One 1/2 cellar and other half bar!
The quick and dirty way would be not to really “build” anything. First get some frosting film for the windows. It comes in sheets and clings to the window by being dampened with a bit of water. It’s easy to apply and simply peels off with no damage to the windows. That will make sure you won’t have to look at the backside of anything.
Then you can build, or rather assemble, within the space. I would get extruded polystyrene. Comes in 4x8 sheets. That will provide excellent insulation. Build a box out of that within the casita. You can build a simple frame with steel studs and zip screws if you wish. Then set up your your shelves. You can build those too. You’ll save a lot of money if you do. You’ll need to tweak the light. I’d turn it into a junction box and simply have a line dangling. Then you can add your polystyrene and mount a surface light on that. You’ll insulate the hell out of it, won’t create any real permanent features, and you’ll be able to disassemble in minutes when you sell.
You can do it in a weekend for a few hundred bucks plus whatever you pay for shelves.
Take a look at Randall Manufacturing insulated walls.
We’ve used them for both temporary and permanent applications.
Great option if you do not want to commit to a permanent solution.
What about this from Le Cache
The vintage wine cellars ones are similar and bigger too.
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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.
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.
This would be my plan, is the casita meant to be a pool house?
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Tasting room with one of these
Yeah, two of these would easily fit in there, pretty seamless setup, and I’d just ‘decorate’ the rest of the space with table/chairs, sitting area, etc. Not exactly what the ‘dream’ is, which is to convert the space into one huge room full of racks for wine (a typical wine cellar!) but it makes the most sense from a homeowner’s perspective, I guess…sigh.
It sounds like you really want the whole room to have that custom cellar look but you know that the wine fridge setup would be more sensible in terms of cost and home owner’s perspective. I think you can do custom fridge install (like the pictures from cjsavino’s post) and still make it look really awesome. I like brig’s idea: maybe one side with custom fridge install and then have space for a bar for decanting/making cocktails/etc.
Check out some of the things people have done in this gallery:
The best idea was the room inside a room idea. This is best for you for 2 reasons. 1) you have too much space so constructing NEW WALLS inside your existing walls you are not losing space. 2) you care immensely about resale. Because of this you do not want to demolish anything with regard to the existing casita walls. So you do this: you literally reframe all 4 walls a couple of inches inside the existing walls. (room within a room). This is actually saving you money. you are not demolishing walls and then rebuilding. You are framing a brand new cellar INSIDE the existing buildings. You dont do a single thing to the existing windows. You are just going to build a wall in front of them. This is no brainer the most cost effective way for you to do this while keeping your resale fully intact. We probably all wish we had an opportunity like this, but we dont because for most of us we do not have excess space. a closet or pantry turned into a cellar must have the existing walls insulated. If I had a pantry that was so big i would leave the existing walls and then build the cellar insulated walls just inside it. If the new buyer wants the old space back you just get a hammer and tear down the walls of the “room” you build inside the room. and Voila, old casita back…
You are thinking of this as a portion of the room, or build the room-in-room as the entire space? I hadn’t thought of that…would lose only a few inches on each side/wall to do so.
Question - I know of many who have home cellars who use a/c units as the cooling units - how come that is acceptable, if others have said that a/c will dry it out too much and I’d need humidification? I don’t see how cooling units (specific for cellars) have any form of humidification, as there is no water source - aren’t they just a/c units themselves??
Often it’s in a basement that may be damp anyways.
Forgot to address this question. Perhaps, though 1) the house didn’t originally come with a pool, this model has a casita no matter what (it now has one) and 2) there’s no water to the casita, no drain, so it makes for a weak pool house if there’s no way to shower off or go to the toilet!
Question - I know of many who have home cellars who use a/c units as the cooling units - how come that is acceptable, if others have said that a/c will dry it out too much and I’d need humidification?
They’re wrong. Ask them if they’ve done it and if they had problems. If they haven’t done it, they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s another of those wine things that everybody “knows” except that they don’t.
I did exactly that for many years. And those EuroCaves and other fridges - they don’t have any additional humidity, at least as far as I know. My Vinoteque sure doesn’t.
Following this thread closely as I have a casita too! The only drawback for me would be I’d have to spend money to convert it back into a bedroom if I was going to sell my house. Are you going to factor that into your cost, Todd?
See several of my OPs - the consensus seems to be ‘room within a room’ as it is easily demo’ed
There is a factor in the design of air conditioning systems that provides higher humidity, from memory you use a larger evaporator, but I might be misremembering the theory.
I will check it out tomorrow
Have thought about this and what happens in the eurocave units. These units cool the space without drying out the air, where a air conditioning unit would. Any condensation that does occur stays in the cabinet. The eurocave units I have also include the charcoal filter, that lets outside air in (warmer and moister), results in higher relative humidity in the cabinet.
That’s why I think the eurocave/Artevino Route is good for this type of room.
I even considered using one in this house but decided that given my storage needs and the fact that the basement is low 60s year round that building out a cellar was the right choice.
The room within a room he is basically saying build a wall down the center to give you two spaces, one storgae and one serving.
My suggestion would be to erect new moisture blocking walls inside of the existing walls and leave the windows be. The outside will look the same but the inside can be an efficient cellar that could be removed without damage to the existing structure if new owners did not want a cellar.