The Cave

We did want to use the additional 120-ish square feet in the back of the house, but we were also afraid of it. A dark, illegal addition (though my friend Mike prefers the term “unpermitted” instead) and home to many rodentia, the back room wasn’t something that we initially wanted to deal with. However, once the main part of the house was inhabitable, we dreamed of making the cave into its direct opposite – a sunroom. It needed work on the inside and the outside. We planned to open it up with bigger windows, which we’d already scored at garage sales. We also wanted to create more space by getting a smaller, stackable washer and dryer, and replacing the old water heater with an energy-efficient, on-demand Takagi water heater that would be externally mounted. As with everything else, there was some leveling that needed to be done. Dominic got started using the jack and the skills he’d honed replacing the floor joist.