Unfortunately, I can't get rid of all the remnants of the previous owner's art, though he fancied himself a bit of a Bansky it seems and used stencils and poor brush technique to paint. I would have got rid of this little skull and bones, but it is directly on the brick and it will still leave some kind of mark. Overall, I don't mind this one though, so it is free to stay.
Now that the garage is largely complete and even though there is some sorting an reorganising to do before things are in the right place, I thought some kind of walkthrough pictures might make a little more sense of what has happened down there in the dungeons. @seattlea said he couldn't really make sense of all the little rooms, so this is a bit of a treasure map.
This is the central space opposite, still with a few things to move. Our chest freezer sits in here, as does an exercise bike I should use more, but haven't. It has been a bit of a mess for a while and has just got more and more out of order, so hopefully we can keep it clean. I say "we", because I can keep it clean.
Starting at the top of the stairs and looking down, these were painted, walls and ceiling with four million nail holes were filled, sanded and then painted. skirting boards with a thousand corners, none of them at 90 degrees were cut and fitted. And you can see that depending on the light, the colour changes quite a lot. The window to the right is just above grass level, so we get natural light most of the time in the basement, but in winter it is cold and dark.
Small storage rooms, right is under the stairs. These rooms were in pretty disgusting condition, but we didn't really use them for much. At some point, I think the one on the left was coal or oil storage, as well as a potato cellar after. I don't really know. We will put some shelves in and use it as a place for seasonal storage, since what we need in the summer and winter, changes a lot in Finland. The right one I will add some shelves and keep wine and spirits in there.
And while I won't show the sauna area as it is messy at the moment, before the shower and sauna there is a little changeroom between that was in very poor condition. But after stealing a few wooden panels for the stair walls, I uncovered some red brick and decided to expose it all and largely using the same materials I removed, rebuild it into something usable. Part of the floor is missing, so I built a storage box (again using offcuts) that doubles as a bench. The only things I had to buy were a few covering lists, and the hinges for the box.
The laundry has the worst floor of any of the areas, as it was the oil furnace room and the concrete has degraded over time, and has been treated very badly. We now have an air-water heat exchange system. Going into this room (and the garage) are very heavy steel fire doors that will need to be reset and fixed at some point, but I am not sure how to do that yet. I will work that out later. All of the basement is cold, which means it sits just about zero in the middle of winter, which is a bit of a challenge if something happens to the heating as it did a couple years ago - and our washing machine froze and broke. Eventually, more cupboard will go in here with a benchtop, so we can fold the laundry and iron in here.
And then into the garage. It is technically a double garage, but it runs the length of the house, meaning that two cars could go in, one in front of the other, rather than side by side. Yet, we don't park our car in here because my wife is not confident getting it in and out without scraping it. I can drive it no worries, but have only really used it when changing tyres anyway.
Perhaps in the future we would use it more, but for now, it is unnecessary. So, this is a space for storage, garden tools, machines, and oof course where I can make stuff. I am going to have to cut in here also, which means, it is going to get dusty again. But at least it is easier to see, and clean.
The last thing that I did today was to paint a heavy steel lid that goes over a pit in the ground. The pit is a water catchment well that collects from the sloped driveway and sends it out to the road, but it is dry all of the time now, as we now have proper drainage and no water runs into the garage, no matter how much in rains. At least so far. The lid is very old and rusty and will soon rust again, but that is okay.
Oh, and at the moment things are hanging on random hooks I didn't put in, as well as rebar sticking out of the walls. It is on my to-do and get lists to put in some more practical storage solutions for tools, cables, work lights and everything else. Just like the needs of the house, the garden tool needs change a lot from summer to winter also.
So yep, for now it is relatively finished and I am feeling a little depressed about it. I was quite enjoying having something useful to do down there, and now I am at a bit of a loss for how to spend the hours. Well, I can spend the hours easily, but I was enjoying the physical activity of it and liked seeing the results happen each day. I guess I will need a new project soon.
Luckily, old houses are full of potential projects.
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