Doug sent in these great pics and write up about his new cellar. It goes to show that you can have a great cellar in a small space and without spending a fortune !! .. thanks Doug

Doug writes ....

I am at about 90% complete now. The exterior still needs to be finished to make it look a little less like a bomb/hurricane shelter, and there are still plans to dress up the interior with some grape vines and burlap to soften the "harshness" and to hide some of the pipes coming through the walls. I will continue to add racking as I go along.

This is the "Before" shot. It all started with a far corner of the basement/garage that was originally a workshop, until plumbing from a new addition had to come through the walls and forced me to remove cabinets and dismantle the "shop". I began by applying a heavy coat of waterproofing material.

This shows the initial framing of the outer walls with some of the vapor barriers and insulation installed. I installed a plastic vapor barrier on the floor and ceiling, as well, so that every surface would be airtight. The floor wound up being 3/4" plywood over foilbacked sheet insulation. I installed a dark cork tile floor over the plywood to keep it soft and to add the natural cork connection.

This shows some of the challenges I faced, while doing everything in layers (vapor barriers, various types of insulation, etc.), and while working around around the plumbing obstructions). It is in a very cramped space, so creativity was a must!

Nearing the final stages of actual construction. Here we have the exterior drywall up and the double pane exterior door hung. I will eventually cover the sheetrock with luan (either painted or stained). The door was rescued from my recent remodeling project, and while it is probably the least "efficient" piece of the puzzle, I feel it adds a nice dimension. I can see in to quickly check the temperature, and out, to prevent claustrophobia. It is extremely difficult to open and close due to the airtight seal, but that's something I'll happily live with.

This gives you a view of the installed Koolspace Model 1500 and the foil-backed sheet insulation I used for the interior. The Koolspace is extremely efficient. It draws only 4 amps, is extremely quite, and keeps the room at 55-57 degrees F, which seems to be just fine for cooling the approximately 340 cu. ft. of space.

These give you a feel for the variety of racking solutions I am experimenting with, as well as shows some of the variety of ways I am displaying the bottles. I believe the cellar should be fun, exciting and pleasing to the eye, as well as a controlled environment for the wine. It is currently racked to accommodate approximately 500 bottles, but I intend to install metal grid racking on two walls from floor to ceiling to accommodate up to 300+ more bottles. It will continue to be a "work in progress"!

6/15/00

Doug writes ......Attached, as I had promised, are four updated photos from the latest growth stage in my cellar project

#161 shows the creative effort to cover (and hence, hide) plumbing pipes with burlap and grape vines/grape clusters.

#162 is looking straight through the entrance, showing the cork floor and a variety of racking configurations.

#163 is a closer view of the vines/grapes used to camoflage the plumbing. #164 shows a little of the burlap coffee shipping bags I have used to cover the walls and "tone down" the room.

I am still working with different racking configurations, and still have not finished the exterior... but I'm a lot further along. And, MY WINES ARE HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

If you have any questions about how he built his cellar, you can drop Doug an email

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