Click to view the gallery of the basement, stairwell and attic renovation.
My in-laws bought the home in 1970 and it was my father-in-law’s dream to be able to live in the attic space while his son’s family lived downstairs. The years passed and the project never seemed to get started even though it was never far from conversation. Pop passed on in 2010, but even during his final moments he was telling me where to put the staircase. Some years later, I started thinking about finally making his dream a reality. His dream became my dream, and the project has truly been a labor of love.
As I was planning the design and the materials that would be used, it was important to me to blend the old with the new and stay in the character of the home as much as possible. Although the room is arranged with furnishings to suit me, I also tried to imagine how the house might be used in the future when my grandchildren and their families were living there. The space is large enough as a master bedroom suite or a room for 3-4 children.
Starting from the ground up! Before we could begin building up, we had to reinforce what was down below. The house was sitting on about 12 or so wood piers that were leaning or twisted, and subsequently some of the beams resting on the piers were damaged or had shifted.
The wood piers were replaced with concrete and new beams installed. As you can imagine, this was a very time-consuming and difficult task as there was not much room in the crawl space (as you can see). Deep holes were dug for each of the concrete footings and the house was jacked up to replace the beams. Multiple laser levels were used during this process.
Stairs leading to basement. The trapdoor to the basement is in what used to be the screened-in sleeping porch. This area is now a laundry/mud /sunroom.
Click to view the gallery of the basement, stairwell and attic renovation.