# South MPLS Basement Blog - from coal bin to wine cellar



## Big-Foot (May 21, 2012)

Hi folks..

I thought maybe some of you might be interested in looking at this phase of our total renovation.

Here I take what used to be a coal bin under the front porch of our almost 100 year old house and transform it to a wine cellar. 
The temps in this room are almost a constant 40-45 degrees F.

This was the spookiest area of the entire house. So spooky that we actually called it "The Crypt".. Of course the door hinges creaked eirily when opening it too.. LOL..

I don't know about your neighborhoods around the globe, but here in Minneapolis, it was common to add on front porches as an afterthought. Most (including this one) did not have great foundations put under them, so pver the period of years, the front of the porch would sag as the minimal foundation sank and settled deeper.. As this settling occured, the windows and doors would bind and eventually become inoperable. I have fixed all of that now by reinforcing the foundation with a pair of 18,000# jack posts, steel and heavy wood reinforcements. These become "grapevine" trellis' in the wine cellar (hey I had to hide them somehow!). Now the new front door directly above is properly supported so it seals well and does not bind, more on that at a later date.

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m612/rvandeloo/3616_Transition_WineCellar_c96t.mp4

I hope that this may help someone somewhere or at least give them a glimmer of hope for what they may be tackeling..

Regards - Randy

P.S. The rest of the South MPLS Basement Blog can be found at the link below. It is woefully incomplete and way out of date, but you can see what started this journey..
http://www.gt-forty.com/GT-Forty/Blog/Blog.html


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