The Troll Under the Stairs

I spent the better part of the weekend building otu a storage area under our front entry stairs. If you've ever been to my house, you probably noticed that storage is in short supply. There are only so many places in a 4-unit house with 8 people living in it to store stuff. The area under the front stairs, previously only open from the garbage room, was wasted space. We've been talking about opening this area up to the garage since we moved in, as it would provide easy access for loading and unloading items.

Now that Anne has moved in, we need additional space to store gardening tools and the other items used on a daily basis. So after consulting with our in-house architect, I set about framing the underside of the stairs for an opening to the garage, building in a floor, and putting in drywall. The area in question has an exposed dirt floor, bare studs, and a cieling consisting of mortar and masonry. There was also a capped sewer pipe sticking out, and sitting above the level of the proposed floor.

Saturday was the day for getting materials. I took the truck to DBS and picked up 5 sheets of 5/8" type X drywall, a sheet of 3/4" CDX plywood, and 2"x4" materials for framing. I had to load all of this by myself...ouch. The task for the day was to frame in a 4"x6" header to carry a load across the top of the opening. The door eliminated two studs that run the height of the building, and are tied together by the old siding that used to be exposed in the garage. I was concerned that cutting those studs would result in settling, but that turned out OK. I had a bit of a time getting the header in place, and then sistering the 4"x4" wood that holds the header. But Simpson Strong Drive ties came in handy there. Two more trips to DBS added to the madness. By the end of the day I had the framing 90% done. I also had an aching back.

Sunday dawned and it was time to open up the hole to the garage. But another trip to DBS was in order to get items to shore up the framing. I was the master with the Sawzall, and by 11AM the hole was open. I then realized that I needed materials to frame in the floor, so I made another trip to DBS...this time carrying a stack of 2"x6"x10" on a skateboard...just like old times. By the end of the day, the framing was almost done. I'll have to pick this up next Friday...time to put in the floor, shore up the cieling framing, and start the drywall. And I only have next Saturday to work.