Help me convert my casita into a wine cellar/wine room!

We’ve got a casita, connected to the house but without direct access via the house. It has gym equipment donated by the prior owners when we purchased the place, and it is never used. I’ve long wanted to convert it to a wine cellar/wine room, and know it’s an incredibly extensive project. I could get some quotes and see what it would run, and hopefully will do that as well, but don’t have the tens of thousands of dollars sitting around to spend, either. I’m happy to do the work myself, but I want to do a good job, so I figure it might be smart to submit this HUGE project to the hive mind of Wine Berserkers, as there are a number of separate threads on cellar builds, but this one has its own unique situations as well. Would love any help, from materials to racks to insulation to demo suggestions. I am in no rush, so if this is something I could do myself, for the most part, I’m willing to take the time to do it.

Dimensions:

11 ft by 11 ft interior
10 ft floor-to-ceiling
Doorway 4’11" wide (currently with French doors)
4 windows
Built-in A/C unit, separate from house HVAC, with more power than is needed in that one room.

I’ll start with issues on the windows, as I don’t have an easy solution come to mind. If I demo the whole casita, I can wall it off, but I need to consider resale for the house if we don’t plan to live here the rest of our lives, and should I seal up the windows completely, I’d need to have the exterior surface applied with stucco to match the rest of the house, and obviously painted. That turns the casita into a vault, which is great for wine, but useless for nearly anything else with a future owner. Boarding it up from the interior will look silly, most likely, so is there some film that completely protects the interior from harmful rays? The walls with windows do get a lot of sun throughout the day, and being in Southern California, with very long summers, that is a definite issue.

The A/C unit SHOULD work, and SHOULD save me a ton of money, as it truly is more powerful than what would be required of a 11’x11’ room. Photos below, but it is a Fujitsu AOU18RC (manual here - Fujitsu AOU18RC Manuals | ManualsLib) Would this work ‘as is’ for a cellar?

Floor: Standard issue developer tile, so obviously that would be torn up and cork floor applied, or cork applied on top of it?

Walls: I’m unsure to what level I’ll need to re-do the walls. Full demo, replace all insulation with closed-cell foam (as insulation and vapor barrier) and re-wall entire unit, new coating/paint etc. Alternatively, could closed-cell foam be installed over existing walls, then another layer of drywall/seal/paint over it? For certain the insulation won’t work as is, and there is no vapor barrier.

Racking: I’ve seen a few on Berserkers who have made their own, and while I’m handy and love working with wood, that’s not happening for me! I assume I’d pay for custom racking that can easily be implemented into the finished room, once I know its new interior dimensions (post-insulation/walling)

Door: Likely will just get a high tech locking door and have it installed as the last step, but with the wide opening, I wonder if I’ll need it re-framed or just get one huge door, rather than French doors.

Lighting: No thoughts on lighting, so I’d love to get some feedback on what works/what doesn’t.

Hive mind, experts of Wine Berserkers…please help me out! This could be a long thread with a lot of information, and I would welcome links to other threads that address it, as I’ve read most of them already, further increasing my desire to convert this otherwise-useless casita! As questions arise that need to be included in the OP, I’ll be happy to edit it.

(should I do this or just wait to save up and have a company quote it? What companies are recommended in Southern California?)

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How many bottles are you looking to store?

No specific number, but the space is far larger than what I have in my home cabinet (Le Cache) and offsite. Ideally it will have a counter, a table, etc., so it’s not just storage, as the space is large.

Kind of depends on if you want this to be a fancier nice looking space, or simply a functional wine storage room. I could see just lining the walls with good quality mylar-lined insulation, placing some standalone shelving and wine racks, maybe replacing the door (though you might be able to just line the inside as well). You could use something decorative on the inside of the windows to make it look presentable from outside, with an extra layer of insulation. Doing this would be cheap, and could be easily removed if you decide to sell.

Yeah I mean a blackout shade basically fixed to the inside of the window would probably work. I mean I think a lot of it depends how much wine you plan to store there.

I have around 450 bottles now - converting a room like this would likely have capacity of triple that, easily.

Alan, I like that idea on a basic, functional basis…however, to go through something this significant in terms of a project, it would be nice to have something more ‘presentable’, with regards to being a room I could be proud to present to other wine lovers. I’d think the space is big enough, assuming I don’t go two-deep on the racks.

I didn’t take the advice that was given to me for various reasons but I think it is solid and applicable in this case. You have several challenges here that won’t be cheap to overcome and with your resale in mind I would consider buying a wall of movable wine storage units rather than converting the entire space to one big conditioned room.

This way you can pull them out if a buyer doesn’t want them. You aren’t insulating and conditioning a space that you want to hang out in. And, it’s way less construction.

There’s a strong chance we’ll be in this house for a long time, as we already invested a ton of money into solar panels. I understand fully this is not the most efficient use of money for wine storage, but buying wine like most of us do is not an efficient use of our money to begin with

I reference potential resale above mostly in consideration of fully blocking out/building over the windows, as it would turn the casita into a windowless vault. If there was a fully suitable and legitimate conversion for the windows that keeps them in place, that would be advantageous, as, other than converting or building-over the walls with more insulation and a vapor barrier, most of the rest of the wine room could be easily converted back by the house’s next owner.

I’m not planning it as much for adding storage, as this room could easily store far more than I have, but rather to convert the casita into a ‘wine room’, basically. Storage, presentation, etc.

Given the space you have between windows and interior wall, I would think it would be no problem to line that space with insulation, and leave the windows in place. That way you keep the nice look of the casita from the outside. Some kind of nice graphics placed between window and insulation (or even applied to the window) would make it appealing enough from the outside. Not matter which direction you go, fancy or just functional, I wouldn’t mess with the windows themselves.

Agreed on the windows, as that turns it into a whole mess of extra construction and cost.

I would anticipate insulation of some sort needs to be applied to the windows, as anyone knows when sun is beaming directly on the windows, the heat goes through, particularly on double-pane windows like this (not the best for insulation!)

Are you thinking of just the back wall and right side wall - the two without windows - as racks, then perhaps a rack between the two windows on the left wall?

Must be a real bitch having to stoop so low to get into the casita. Our doorways are mostly around 7 ft.

Cute. OP changed

This is actually a pretty good idea; you could put 2 of those double Artevino fridges from Costco and get ~800 bottles of storage while keeping the room a nice temperature to enjoy wine in.

https://www.costco.com/artevino-iii-by-eurocave-double-400-bottle-free-standing-wine-cellar-with-display-shelves.product.100431917.html

A nice table and chairs and it’d be a cool wine hangout room.

That was basically my plan with some of the houses we were looking at; now with a 1000+ sq/ft passive capable cellar room plans have changed a bit.

That’s a decent amount of window for such a small room. Do any of them see direct sunlight most of the day? You will want to cover the sun facing windows from the interior for certain. They are going to be an energy suck no matter what.

That door is also scary for efficiency. When you replace it you should really look at how it seals and nuking all the windows. Probably something thicker/better insulated also.

1. Where is the Peloton? You are so 2008.

2. Clearly not enough mirrors.

3. Stretchy bands? Sigh . . .

I cannot help here.

I guess, but not quite as fancy as a dedicated room, of course. Also, those units put out a lot of heat, and this room is self-enclosed, so I’d have to perhaps add ventilation.

Definitely on the door - the existing door will not cut it, at all. Yes on the windows - the two East-facing get a lot of direct sun, so I’d need coverings galore inside, for heat and UV

Again, inherited gym equipment. Was a huge mirror on the wall to the right, but you can see it has fallen since it, frankly, wasn’t put up correctly. That was a fun cleanup, let me assure you.

If they are decent quality double pane windows, they probably already have a fair degree of effective insulation. When the sun is beating on them, see how much warmth you can feel just inside the window, that will tell you a lot. If it’s not very noticeable, you might not need to do anything in addition to the insulation you’ll place in the gap between window and wall. You could also put up awnings outside each window to reduce the sun exposure.

If it were me (and I’d love to have a space like this!), I’d keep a lot of wine in cases/boxes on shelving, and a smaller number of bottles in racking. Almost every cellar I’ve ever walked into has boxes stacked everywhere, so why not just anticipate that up front