We're closet preppers.
In our case, quite literally.
When you mention southern Indiana, New Yorkers usually respond with "Oh, that's tornado country." It came as a surprise when I was looking at properties in this area that few had basements. The place we bought not only has no basement but doesn't even have an interior room.
We looked at the ugly, open stairway and decided that enclosing it would not only give us space for lots and lots of bookshelves, enable us to seal off the upstairs to save on heat, and we could also expand and reinforce the under-the-stairs closet for a storm shelter.
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| Open stairway with construction materials at the ready!
January is the perfect time for an indoor project so we drew up plans and made a pricey trip to the hardware store.
I thought we would start with an 8' section but my saner half reminded me that we were indeed capable of building something we couldn't lift. We built two 4' sections instead.
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For strength we put in double beams and in one case (my mistake in measuring) a triple beam.
As with any project, problems arise. In this case, an outlet that was in the floor and had very little play in the wire to move it.
We pondered and jiggled and tugged and cursed and finally got it to the point where we could work it through the wall.
In the middle of the first day of construction, I discovered I was coming down with what seemed suspiciously like the flu. We knocked off for two days while I sneezed and coughed and moaned around on the couch. Today I dragged myself off of my sick bed and we put up the drywall for this section.
Working inside during winter means you store your materials inside, so everytime we start and finish for the day we end up moving 2"x4"s and sheets of drywall. That in itself is almost as much trouble as the actual work.
Next, we start the extension part, but not until I'm fully recovered 'cause it ain't no fun trying to run a screwgun while you're sneezing your head off.
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