Our old farm house was built in 1908 and was originally a one room cottage on top of a sandstone root cellar. Over the years additions have been made, but the foundation of the original house has stayed the same.
When I first started to clean out the old cellar it was a daunting task before me. There was years of dirt and rot. The old shelves that once held the canned foods for the family, were crumbling from dry rot. The old tank that held the drinking water was long past soiled and was still somewhat full of rusty water. So I had to get all of that cleaned up to assess if the project was worth undergoing.
Once the cellar was “clean”, everything was sprayed down with 5 treatments of borax and my good friend white vinegar. This was able to kill any mold or mildew that had set in over the years. To keep everything from getting wet and musty again i had to build a better door.
The construction of the door was very simple, because I am just trying to close this up for any possible snow this winter. Once the door was on and the temperature dropped, I noticed that the temperature was always 55°. This made it great for work in the cold winter evenings.
Once the cellar was clean and dry, I was able to build shelves out of 2×4’s and cedar fence slats. This gave the air a nice aroma and naturally resists moisture damage. These shelves gave me enough storage to start my next daunting task. Cleaning out the garage.
