Before and After: Creepy Basement Room

Continuing in the "before and after" series, the room we dubbed the "creepy basement room" was the second project we tackled on our house, after the sewer.

The original design of the house apparently included a greenhouse in the basement. So the builder poured the foundation to include an extra 12' x 10' room that never had any part of the house over it. When we moved in the deck covered up that room.

The combination of dirt floor, deck "ceiling" and an interior door to access that space meant that there was frequently mold plus a draft into the basement. Beyond that, the sill plate was rotted (something we didn't get a chance to fix until we started the big renovation in 2016). It was definitely deserving of the "creepy" moniker.

Josh and I knew we wanted to capture that space and put a room over it. Plus covering up and weatherproofing the space meant that we would eliminate at least one source of mold in the basement.

So the day we moved in Josh and a few friends pulled up the part of the deck that covered that space. We eventually got a concrete pad poured into the space (thanks Mike!) and Josh built a subfloor and then a tarp over it.

The initial subfloor ended up getting torn out and replaced in the summer of 2017, since Josh learned that the original way he positioned the floor joists would have continued to draw water toward the sill. This is one of those examples of "live and learn" and why it's good to be flexible.

Now with the rotted sill beam gone and the subfloor rebuilt, we have gained extra space in both the basement and the first floor. 

Josh is working on installing the roof, which will form a continuous roofline with the wraparound front porch. I will mud, tape, prime and paint the ceiling and walls soon, and then we can put down a floor.

It is slow-going, but we will gain extra storage space (and maybe an air gun range) in the basement and a guest bedroom on the first floor. The work is definitely worth it.

"BEFORE" - fall of 2013

"AFTER" - summer and fall of 2017