FORTUNE. LS lists six files, where the words from the page now live; LS -A finds a seventh.

- ADVENTURE: Colossal Cave Adventure by Will Crowther and Don Woods (1977), in Eric S. Raymond's open-source port, under the BSD 2-Clause license.
- GO: nine by nine, against a light opponent. Komi 7.
- BREAK: one of these is out of place. Twelve levels.
- CONTACT: how to reach me, then it opens the door.

## Secrets

- Type xyzzy anywhere: the terminal wakes up.
- Type kellogg anywhere: the house turns into its plan.
- At the table, the chair at the head is pulled out. Sit down, and look up.
- On the table, my business card, lying across the seam between two planks. Pick it up and turn it over.
- By the garden door, a small print of the vault in section, hanging a little off. Straighten it.
- In the pond outside the study, one koi swims the other way.
- Print the page: it becomes a one-page leave-behind.
- Read the response headers.
- Open the console.

## Keys

- → or J: next place. ← or K: previous place.
- 0–6: jump to a place.
- W: look around.
- L: change the light.
- Esc: leave the terminal, a close-up, or looking around.
- Shift and the arrow keys: turn while looking around.
- ?: the list of keys, even with single-key shortcuts off. You can turn them off and on there, or open it from "Keyboard shortcuts" in the footer.

## House rules

- No sound anywhere. Not even the games.
- Nothing ships that isn't made in code. No photographs, no scans.