Matt Kelleher House and Studio Project Page 8/Basement Studio 1

The basement will be the main studio. This area of the house has been a real thorn in my side. I didn't budget my time or money properly to turn this into useful space. Below you will see the main problem area has been the part of the foundation built into the hillside. Boulders to large to move have just been cast over with a footer and block wall. It is solid, but hard to finish off cleanly. I decided to remove ever rock I could without compromising the foundation to gain valuable square footage. It took two weeks of nothing but moving rock and dirt by hand to gain about 100 square feet. I hope it is worth it in the end. I built a block wall in front of the remaining rock and will cast a cement slab over the top. Some areas will be suitable table top height and the rest will be high storage space.

Applying techniques I picked up in Egyptian art history class to move these boulders.

A homeowner model of hammer didn't do much against this chunk of granite, so I rented a 90 lb jack hammer. I woke up with a black and blue stomach and the boulder is still there. Our friend Helen came to "smudge" our house and ask any bad spirits to leave. I asked her, "Are the boulders under the foundation upset at me chipping away at them?" She replied, "The boulders have big egos. They are laughing at you."

Pictured in the middle is Ed, a general contractor, my remodeling psychiatrist, and here demonstrating a little about pouring cement. Shoko seems happy with the results.

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