the 20th avenue cellar

My masterpiece...is finished.

Adrienne and I have long pondered what to do with the funky little 8ft x 8ft room we have in our basement.  Painting studio?  Guest room?  Man Cave?

Behold, The 20th Avenue Cellar.  We now have a 150 bottle wine rack - enough for my homemade vino and our small collection of good stuff - shelves to house AJ's canning bounty, plenty of space for her homemade varieties of beer, and lots of storage for bottles, corks, jars, fermenters, siphons, etc.  Temperature fluctuates between 60 and 65 degrees, so its pretty good to store wine and beer long term. Doubles as a nice work space to do your racking, bottling, and aging too.

You should stop by and enjoy a beverage with us!

How the room looked when I began

I got everything out of there, then discovered that every bit of wallspace was covered with multiple layers of paper and cardboard

Ripped out the paper/cardboard, then added some insulation - gotta keep those wines/beers from getting too hot/cold!

A little more insulation for good measure....

Covered up the insulation with some random boards, built a workbench and shelving, painted the floor and concrete walls

Covered up insulation with old boards from the shelves that were in this room

Cut and stained one-billion pegs for the wine rack

Stained the workbench, finished the floor, built the wine rack, and added some finishing touches

Built shelving for AJ's canned goods and beer and my wine

100 years old - time for a facelift

Or rather, time for total reconstructive surgery.

The Centenarian is being resided.  Not only did our house look rather shabby with its teal shingles, but we needed to protect our investment as well.  When we bought the house, we had a siding guy come out and check the place over.  He told me - and I quote - "Dude, this is the worst siding job I have ever seen."  So not only was it ugly, but it wasn't shielding the house very well from the 10-months of rain we get every year.

So the house is stripped down to the studs.  The original lap siding is gone (sad), the asbestos tiles are gone ("Thank you" says my lungs), and the beachy shingles are gone (couldn't happen fast enough).  The house had zero insulation, so we've got some of that too.  Another few days and it will be all buttoned up.  Stay tuned for a grand unveiling.