Dungeon Plans!

One of the things we loved about the Lakehouse when we first saw it was that it has a HUGE unfinished basement (dubbed a walk-in crawl space in the selling details) underneath the whole house. Maximus loved the house when i brought Him out to look at it, but immediately exclaimed “Sold!!!” as soon as He walked into the basement space. Turning that area into living space has been all He’s talked about about since we got the house. We made a list of things that we want in this space and some other remodeling/additions for the existing house:

• Dungeon space with secret locked entry (a movable bookshelf, like SwimmerGuy has for his wine room [coincidentally, SwimmerGuy is not in the lifestyle, just bought an amazing mansion with this feature already in it–Maximus is so envious of that space!]).
• Theater/media room.
• Wet bar with front and back bars, TVs in the back bar for during game days, wine fridge, mirrored-back shelving for alcohol storage/display, hanging glassware, at least four bar stools.
• Wine room big enough to hold our wine barrel tasting table with enough room to move around with it in there. Glass wall or door to display collection. Wish to reuse our existing wine shelving and add to it.
• Mudroom entry from outside.
• Bathroom with shower accessible from mudroom.
• Yard tool and home generator storage.
• Interior stairs to basement.
• Large walk-in master closet that rivals one we had built at condo.
• Lots of exterior outlets for holiday lights!
• Document, seasonal decoration, table runner, formal dinnerware storage.
• Longer kitchen island.
• Fix pinch point at entry from garage.
• Extend deck to end of house and change existing window to French doors for access to BBQ and summer dining outside.

Maximus tasked me with this project. Right before we went to Desire, i interviewed architects and we selected one right when we got home. my biggest concern was how to get a dungeon room without describing it as such? i ended up asking for a Safe Room, thus the hidden entry! That’s how SwimmerGuy’s room was listed on their property so i figured it would work for us too. In addition, Maximus wants several hard points in the ceiling of that room, so i told the architect that Maximus wants to use that area as a kickboxing/home gym so we need the ceiling points. It was funny, when i described the room and entry, the architect said, “Oh, I’ve done several of those, they are fun!”

The architect came over Saturday morning with preliminary plans–so exciting!! We went through them with him and the project looks great! The Dungeon Room aka “Security Room” is off the Wine Room and thus in a section where people wouldn’t even realize there’d be space for an additional room. There are some things we want to change, many of which i emailed to the architect and have notated on the plans he left us. The Dungeon Room is too small and the Wine Room is enormous, as well as the tool storage room. Plus he has it configured so you have to walk through the bathroom to get into the basement from the mudroom, which i don’t like at all. He’s coming back Friday with revisions.

i am excited about the Dungeon Room! But i am most excited about having room to store all of our play toys and BDSM equipment! Before i moved up to be with Maximus, i had a

Our current toy storage bureau

four bedroom house and was in the process of converting one of the bedrooms into a dungeon space (see Into a Dark Room). i’d put shelving up in the walk-in closet of that bedroom and it was so nice to have all of our toys neat, organized, and accessible. We didn’t have that at the condo and we don’t have that here–yet. For now, as was the case with the condo, all of our smaller toys are in a highboy bureau and larger items are stashed in our closet, under the bed, and the two Liberator mats are in the garage on top of the holiday decoration storage! i can’t stand it! We have to dig through drawers to get things and while i have combined like items, such as nipple toys, butt plugs, etc. in large ziplock bags, it just feels sloppy all the time. i feel these items deserve more reverence, should be organized with honor and many things displayed.

i don’t know yet how large the architect will be making the Dungeon Room, but i did send him a revision that had the room increased to 9.5 feet by 13.5 feet, reducing the Wine Room to 9.5 feet square. i think that’s doable. i’m thinking of doing a hinged bookshelf in the Wine Room to hide a door with a combination entry lock behind. We do want a bed or a platform in there, a St. Andrew’s cross, benches, maybe a stocks. Maximus mentioned yesterday that He wants a fucking machine but worried it might take up too much space. The good thing is that we can have exclusive access into the crawl space from the Dungeon Room, so we could store large items in there and bring them into the room when we want to use them. For display/storage, i’m thinking either metallic pegboard or slatwall like they sell at Home Depot. And i’d like to have some cabinets, drawers, or shelving for some items. For flooring, i’m thinking something softer, like cork as it’s naturally antimicrobial, insulating, sound dampening, and quite fire resistant.

i am looking for advice, ideas, suggestions from folks in designing this space. What have you done for your dungeon rooms? What worked? What didn’t? What had you wished you’d done? Did you use a mattress or an upholstered platform for flat play? What about the size–does this seem like a good size for a private Dungeon space? We would like to have others join us in there, so that’s a consideration too.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and stay tuned for updates on the project!