The Cedar Lower Level

850 square feet of storage and spiders turned into the teenagers' floor: media room, homework bar, guest room, and a full bath, all of it dry by design.

The brief

The Cedar family's Nakoma house worked until the kids became teenagers and every room became contested territory. The lower level held a treadmill, twelve boxes, and a dehumidifier running around the clock. The ask: give the kids somewhere to take their friends, give the grandparents somewhere to stay, and never let us smell damp again.

The design

Basements fail as rooms when they apologize for being basements. We designed this one with the same materials as the upstairs: a white oak slat wall to hide the mechanical room, spruce green cabinetry along the media wall, and a window seat built into the egress window so the best light in the room has a place to sit. The plan splits cleanly: media room and homework bar on one side, guest room and full bath behind the slat wall.

The build

The unglamorous work came first and took a third of the schedule: exterior grading, new interior drain tile, sump, and a dehumidification system that runs quietly inside the mechanical room. Then eleven weeks became rooms. The dehumidifier in the old family photos is in a landfill, and the moisture readings have stayed flat through two Wisconsin springs (illustrative demo detail).