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We've been conversing with Joe about his cellar since November of 1998 and
we're delighted to be able to show the finished product to you ... thanks Joe
... Art & Betsy
Joe Writes ...
Picture #1- Before I started the
renovation. What a sight!
Picture #2- Walking in the cellar
looking into the left corner will give you a good view of the spindle racking
we built.
Picture #3- Another view to the
left.
Picture #4- As you enter the cellar.
Picture #5- A view to the right.
Note the wine barrel in the corner. It is very special to me. It came from the
winecellar in my grandmother's house in Staten Island where my Father and Uncles
made wine when I was an up and coming wine brat at the age of 15. It still has
the original label on it from 1977.
When my wife and I first bought this home in NJ, the room I immediately took
over was a room in the back of the basement which was originally a root cellar.
Many homes like ours, which are 70 years old, or more, had rooms like this used
to store vegetables and jarred foods. The room was old and dusty with old wooden
shelves. For the past 5 years this has been our wine cellar. The room is roughly
12 ft Wx 5ft D and 5 1/2 ft H. I always had plans to renovate it, but I had to
make sure to cover all the things my wife wanted done first. As all husbands out
there know, we need to keep our priorities in place. Wine can sometimes be the
other woman in a marriage. Just kidding, my wife was great with this project even
though I drove her crazy. I always say, joking, all I need now is cable and an
Easy chair and I'll be set!
This room is partially underground and temperature fluctuates with the seasons.
In the winter it can get to 50 deg. F while in the summer months it rarely goes
over the mid 60's. I've opened 1987 cabernets which have continued to age well
considering it's been 5 years since they made the trip from our apartment in Bayonne,
NJ.
Finally it's completed, this project took some time. I could not have done
it without the help of my cousin and my father in Law. To give a quick overview,
I applied dry lock on the cinder block walls, (I've had some water seepage). We
insulated and put up green bd. on the ceiling and installed 3 dome lights. I painted
the concrete floor with a tan concrete paint which I bought at Home Depot, my
wife sponge painted the walls and stenciled grapes along the top. I have a window
which I believe is causing a draft. You suggested I insulate and put spacers,
the size of paint stirers in between each piece of insulation board. I filled
it with foam insulation, hoping this will work. I bought a standard size door
that had to be cut to size, the opening is 32 x 63 (odd size) . My father in law,
a retired carpenter installed it to fit perfectly.
Now the racking. I picked up three diamond bins which hold roughly 120 bottles
each (the ones with three cubes), for only $10.00 each at Sam's club. What a steal,
I have to thank my buddy Jay for tipping me off on the deal. I see these advertised
in IWA for about $129.00 each, plus shipping. We had to cut the top cube off each,
being they were too high for the room and buy wood to finish off each single cube.
We also built three more single cubes. I had about 80 pieces of 11 inch spindles,
scraps from a deck we had built last year. I had an idea of using them to make
the type of racking connected with small dowels, the same racks they sell in the
IWA catalog are exactly 11 inches as well. We drilled four holes in each piece
to fit a 3/8 inch dowel. Rack kits like this sell in the IWA catalog for about
$32.00 per 12 bottle rack. If anyone is thinking about buying this type of racking,
I suggest buying spindles used for building decks, cutting them into 11 inch pieces
and buy 3/8 inch dowels (at about .39 cents a yd.) into cutting the dowels into
4.5 inch pegs, that connect the same way as the one in the catalog (use the one
in the catalog as a guide). One trick is to use a drill press, being the holes
have to be sunk exactly the same to be even. I bought about 39 yds of 3/8 dowels
at Home Depot. This should give me racking for about 75 bottles and I can still
add to it. Total cost for this rack, $14.43 for the dowels and the spindles were
free. I tell you this is the low budget wine cellar. I also have two wine racks
my father-in-law built for me when we lived in an apartment, (where I began collecting).
With the racking I purchased and other racks and crates we should have room for
600-650 bottles, with room to expand.
Estimated cost of job:
Racking and additional wood purchased- $92.00 capacity-555 bottles.$92.00 for
555 bottles! That comes out to an average of .17 cents a bottle. Man is this low
budget!
Other materials, (insulation, paint, lights, etc.)- $90.00 Most of the paint
used was paint I had left over from other jobs done in our home.
As for the wines. 98% of the collection are reds. CA Cabernets from 1987-present.
Some assorted Red Zins, Merlots, Burgundies, Pinot Noirs, Petite Sirah and Syrah.
I started collecting Bordeaux with the 1995 vintage and recently have shown an
interest in Italian wines adding to my collection a nice assortment of Tuscans,
Barbaresco and Barolo.
Well this isn't nearly as fancy and sophisticated as some of the cellars in
your album but I love it. Looking at the before and after pictures shows me the
great job that was done. It's amazing what a few coats of paint and new racking,
etc. can do to give an old root cellar a total makeover.
Thanks for keeping us all up to date on ideas in renovating our cellars.
Salute',
Joe Lap
If you would like to contact Joe about his cellar you can Email
him
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