Potting Room

I know. I’ve been gone. Not actually, but from the blog. This is, I believe, the longest I’ve gone without posting since I started in 2008. It feels like a really long time. And I have no excuse except, well, it’s winter. Not a very cold or very warm winter. Just winter. And over the past five years I’ve pretty much shared with you everything I cook and do in winter. I tried writing a few essays for you, but I was sick of my own opinions.

But I do have something to show you, Dear Readers! It might not look like much yet, but it will look so much better tomorrow! As you know, winter is also renovation season.

Here is a photo of poor Steve the first year we were married, when he renovated the living room and scraped the “popcorn” off the vaulted ceiling. Every time he has to do another popcorn ceiling, I tell him that if anyone said I had to do that I would cry and it would be the end of the project. Fortunately, the only room left with popcorn is the master bedroom. And that’s not going to be renovated any time soon.

stairs going in

This year Steve decided to tackle a smallish project, (i.e., not one of the two bathrooms), the basement. It started when he pulled up the carpet before Christmas and put in gorgeous red oak stairs. They are incredibly beautiful. And that carpet just had to go.

my pantry in September

As for the basement itself, it has become in time my space. It is my workout room, and it is where I store my canned goods (on built-in shelves with sliding doors that are not part of the renovation). It is also where I pot my plants, and the wide windowsill and some makeshift counters and tables along the southern wall have been prime surfaces for starting plants.

The one thing we do not have at all in this house is cold storage. I’ve imagined large-scale projects involving cinderblocks and insulation in the basement of the barn, but they are beyond me (see popcorn ceiling above). And who wants to walk out to the barn to get some potatoes for dinner in the middle of winter?

In the house, there are no hidden internal closets or rooms. The basement also includes a studio apartment, and that is where a proper cold room would go. There is a closet under the stairway, but it is in the apartment and prime storage space for the tenant. I don’t think she’d appreciate me filling it with squash, carrots, onions and potatoes. I’ve made do by keeping things in buckets and burlap-covered laundry baskets under the makeshift counter.

But my dream potting room would have cold storage. And grow lights. And a nice long counter for the seed starting. And I’m getting it all!

We replaced the 28-year-old carpet down there with carpet squares. It cost a bit more and will be “colder” than the former plush carpet with a pad. Maybe not as good for the workouts. But I’m going for a cooler space in general.

Steve has made a gorgeous long bench with hinged seats that will be installed on the tile floor along the eastern wall, which borders a carport. A thermometer in that corner has read 50 degrees for the past few weeks. Right now the benches are raw wood on the inside, but we will add styrofoam insulation if they aren’t cool enough in the fall and spring. I’m not sure what I’ll do about humidity– probably just store root veggies in damp sand in trays inside the boxes.

The countertop is made of pine and sheets of plywood with bamboo veneer tops. They are so fresh and cute!

I was gifted two 4-foot fluorescent lights last summer. This afternoon we adapted them from hard-wired to using plugs and they’ll be hung over the planting bench on chains to raise and lower them. How professional is that?!

It is officially the year of “taking it up a notch.” To celebrate, I planted my first seeds, the leeks, 48 of them, and put them on their heat mat to germinate. As soon as the operation is up and running, I’ll post an “after” photo.