After much mental torment, I realize I cannot have regular stairs or even spiral stairs down to the utility room / storm shelter, unless I want to give up the back entrance (which will lead out onto a patio). Pulling the pantry and laundry room out into the breezeway (14' x 16') to make more room in the house seemed like a great idea at the time, but if I could do it over again, I would either go with a slightly larger diameter house, or a wider/longer connection between house and garage. I installed attic access stairs which will be permanently extended instead of folded, and a trap door made of 3/4 inch plywood. Trap doors don't seem to be very popular these days, so finding parts (like flush pulls) and illustrations was a pain in the butt! Note: that object in the corner behind the ladder is a camp toilet. Next year I won't keep it in the basement. Hauling a full tank of human waste up a ladder is not fun.

The ceiling heater was installed to keep the sump and well pressure tank from freezing. This made the utility room a good place to store caulk and such over the winter. Looks like SOMEbody didn't use conduit when wiring up the pressure tank. Grrrr. I'll be stuck with that later.

The dehumidifier is up on cinder block "stilts" in the event I have another sump pump failure. Note the water line on the wall. Somehow, the dehumidifier still works after being almost totally submerged, but I suspect its life has been shortened by being underwater. The entire sump discharge system was installed by moi, since I couldn't find anyone else to do it. A plumber told me to call a carpenter, and the basement waterproofing people all had proprietary systems that they specialized in. The day the concrete floor was poured, we had to do it on short notice due to water seeping up from below. The guys from the concrete company dug the pit, put the basin in it, and drilled a couple holes so the basket wouldn't float. One guy came up out of the hole with an "extra part" saying it wouldn't fit. It was the check valve for the sump pump. Without the check valve, water will keep flowing back into the pump, causing it to run continuously. A plumber would know that, but the one that did the underslab work wouldn't do the sump. Odd that one of the concrete workers said he (the plumber) just put in a sump for someone else nearby. I made a comment that wasn't very ladylike, but I think I impressed the guys. Or scared the crap out of them, I'm not sure. At least I learned about check valves and purchased one ahead of time, along with the pump. Most of the time I seem to learn about what I needed after the fact. My biggest lesson is that there are many tasks that no one seems to do - it's always someone else's job. Now I know what the GC is for. But I am the GC now, and I suppose I kind of suck at it. So bite me.