Letter: Storage Without a Basement

Hugh,

After much prayer and house hunting, it would seem the Lord is leading me to relocate about 40 miles from where I currently live. This was never my plan, as I had intended to move much further west. My area does not have basements due to the water table. I am now having to rethink how I handle my storage. The house will be renovated to my specs and has over 2600 SF with about 10 acres. I will be having a safe room built outside the home for hurricane threats. Any suggestions will be helpful as a basement would have offered storage with automatic climate control in an off grid situation. Thanks for any advice. – MM

JWR Replies: For large houses with big bedrooms, one approach that has worked well for my consulting clients–both those who are remodeling and those doing new construction–is to build a hidden storage room for food and valuables. Typically this is done by taking two bedrooms on the same hallway and “robbing” them each of about two or three feet, and sandwiching in a narrow hidden room, between them. As long as the doors to the two original bedrooms are a good distance apart, the end result is not very noticeable. The door to the storage room can either be hidden in the back of a bedroom closet, or concealed by a bookcase in the hall.